Kunle Adelabu
-Also chairmanship aspirants
The youth of Imota Local Council Development Area (LCDA), under the aegis of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), have put in motion an initiative to set a 10 – year agenda for the council’s development.
To achieve this, the youth organised a parley with stakeholders to discuss issues, challenges and way forward. The dialogue which took place at the ADMOS Hotel, Imota, was themed, “From Dialogue to Action: Shaping the Future of Imota LCDA Together”
At the dialogue, critical stakeholders in different sectors – education, security, market, health, community development and other areas of the community made presentations on the state of the council, challenges and way forward.
Five of the eight Chairmanship aspirants – Hon. Benson Sunday Ayodele, current Vice Chairman, Imota LCDA, Comrade Odumosu Rafiu Ashaka, Chairman, Community Development Committee (CDC), Imota LCDA, Dr Jimi Adejo, a senior lecturer at LASU, Comrade Akomolafe Lukmon and Hon. Gbotifa Olakunle, were engaged in debate coordinated by Mr Oke Godwin Olaoluwa.
Comrade Adebogun Oriyomi, Coordinator, National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) Imota LCDA chapter, setting the tone of the dialogue said that the parley is necessary for indigenes and residents of Imota to collectively look at issues confronting the council together and proffer ways forward.
“We, the residents of Imota are the ones that would have to resolve our challenges and develop our towns because other people will not leave their own towns to assist us.
“We also have to be dynamic and pursue other ways of bringing developments because we cannot be doing the same thing all the time the same way and expect different outcomes. This is in particular the same definition with madness.
“This time around, we aim to go towards a different path.”
While commending those that have been steering the ship of the council for their impacts, Comrade Adebogun also added that it is not yet uhuru and there are still rooms for improvement.
“Imota LCDA has been into existence since 2003, which is 22 years ago and thank God that in one way or the other, we have been experiencing monumental development but can we say that is all, that is enough?
“Are we in the promised land yet? Of course, we are far from that. Can we say that those that have been managing our affairs are not capable enough? No, we are not saying that, but at the same time, we want them to do better.
“This is why we call this gathering to collectively discuss our situations and together chat the way forward,” he said.
While stating that the dialogue is meant to assist the elected and appointed political officials, Adebogun said that the communique arrived at would be used as an agenda to develop Imota.
“This is not to witch-hunt anybody but to reason together and bargain when necessary. We want to galvanise the community into action and keep our elected and political appointees on their toes and make them accountable to us
“At the end, we are going to have a communique and the communique would be transformed into a development goal for the Imota LCDA.
“We are going to analyse the Imota LCDA’s place in the Ikorodu Subregional Masterplan; looking at how far it has been implemented and its impact if any. We are going to examine if we are still in the same state that we were 10 years ago when the plan came into effect and will run till 2036.
“The plan is to present whatever document that we came up with in this gathering to the next council chairman of Imota LCDA and we are going to get the approval of the Ranodu of Imota who has said that this is going to be an annual programme.”
Emphasising the importance and what they intend to do with the dialogue, the NYCN Coordinator said:
“By this time next year, our expectation is that the chairman will come back here to this gathering to let us know which of it he has implemented.
“Therefore, this gathering is all about developing a structure as a community to give to the council and its officials and based on that, we can hold them accountable.
“We are using this medium to tell the whole world that Imota LCDA is now ready for exponential growth.”
The Ranodu of Imota, HRM Oba (Dr.) Ajibade Bakare Agoro, in his royal remarks commended the youths for the initiative which he said has his full support.
He explained that the situation in Imota has never been like this until the emergence of President Bola Tinubu as the Governor of Lagos State that liberated Imota.
“Today, we have Imota LCDA but without Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the President of Nigeria, we would not have gotten the Imota LCDA. He established the LCDAs when he was the governor and ensured that Imota LCDA in particular was created.”
Ranodu who said that he has been involved in the politics of Ikorodu Division since 1978, and became an Oba when he was actively involved in politics, recalled how the Imota LCDA was created against all odds..
