day. It is so good to have you here. My name is Tossin Sunny and I will be the moderator for today's event.

This is Good afternoon everyone and happy Independence Day. You're welcome and it

is such a delight to have you here. My name is Tosen Sunny and I will be your moderator for today's event. This is the

Lagos State Governorship Candidates Town Hall meeting for Gen Z's and Millennials powered by the Covenant Nation. It is a

delight to have you here. Yes, applauses are in order. Thank you for being here. Just earlier

today we had the platform Nigeria at Igomu and this is an offshoot of that conversation but specifically for Lagos

State and for the generations that will be beneficiaries or who will be impacted by the decisions that will be made for

years to come. Welcome again. Just a few ground rules before we proceed. Please ensure that your questions are

clear and concise. You would like to take as many questions as possible. Please make sure also that you keep your

questions and your remarks respectful. It's very important. And of course, do ensure that you listen not just for what

you want to hear, but for what is actually being said. I would also like to warmly welcome our four governorship

candidates who have taken the time to be here with us today. Thank you for making yourself available to answer the

questions in the hearts of young Legosians. You are welcome again. And at this point I would like to welcome the

convenor of the platform in person of pastor Bju O. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Um, I just have a few things to say. Each of the candidates will come up and they will have an opening address

for 5 minutes. They'll be asked questions for 25 minutes and then they will have their closing remarks for 3

minutes. Important thing again is that please let the questions be free of insults. Are you following what I'm

saying here? All right. Any form of remark that might be degrading. Uh that's not what we're about. It's for

engagement. So ask tough questions, ask honest questions, ask authentic questions, but be respectful in the way

and manner in which you communicate your questions. All right. Are we all good with that?

>> We are good with that. Thank you very much. I'll welcome Tossim back up and the first candidate will be coming up in

the next two minutes. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, sir. I'm sure that we all have questions that we would like

to ask and we will be getting into that very shortly. Uh we're going to be bringing up the first candidate and

guest that we have for the day in person of engineer adji the candidate for the people's

democratic party. Could you please put your hands together as we bring him up stage?

Keep clapping please. Okay, while we await his arrival, I would like to encourage us to keep our

hearts open, to keep our minds open, and to really begin to consider the questions we want to ask. Today we are

going to have the candidates speak not just about their vision but it is also our responsibility to ask about the

plans. Uh not just about the promises that they are making to us but about the mechanisms for the fulfillment of those

promises. So think about your life. Think about the Lagos that you want to live in. Uh the Lagos that you want to

hand over to your children and their own children. Think about the different areas of our society from jobs to

housing to health care to infrastructure to opportunities and to just to generally the future of Lagos. And let

us begin to ask the questions that matter, the questions that are important for today, for tomorrow. And it is

interesting that this conversation is happening uh ahead of the official campaign period. So this gives us a a

very rare opportunity to have conversations that matter. Elections are obviously stated for next year and I do

hope that every young person in here will do the right thing, will exercise their civic responsibility

and go out there and vote. This is why we are here. We are indeed not just the future but the now and the decisions

that we make today definitely impact our tomorrow. So once again please put your hands together as we welcome engineer Ad

Deji Dohati. >> You are welcome sir. Never go down, never under

fall down. Your mercy be talking for me. I take my Bible and concordance. I never see yours again.

All right, sir. You're welcome again. Thank you for uh being here today and for making

yourself available for this conversation with young Legosians. We would now give you five minutes to share your vision

and to introduce yourself and the work that you intend to do in Lagos State. >> Okay.

Well, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. uh and most

delighted to be here. Sorry, I need to change I need to change this so I can see the audience very

well. Well, my name is engineer Dhati and I'm a Lagusian. I've come from Pokua in Lagos State.

I was born by Dr. Tuji Dati and Mrs. Doi I schooled in um in a Catholic school,

primary school, secondary school was at CMS Grammar School, Barria, Lagos. I also studied in the United States

and I graduated from the Central State University in Zenia, Ohio with a BS degree in industrial technology.

I came back to Nigeria and went through the NYC throughout and worked with the largest commodity

company in the world which was called Kaggill Nigeria Limited. From there I moved on,

started my own company, raised the company and the company became 40 years old this year

and the company has generated so much across the country. We have also

gotten quite a lot of young people that are now that went through our tutilage went through our various organizations

and have now become multi-millionaires, billionaires and whatever you can call it in Nigeria.

Having said this, I found out that the young people in Nigeria have been shortch changed.

They've been shortch changed in different ways. The opportunities we had, they don't have. And I'm talking

not only to you. I'm talking to my children. I have children in their 30s are

married. I have children that have graduated. And I feel the pain. And when I was

asked by pastor PJ to come over here, I said, "Wow, I want to take this opportunity

not to come and campaign here, but to advise you generation,

you the Gen Z's, I'm not talking about the alers. I'm not talking about the Gen Z's. These are you are the future.

You are the only ones that can design what this country is going to become. At the age of 38, I contested for governor

and I'm 64 now. So you can do the arithmetic. I have walked through the whole

the whole span and I can tell you that you shouldn't feel intimidated

and don't accept that it is a dirty game because it isn't. Whatever happens in the political

environment is what is going to shape the future. And if at the end of the day you don't

take part in the policy making of the future then how would you get the best out of this country? At the

age of 38, I contested. This is my sixth time, but my only first time of being an being a candidate.

I never saw the other generations. I don't want to mention names, but I belong to the people's democratic party.

And I'm sure a lot of those that are running today from different other parties know what I'm talking about.

The leaders will always try to stifle you, but you need to rise above that. Now, what am I going to do that's going

to be different from what is happening now? What I'm going to do is to make sure that you get a path,

you accomplish your mission, you accomplish your vision because I want my children to accomplish theirs

and you are also going to be those that we are going to fall back on at any time. Now what are these issues? We have

a 10-point agenda. This temperament agenda is that that is going to be the architecture of how the environment will

turn around and be open to you the the the the next generation. We have

fought that battle. We have broken the barriers that are supposed to stop you from moving up in the political arena.

We have laid the foundation because at 38 I was able to go through without a godfather

without a godfather and achieve a ticket. Now one thing that I want to say here is this.

The sky is the limit for you. The sky is the limit for you. And at this particular point in time in Lagos

state today where you have 25 million people you have 11 million thereabout that are registered voters

with 11 million you have only 9 million between 8 and 9 million that have picked up their PVCs

and out of this 8 and 9 million you have close to about four to 5 million that are the youths.

So what does that tell you? What else do you want to know about statistics? That means you you you

are the ones that are going to pick the next governor of the state. And if you stand by your vote, if you stay with

your vote, you will be able to do that. The other issues are issues that center around transport,

power, housing, health

and most of all we forget one thing. The architecture of Lagos State does not make room or privilege for who? The

disabled people, the blind people, the people with clutches, spinal cord and all these people are also part of

this society. They go up to about a million of them in Los State. Then you see a lot of health issues.

If you are minimum wage in Los State, I think it's about 80,000 naira or thereabout. In my first day in

office, I have said it all doctors, we are going to revisit if it is levies or charges that are

being charged, we are going to cut or subsidize or refund at least 50% of what any doctor is

paying in Los State. teachers come off it. These are those that create

what we carry in our heads. I have said it also that teachers will get 50% at least rebate on all charges

that are being tied to their salary and definitely I will revisit their salary almost immediately with a lot of other

things attached to it. >> Thank you. Then the third one sorry the third one is the civil servants in this

state. What is the future of a civil servant that area will be visited among other

areas like power and other areas that I I would like let you take your question so that I can

stop but I will continue if given the chance to move on. >> Thank you very much sir.

