A chairmanship aspirant in the forthcoming Local Government Election in Lagos State, Engr. Awwal Tahir-Maude, has said he is on a mission to change the status quo in terms of governance in Agege Local Government.
Maude, popularly known as ATM, is contesting under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election likely to come up within the first quarter of 2017.
In a chat with Daily Trust, Maude who was born and bred in Agege Lagos and attended elementary school in the state expressed angst with the level of development in the local government, saying he is not comfortable with the status quo.
According to him, Agege should be at par with high brow areas like Victoria Island, Ikeja, among others.
He said many parts of Lagos had overtaken Agege in terms of development in all ramifications.
He reiterated that his desire to become the chairman of the local government was anchored in genuine ambition to champion a rebirth of the area in terms of infrastructural development, youth and women empowerment, among others.
Maude lamented that there were various international support funds that could be accessed without necessarily relying on the federal allocation.
He said, "Agege is my love. I love Agege so much. Like my own family, the Maude Family, we are almost about fifth or sixth generation from Agege. My grand-mother from my father’s side was born in Ilorin and moved down to Agege Lagos. And from there we have been having generation upon generation.
"My father was born and bred in Agege ditto my mother, myself, we have children now and our children are having kids. We have almost about five generations in Agege. So if you are looking at the way the system is going, they see it as rural but we see it as our own city.
"Some people made money in Agege but they didn’t build houses there, they said they are more than Agege but most of the northerners in Agege are the ones building fine structures in that local government. It is because of the love they have for it.
"I am contesting because of my love for that area itself which includes anybody in that area to be governed well. I don’t want the status quo. If I come to Agege now and say I love what I see, I would be lying. Go to the hinterlands, the roads are bad. Look at the youths we are having, these are manpower which we can utilize. We have to think and remove Agege from the local way you see it.
"Agege was formerly in Ikeja. Ogba which was moved to Ikeja is now developed. Why can’t we do it here? Look at Alimosho, look at Egbeda. Agege has refused to develop because we have not had people that have the interest of the area. When you have the interest of the area, you don’t think of any other thing but that particular place.
"The population density in Agege is about 61, 000 persons per square kilometre, that is 61,000 human beings in one square kilometre and Agege has about 11 square kilometres. This is to tell you we have manpower to achieve everything and people would learn from us. A lot of funds are coming from international donors on health, on education. As a local government chairman, you go and source for these funds to help ourselves. We can do it. Our markets are still very dirty. We can have a decent clean market. We can create job opportunities in that same area.”
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