Hon Sabur Akambi Oluwa initiates plans to revamp Tolu School Complex in Ajeromi

Hon. Sabur Akambi Oluwa is the youngest Lawmaker in the 10th Lagos State House of Assembly and represents Ajeromi/Ifelodun Constituency 2; he has become a voice for those he represents. In this Interview with a team of AJIF based Media Practitioners, Hon Sabur disclosed that in less than a year as a lawmaker he has been able to attract agencies of government with plans to revamp the famous Tolu School Complex in the Local Government. CHARITY NWANYIEZE NNAJI has the details.

Can we meet you?

My name is Hon. Sabur Akambi Oluwa, Lawmaker, representing Ajeromi/Ifelodun Constituency 02 at the Lagos State House of Assembly.

You have been in the House for how long now? 

We were inaugurated on the 7th of June, 2023.

So how has it been like being in the Lagos State House of Assembly?

It is a very familiar terrain; I have worked in the legislature for the most of my professional career, so, though in different capacity. 

So you mentioned in different capacity, can you tell us your first job and the difference between then and now?

My first journey here is that I was a legislative officer, as a legislative officer, my job is to make the job of the honourable members seamless and easy, and now I am one of the honourable members, so I am very familiar with the terrain, having worked as a legislative officer for close to 10 years.

Let's closely look at your scorecard these few months you have been in the office as a legislator

For the seven months I have been here, as you are aware, this is a new year, before now the budget for the first six months have already been passed. However, we were able to lobby so that certain things could still come to Ajeromi Local Government, and the way I see this job, aside what government can do for us, I have also been able to find a way to reach out to the people personally, in terms of education. After my election we did JAMB coaching for our students, and I have been able to also get agencies of government to come to our aid. For instance, one of the major landmark projects we are going to be having in Ajeromi/Ifelodun Local Government is intervention in the Tolu School Complex, the Tolu School Complex is going to be revamped totally, that is a major complex, in fact, it is the biggest school complex in West Africa with over 30 schools.

We are going to have new structures coming there, and existing ones renovated, there will health centre, fire service coming there too, the library will be overhauled. We have many of our major channels, drainages, cleared in anticipation of the rainy season. 

Seven months as a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, between when you came in and now, what has changed in Ajegunle?

One major thing that has changed is that we now have a voice in Ajegunle, attracting the attention of government to the area. As you are aware, geographically we are disadvantaged, Ajegunle is on a road to nowhere really, we are bordered in the south by the Atlantic somewhat where we have the Apapa Port, some of our complaints cannot be raised by someone else, some other areas, maybe the governor, the commissioners, someone can drive past and see there are some concerns which need to be addressed, we need to talk about these things and that is why every opportunity I have to talk about things that need to be done in Ajeromi, I always talk about it and get people who can help us and intervene in some of these problems.

What motivated you to seek this office?

This office is very small and very big as well. In the scheme of things, it is not very big and in the scheme of things you can get a couple of things done. What motivated me, is the fact that having worked in the corridor of the office for a while I feel we can get a better bargain and that is why I have to go for this office. 

You come from a family that has political pedigree, to some people it is difficult to separate how you merited this office on your own without the family you come from, what do you think you can do differently to stand out as Sabur not as Oluwa? 

You see, the dynamics of the last election was quite different and I am sure as a press man in that vicinity, you observed how much I was able to campaign and go door to door to tell people what I have to offer, I was able to meet people, I was able to campaign, and also people are becoming more politically enlightened now. I am sure the people looked at all the candidates in the offing and decided to vote for me, and by the family being politically inclined family, however, I was also not the only one that contested that election from the family, how I merited it would be left to the electorate.

What are you doing as a member representing Ajeromi to make government earn the confidence of the people? Bringing information down to the people on what government is doing to make residents of your Constituency still believe in the government?

We have found ourselves in a very dire situation and all hand must be on deck, I am a lawmaker, I don't implement government policies; my own responsibility is well stated in the duty giving to me. In fact, mine is to create policies, laws and enabling environment for the executive to execute these plans and you see at plenary today we did so many things and resolved that we need to sit on a round table with the executive to find solutions to all these problems, especially on the high cost of living, and it is a very bad situation we find ourselves.

However in my own little capacity we have been able to come out with plans on how to reach out to people, I have been reaching out to people, I am not really a very loud person that talk about how I reach out to people. I don't have the opportunity to implement these policies, but I can, for instance, if government wants to implement some of these policies, it is only my responsibility to make sure we get a fair share, if you are implementing something, for instance, 5000 in Lagos, make I make sure we get 250, 500 come to Ajeromi Local Government and that is where I come in.

Before now, I had the intention of reaching out to some people on my own personal ground and some of those I intend to reach out, some students I realized that some cannot afford JAMB form and also go for coaching, these are some of the reasons I am buying some of these forms and students that cannot afford it. It is palliative, some of these palliatives are very temporary and for me temporary solution does not do it for me, I try to find more lasting solution to the problem.

Do you believe in agricultural re-organization?

From orientation right, there are certain things ordinarily, even when I was growing up, I know that some people usually have small gardens in their backyards, balconies, maybe to grow some of the vegetables they need, it may not be sufficient year round but it cushioned some of this cost, however I feel some of us have abandoned some of these things and it is only in times like this we remembered some of these things just for us to encourage people by also providing some of these seedlings and also teaching them how to take care of these crops.