>> Thank you. >> Thank you. Let's put your hands together.

Uh, engineer Dati, your agenda specifically talks about employment creation and state industrialization

support program. >> Uh, but when you say industrialization, what industries are you specifically

referring to and what specifically would Lagos State do to attract or to grow them?

Well, first of all, the industrialization. You cannot have an industrialized state without making sure

that you take care of the power sector. Power is wealth. Even Alo says that power is wealth. And if you've worked

with Aliko before, which I have for almost 13 years, you understand. At the end of the day, you'll understand

his thinking. His thinking is much bigger than what it is. If you take care of power,

I can assure you if you have a thousand people here, at least you will have at least 200 millionaires made within 6

months. Power is the link. As a government, what we are going to do is to create the

enabling environment for businesses to thrive. We're going to make sure you have power. We're going to cut down on

all these frivolous charges and levies and all these things that are being, you know, that pull businesses back. You

know, we the reason why I'm laughing is that with a few companies that I help, I know what we go through. You understand?

So even the ease of establishing your business, the ease of expanding your business, if you want to expand your

business, what do you mean by expanding your business? You expand your business by increasing your land so that you can

extend your factory. How much is your factory? How much is the land? You have to write

that in. Then in Lego state today you have the land by the time you calculate the land and then you calculate the

building and the cost of the building that you want to put on it. Take 30% of that government takes that.

Now that is a that's a turn off. How does the genesis now want to build house? How do you want to even buy

house? When you want to buy house, they say it's four, it's $400,000, it's $2 million, it's $1 million. Where

are you going to start from? They want you to go and steal. You understand? So, at the end of the day, there is a

symbiotic relationship with industrialization,

with health, with education, vocational education. You know, one one thing is this, you

know, and I I want you to take it straight. My first day in office, we're going to

make sure my deputy is going to be in charge of education. That has already been given. This it's it is gone.

She's an educationist. She's like an industrialist. She's everything. You understand? And I'm happy that she's

here and I'm saying it on the air now. You understand that she is going to take care of education and immediately she

takes care of education. The bossy has to come in. Exchange student has to come in. Transfer of technology has to

happen. Danote has put up, sorry I mentioned Dangote, he has put up a refinery. Then you see the Indians, you

see more Indians than Nigerians. And I'm not talking more Indians as uh those that that serve the foil and things.

more Indians in the computer room. You understand? But he has started sending a lot of Nigerians abroad. This is what we

as government need to do. We need to create that enabling environment for businesses to thrive and power is number

one. The policies around them number two because policy is what kills businesses. Apart from that is the training making

sure that the manpower which I don't want to go into that again but this country is blessed everybody I ask that

what is the largest asset that Nigeria has and everybody say oh it's oil it's oil

it's oil it is not oil it is the human capital that we have where a country of 250 something billion people. By what

the Chinese project by the year 2050 we are going to hit 450 million people. That is cash in the bank. There is no

country in the world that will operate on the international scale without being in this country. And who are those that

are going to manage these people with their brains ready to come and take what belongs to you? Who? The Gen Z's. You

are the ones that are going to leave past us. You are the ones that are going to leave and take control of this

country. You are the ones that are going to leave and meet with the Indians and meet with the Japanese and meet with

these people and do transactions with them. So, if we don't get you ready, what's going to happen?

>> Thank you very >> They're going to take over. They're going to take you over.

they're going to take you over. >> Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Thank you for that.

I know that there are a few people that have questions in the room. So, let me see your hand. Uh if you do have a

question, if you have a question to ask before we go ahead.

Uh okay, please rise. Please rise. Uh, I'll have a mic. Uh,

can we have a mic passed on? Thank you very much engineer

for the beautiful presentation you just did. Um my question is very simple and straightforward and it's for young

people like myself and I want to speak to daily issues. Yeah,

>> you spoken about rent um daily issues like rent, the high cost of rent. Um just this afternoon I got

word that living in somewhere around a jar cost about 13 12 15 million naira per year. A young person in this room

cannot afford it. as a governor of Lagos, what are actual not

not um ideological or theoretical plans, actual realistic plans that you think you can put in place to make the

metropolitan city, the cities, the urban areas livable for young people. As a matter of fact, many people here would

know that Shamolu is even now expensive for young people. So is and Shamolu used to be somewhere that people don't want

to live in. Now it's difficult for young people. That's one question. And the second question is this regarding BT uh

by God's grace and providence. Uh I've been to a couple of livable cities. The B system in Lagos, what is the plan

concerning it? The B system in Lagos, as far as I'm concerned, is subpar, is below par. Danfold system in Lagos,

nobody, and I say this all the time, even on social, human beings should not be transported with dam in 2026. In

fact, even dogs should not be transported with downfall. What is the plan concerning

transportation system in Lagos? And I speak to this especially because I'm of the 9 to5 stock. It's like governors

don't recognize that we are human beings in the 9 to5. What is the plan regarding this? Thank you.

>> Okay. Thank you very much. Um well definitely you have hit on

two of the main issues that at top of my list once I become the governor of this state

on the housing issue. It's quite unfortunate that you know some rhetoric has been going on

before now but I this is not time for campaign. However, you cannot control rent

as a government. You cannot control the landlord or the tenant. You can

control agent but a landlord that doesn't want to give you his house, are you going to force

him? No, when there is a lacuna is when government has not provided futuristically

the housing schemes that should be in place. Government regulates housing rent by

having more houses. You are the landlord of land. You charge land use charge. You charge all the charges that is

chargeable. But what are you doing with the charge? You are supposed to be using that charge

to build roads to build land to build houses so that you are the biggest landlord then you have the monopoly of

crashing price or taking the price up. >> Thank you very much. If you don't do that, it's the whole thing is a mirage.

Now you are talking about you have brought up a very sticky question. You said and I know where you

are going that you want to live in the metropolis. You don't want to live in the interland

but we are going to create a situation in the interland like

Ojo like badri like you know kosher local government where you will be able to have good transport to bring you and

take you back to work in and out. However, in the interland,

what I would not come here and tell you what cannot happen or what will happen just because I want to get your favor.

These high-rise lowc cost houses that we're going to build in the interas because number one, we are going to buy

up family houses. So, it depends on the negotiations that go on. We're going to buy up family houses. A house that

should be selling for maybe 200 million in Lagos Island. They are probably going to say they want to sell

it to us for 500 million or 600 billion. We pay for it. We buy them out. And let me tell you what, you go and look at the

housing policy in Shanghai, China. If you look at the, you know, because you're Jenz's, you look straight. I've

been there and I've seen it happen even in on the on the internet today. You go and look at it, you will see a

situation where a family decide that they are not going to sell. Out of about a hundred families, that family decided

not to sell. And you know what? The government bought the others and left his own and built a flyover around his

around his house. You can check it. Anybody can Google that now. very much. >> So on the other one which is the

transport system, you understand the BRT, it's quite unfortunate that the BRT is not working. I've I've followed the

BRT for the past 2 weeks, 3 weeks. I see the blue vehicles over here. They are all parked in the morning. They're same

part. The same place in the afternoon, same place. In the evening, I think we have some videos about that. You

understand? So what what are all this? And then you go towards Ojota too, you see all of them there. So I don't really

know what is happening but we are investigating what is happening but they are not it's not a gas thing. We are

going to introduce gas into these vehicles because government is a continuum and I think Ambod's views were

good and his intentions were good in positioning those very nice looking garages and things you understand but

something has happened along the line. We're going to visit that and we're going to try and make it cheaper for you

to move around. >> Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

>> Hello. Hello. Okay. Uh do we have any questions from the online team at this time?

