Kunle Adelabu
As the Lagos Sunday market, which is part of the state government’s social intervention initiatives, is scheduled to take off tomorrow, the Chairman of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Lagos Sate Chapter, Comrade Lekan Biliaminu Oba, has charged residents of Ikorodu to cooperate with the government in making the initiative a success.
Oba, who is a member of the Lagos State Special Dispensation “Palliative” Advisory Committee that put the programme together, also called for sincerity on the part of the people in adhering strictly to the benchmark for the amount of food items that an individual can purchase at a particular time.
The Lagos youth leader spoke with THE IMPACT at the distribution of the Federal Government Rice Palliative by the representative of the Ikorodu Federal Constituency, Rep. Babajmi Benson, in Ikorodu on Saturday.
“The first thing that the good people of Ikorodu should be expecting is that the government cares about the people and interested in the welfare and wellness of the people”, Oba said.
“The way the market has been structured is such that things that you buy at high rate elsewhere, you can get it at a very discounted rate”.
While stating that the market is not expected to be fully evolved when it commence tomorrow, Oba also hinted that there is a plan by the state government to make the market operates twice weekly.
“I need to state that tomorrow’s commencement date is like a pilot test and there is no way that you want start a programme that there won’t be hitches. We are actually using tomorrow as a pilot test”, he said.
“Mr Governor still has a plan to make it twice a week market but before it changes to twice weekly, we need to see how the Sunday market would look like.
“We also have to appeal to our people that when you are expecting our government to be sincere in what that they are doing, we, as citizens, also have to show sincerity in participating in government initiatives.
“When the market starts, we would see some people trying to bypass the system to buy more than what they are required to. If we are sincere enough, you would know that you are not the only one in need and to make this go round, the government has said that the benchmark for food items that you can buy is N25, 000.
“This imply that the moment that you are buying N25, 000 worth of produce in more than required times, it would affect other people. While the government is doing its own by providing social interventions, the people too need to find ways to assist in making government programmes and initiatives work”, he said.
He appealed to residents of Ikorodu to support the government’s market initiatve.
“My appeal to the good people of Ikorodu, is that we should support this initiative and make it work. They should expect nothing but open – mindedness from the government”, he said.
“Government has done something fantastic by bringing together youth representative, CSO, professionals and others to be part of the committee and guess what, we were the ones that scrutinized most of the thoughts of the government.
“The governor allowed us to bring our ideas to the table and nothing was cast on the stone before us. We were able to criticize the ideas and determine which ones would work”, Oba said.
He stated that LASSRA would not be part of the criteria to be used in accessing the market, but that personnel of the agency would be on ground at various markets to prevent influx of people from neighbouring states
