Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, has pledged to prioritise the welfare of prone citizens, fortify public infrastructure and construct at the state’s construction achievements if elected governor in 2027….
Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, has pledged to prioritise the welfare of prone citizens, fortify public infrastructure and construct at the state’s construction achievements if elected governor in 2027.
Hamzat made the pledge whilst presenting his imaginative and prescient for Lagos at a political amassing on Friday, the place he officially addressed supporters and birthday party leaders following his emergence because the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate.
He stated his ambition was once now not simply to hunt votes however to earn the agree with of Lagos citizens through explaining his plans and demonstrating his preparedness to steer the state.
“I stand ahead of you nowadays, now not merely to invite on your vote, however to earn your agree with, to proportion my imaginative and prescient for Lagos, to give an explanation for what I consider that we should do in a different way, and to exhibit why I’m ready to serve you,” he stated.
Hamzat traced his figuring out of public carrier to his early life, recalling an come upon with former Premier of the Western Area, Leader Obafemi Awolowo, when he was once 14.
He stated Awolowo had advised him: “A country rises best when other folks of honour and talent select to serve.”
The deputy governor stated the phrases had remained with him for many years and influenced his solution to public carrier.
He additionally credited his past due father, Alhaji Muftau Olatunji Hamzat, who served as Commissioner for Public Transportation below former Lagos Governor Lateef Jakande between 1979 and 1983, with shaping his political values.
Hamzat stated his upbringing in Mushin and circle of relatives connections to Lagos Island gave him an figuring out of the on a regular basis demanding situations going through citizens.
He recalled finding out the significance of purposeful drainage right through the wet season and dependable electrical energy to investors.
In line with him, his enjoy in govt has incorporated paintings at the state’s virtual mapping gadget, citizens’ database, roads, bridges and different infrastructure.
Since changing into deputy governor in 2019, he stated, his enjoy had bolstered his trust that the standard of a society must be measured through the way it treats its maximum prone participants.
“A society is measured through the individual at its very edge. The kid, the widow, the dealer furthest from the centre,” he stated.
Hamzat illustrated this with the enjoy of a 10-year-old boy he stated he helped rescue from underneath a bridge in Oshodi right through a 2am operation.
He stated the kid had run clear of house in some other state as a result of he didn’t really feel protected there.
“At simply 10 years previous, he has made up our minds that drowsing below a bridge was once more secure for him than his personal mattress,” Hamzat stated.
He added that the boy have been rescued and was once doing neatly, however stressed out that many different prone youngsters nonetheless wanted coverage.
The deputy governor additionally mirrored at the deserted metro rail venture conceived right through his father’s time in govt, pronouncing its eventual of entirety demonstrated the significance of maintaining long-term construction plans.
He stated the enjoy had taught him that a very powerful legacy of management was once finishing tasks that fortify other folks’s lives.
“The time for paintings is now, and what you end is what you allow in the back of,” he stated.
Hamzat’s remarks adopted Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s endorsement of his succession bid, with the governor describing him as an skilled administrator ready to maintain ongoing tasks and the state’s construction schedule.