‘We will build school in Okota, health centre in Alagbeji’ – Shamsideen Olaleye
Intro: Congratulation on your Endorsement sir.
Reply: Thank you.
Q: Can you briefly and formally introduce yourself?
ANSWER: My name is Shamsudeen Abiodun Olaleye. I am the immediate past Chairman of Isolo LCDA. I served in the Council within the year 2011 to 2014. Since I left office, there has been two sets of administrations, the one led by the Caretaker Committee and the one current and out-going administration.
Q: As an LCDA Chairman then, what were your achievements?
ANSWER: Well, my achievements were numerous, much so, at the time I was leaving office, I was satisfied that all the promises I made when I was campaigning in 2011, to the glory of Almighty Allah; I could deliver at least 90% of them…
Go on sir…
During my campaigning in 2011, I said my administration was going to ensure, that we touched on all strata of the education system of Isolo. For the Crèche System, we distribute instructional materials to children in that stage. In the primary schools, we distributed school bags and exercise books. To those in JSS1 up to JSS3, we organized remedial classes for them, to prepare students of JSS-2 & SSS-3 for their WAEC Examinations. Because we discovered that the bane of poor performances at these exams, was inadequate preparation for them.
And for students of Tertiary Institutions, we instituted a Bursary Award, to cater for both indigene and non-indigene students of our dear Local Council Development Area. We also expanded the scope of the Adult Literacy Group, there were only two centres, but at the time we were leaving; we had expanded it to five centres within the LCDA.
We distributed 14 generators to all the 14 primary schools, the past administration had already built toilet with water supply that relied on the national grid for power supply. Two Schools, built in 1983 by the Jakande Administration, with the roofing gone and classes ongoing, was pulled down and a new structure built to replace it. We replicated that at St. Paul African Primary School, were we built a standard structure. Our schools participated very well in Spelling Bee Competition.
Q: As the endorsed flag-bearer of your party, how does it feels sir?
ANSWER: Well, we give God all the glory, the glory belongs to Almighty Allah. There were over 20 aspirants jostling for the post, but at the close of nomination, only 10 could purchase the form; 8 male contestants and 2 females
Q: Sir, do you view your second term as an opportunity to perfect you uncompleted projects?
ANSWER: Well, if you say uncompleted project, it is relative. Relative in the sense that probably you started a road, you are constructing a road and you were not able to complete the road [before your tenure elapsed], that, in fact is the notion that people always have when you talk about uncompleted projects.
But there are some uncompleted projects existing in some other area like the Bursary Award issue, that is an ongoing thing, it can never be completed, we gave allowances to Widow and Senior Citizens within the community, it is an ongoing thing and you can never see the end of such a program.
Q: Like you said earlier on, 90% of your plans were accomplished while leaving office then, do you see the second term as an avenue to complete them?
ANSWER: Yes! On like somebody who is coming into office newly, that will need to bring up a template, we already have a template of performance, we want to run the bursary award, we have a design, of how to go about it, I can assure you that within the first two weeks of resumption in office; we’ll be able to run the first phase of our bursary award program.
If we say we want to grade roads, open roads, make roads motorable if weather permits, we already have our templates. If we want to make roads, we already have our template, we know how to do it, we have done it before and we want to continue from where we stopped.
We have big plans for the LCDA, like in our previous days in office. An example is the case of Okota, a big and populated Okota area, but with no single Health Care Facility. By the time we were leaving, we had constructed 2 functional Health Centres. Okota area still lacks Public Primary Schools. that is another challenge waiting to be tackled and we are ready to confront that challenge. People said it is not possible to get a land to build the health centres, but we didn’t only get a land but we got two areas where we built them.
We are going to concentrate our effort at locating lands and invite SUBEB to come over and partner with us to have a public primary school in Okota. By WHO Standard each political ward must have a health centre, Alagbeji Ward of the LCDA, is yet to have a health centre, what we have, is a health post.
We intend to continue to push up the revenue base of the local government. We want to provide employment to our teeming youth, make them useful to themselves and make them effectively useful to the society. We did all that in our first tenure but we are going to expand this scope, we are going to engage our youth effectively, we are going to create more room for them to flourish.
Q: Immediately you assume office, what are your priorities?
ANSWER: It has started, I have started working cohesively within the party. When the party become cohesive enough, it will be a platform for winning elections by the time we win the election and get to the office, immediate plan of action that will put smiles on the faces of the people of Isolo, will commence.
Q: Can you relay a succinct numeration of your manifesto, sir.
ANSWER: With education, we already have a template, that, we’ll repeat and improve upon them. In social development, we are going to improve upon all our existing programs. Where there is presently no school, health facility, we are going to ensure that, at least, one is put in place. We will make sure the roads are motorable, we will ensure, that improvement on the road network is accessible.
Q: How do you plan to improve the Security situation of the community sir?
ANSWER: We enjoy relative peace within our community here, we don’t have incidents of cult wars, violent crimes or armed robberies here. We only have isolated cases within the LCDA, we have 5 Divisional Police Stations that are fortified with necessary equipment and vehicle to combat crimes. We will maintain what is on ground and don’t forget the Neighbourhood Watchers that have been revitalized. Of course, they have roles to play, what we must do is to ensure their effective deployment to the little black spots that we have within the LCDA.
Q: Drainage maintenance, Canal sanitation, Gutter sanitizing, Waste management and general sanitation are ways of making the community disease-free, how do you plan to improve on that?
ANSWER: It is recorded that in my first three years in office, my LCDA witnessed no flooding problem within the LCDA, because we desilt our drainages throughout the year, we identified the black spots and cases that came up, we dealt with them.
During my first tenure, the first thing we did was to do a technical report, to know which of the areas prone to flooding and the need to open the belly of the canal at Ilasa arose, and thankfully the ministry responded, all we had to do was to open the drainages leading to the canal.
It’s being a great interview with you sir, thank you for your time
You are welcome.