Okay. So, are we ready? No. No questions. Okay. Okay. All right.

So, I think we would have to wrap it up at this point. I believe that we are out of time. We would have loved to continue

the conversation with engineer Dati, but we do need to move on to the next candidate. And we would like to say a

big thank you for answering our questions and for making yourself available once again.

>> Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together again.

>> As he makes his way down. >> Okay. >> All right. Up next for this conversation

would be the candidate for the Nigeria Democratic Congress in person of Mr.

Fun dati. Please put your hands together.

>> Just a moment. Bless me. I don't I

I don't forever. Okay,

>> please put your hands together again as he makes his way to the podium. You are welcome sir. Please have your

seat. Very well. Thank you sir. You're welcome to the platform Mr. Dohati. We thank you for being here. In

the next five minutes, we would love for you to introduce yourself and share with us your vision for Lagos State. Thank

you. >> Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. And uh good afternoon everyone. Distinguished

ladies and gentlemen, fellow Legosians, um nation builders. First of all, let me thank you for being here on a day like

today, which is a public holiday, and to devote uh two hours of your time uh to what is essentially a nation building

effort. It's a pleasure to be with you here today. Some of you given the uh demographics of

this room may be thinking that this may be another politician coming to talk about you know how you are the um

leaders of tomorrow. Um I won't be talking about that. I think

that's an unfortunate phrase. I think that uh you are the Legos of today not the leaders of tomorrow.

If you think about the demographics of Lagos, just the demographics alone, Gen Z is probably about 25%.

Uh, millennials probably another 25%. If you add the Gen Alpha, which is um those below, you're probably up to about

80%. So, in essence, Lagos is you and you are Legos.

Um so why is it then that Lagos looks so inhospitable to the young?

Why is it that it feels like a hostile environment to the young? Whether you talk about people who are young people

who are out of school, those for whom the educational system is failing because we have more people failing than

those who are passing at work level in the public schools certainly in 2024. um housing they can't get a start in

life. Every interaction with government seems to be an abusive sort of interaction.

Um you know it's not surprising that many feel they have to leave right and uh you

know as leaders we can't tell them not to leave. What we need to do is to make the place attractive for them to stay.

Um you know there's this concept of a social contract that exists between the

government and the governed right and the governed essentially will play their own part be good citizens work hard pay

taxes and expect the government to play its own part and the government on its part is supposed to facilitate that

process for them. How many people by a show of hands here feels that the government is playing its own part in

that social contract? I don't see many hands. Right? So at the end of the day when we

think about it um you know my vision really is a situation where government plays its own part in this social

contract because when government plays its part when government plays its part then the creativity the energy and the

drive of the citizens will work wonders. Um let me speak a bit about Lagos. um you know in this notion of social

contract Lagos is actually an outlier and and when you think about the resources that are available to Lagos

the National Bureau of Statistics just released information recently if you take out five states Delta Riversu

uh Enugu and the FCT if you take those five and put them aside then take the remaining 31 one and

put them aside. Lagos has more IGR than the 31 put together combined. It also has more by the way than the

five put together combined. So this notion of the social contract is actually huge in the case of Lagos. So

for me, my vision of Lagos is a Lagos where no child, no child is left out of an education because

their parents can't afford it. No child dies because their parent cannot afford drugs.

No one has to commute in transportation that is unsafe, ricketetty and where they have a high probability of getting

robbed. Nobody has to interact with government in a way in which um they feel that they

are being abused. That is my vision for Lagos. And this vision is not rooted, it's not like in the air, right? We have

very specific things that are going to drive the delivery of that vision. Next week, we'll be releasing our manifesto

to the public. There are specific actions that we're going to take that we commit to in our first term of office,

34 of them that are going to specific actions that are going to deliver these things that I'm talking about. So, it's

a pleasure to be with you here today. I know we have a lot of things to talk about. I don't want to take too much

time at the beginning. Um, I I look forward to an engaging interactive conversation and I'm happy to answer all

your questions. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Right.

I'd like to ask what you would tackle in the first 100 days in office. What would that look like for you? What changes

would be made? >> Some of the changes that you can expect uh to see from me in the first 100 days

is you should expect a number of things in the um education area. So for example, one of the things that we have

said that we're going to do is that we're going to make uh education entirely free including books and

including exam fees. We will also provide one nutritious meal for kids every kid in public school. We will also

provide a program by which kids are in public schools are transported free to school if they need it.

All of this is to ensure that at the end of the day, education is is not denied to any child

because the children given our demographics are the hope of the future and will be the time bomb of

the future. The other thing that you can expect from us is that there will be truly free

health care, maternal and child health care, including drugs. Including drugs, not nominally

uh free. We'll also launch a program to deliver housing. Now, our plan for housing is not one

that delivers 200 units or 300 units. We have a um quantum approach to housing. Our commitment is to deliver about

150,000 units in our first in our first term progress. Um

um because a large part of the problem with housing is the fact that supply has not kept up with the demand and that's

because a large part of the market requires government involvement and government

has taken a backseat in that effort. You will also see a big commitment to transportation from us. So we will not

be of the um view that government should take a back seat and allow the private sector to do most and all of the work

with respect to transportation because all over the world if you look at cities across the world I'll just close on this

transportation point. >> Thank you. >> Cities across the world government does

not hand off particularly cities like Lagos that have large populations. Government does not government is a big

is has a big involvement in transportation even at a cost to government because

government understands that transportation is not really about naira and cobbo in a city like Lagos it is

about ensuring that the city works ensuring that people can move around it's a fundamental infrastructure of a

city like >> thank you very much sir thank you at this point I would love to call on

wisdom Udo to ask your question. Wisdom Udo, are you here? Okay. Could we have a mic passed over to him, please?

Sir, I'd like to mention that we have 2 minutes to answer each question. >> Okay. I'll try to keep it to two

minutes. >> I know it's difficult, but we can do it. >> God will help us.

>> Good evening, sir. >> Yes, sir. >> So, my name is and my question is

particularly about waste management. >> Waste management. >> Yeah. Lagos currently generates around

20,000 tons of waste every day. And we have seen that the relationship or the partnership between Llama and the PSB is

not working for Lagos. >> What is your blueprint? What are you doing about that? We want to find out

because we do not want to live in a city that is continuously smelling. Thank you.

>> Yeah. So that's a it's a great question. Um so I I will set it in a general context and then I'll give a specific

answer >> in two minutes sir. So the general context is that you know this again is

another area where where the private sector has the role has been abdicated to the private sector right and there's

not been enough government involvement. Um if you think about waste management, waste management is a chain. It's like a

production line, right? It's always being generated, you have different places along the line where it is being

processed, right? And if you have inadequate infrastructure at any point, you will have basically have just like a

conveyor belt, you have waste building up at various points along. And that's essentially what we have. That's

essentially what we have. So the the first thing that needs to happen is there need to be significant investment

at each of those nodes of processing of the waste whether it is the collection whether it is the accumulation whether

it is the transfer whether it's the processing there are specific infrastructure and equipment that need

to be added in those government needs to step up and put the resources and put those things in place because when you

do that you don't have the capacity at each node to deal with those things then ultim Ultimately you then have to ensure

that you have the ultimate disposal whether it's increase of recycling uh capacity whether it is the use of it

like waste to energy we've heard a lot about waste to energy we have not seen the fruit of that effort.

