Topic: Fashola visits oshodi to inspect 601 shops

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Jan 5, 2010 - Exactly one year and a day after the clean-up of Oshodi, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), received a rousing welcome from traders and residents as he inspected on-going work at the 601-shop Kaiyero Market Extension saying that the area is now cleaner, safer, tidier and with drastically reduced crime level.

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Speaking to newsmen after an inspection which also took him to the State’s Industrial Estate in Matori and the Public Works Corporation, Lagos State Asphalt Plant Yard in Ojodu, Governor Fashola also called on Nigerians with huge capitals in foreign banks to repatriate such monies home and help shore up the nation’s industrial sector.

The Governor promised that every trader affected by the Government’s intervention in Oshodi will be resettled as shown in the already completed and occupied Kaiyero Market and its on-going extension which has 601 shops.

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Pointing out that the shops in the new market are yet to be fully occupied, Governor Fashola declared, “I think we have demonstrated by what we have done that people do not have to trade on the street sides”, adding that the whole area could become “a total shopping centre, a tourist attraction on its own where people can shop for long hours and buy almost all they need and get into a bus at the bus-stop without in anyway constraining traffic”.

He said as a result of the intervention, the danger to the properties in Oshodi as well as the Government Reservation Area (GRA) around the area has been eliminated pointing out that people had planned to relocate from there, a situation which he said, would have had a depreciating effect on not only the State’s but also the national economy.

He commended the plank sellers who originally occupied the new market location for agreeing to yield up the place adding that a new place has been provided for them and their machines. “We have gone up to demonstrate that if we effectively use the place instead of just the plank sellers, then everybody can have a comfortable accommodation in the place and I hope that before the end of this first quarter of the year the market will be finished”, he said.

The Governor, however, said that a lot of cleanup still needs to be done in Oshodi as according to him, “Oshodi is a gateway Local Government for anybody who is visiting Lagos and Nigeria”.

“Work in Oshodi continues. There is still the quadrangle where the electronics people are. They have agreed to move and they are going to move into some of the shops in the new market and we can then conclude the cleanup”, the Governor said, adding, “Our single responsibility here is to make life better for all Lagosians and improve their standard of living”.

Speaking on the nation’s industrial sector, Governor Fashola said if we are producing enough of such goods and the prices are competitive, they will naturally attract patronage in the market.

“The truth is that there is no deliberate policy to avoid goods made in Nigeria. It is simply because sometimes those who produce them do not make them up to the quality because they don’t have the machine or they don’t have the capital. It is our responsibility to make sure that the quality and pricing of things are competitive so that the market is not taken over by foreign goods”, he said.

The Governor said once the quality and pricing of the good are competitive there would be no need for campaign to patronize Nigerian goods as they would naturally attract buyers adding, “We don’t import ‘agbada’ for instance because we have perfected its production. Very few furniture are imported into the country for the same reason”.

Calling for the repatriation of Nigerian capital in foreign banks, Governor Fashola urged owners of such capital to come and invest them in restructuring the ownership of some of the existing small scale industries in the country and buy into them to boost the economy of the country instead of leaving them in foreign banks “where they strengthen and enrich other economies”.

“Let’s get to the root cause why Nigerian goods are not competitive. The manufacturers here need capital; they need power and they need room for expansion”, the Governor said adding that these are things his administration wants to focus on.

“We want to see how we can reduce their power cost, provide simple solutions and reduce also the cost of production. If we do this, it means more jobs, it means less crime; it means more food on people’s tables; it means social stability. This is possible”, Governor Fashola said.

At the State’s Industrial Estate, Matori, the Governor who was conducted round by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Wale Raji, visited Three Point Industries Limited, producers of household hygiene products, Pel Extracts Limited, producers of alcoholic and non-alcoholic fruit drinks, and Pace Heritage, producers of ice cream cones.

The Governor, who was received at the Kaiyero Market Extension by the Special Adviser on Works, Engineer Ganiyu Johnson, was also accompanied on the tour by some members of the State Executive Council including the Special Adviser, Governor’s Office, Mr. Sunny Ajose as well as other top Government functionaries.

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