EDUCATION IS ONE OF MY PIVOTAL ROLE AS A GRASSROOT LEADER– Chairman, Kosofe LGA Afolabi Sofola

EDUCATION IS ONE OF MY PIVOTAL ROLE AS A GRASSROOT LEADER– Chairman, Kosofe LGA Afolabi Sofola

A renowned and seasoned Administrator, Hon. Afolabi Shofola is a two term Council Chairman of Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos state. With several years of experience in the private sector where he began his career as a banker before he joined the public service as a Board member at State Universal Education Board (SUBEB). Records have it that Sofola served meritoriously at SUBEB for five years, three months before he was called upon by the good people of Kosofe to continue his good work for the grassroots people at the local government level. 

Out of his love and passion for humanity, Sofola answered his call to serve the people  in  2011 and his political career began as the Chairman of Kosofe LGA. Since 2011 till date he is working assiduously to bring the dividends of democracy to the doorsteps of his people. 

In this fascinating chat with Alausa Alert News Editor, Bode Lawal and correspondent Oluwatoyosi Ogunrinde, he explained thoroughly his political strides and achievements on education, works and road, security, environments and other developmental sectors within his seven years of administration as the council chairman. 

Achievements of your administration as the Chairman Kosofe LGA

In fulfilling my mandates to the good people of Kosofe, I have touched all areas which include Education, Health, Road Construction and Rehabilitations, Youth and Women Empowerment, Environment and Security. Let me take you through them all;

Education:

My passion for Education got higher when I was a Board Member at State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for 5 years, 3 months. I was in charge of the Inspectorate division at SUBEB for all the Schools (teachers, students and related matters). 

Upon assumption to office as the Chairman, Kosofe LGA, I decided that Education is going to be one of my pivotal roles and started by making sure that GCE forms were made available regularly to children because most parents can not afford to buy a GCE form. The Aptitude books across board were provided for schools and ensured that schools’ furnitures were provided because I had seen that lots of schools are overcrowded and to make matters worse didn’t have adequate chairs and tables for students. I immediately made a lot of furnitures including chairs, tables and magic board for schools including the Early Child Care Center. 

I also renovated some schools and the last two I renovated and commissioned are Ayeroju Nursery and Primary School and Anglican Nursery and Primary School. Although there are other schools in sorry face but the funds that are available to us determines how far we can go because there are different areas begging for attention. 

Also in the Education sector, my administration provided school buses to avail students get to school at ease and on time. A lot of educational competitions have been fully sponsored by the Local Government including Spelling Bees and the likes. We also ensure that seminars are also conducted to assist in education. 

Below are other remarkable achievements in the Education sector:

Construction of Blocks of Classroom at Mosafejo Nursery and Primary School, Oworoshoki. 

Resuscitation of Moribund Adult Literacy Centers in Kosofe LGA

Distribution of Quantitative Aptitude and Verbal Reasoning textbooks for pupils in public primary school. 

GCE forms distribution to indigent students in Kosofe LGA, and many more. 

Works and Roads:

We did a lot of roads rehabilitation and drainage construction, some are:Olabisi street in Ojota, Balola street in Ifako, Abioye street, Salau street Bode Lawal street in Anthony, to mention but few. 

On roads constructed, we have the Bola street in Anthony, Okungbade Okuneye street, Adeyokun street, a link road from Kogberegbe street to Ojota new garage, etc fully constructed. 

Below are well defined achievements on Works and Roads:

Construction of Bola street, Anthony 

Construction of Moshalashi street, Ifako

Construction of Link road from Emmanuel High to Alhaji Amoo street, Ojota

Construction of link road from Kogberegbe street to New garage, Ojota

Construction of Okugade Okuneye street, Mende

Renovation of Oworonshoki Area Office

Rehabilitation of Office of the Chairman

Patching of Jide Adeniyi street, Anthony 

Patching of Ololade street, Anthony, to mention but few. 

Environment:

The reason behind drainage system is to prevent flooding from occurring. Although, a lot of drainages are blocked so we do a lot of desilting from time to time. The Environmental department on a monthly basis go out to desilt drainages in order to ensure free flow of water in our drainages. In places where we have failed drainage, we reconstruct and others that are not wide enough, we expand them by doing standard drainages so that when the rain comes water will have free passage. 

We also educate our people not dump refuse inappropriately, so we distributed refuse bags to the good people of Kosofe but we later realized some bad eggs were selling them even as “not for sale” was boldly written on the bags, so we had to stop distributing. 