>> Thank you sir. >> And um that that component has to be there. So so when you think about the

food chain it is having the equipment that's needed ensuring that it is there and ultimately the disposal.

>> Thank you very much. Uh do we have questions from the online? Could you give me feedback there?

>> Yes, we do. >> Yes, we do. Okay. I understand that uh Mr. Doati is able to select a number.

>> Confirm that please. >> Um we have a question actually. >> Oh, you just asked question. Okay, go

ahead. >> How is your government going to reduce the increasing number of beggars on the

streets and how are you going to handle the agaros and their rise on our roads in Lagos state?

So um part of the notion of these beggars and street urchins that people talk about a lot of them are young right

a lot of them are kids these are kids who ought to be in school right they ought not to be on the roads so in the

first place if you if you if you think about what I said kids need to be in school there are all sorts of reasons

why kids are away from school some of them are little things you you know, like how to get to school, some of them,

um, you know, uh, the cost of it, uh, books, what have you. We must ensure that all kids are in school. That's

number one. Number two is that if you have a government that is focused on ensuring that the um the the benefits of

governance are spread across the population, right? Rather than concentrated in a small element of the

population, then what you have is that that drives down poverty. right and gives people the ability to be engaged

right in the society. So that also um um um helps address this notion that um there are a lot of people in the society

who are excluded from the society because they got no education. They have no skills. They cannot be retrained and

there's no there's no um integrated uh effort to ensure that they are given skills to reintegrate them back into the

society. So these are the things that you have. There's no shortcut to it unfortunately. Um it just requires

effort. It requires a lot of commitment on the part of government and it requires a a a resolute resolve to get

it done. With respect to agros, I don't know if you want me to touch on that before with the time I have.

>> We are out of time. >> Okay. Fine. >> But we can take another question.

Uh Grace Nachi, are you are you here? I understand that there's a question from you. Go ahead and ask your

question. >> Good afternoon, sir. My name is Grace. >> Hi, Grace.

>> Thank you very much. For the most of my life, I've lived in the second largest government area in Lagos.

>> And for most of that time, the road in that area, specifically the road to my house, has been bad. I'm talking about a

period of 15 years. I'm using this as an example to show that whenever Lagos is in question and development in Lagos is

in question, there are some specific areas that are usually left out like say this example that I've given I've had a

road that has been going development. The state road has been going repairs for about 15 years. So my question is

your administration if elected as governor will it also focus on some specific areas that are already quote

and unquote developed or if no what plans do you have for let's say what you call less developed part less developed

parts of Lagos? Thank you. So uh we don't think of any part of Lagos as as um less important or less

requiring less government involvement and less government effort. Right. Um um we believe the resources of the state

should be deployed across the state for the benefit of the residents of the state wherever they may be. One of the

things that we also believe is important is that local governments have to be empowered and strengthened and given the

capacity to do what they are in in office to do which is to serve as a local government. Right? And to the

extent that resources are devolved to the local level then you can then hold government accountable at the local

level for the results uh of of governance. Right. Um with respect to roads specifically

right um one of the things that we have said is that you need to decentralize the road maintenance

um the road maintenance infrastructure and the road maintenance operations that we have. So if you take for example the

Lego state public works corporation right which should be doing routine maintenance of roads it's not everything

you should have to go and award a big contract for right you should have a routine maintenance of roads by the

Lagos state uh agency for that but you have to decentralize that agency so that they have operational basis in every

local government you see what I mean and then you have to fund them you have to energize them you have to give them

equipment so that in Ali Moshaw for example there's a public works department in Alimoshaw operations base

with its equipment with its materials well funded well staffed right and given the tools to deploy and understand where

uh roads are getting bad and deploy and fix them immediately then we are the state will do our own bit and then we

will do our own monitoring across the state >> thank you very much sir thank you thank

you Adura oni are you in the building with your question please rise guys. And can we have a

microphone for the participant? Thank you. So, my name is and as a young

person, thank God Let me ask a question about a earlier because that's my question. I have experienced a number of

ages. I live in Bara and that place can be very very you know but beyond myself um they they take a lot of money from

the transport people um people that drive k you know and the rest of that. So my question is how do you track this

money that they are getting because some of them say oh they wear this green stuff at the same from the government

how do you track where the money is going to and how do you deal with offenders that's those who are not part

of that system where money going to how do you plan to deal with offenders who are not within that system that's my

question >> um so so thank you for that question so uh you know This this is is a complex

problem. There are different aspects to the problem. In the first place, you ask yourself those resources that are being

collected on whose behalf are they being collected and where are they going, right? Those resources are generally not

monies that are ending up in government's purse, right?

um they are part of some of it is almost like an organized um almost like an organized racket right

where um and if you think about organized rackets the way they operate is that they it's like a pyramid there

are a lot of people at the bottom who are the people you see on the street running after bosses right but most of

the money doesn't stay with those guys they're just collecting the money the money flows all the way to the top right

and there are some people who are in control of that system. Now, um, so that's the one part. Now, there's a part

of it that has to do with transportation, which is that if you had a modernized transportation system,

which you should have in a city like Lagos, right? Proper buses, proper trains, you cannot have agos running

after, you know, proper um buses, lamata buses, right? what they are able to do is to

essentially divide and conquer the little operators that are running around um um in an unregulated way. There's

also the social problem associated with the fact that a lot of these are young people who are not sufficiently well

trained. They don't have access to skills. Maybe some of them did not finish school. They couldn't get jobs or

they didn't acquire technical skills. And so it's it's it's a it's an avenue for them to earn something. And they can

be exploited actually by the people who are higher up that pyramid because that all that work they are doing is for

peanuts. Believe believe you believe you me it's for peanuts. Most of the money >> then wants to know is how your

administration would. So there are many things if you think about the different aspects of first of all we will

modernize the transportation system which handles the transport part of it but we also have a huge program for

technical and vocational education including ongoing skills building right we have said that we're going to

establish about 40 technical schools within our first term across Lagos state technical and vocational schools because

if you think about what we are turning out in our educational system and compare it with what the societ society

needs. We are turning out um we are not adequately providing for technical and vocation people who can come out and you

know be welders be uh uh masons you know electricians people who can do the work that the society needs and start to earn

an income within a short period of completion of secondary school. So so this is is integral you know to that to

that process. So if you think about the different aspects of it, you then see that that social problem. Then what you

are then left with when you do that is a social problem of reintegrating the people, giving them skills and so on.

That may take a bit of time, but you commit to doing it. By the way, >> in conclusion, by the way, when you do

this and you bring the modernized transport system, somebody has to maintain those buses, somebody has to

drive them, you have to have conductors. These are the same people that you will transition into those roles.

>> Thank you very much. Thank you very much. At this point, I would like to call on engineer Adigong Ibrahim to ask

the next set of questions. Engineer Adigon Ibrahim. >> Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

>> My name is Engineer, the state chairman of the National Council of Nigeria State Chapter.