Some people have not worked in the farm before, and do not know how to go about it. They may have the space but some of these things, there are also a process to it and this process I feel that government can find ways to sensitize people on how to go about these them. It is not going to be very easy because people don't even get most of these things. It is necessary for us to do it now.

Let's come back to our Constituency. For the youth the idea of information communication, many of the youths are taking advantage of the negative aspect of this technology, now as the lawmaker representing this Constituency, how can we make these youths make use of these tools positively?

Everything that has a good side also has a bad side, it depends on how you want to deploy most of these things and you know there is need for total reorientation and also patriotism and one of the reasons we have become less patriotic is because there is a lot of apprehension, anger, a lot of people are losing confidence in the system and the only way for us to do that is to show people that we are doing our best, because if you are putting so much work into something and people are not aware of what you do, it is as good as you are not putting work into it, to know the direction, we need to know how much work that are being put into this for them to have confidence in us, I said us because as it is now I am part government and people need also to be carried along and that is why there is need for government to deploy information, we need to know what is going on.

ICT is a very powerful tool and I am happy to announce that in months to come there is going to be a vocational centre and there will be an ICT centre there. It's going to be world class, government is trying to do that in the area, I think also that will encourage people to tilt towards that and I think we should have tutors in these ICT centres. Also there is need to reorientate our people in this area for them to see the good side. Mostly when you go to learn the ICT, they teach you the good side, some of the things you can benefit, how you can deploy it, often we tend to learn the bad side on our own, but I am sure when these ICT centres come on board, it will help greatly in area of youth engagement and empowerment.

You have spoken a lot, now what is your level of collaboration with the local government?

It has been very good, I remember last week Wednesday, I have some officials of the LG coming for an assessment of the bad state roads especially the ones that have been built and need maintenance and one of the things we discussed at that meeting with the officials that came is the need for some of our drainages to be desilted, among others; and as soon as I rose from that meeting I met with the local government chairman, then I explained, because the responsibility of desilting drainages reside with the local government, right, so I met with the local government chairman and he directed immediately that the environmental officer should come up with proposal on how this project can be done.

So, this is just one of the so many collaborations we have with the local government; they are the closest government to the people and you know there is no way we cannot collaborate to bring development to the area.

What are you doing to take the youths, what are your plans in terms of engaging the youths of Ajeromi/Ifelodun Constituency 2?

I know it is your turf, when that was mentioned, I know you observed the plenary and I am sure that would cut your interest the more. As you know sports especially in that area is one of our selling points, sports and entertainment, and during my campaign I really leverage on some sporting activities. No one individual can do some of these things, that is why since we already have the interest basically most of the people in that area, they have interest in sports, and you know you can’t force a horse to the stream but since they already have the interest it is just to deploy some of these things and take advantage of it. These are proposals, let's go this route, and I want to believe that they will yield to these things. Having the population that is already interested in sports, I am sure that there will be no problem to get people to participate. As I mentioned earlier about the vocational center, it is going to be built for the youths basically, to take them off the streets to learn one or two things, trade, whatever they can do, and then deploy some of these things.

Security is an issue, not that the community is not secured, we are looking at the relationship between the police and the youth, in Tolu area, the police division there, there have been public disturbances, rape has been on the increase, even in Ajeromi police division, your view about this and what you think can be done? Police raiding at odd hours even in normal hours? And you know the Lagos State has policy for movement especially motorbike movement, some areas in Ajegunle are not restricted, what is your take on that?

We keep engaging the police, you know, there is little we can do over what we don’t have power to; that is the way the system has been structured. I don't have power over the police. I can only, sometimes, have to beg them to act on certain things. We have been having a couple of issues when it comes to security and I don't want to say it is not peculiar to Ajeromi, however, security has become a national, if not a global issue and as a House of Assembly, collectively, at our last plenary that was what we discussed just like today we discussed something else which was security and under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa we have agreed that the way to go is to have state police. I think a day or two after the president of the country Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu also towed that line, that that is the way to go. 

I know, it will affect our security architecture and positively at that because if you look at the police division we have in each area we are grossly under policed and that is a recipe for disaster. So the way to go is also to make sure that we involve the communities in this policing, we cannot gather intelligence in an area you are not even familiar, you cannot police an area you are not familiar with. And that is one of the problems we are having because what will a man who grow up in zamfara police in Lagos really, maybe he is coming to the city for the first time, and Lagos is a very peculiar place. So as a House of Assembly we are championing the cause of having the state police and we feel if we recruit people locally to police us we would be better secured. 

Final line, you are the youngest member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, and today the youth population of Nigeria is in despair, what is your message to your peers?

My message to my peers is, we don't have any other place to go, we just have to come together and make this country what it ought to be. The youth, we are the ones that are still giving birth and a lot of things fall on our shoulders, we are in a very sad situation, as you can see, the cost of things rising every day, some of our parents don't have kids with them anymore, but some have more mouth to feed, and also more people to take care of, so my own plea to them really is we should not lose confidence. If you run away, we would be like strangers elsewhere, so the best thing is for us to stay together and salvage the country.