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Fashola Gives Recipe For The Achievement Of Vision 2020 Goals

Mar 4, 2010 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Thursday gave the recipe for the achievement of the nation’s Vision 20: 2020 saying the country’s infrastructural base must be strengthened for the Vision to be realized.

Governor Fashola, who spoke at De Renaissance Hotel, Ikeja venue of the flag-off ceremony of the First Implementation Plan of Nigeria Vision 20: 2020 (2010 – 2013) for the South West Zone, said if the infrastructure base of the country is not solid, the goals of the vision would be elusive.

Pointing out that the nation’s economic deficit is directly linked with the level of poverty in the country, Governor Fashola explained that it is from the innate desires of man, food, shelter and clothing that other activities like production, Education, businesses, among other economic activities, emanate adding that without a solid infrastructure base, the economy would not prosper.

“If the Economy does not prosper, there is no vision. We cannot become one of the leading economies of the world if our people cannot eat three times a day. Those are the indices with which we can measure economic progress and prosperity”, the Governor said.

According to the Governor, “There is nothing esoteric about the Vision. It is about making sure that people benefit in the effort to deliver the micro-benefits of our resources to our people”.

Citing the policies of the British colonial masters as example, Governor Fashola recalled that the network of roads they built from the East, West, North and South of the country ended at the ports adding that their purpose was to take raw materials from the country to Europe.

“They were challenged economically by the need for raw materials to sustain their industries. When they came to Nigeria, like any other part of the world, they needed raw materials and they needed the roads to take them to the ports from where they shipped them to Europe. That was as simple as it is today”, he said.

He urged the Southwest delegates, “As we make Education plans, as we make Health plans, as we make economic plans, it must be with a purpose that asks the question, “Where do we want the governments and the people of the Southwest to be in 2020?”

“As I welcome you to this forum, I urge you to stop thinking of this Vision in abstract terms. The idea of how to do it is very simple. How does Ondo benefit from the economy of Ekiti and prosper her people without being a charge on the economy of Ekiti? How does Ogun benefit from the economy of Lagos without being a charge on Lagos and vice versa?”, the Governor said.

Other relevant issues, according to the Governor, should include how to ensure that the Lagos – Benin – Ore Road is fixed and made functional in less than one year; how Benin can be connected with Akure so that people can move goods and services with comfort and how to ensure that cocoa, rubber and the many other plantations that were the hallmark of the economy of the Southwest are brought back so that they can keep the people at work and bring prosperity and food security to the Zone.

The Governor disagreed with those who regard the Vision as mere academic exercise saying, “I believe it is always good to make plans and that is why I believe that this is a worthy talk, a worthy vision. I believe that if our minds can conceive it, our hands can achieve it”.

He expressed delight that the Southwest delegates are people that belong to the present generation and the critical group who are most affected by the challenges of the present age saying the vision provides for the generation a unique opportunity to change what it does not accept.

Wishing the delegates a fruitful deliberation, Governor Fashola thanked the National Planning Commission for choosing Lagos as venue for the Conference and all who contributed and are contributing in the effort to make the Vision 20: 2020 a reality.

In his remarks earlier, the Minister of the National Planning Commission, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, said although he had the choice of going to one of the three zones, Kaduna (for the Northwest), Gombe (for the Northeast) and Lagos (for the Southwest), where the conference is also taking place simultaneously, he chose Lagos because of Governor Fashola.

The Minister, who said he hails from Gombe, declared “I chose to come to Lagos not because of my personal relationship with the Governor but because he represents Vision 20: 2020. You can see how within a short period of less than two years, he has succeeded in literally transforming Lagos. I believe that if we have the same attitude, the same approach, what he has succeeded in doing in Lagos, can be replicated across the whole country”.

“What is required is a sense of direction”, the Minister said pointing out that it would serve the nation better if, like the Governor of Lagos State, action will commence without more delays adding, “If we adopt His Excellency’s approach, we will have a transformed country within the next ten years”.

The Minister commended the other states in the Southwest Zone for their developmental effort, especially in the areas of human capital development, Transportation, Trade and Commerce urging them to continue in their efforts in order to leave a befitting legacy to their children and grand children.

In her goodwill message to the Conference, a World Bank representative, Mrs. Ayo Akala, implored the Southwest Zone to be committed to the Vision to ensure it is realized adding that the World Bank is interested in monitoring and supporting the Vision Plan to make sure it succeeds.

Earlier in his welcome address, the State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said the zonal conference represents a critical segment of the entire Vision pointing out that whether at individual or group level, if there is no vision, the individual or group would definitely lose sense of direction.

He said the reason for conceiving the regional segment of the Vision is because of the critical role the regions and individual states play towards the achievement of the entire Vision.

According to him, “If we must revitalize this nation, we must start from the regions. As we gather this day to begin to look at the Plan, the Southwest people should think more broadly beyond their states to include how their implementation of the vision can benefit others states in the country”.

Also present at the occasion were the Chairman of the Regional Group of the Vision, Professor Anya O. Anya, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Barrister Opeyemi Bamidele who was represented by the General Manager Radio Lagos, Mrs. Tinu Aina Badejo, delegates from Southwest states of the country, as well as other top government functionaries.