>> Okay. >> Um we all agree that Lagos is a very different state um in the committee of

states in Nigeria and um there are lots of popularities as concerns Lagos state and I know that for every young person

that are businesses schooling in Lagos, we have observed that in the past and in the present

we have enjoyed some certain things. So when I listen to you I hear some of the interventions that promised in education

in health and all of these things if you ask a negotian a true negotian some of those things are existing already. Now

the question I want to ask sir is that what are the things that you did differently?

Different things aside from the the busy scheme, the um go all of those things the trans all of those things. What are

three major things that do different things that will affect all of us that are the genesis and the millennials that

are residents in Lagos? God bless you sir. >> So thank you. Hopefully you can answer

that in two minutes. >> Thank you for that question. I'm not sure that most of the people or many or

everybody here will agree with you that the things I spoke spoke about are existing today.

I'm not sure people here will agree with you. Right? because I know um people who um I know

people who have complained and continue to complain about um in fact you don't I don't need to to if you go out there and

you look at the transportation system that that is out there nobody needs to tell us that the transportation system

is chaotic unless we want to lie to ourselves. Is it true or is it not true?

So, so I mean you know the fact that the fact that we don't have a modern transportation system look the mark of a

society is one of the marks of a society is if the highly placed people in that society can use the mass transit system

of that society. Do you see that in Lagos people will enter convoy 100 car convoy

to go to the airport to go to London. When they get to London they get on the bus in London. So,

>> is it true or false? >> Let's not deceive ourselves. You say things.

>> No, no. I've just told you that is one. That is one. >> Modernizing the transportation

>> because we're running out of >> No, no, no, no. Listen, that is one. >> Two, I talked about housing and I talked

about the fact that we needed housing in the scale of the tens of thousands. I said we would deliver 150,000 homes in

the first four years. No government has done that in the past. This government in all of his 30 years has not done that

and there's a way you can do it. It's not the way they're going about it now. What you have to do is to allocate land

priorities for affordable housing for low and medium scale housing. Then you have to have the institutional framework

including the institutions, the guarantees, the secondary mortgage institutions and then operate on a large

scale to bring in that that that demand. That's number three. We will not be able to continue at this point but we are so

thankful that you have taken the time to answer our questions. Ladies and gentlemen, stand together for Mr. Punchi

as he goes down. Thank you for being here. Okay, thank you for staying engaged.

At this point, we would like to bring up our next candidate. Are we ready?

I hope we are getting insights uh in our conversation. We will now be going to the next candidate

who is uh Mr. Bad Rhodess Viva of the African Democratic Congress. We're getting ready to welcome him.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being here. These are invaluable conversations.

And we're truly thankful to the Covenant Nation and to the convenor for making space for conversations like this to

happen. Please put your hands together as we welcome to the podium Mr. Bad Debora.

You're welcome, Mr. Rhodess Viva. Thank you for making the time to be here today.

>> We will go straight into your introduction. You have 5 minutes to tell us about yourself and

>> yes, what you your vision is. >> I stand or sit. >> Okay. Um, my name is bad vivival.

My lap works. Okay. My name is bad. I am the ADC gatorial candidate for Lagos State. I'm an entrepreneur, an

architect and public policy specialist. Um, but if you want to learn more about me, please visit our website is very

robust grvleagos.com. Um we have we don't have a lot of time 5 minutes so I want to lay the foundation

for this conversation. Um usually people believe that all politicians are the same. They believe that all political

parties are the same. That's why people can go from one party to the other. But in Lagos state we have there's been a

group of people that have run this state for over 20 years. So an ideology has emerged and once you understand this it

then allows you understand everything about what's going on in Lagos. The first ideology is one that seeks to

extract from the state and maximize funds and money. So the value that they preach about is the IGR. It's a number

and that number Legosians are spoken to as though they were shareholders in a company. But the only people that gain

dividends are the people that are in charge. While you find that the people of Lagos, their lives continually gets

worse and worse and worse in the last 20 years. The other ideology is one that emphasizes the person, the resident, the

illegian. And I would call that ideology the allegative jack on ideology which focuses on how many housing units can we

provide for the Legosian. How many children can we put in schools to get quality education? How many roads can we

build at the cheapest possible price? Housing at cheapest possible price to impact and benefit Legosians. Now that's

the foundation today. Um we are going to touch on first of all you the legosian our plans

for you as well youth is increasing your capacity localizing that at the word level so that you can get jobs you can

get skills and it's not just about getting the skills and the training it's also providing the opportunity for you

to use those skills and we're going to do that at the at the world level and at the local government level. We're going

to look at how people feel, especially the youth of Lagos State. There's a lot of insecurity. There's a lot of

harassment. There's a lot of intimidation. And you find this either with police or

with thugs. Now, we're going to take thugs off the street by giving them a different pathway to be productive

members of society. And this ties into skill acquisition. This ties into skill acquisition that I've talked about where

if you want to learn tiling, if you want to learn brick lane, if you want to learn how to do pop, you can learn this

skill for free at your word level. And when the government is doing our housing revolution, which we've talked about,

these are the people that will engage and ensure that they earning higher than minimum wage thereby taking them off the

streets and create creating a more secure Lagos. In relation to the police, we're going to create help desk all over

the state so that if any young person because we are all so traumatized from NSARS, if any young person is

intimidated by the police, there's a number they can call and we have lawyers that will look to ensure that they if

they um if they are unfairly being treated, it will be handled and taken care of. The state will look out for

them. Then how many more is that? >> One minute.

>> Um so the we've talked about housing, we've talked about safety. Um the next step for us is ensuring that in this

Lagos that we have you can then get affordable housing right because we are increasing the housing stock is able to

deliver 20,000 units we aim to do a 100,000 in four years and in doing this how you move around Lagos will then be

improved because we are going to create a truly multimodal and affordable means of transportation all over Lagos state

we're going to do all the lines in two years. Now, that might seem impossible, but the major challenge that Lagos State

has had is that they've not been open to a private sectordriven procurement process for our real networks and our

real systems. We're going to open that transparently to the public sector to the private sector and partner with them

to ensure that Lagos is better connected. >> Thank you very much. Uh before we go

into the uh the public's questions, I just want to piggyback off of something that you said and I I want to bring this

home for the average Gen Z or millennial that is here, someone who is currently earning 300 to 500,000 naira uh a month.

What does that look like? What does genuine affordable housing look like for a person like that?

>> Affordable housing for us, one is being able to pay monthly, right? And also we're building housing units that are

not typical twobedroom, onebedroom. You the housing is supposed to grow with you as your needs increase. So first of all,

there's a self-contained apartment that is beautiful like bullet apartments in um in Japan. Everything fits in

perfectly. The furniture is beautiful, perfect. When you get married, you can then move to a bigger space. And all of

this is a program that once you are registered and a taxpaying member member of Lagos State, you are entitled to

this. But while you're paying instrumentally, credit is also acrewing so that when you get into your 30s and

40s, you're eligible to actually start to own a house. So, we're looking at having development that grows with you

as your capacity increases and as your needs increase. >> Thank you for answering that question.

On that note, I'd like to call on Tim Olumin to ask your question. Could you please rise

if you are in the room? Timing. Okay. Please can we have a mic pass to him?

Please make your question clear and concise so that we can take as many as possible and you have two minutes to

answer those questions. >> Okay. Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon.

