RAYMOND OKOBIA
The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, and gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressive Congress in the 2027 election. Dr Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat said the State must strive to become the Human Capital hub of the world to remain relevant.
Speaking on Journalist Hangout, a popular talk show on Television Continental (TVC), Hamzat opined that Lagos State has the capacity to become the human capital hub of the world in years to come. The orator and technology expert affirmed that “Human-capital development is a major priority for Lagos future. Lagos is rapidly growing, and its predominantly young population requires much greater investment in skills and human capital.”
The Deputy Governor identified a mismatch between the number of graduates and available job opportunities, stating that companies often struggle to find workers with the skills they need despite the large number of graduates, making the connection between education, skills, and employable youths a major priority. He identified Al., cybersecurity and blockchain among the skills he wants Lagos youths to acquire. He said the state needs to prepare young people for the global economy by training them in emerging and high-demand fields.
He acknowledged that “Japa” cannot simply be stopped as people will continue to migrate in search of opportunities abroad, saying government cannot prevent people from moving. The focus, therefore, should be on producing more skilled labour to fill the gap. He noted that in the field of medicine for instance, the State government plans to establish a College of Medical Services to produce at least one thousand medical experts as against the three hundred produced by the Lagos State College of Medicine annually.
While responding to question on waste management, Hamzat identified Waste-to-energy as part of his long-term plan to address waste management in the State. He asserted that Lagos was moving from the traditional model of simply dumping refuse towards recovering useful materials for recycling and converting waste into energy.
The APC gubernatorial candidate disclosed plans to establish four transfer stations across Lagos as part of a wider restructuring of the state’s waste-management repositioning of the Olusosun landfill rather than being abandoned.
The Deputy Governor said Olusosun landfill has not outlived is usefulness, rather the government is evacuating accumulated waste and developing a transfer loading station to reduce the amount of refuse deposited directly at the landfill.
According to him, the new Olusosun loading transfer station is planned to handle about 2.500 tonnes dally, aimed to significantly reduce the volume of waste entering the landfill, with much of the waste instead being recovered or utilized. He lamented that the Olusosun landfill access-road was significantly affecting the fun-around time of the waste disposal trucks. According to him, the trucks spend far longer time at the landfill, increasing their furnaround time from roughly two houn to between seven and 10 hours.
To address this, the Deputy Governor, disclosed that the State Government has fixed the problematic section of the access road thereby improving efficiency and reducing fruck turnaround fime to about one hour. “The combination of the repaired road and additional tipping points is expected to substantially reduce congestion at the facility” he enthused.
He also identified waste sorting at household level as a major priority in addressing waste management. He said “fallure to separate waste at source increases the cost of waste management by about 40%, making household sorting essential to the new system”
Dr Hamzat harped on integrating about 13.000 informal waste sorters into the system. He said “rather than displacing them, the State Government intends to train and equip them, turning waste sorting into a structured source of employment”
Dr. Hamzat also expressed his insight on deploying Geographic Information System (GIS) to monitor drainage blockades, encroachment of canal bank as a way to mitigate flooding and enforce compliance with development plans. He affirmed that strengthening the electronic Geographic Information system (GIS) to track down and penalize Government officials who approve Illegal developments on flood plains was part of plans to sanitise the system. In his words. “If it is not approvable, it is not buildable” He warned that with the GIS officials responsible for approving such developments would be identified and held accountable.
To further combat flooding. Lagos State. the Deputy Governor said has deployed about 1.000 people for environmental flood management, as personnel are being user to clear drainage channels and support flood-prevention efforts and proposed greater use of surveillance and sensors, including technology capable of detecting blockage in underground drainage infrastructure.