“I have been involved in Ikorodu politics since 1978, and became a king while I was still actively involved. Though, I am a king now, but it is difficult to let go of politics because it is in the blood
“When we talk about the Ikorodu Division, I used to be the one that give the direction. There has been nothing that has happened in Ikorodu Division since 1979, that I am not part of, as a Councillor then until the throne came.
“I am the one that went to late Oba Salaudeen Oyefusi on November 2001, and told him that he was responsible for the lack of creation of other local governments from Ikorodu. I let him understand that we only had four First Class Oba(s) in Ikorodu Division and Badagry that could not be equated with us had 15.”
The royal father narrated how he fought for the inclusion of Imota when it was removed from the proposed six councils that were agreed upon to be created out of Ikorodu Division, while thanking President Tinubu and Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, for their roles.
Impressed by the knowledge exhibited by the chairmanship aspirants and the initiative of the NYCN in Imota, Oba Agoro boastfully said: “Today In Imota, we have graduates and professionals that we can present or recommend for any position.”
While expressing his surprise at the number of people that obtained the APC forms which was sold at N5.5 million, the monarch told the aspirants that he would be calling on them to contribute to the development of the society.
Former representative of Ikorodu Constituency II, Hon. Nurdeen Solaja , speaking with our reporter commended the Imota youth for the initiative.
“I want to appreciate the youths for this initiative. They have done well. What they want is development to be at par with those obtainable at the metropolitan areas, but, it is a gradual process and with what we have on the ground, I can assure you that with today’s discussion and the number of Imota indigenes that are growing and advancing in different parastatals, agencies and ministries, we are going to see lots of improvement in the next two years.”
He also commended the Lagos State Government for having impacts and interest in the development of rural areas particularly, Imota LCDA.
Dr Adenike Amosu, Medical Director/Chief Executive Officer, Imota General Hospital speaking on the state of secondary health in Imota, stated that there has been expansion of services being rendered to the residents.
“We have expanded our services for the residents of Imota and its environs. We offer services for pregnant mothers, children, surgery and so many other things. In fact, our mandate is that people of Imota do not need to go all the way to Ikorodu to get good health services.
“With what we have on ground, you can get all that you need here in Imota. That is the vision for Imota.
“Right now, we just commissioned the optical department and very soon, we shall be rendering dental and physiotherapy services,” she said.
She lauded Rep Babajimi Benson and IDPIL for their intervention with diagnosis centre and utility bus.
“We want to thank Hon. Babajimi Benson who facilitated a diagnosis centre at our General Hospital and also the Ikorodu Division Peace Initiative Limited that just gave us a utility bus.”
She thanked the primary health system in Imota led by Dr Omoyele for its support and ensuring prompt referral system from the primary to the secondary.
According to the Medical Director/Chief Executive Officer of General Hospital Imota, challenges confronting the health sector are power, lack of dental clinic and physiotherapy among others.
“We have some challenges and some of these we are resolving in our own ways. A key challenge is power supply which is a general problem in Imota LCDA. Due to this, we have been using diesel and fuel, but we have also been able to provide alternative power to provide light by installing solay system in most parts of the building.
“However, we still need more support in the area of provision of more solar so that we don’t have to depend on generator and diesel.
“We want assistance in the area of establishing and setting up the dental clinic and physiotherapy unit because we have a lot of older people with challenges,” she pleaded.
Dr Wasiu Owoyele, Medical Officer for Health (MoH), Imota in his own presentation on primary health sub – sector said that the major challenges that they are being confronted with is mortality rate which he said is prevalent in Ikorodu Division.
He called on residents to change their attitudes towards their health.
He also emphasized that the primary health care services are strictly under the local government and every ward must have a PHC to make health delivery closer to the people.
“The major challenge confronting us most is the mortality rate. Ikorodu Local Government which Imota LCDA is under accounted for one of the highest mortality rates in Lagos State. The six council areas under the Ikorodu Local Government is one of the reasons why the government raised the flag on the death of pregnant mothers.”