>> Yes. So my question is in respect to the waste management sector in Lagos. So Lagos is

uh one of the most populous countries in Africa. sorry popular cities in Africa and is also a global city but it doesn't

always smell like a global city. U so I want to know what would be your plans to address this across every corner in

Lagos because there are some there are some corner there are some places in Lagos that okay we can say it's clean

but for the most part if we check the numbers >> thank you very much. Okay, we have two

minutes. Um, so the first thing that we need to do is decentralize waste management. Um, empower local

governments to participate in that a lot more. That will make the process a lot more efficient. Um, another thing that

we'll be looking to do is create waste to wealth actual value chains so that the local government can benefit from

how much of the waste we can generate energy from. Right? So there's a tie back and an incentive loop for them to

actually enforce the separation of waste from households. There's no reason why organic waste should be going to the

same landfill that plastic waste is going to. We need to separate all of these things from the house and have a

system by which value is created from all of them. And upycling I always say that aside the human beings in Lagos

states our biggest resource is the waste that we produce because of our small land size and density of people here.

When we create a value chain where waste actually becomes valuable, the way we treat it changes dramatically and then

there's a lot of fraud in our waste management system. That's why we're seeing the dirty Lagos that we see

today. The amount of trucks that they say they have and not the amount of trucks on the on the ground. Legos is

renting trucks from people when they should own trucks. Los is paying so much for trucks when they can actually do so

much more with the resources that they have. And that's why we see the way things are in Lagos today. So we need to

empower the private sector to participate, break down all barriers. If 10 people here

want to get a truck, they don't need to know anybody in allows to participate in the program. You just plug and play and

that way more of Lagos is more is better served. And the opportunity cost of a smelly Lagos will be subsidized by the

government. So we can have Lagos as a tourist center that attracts. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Rose Bible.

Okay, I'll go over to the online team for the question that they have for us. >> All right, thank you very much. I have a

question here from the online audience and the question goes thus. If elected, what specific policies and investments

will you make to position Lagos as a leading global technology hub? And how will you measure your success within

four years? >> Fantastic. Um for us like I said it ties back into the ward level.

It ties back into the ward level and the empowerment and skill acquisition that happens there. There tends to be a

centralized collection of intelligence that usually will happen for instance in Yaba. But we need to start getting

people from the world to be part of that entire process. And in doing that from the world level, you can now identify

talent, right? And they can then be funded and helped to and supported. There needs to be a concept which we're

going to do of creating problem solvers. Currently, our education system prioritizes us being consumers. Most

Nigerians don't know how things are made. There has to be a focus on the making of things. Right. And this ties

into technology and data and also applying and giving people access to whether it's AI, whether it's AI

credits, the state will buy in bulk so that we achieve economies of skill. And all over Lagos, people can benefit from

either using AI and learning because now you don't need to go to a traditional school or traditional place to get

coding. They are means by which education has been democratized and Legosians have to benefit from that.

Thank you very much for answering that question. At this point, I'll call on Enyola Akint to ask your question.

Enola Akint, please wave your hands or rise so that you can be seen by the media team and

akin. >> Good afternoon. Good afternoon, sir. My name is Daniel

and my question is concerning the issue of flooding in Lagos. >> So Lagos has remained reactive instead

of being proactive concerning the issue of flooding. So I would like to ask that what would your administration do

concerning flooding in Lagos? Thank you. >> Thank you. This ties directly into what I said about ideology where it's about

money. You see, we have haphazards and feeling all over Lagos because the focus is solely on money, developers and

money. It's not thinking about the amount of communities that will be destroyed by flooding. So, what are we

going to do? We're going to have a wetland protection policy and not just identify a place as a wetland, but also

give it a purpose. So, it cannot then be sandfilled later by another government. you find like the ley conservation

center that is a wetland but you cannot go and sand and fill that place anymore because it has been given a use so I'm

talking about leisure parks I'm talking about solar parks I'm talking about aquatic centers places where that

wetland is protected so that we are not creating backlogs for water and then we're going to look at all these

developments that have been sand filled in the last four years like what is currently going on at Makoko because if

we let that happen Lagos mainland is going to start flooding and then people who come on on TV and talk about climate

change, right? We need to create a spongelike system for Lagos state and even look at the indigenous methods of

construction which can be modernized the steel construction that still some water so that water can go under it without

creating backlogs of um water going back into city and causing flooding. So those are some things that we can achieve.

Another thing we must do is ensure that our gutters are properly cleaned. Our canals are properly um cleared. You have

a situation where canals are overgrown with weeds for 6 months in a year. Rainy season comes, it backs up and then we

talk about climate change, you know. So we need to ensure that our gutters are covered, our canals are properly cleared

from overgrown weeds and that system in itself is working efficiently while also maximizing it with with mechanical

solutions and um with mechanical solutions. Yes, thank you. >> Okay, thank you. We're still taking

questions from the audience. Boluatifair or Jedoku. Okay.

Good day sir. My name is so I have a question concerning women of Lagos. Right. Um personally for me I've

gone into the marketplace and we know Lagos have quite a lot of big market and I would say it's a traumatizing

experience for me because of how we are handled by so-called market guys. So what are your plans concerning this?

Because I've had a lot of governors coming in and said oh they want to do something. I'm also a law student and

I've not seen any institution any framework any legal framework concerning that. So what are your own plans

concerning that? That's my question. Thank you. >> So um for me the focus is about creating

safety for women and people generally in Lagos state. Um, and that's I I spoke to um having uh an agency that's in charge

for people to be able to report whether it's violence against them in the marketplace or in schools and things

like that. Empower even the agencies that currently exist in Lagos State because I have to give credit to Lagos

State. There's the SB SBV I believe that has been doing quite well. we empower that and ensure that there are more um

it has a more much more um groundbreaking effect. Right? So if you're looking at a marketplace and the

way people are handling there are different ways you can handle this whether it is by actual consequences to

that education going to the markets and talking people that this is not how a city like Lagos should be run or this is

not how a city like Lagos should be. We should have tourists to be able to come into Lagos go to the markets experience

it without being harassed. Right? because that is what will also endear people to think to Lagos to be this

cultural hub not just for Africa but for the black race right so we need to we need to prioritize safety and that's

what we're going to do with the market leaders right and ensure that people are empowered to be able to create

consequence for that kind of action yeah thank you >> okay thank you very much Jessa

Jua please ask your question as concisely as possible.

>> Good afternoon sir. Thank you very much. Um the rate of development of a state is heavily dependent on the strength of our

civil service. Now for young people who would like to work into who would like to work in the civil service um I would

like to ask that what is what are the provisions what is the future for a young person in the civil service where

the yeah where the rate of living per day for example an average person will spend

at least 10,000 NRA who is very prudent feeding twice transport to walk to and fro and all that if you calculate that

by 21 working days that is about 210,000 NRA which is above what an entry- level graduate is earning. So my question is

what what is the future like? What future for a young person who doesn't want to be dubious, who doesn't want to

go into anything shady, who wants to be who wants to have integrity while working and putting his best in the

Lagos State Civil Service. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um the first beneficiaries of our housing, of our

health care, of any positive thing that we're going to do in Lagos are the civil servants. their salaries must be

increased significantly for them to have the quality of life and for them to meet the demands that our government is going

to put on them because we are going to take Lagos from mediocrity to excellence and the people in the civil service must

embody that excellence and to achieve excellence you need to pay people properly they need to have benefits that

they can look forward to and say okay you know what I put in this service in a couple of years I'll be able to own this

apartment I'll be able to own this house my children have access to this education busy or access to this kind of

quality health insurance not just mediocre health insurance so that they can give completely of themselves. There

was a civil service under Lativ Jakundi that achieved everything he achieved that how many years down the line I'm

still mentioning his name right so it's about creating a civil service that the people of that civil service understand

that they appreciated um intelligence and productivity is rewarded people are elevated based on the level of quality

of their service and we are also going to head hunt the best in schools to impart of civil service. You look at the

look at the civil service of countries that most people are running to and jackping to. It's not getting first

class minds in the civil service. It should not be something that people look down on. It's people it should be

something that people aspire to and that's the civil service that we are going to look at and try to create

because we cannot do it without them. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you.

