By Olasunkanmi AKONI, Dapo Akinrefon & Monsur OLOWOOPEJO
GOVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has called on Lagosians to exercise patience in his drive to ensure rapid and sustainable development in the state.

He also hinted that the Internal Generated Revenue, IGR, in the state has increased from N14 billion to N18 billion.

Governor Fashola, who was represented by his Deputy Governor, Mrs. Sarah Sosan, made this known yesterday during the 1200 days celebration held in the three senatorial districts of the state, where he spoke on the theme: “Inclusive governance for more rapid and sustainable development”.

The governor stated the need for the people of Lagos especially the private sector to partner with the state government in order to alleviate the living standard of the people.

He said: “I wish to acknowledge with gratitude to you tax payers that our monthly IGR has significantly improved to N18 billion. Nevertheless, the review of our year 2010 budget in the last quarter points to about 80 per cent budget performance.”

But the state Commissioner for Youths, Sports and Social Development, Prince Ademola Adeniji-Adele, said given all the achievements recorded by the Fashola-led administration, the state governor deserves another term.

He said the state Executive Council is fully behind the governor to get the party’s ticket to lead the state for the next four years.

According to him, “We are here to render an account of what we have done as a team to improve the standard of living in Lagos Central and no local government or local council development area has been left behind in the unprecedented development of this administration.

Let me state here that we are steadfast in keeping the state afloat, we are steadfast to complete this administration’s tenure and we are more steadfast in ensuring another term for this administration”.
Responding to a question, Adeniji-Adele said “I am sure I have the support of my colleagues in the cabinet to say that those of us that have had the opportunity to work with Fashola in the last 1200 have an insight to the vision of the gentleman and because of what he has done and what he is still going to do for Lagos state, we are giving him our support for a second term. That’s the position of the State Executive Council”.
Speaking further, he said, “We are happy, and we have a very good team in Babatunde Raji Fashola and his deputy. We are happy with this team and we are confident of what they can do, what we have seen in Lagos is just a tip of the iceberg, we sit with him every Monday at the executive meetings and we share in his vision for the state. It is so amazing and because of this, we are fully committed to him to run for a second term”.
Commenting on the strike embarked upon by doctors in the state and efforts made by the state government to resolve the issue, the Commissioner for Health, Mr. Jide Idris said agreements have been reached by the doctors to return to work by Saturday.
Idris said “Yesterday (Thursday), me and committee members of the House of Assembly on health, we were in a meeting for over six to seven hours and the essence is for them to get back to work as soon as possible; and to do that, the state government has had to bend over backward and make some consensus.”
In addition, he said, “The doctors have pleaded that we give them till tomorrow when they are going to call their congress and see how they are going to call of the strike. The state government is doing everything possible to see that this strike ends.”
“We must also understand that this problem was created by the Federal Government and we are happy that because of our pro-activeness, Federal Government has established another committee, state wise to look at the issue of wage structure in the country not only in the health sector but other agencies of government so that we can once and for all deal with these issues of wage problems”, Idris said.
On the problem of power supply, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State, Mr. Olasupo Shasore said “though provision of power supply in the country rests on the Federal government, the state has on its own has entered into a relationship with Island Power company to deliver seven megawatts of electricity by January 2011. This will ensure that over 20 streets is provided uninterrupted power supply.”
Also lending his voice to plans made by the state government so far in office, Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Francesco Abosede stated that the state government has approved six public cemeteries in the state.
According to him, the areas where these cemeteries will be sited include, Eti-Osa, Badagry, Ipaja, just as he noted that this will help to reduce the state of family cemetery within the state.