Here are some notable interventions in Environment:

Purchase of Pest control equipment 

Purchase of sanitary tools 

Clearing and desilting drainages

Purchase of Public Address system on Environmental Services Utility Bus

Deratization and fumigation of PHC's and Binukonu Market

Sensitization and Enlightenment campaign on LASSA and Yellow fever

Quarterly fumigation and deratization of Kosofe LGA and area offices. 

Free distribution of Polythene bag for storage of refuse in the seven(7)wards and the Community in general

Organized seminar based on food hygiene for food handlers. 

Yearly sponsorship of polythene bags for storage of refuse in the seven wards in particular and the community in general. 

Massive decontamination of Schools, market, parks,mechanic workshop, Area Offices, PHC's, sport centers, events centers, churches, mosque, and other premises, and streets

Clearing of refuse in all black spots within the LG

Health:

We provide drugs at highly subsidized rates and have essentially health centers at Ogudu, Oworo, Mende but a lot of people are crying for additional health centers but I disagree and of the opinion that we should consolidate on the ones available, improve and expand them rather than building new health centers when the ones on ground are not fully equipped. The only health center that does 24hours is the one at Ogudu and that is more for maternal because of the immunization that are regularly being done from time to time. 

When the first outbreak of Covid-19 was recorded, Kosofe Local already fumigated and decontaminated public places before the Governor order came. We purchased equipment, so expert in the field go out to decontaminate public places from time to time. 

Also, we ensure that the staff at the health centers are qualified and participate in trainings. 

Below are laudable achievements in ensuring delivery of sound health care services to the good people of Kosofe LGA:

Quarterly hypertension and diabetes screening for staff

Purchase of basic equipment in the 3 primary health centers: Oworo, Ogudu and Anthony 

Purchase of equipment to laboratories 

Purchase of staff clinic drugs

Purchase of drugs for emergency during election 2019

Printing of clinic cards for the 3 primary health centers 

Integrated measles campaign 

Daily Covid 19 sample

Collection in area office

Contact tracing of all positive case

Home based management of mild to moderate cases of Covid 19

Promt referral of all severe cases

Training of health workers in Community

Community mobilization and sensitisation on different health seeking behaviour outreach services in communities more than 2km distance from PHC

Youth and Women Empowerment 

I have a passion for widows and prior to my coming in as the Chairman in 2011, I realized that the youth have been sidelined to an extent. So what I decided to do was to provide skills acquisition programs and we have done up to 10 skills acquisition programs which were conducted in the Council Secretariat. 

Recently, I did a major empowerment program where a lot of youth and women were empowered with equipments that will facilitate their skills and income. 

Similarly, we encourage them to participate in football competition fully sponsored by the Local government and some participated in fish farming which was equally sponsored by the Council. 

In Kosofe Local government, we coordinate the activities of these youth, put them together under one umbrella and call them Team Kosofe with a Leader. In such a way, we take care of their needs because I believe very strongly that one of the reasons why during the EndSars protests our local government was untouched was because of the unity and peace among the young which we have sustained. 

The youth are the majority as revealed in the statistics and decides the votes, so they must be managed meaningfully. 

Security:

Security challenges abound everywhere and Kosofe being an urban area has what is called the Police Community Relations (PCRC) that work hand-in-hand with the Police to establish and sustain peace as informant to the Police. We have the Peace and Security meeting usually held at the Local government council where representatives of all security agencies like the civil defense, immigration, all Divisional Police Officers (DPO), religious leaders, etc. where we discuss and deliberate monthly on security issues in the local government with the view to nipping it in the board or preventing it from spreading. The immigration for example, sensitize people to register house helpers they employ. 

I noted that the police force in Kosofe have problem with patrol vans, so we give them money to repair their vehicles from time to time and also give each of the four DPOs imprest. 

In addition, I purchased four patrol vans to each divisional office in Ifako. 

So, security is what we can not afford to relax and that is why I am always in regular contact with the DPOs and we always tackle anything that bothers on security and health. 

Staff Welfare

The Civil servants have never been relegated by my administration from when I assumed office in 2011 till this moment and this is because they are essential part of the success of my administration. It is my principle that when I purchase vehicles for the politicians I do same to the management staff.

I see to their welfare and give the Management staff money every month to see to the welfare of their staffs especially on financial issues. I also give them additional funds to do projects in the office, like purchase of televisions, computers and other essential equipments to ensure effective discharge of duties of staffs. 

Likewise, I purchased vehicles for generating revenue and for the NULGE. I also ensure that during festivals I don’t go below 10 thousand naira and other foods stuffs for each staff in order to celebrate the festive season with their loved ones. I also see to their regular seminars and reconcile when they have issues among themselves. My administration has also realized the formation of an estate named Kosofe Local Government Estate in Ikorodu for staff welfare. 