>> Thank you. Thank you. >> Online audience, any question for us? No. Okay. So we will go we can go over

to the next uh participant in the room. Olu favor favor Olu where are you? Okay please ask

your question. Good afternoon sir. Thank you so much for your time. My name is Favor and this

is my question. An average Nigerian child who attends a public primary school in Nigeria cannot speak English

language correctly. and every Nigerian child who attends a public secondary school in Nigeria cannot even

communicate or compete internationally. What is your plan for the educational system particularly the primary

education and secondary education? Thank you. >> A fantastic question. Fantastic

question. Um unfortunately you have public schools to um private schools almost at a ratio of 10 to1 which is an

indictment on the government for the last 20 years because in no saying society should private schools outnumber

public schools but we've normalized that. Um our approach to this is going to to be in to to invest heavily first

in the infrastructure of our education system. We want a situation where people don't have to travel long distances

because they want to access public education. So in that local government in that ward

there are quality schools that are there. Increase the salaries we are paying to teachers. Increase the quality

of training that they are getting. Bring technology into the framework because again technology has democratized

knowledge and we should not be left behind. So we must bring all of this into our education system, increase the

quality of the environment that our children are in. Last week we saw pictures of schools in Amuadorfin that

were truly disgraceful because most of the people that in government today benefited from much better looking

classrooms and much better education systems. So we need to revert back to that high investment in human capacity

development. But more than that is also training our children to think in relation to problem solving because that

is the value that they are going to bring to the world and that is the value that will make them competitive in the

years to come. We cannot continue telling our children that Mongopak discovered in vanera. We cannot continue

telling our children that our children don't know how things are made or how things are produced. There's a

Scandinavian model. There's a Chinese model that we can look to to now localize and craft our own model. That's

an African suprem supremacist type of model that allows for our children to be confident, to have knowledge of their

history, and to be able to be problem solvers for the future that that's yet to come.

>> Thank you very much. Thank you. I'd like to call on comrade a jao adj. Comrade,

are you in the building? Okay. Berry show.

So listen. China. Hold up.

We can only take one question please because we are we have limited time. Essentially what uh com I got it I got

it >> just for the audience who might not >> Yes. is how do we preserve our culture

and our language the Euroba culture and language of Lagos state. So first let me start by saying Lagos

is hello hello hello hello hello the official language of this event is

English so he will respond in English language please proceed sir >> can I talk

>> please proceed can I ask for decorum and order in the room please can we kindly settle down.

Can we kindly settle down? Mr. Rose Viviver, please proceed with your answer.

It's It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. I understand. I understand. Other side.

Other side. Listen. This is Lagos.

Lagos is Euroba land. >> No doubt about it. >> Language is important. Language carries

the culture and heritage of our people. Right. Yes. Full stop. My business here is governance.

There are people that cannot hear or speak. They need >> Can we please have some decorum?

My business here is governance. >> We are running out of time. So we need him to be able to answer this question

in one minute so that we can wrap up please. >> My business here is governance. Right.

And today we have had 20 something years of the APC government but till now if you

speak Euroba in primary school and secondary school they tell they say is vernacular

>> and they beat and punish you. >> So I'm very surprised. I I hope I hope that some of those questions will be

directed at Lagos representatives that are here. But We're wrapping up that question.

The fact of the matter is this. We can laugh. We can laugh at language. But I assure you if

I gday see quality primary health care see quality primary schools that every September their hearts blood pressure is

not rising because of school fees they have to pay every September they don't have to text people to help them pay

their school fees. They will be singing and dancing and they will not care about your question. The fact of the matter is

this. We must ensure >> that our culture is preserved. We have an entire com we have an entire ministry

that's going to in charge of that and we are going to look at our culture and our history even deeper than the surface

level at which they are doing it. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

>> We will take one final question from the online audience just before he goes down.

Can we have some decorum please? We are taking one final question from the from the online audience.

>> We have we have one final question online and the question goes does what would you do

to c the high number of materana mortality and mobility in Lagos state? >> Thank you.

This is a very sensitive question for me because I have so many people who have lost their mothers, their aunties

because between getting from their house to getting adequate health care to getting a bed to getting oxygen so many

people die. It was not their time to die. Unfortunately, the government failed them and they died. for me. We're

going to have emergency stabilization centers in every ward in Lagos state so that your time from where you are from

your home to that center is 10 15 minutes where you can be stabilized and datadriven movement can happen from

there. So when you are moving from there you are getting to a hospital that is waiting for you and has the equipment

that you need to take care of you and to treat you. Now this ties also into maternal mortality and the quality of

health care that we have because if people can get to us in time, you have quality services, you have quality

doctors, you have quality nurses, you have quality beds all set up for our mothers and at an affordable price so

that people can access the best healthcare to bring so many of us into this life, our mortality rate will

reduce significantly. Also preventative medicine in terms of processes by which people are educated on best practices

before that day actually comes will also go a long way to reduce maternal mortality.

>> Thank you very much. Thank you for answering our questions. On that note, we have come to the end of this session

with Mr. Roads Viviveror. Thank you. Please a round of applause for him as he goes down.

Thank you. Thank you very much. We are now set to have our final candidate uh in this

series of conversations and I'd like to crave your indulgence. Let us engage respectfully. Let us maintain decorum in

the room and let us have a meaningful dialogue. Okay, for this final segment, we are

going to be having the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in person of his excellency

Dr. Kadiri Obafi Hamzat. We are getting ready to welcome him. It's been an enlightening conversation

so far, an insightful conversation ahead of the elections of 2027. And as young people, it's very important

that we are part of these conversations that are shaping our future, shaping our present in fact. and also shaping our

future. And so well done to everyone who has taken the time to be a part of this

conversation. Please note your questions so that we can keep them clear, sharp, concise, and

we can take as many questions and hear as many voices as possible. Remember to engage respectfully.

Remember to share your opinions respectfully. As we proceed,

for our Gen Z's and millennials in the Beyond this conversation, I hope that we're getting ready to vote. I hope that

you have your voters cards. I hope that we are not just having conversations without the intent of exercising that

civil respon civic responsibility that we all have to cast our votes to participate because the future that we

desire is also the future that we get to build. In as much as we're having these

conversations with those who aspire to lead us, each of us carries a responsibility

from where we are seated to create and to build the Lagos of our dreams. To create and to build the Lagos that we

want to hand over to our children and to their own children. So do your part. I'll do my part. Let's all do our part

to create the state that we truly dream of. The responsibility indeed belongs to each and every one of us.

Thank you for your patience. Very shortly we will be welcoming our final candidate

for the evening. It has been quite an afternoon of insightful conversations and

dialogues. All right. Please put your hands together

as we receive his excellency Dr. Kadari of Bafi Hamzat. Thank you very much everyone. Please be

seated. Please be seated sir. You are welcome. Thank you for making time to have this conversation with our young

Legosians. Let me take that out for you. Okay, we will get right into the conversation. Sir, you have five minutes

to share with us an introduction about yourself and the vision that you have for Lagos State.