He called for total upgrading of the Primary Health Centres in Imota which he said are nothing to write home about.
“Secondly, our Primary Health Centre in Imota is not good enough. We need to work on them and expand them to attend to some primary issues like headache while the General Hospital is left to attend to referral cases.
“It is only when they see that your case is critical at the PHC that they would refer you to the General Hospital.
“We have to improve on our PHCs at Igbalu and Ori Okuta which are nothing to write home about, Okelisa too, while the Imota PHC needed expansion.
“In the next 10 years that this gathering is envisaged, we are expecting population growth and fertility rate and that means that the four PCHs must be made to function very well.
“We must allow people from other environments to come here to work by providing them accommodation and other incentives, and not seeing being transferred to Imota as a punishment. This is how to make them work selflessly when they are here.”
Mr Taiwo Olanubi, who spoke on food security advocated for Imota people to return to farming to ensure the availability of foods.
He also charged against the selling of lands to those making use of them for estate development, adding that those lands can be put into agricultural uses.
He called on families in Imota to embark on urban or backyard farming to produce what they will be eating.
In addition, Mr Olanubi, also called on the residents to engage their children in farming while also charging youths on the need to work at the Rice Mills which is located within the Imota LCDA.
The representative of Imota Ayayo Development Association, Mr Olalekan Ogunbowale, in his own submission called for the development of a hub for small scale business and industries in Imota to accelerate its development.
The Imota Divisional Police Officer (DPO), CSP Tunde Ogunniyi, called for support from residents to tackle insecurity.
He said that the security of lives and properties in any community must be a collective duty, and called on the residents of Imota to employ the service of local security operatives which must work with police to address the challenge of shortage of police personnel.
He warned against Baales and community leaders’ involvement in settling criminal matters and charged them to always refer such cases to the police to prevent tampering with evidence.
CO Kunle Adejo, Commandant, Lagos State Neighborhood Corps, pointed out that lack of trust between the security agencies and members of the community is a major problem and added that his command is resolving it by engaging stakeholders in various meetings to correct this.
He also raised the issue of residents preferring that suspects replace their stolen or damaged items, instead of taking such to the police for prosecution or complainants not willing to testify when a suspect is charged to the court as part of challenges that they are confronted with.
He added that these are the reasons why some notorious criminals are back in the community after being detained for a short period.
The LNSC Commandant who advocated that there is need to adopt the maxim, ‘from dialogue to action’ said that the resolution of a stakeholders’ meeting in Imota last year is that there is need to mount CCTV cameras at strategic locations but to his dismay, some people in the community told him that it cannot be possible.
Another challenge raised was that the LNSC lacked communication gadgets to aid their communication. He thanked the owner of the ADMOS hotel for supporting the body with some walkie talkies.
“We have gone into action, and the cameras have been placed in some strategic locations in Imota. After the installation, I got a call threatening to kill me, but that will not be possible.
“The first camera that was installed led to the arrest of some of these boys. Another one has also been mounted to another location. At the moment, three cameras have been mounted and we are still going to 120 cameras.
“The installation of CCTV cameras would help a lot. It’s going to make the work easier for the security agencies – Nigeria Nolice Force, LNSC and even the local security bodies that we have in the town,” he said.
He also said that the LNSC has been going to school to advocate against cultism and other social vices to students and also mounting billboards to pass the messages to them.
“All these that we are doing would make Imota great. We are the first to initiate these innovations because they are not happening in other divisions.
“So, talk to your children, the cameras are out there watching everybody,” he warned.
Others that spoke are Chief Nasiru Jimoh Olayiwola and Alhaji Rasaq Onanuga, both representing Baales in Imota, Chief (Mrs) Olawunmi Idowu represented the market association while Mr Bakare Olalade and Mrs Janeth Ademola, represented the educational sector.
Also, at the dialogue were Dr. Abdulazeez Anjorin, senior lecturer, LASU, Prince Abiosye Oredoyin, Supervisor for Works, Imota LCDA, Baales and others.