On staff welfare, I have:

Bonus incentives for Yuletide season of Christmas for all staff

Organized staff interactive forum as a means of evaluating, sensitizing and appraising 365 days in office to ensure peaceful and harmonious co-existence between staff and management. 

Procurement of official cars to councillors, exco-members and 3 Heads of Department. 

Financial assistance to the deceased staff for befitting burial. 

Provision of furniture to all staff

Procurement of staff bus

Procurement of television sets and fans to all the council departments. 

Structure Training Program (STP for year 2018 promotion exercise)

Your Relationship with your Executive Officers 

Although the mind of the human is very deep, yet through interpersonal relationships I relate perfectly with them. I started by ensuring that whatever is due to them in terms of welfare is made available promptly like the furniture allowance, seating allowance, imprest etc. When I came into government, within a short period of 3 months I purchased all their vehicles at once because if you buy for a section and do not buy for the other it counters productivity. The reason for buying vehicles for them is provided in the law and to make them productive to move from home to the office and for other official assignment. So I got vehicles for both the management staff, appointees and other executive officers. 

Basically, I would say attending to their needs, being accessible to them and not entertaining side talks has keep me going. 

Funding of Projects done so far

 Primarily, local government projects are funded in several ways, on this note, I have never borrowed money from any bank to fund projects both in my first term and my present administration. So, I rely on the statutory allocations, consolidated revenue like the land use, the local government Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and the Value Added Taxes (VAT). All of these are put together and use expediently as possible to perform my mandate to the people. In addition to this, we are looking forward to foreign grants and possible steps are being taken to achieve that. Although this is happening towards the end of my tenure but we hope this movement yields success and the next administration judiciously manage any resources generated from the initiative. 

Your opinion on the attitude of your constituents towards paying their levies

When I came into the Local government 2011, I realized that at the end of my tenure in 2014 and coming back again in 2017 things have not changed. The people sent out to collect these levies have cultivate the habit of being fraudulent whereby money that should go into the pocket of the local government is being deviated to their private pockets. Revenue collectors are either not delivering to the council or some times give peanuts. 

So we decided that there is a need to bring some sanity and of course we are going to step on some feet to make this happen. In 2017, we did electronic payment (e-payment) which has helped a lot. Since then, we have seen increase in our IGR, until the pandemic came in and substantially reduced the IGR. 

Relationship with the CDCs and CDAs in Kosofe

The Community Development Committees are very crucial in government operations because they fulfill certain conditions in various wards before they are registered by the local government. As known to all, they are the grassroots and government cannot effectively operate without working hand in hand with the CDAS and CDCs because they are the vehicle between the government and they people that disseminate government programs and policies to the people in a way they will understand. 

On this note, we make sure we pay their submersion yearly and assist them in anyway we can. I have on several occasions had reconciliation issues within CDAs on issues they can’t resolve. In a nutshell, we partner with the CDCs and CDAs in order to operate successfully so that our mandates can be effectively achieved. 

On the same hand, we relate with the traditional leaders to help us sensitize our programs to the people. We also sponsor yearly festivals on necessary resources. 

Your advice to the incoming chairman of Kosofe LGA

When I came in as Chairman, I decided that I was going to draw a line that I was not going to look back at what my predecessor was doing. I therefore advice him and other chairmen to move forward and add value to what was meant on ground and stop beating over party issues. Don’t push aside ongoing projects because you didn’t start it and so want to start your own because Government is a continuum. 

I advice that they do not participate politics of bitterness and try to be objective, rational and have the fear of God. In discharging their duties have the love of the masses at heart and take care of them to the best of their ability. 

Challenges faced

We live in an envious society and people love to watch other people fall and the politics of bitterness is being practiced everywhere and I will advice those coming in to avoid such. 

Vision for Kosofe in 10 years time

I want to see Kosofe in the next 10 to 15 years as an industrialized local government because it has the potential to have many industries which will take care of employment problems and generate funds. I want to see a Kosofe that will boom economically, have stable supply of electricity and the basic comfort of life. 

Advice to Mr. Governor, as a grassroot leader

I appeal to the Governor to please look more into infrastructure because a high percentage of our problem is bad roads. He should therefore continue rehabilitating bad roads. Secondly, he should look at the issue of job creation because too many people are unemployed and the more unemployed people we have especially the youth, the more chaos and fraudulent cases we will have in the society. 

Another area I will like the Governor to look at is the security because it is so important.