>> Can I borrow your mic? I prefer to stand. >> You prefer to start?

>> Yes. >> Your your lapel works. You have a lapel and it works. So, you

can just >> Thank you very much. Uh thank you everyone for

for coming to listen to us. Thank you for coming. I just prefer to stand.

So thank you very much uh for coming to listen to us. Uh happy independence day everyone and we must thank uh pastor Joy

Made very well uh for for keeping this platform open to all Nigerians. He has actually

deepened the democratic credentials of our country. The single ladies and gentlemen, I was

14 years old when I met Chief of Baf along with my dad. Both of them are gone now. May their soul rest in peace.

What I had him tell me that day lingered in my mind till today. And I realized that later because in

1955 his administration actually started free education for western region and hundreds of thousands

of children actually went into classrooms and that changed their destiny. So what does that tell me? That

tells me that tells us that government when they plan well deliver well can actually change people's

destinies and that is what has happened. But it also says it also shows clearly that government

has a role to play in our lives. What they can do and what government must do. But I must say it very clearly that I

didn't just walk into government. I was born in Mushin. I went to a public school and I saw that somebody has asked

a question here. I went to a public school memorial primary school in Mosin and about 2

years ago I donated a laboratory of right in that primary school and you can go to that school anytime any day

because I was surprised primary 2, primary 3, primary four they speak better English than when I was in my

primary school. So the reality is that we are making progress now. I didn't just like I said I did my primary school

there. I went to a secondary school at Ol Baptist High School in O. Then I went to University of for my masters for my

bachelor's and master's degree in engineering and then I did my doctorate at Cranford University in England. Then

I went to New York. Yes, I japa I japa I went to New York and I started working as a case manager with the city

of New York where I sat across the table and was dealing with people that the system have left behind that the system

actually failed and what does that tell me? It tells me that even in the most advanced country people can actually be

left behind. I left that work and I went on to move to City Bank where I became the technical head for the trading

floor. I left and then I I went to Mary Lynch and later Morgan Stanley all in New York but in those companies and

those I saw a system that was built to last and what people do to make sure that those systems don't fail. But the

interesting thing for me is that the system was good for me. I was comfortable but I was fortunate by

chance I met the current president of this country. He came to New York and we were supposed

to present to him. They told us at the time that some VIPs are coming from Africa. They didn't say Nigeria and I

was only only black man in the room. We did the presentation and they asked me ah you are fi Hamzat which Azat is yours

and I said he said ah you're the son of my leader. What are you doing here? So himself and my dad encouraged me to come

home and I did and I I didn't regret it. I'm happy that I did and that's how I entered government.

So I joined I joined I came to Nigeria and I joined Oho PLC and we were of implementing their oracle but ultimately

I joined government and in that 20 years that I've been working in different capacities with government. I'm very

proud of our achievement. When Lagos State decided to did to do a digital map of of itself, I led the team that

deliver the first electronic GIS in this in Africa. When Lagos State wanted to know how how

many people are in Lagos, where they live, how do you plan it, we did a parallel census. I actually wrote a

book. I led the team that did it. And that led to the Lagos State Resident Registration Agency. When Lagos State

wanted to automate all these processes, when Lagos State wanted to automate all his processes, I did the team that

delivered the 11 models of Oracle for Lagos State. When Lagos State wanted to build the a stable care bridge, the

second in Africa, I was the commissioner for works and infrastructure that delivered the le bridge and many others.

But but that that is interesting. But that is my story. But what is my vision for

Lagos? My vision is if you live in A or you live in Aun or you live in A or you live in ADO, you should be able to

measure the time it takes you from your home to your work or where you apply your trade. My guarantee is that it will

be shorter than it is today. That is my guarantee. >> Thank you very much. And we are still

going to get into questions and answers where you get an opportunity to answer uh more questions and share the vision

that is in your heart. Uh my question to you is within your first 100 days in office, what would you prioritize and

deprioritize especially given that you've been in government for so long for such an extended period of time?

What would prioritize? >> Thank you. The f the first qu the the first thing I would do is a bill that

establishes child welfare administration agency. What does that mean? Our children in

Lagos cannot be roaming the streets. Everybody under 18 must either be in school or in some trade. Our challenge

is that we are Lagos state is borderless. The number of people coming into Lagos from different parts of the

country because of insurgency or whatever reason is a lot and we can't stop it. But we must be able to control

how they live and how they come here. So the bottom line is if we establish that agency to make sure and we separate it

from ministry of youth and social development child welfare is very important in West Africa. In West Africa

0 to 5 year old 34% of our children are minority and being minority doesn't mean the children of the poor because it

depends on what you eat and we all know that between zero and five if you are minority that child is gone. So we will

create that agency to make sure first of all that everyone is in school and to also make sure that we actually treat

our children the right way because the destiny of our children must be important. That's the first thing. The

second one is there is a bill now is the state wealth fund Lagos the funding of Lagos in the next 10 years will be

different from the way it's funded now Lagos must be prepared to plan and fund Lagos state in such a way that the next

generation will not have to suffer. >> Thank you very >> Thank you very much. We will now begin

to take questions um from the audience and I have Adam Odu to ask a question. Adam, are you in the

building? Please signify with a show of hand. Adam,

>> right there. >> Adam, please ask very quickly so that he can

have two minutes to answer the question, please. I was 8 years old when I heard my

grandpa and his friend talking about the consequences of the civil war and the Asaba massacre that happened between the

year 1967 to 1970. And amongst the conversation they were having there, one of the things that left or one of the

things that stayed with me is the way they were able to travel from let's say Calaba, Benin, they were schooling in

the east. They were able to go anywhere from point A to point B without being asking who are you, where are you coming

from, what is your name? And because of one of the many reasons that caused the civil war which was the inability of the

then government under general gan to establish sufficient state for the eastern region there was that division

of the country which lead to civil war and this leads to my question on accountability and I understand that

there are different mechanisms both governmental and non-governmental mechanisms that are currently in place

to hold to make sure that power being given to the people to hold government Go the question.

>> I want to ask the question. >> I want to ask on institutional frameworks that can directly give

citizens power to hold the government accountable. For example, in South Africa, what South Africa?

>> What's your question? What my question is frameworks that can hold government accountable? Yes. Okay sir, please. You

have two minutes to answer that question. >> Well, thank you very much. uh it's

so the question is important and that's why I have my manifesto is actually somewhere here we have what I call the

AMSA compact compact is actually a statement that allows you to know what will be done where it will burn where it

will be done what will it cost and who is responsible I put my name there nobody asked me to do that because So I

know it's me that be responsible. My manifesto we call it the promise. The promise to the Gosians building a state

that last. I told you the difference between develop the so-called developed nations and us is the ability to

institutionalize processes. So I put compact there to make sure that everything around it revolves around me.

So and in that manifesto there are 100 pledges. 100. So every commitment our dignity our health leagos mind education

we have pledges and commitment that you can own that you can you can check you can track and you can measure and you

can ask in time this is what will be done you know it was Teddy Roosevelt that said the man in the arena he said

it is he was a president of America he said it is easy for people to just say things but the man in the arena that is

sweating that is how we are going to measure so the the the the statement is what are we going to do? I have it

listed. It's posted. You can check it. You can track it. You can measure it from day one. Thank you very much. Up