The quest for the Lagos State Government to make the State a hub of Human Capital Centre (HCC) was the thrust of discussion during a special interview granted by the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat on Monday.
The interview, anchored by Channels Television, centered on some germane issues of governance in the Centre of Excellence, especially concerning the youth, in which the need for human capital development took the center state.
According to Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, Lagos is committed to providing the youth with what he described as ‘cutting-edge’ facilities and technology, thereby, empowering them to reach their full potential, including the desire to drive innovation and growth in the state.
Hamzat said that, “We said we want to be the human capital center of the world. We have these young people; how do we train them to achieve their full potential and drive innovation and growth in the state for a better future for the Lagos of everyone’s dream? The best way is to pursue this human capital centre initiative.”
While stating that the state government is establishing more universities to enhance productivity in many areas, the Deputy Governor added that the administration of Mr. Babjide Olusola Sanwo-Olu is building the University of Medicine and Allied Science to increase the number of medical doctors the state produces from one hundred and fifty to about a thousand and more.
“Today, we are only allowed to produce 150 medical doctors. We want to turn it into a thousand, we know some of them will ‘Japa’ (a colloquial expression of relocation), but let us keep training, it is good for us to even export great things, not ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ or whatever,” said Hamzat.
He added that it is the focus of the government to make sure that the younger ones have what it takes to run the government both at the Local, the State, and the country at large, and give them the ability to do what is right. Hamzat noted that a lot of the people in power now will soon be retiring and it is the young ones that will take over from them, which is why each state and the country must get it right.
The Deputy Governor highlighted some of the initiatives the current administration has put in place to ensure that the youth are engaged and unleash their potential for prosperity.
Speaking further, Dr. Hamzat said that Lagos is biologically, medically, and environmentally ready for anything that comes its way, adding that the state government stimulates every time by getting the citizens involved in the developmental plans of the government and also foresee the future of the state for the benefit of the generations yet unborn.
He, therefore, stressed that the state government would continue to engage, interact, and communicate with the citizens, believing that this would enable them to collaborate and partner with the government in achieving the set desired goals and programmes of the government.
The Deputy Governor emphasized that if citizens understand what the government is doing, the thinking behind it; and what they have done, they will be happy and supportive of the government. Noting that in terms of hardcore infrastructure, social impact, and others, the Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu administration has started and done well.
While speaking on the proposed protest in the country, Hamzat said it is okay to protest “as it is people’s civil right but it is not okay to destroy assets that have been built for the use of the common man.”
Citing the example of the Endsars protest, when over two hundred brand-new BRT buses were destroyed and have not yet been gotten back, “the tragedy is that these things are assets for the common man, but things were destroyed. So we cannot afford to destroy our own assets and that is why we have engaged our youth to say it is okay for us to protest but it is not ok for us to destroy, we learned that when we were in the universities,” he said.
Speaking on dredging which has dominated the discourse in the state, the Deputy Governor reiterated that the government only dredges for specific reasons which include dredging for water transportation to make sure that the boat on the water moves well, to make sure the pumps that are soaking in water from the river are not getting sand.
“Because Lagos gets raw water from Ogun River, that is why they are dredging Ogun River to make sure that the state increases its intake,” he said.
Hamzat stressed that Lagos has a fantastic drainage system that is called System 1 to System 6, and each system is a network of canals. He explained that a system starts from Agege goes through Ogba and is discharged at Odo Iya Alaro and the drain is about three meters because of the volume of water that will come from Agege and the rest, stating that what is happening all over the world now is adaptation and mitigation.
According to him, some months ago, the state officials were removing structures from the drainage canals and some people wanted to weaponize it. However, “the idea of removing such structures was that Lagos with a population of over 40 million people, needs to be ready. If we are busy producing babies we must plan for them and not montage their future by doing what is not right.”
Speaking on one of the government agencies, especially, the Office of Resilience that is responsible for subjecting the state to various theoretical shocks, by asking “If anything happens what should the government do and how should issues be managed at the earliest?”
While noting some of the administration’s initiatives put in place by the government to get the citizens engaged, the Deputy Governor said the government has different agencies that have helped to reach the targeted audience and have been able to know the challenges of these people.
He listed such to include the Lagos State Office of Disabilities Affairs, (LASODA), which is an office dedicated to people living with disabilities. “What they do is specific, they deal with people who live with disabilities to engage them in doing one thing or the other. We have many of them who have now become potential farmers, hairdressers, fashion designers, among others,” he concluded.
