Speeches

Commissioning Of The Oshodi Transfer Loading Station

Sep 29, 2011 - Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we gather today to hand over another public facility built with tax payers' funds in fulfillment of the covenant of honour and promises made by our Party, the Action Congress of Nigeria and my humble self when you handed us a most overwhelming and sacred mandate of trust with your votes in 2007.

Some of the critical contents of those promises were contained in our Party's manifesto to aggressively pursue a programme of preventive health in order to reduce the number of people who took ill amongst us and to ensure that those who choose to live, work and play in our Centre of Excellence, are healthy, vibrant and productive.

We deployed many strategies to achieve this promise of a healthy citizenry through preventive strategies. Some of them included the provision of clean and potable water, which has seen us return Iju and Adiyan waterworks to full operational capacity by the provision of a 12MW Independent Power Plant that has boosted water production and supply.

We supplemented this by committing to 15 (fifteen) mini water works of 2 Million Gallons per day capacity located in strategic areas of Lagos and as I speak, we have commissioned 10 (ten), the last of which was at Ojokoro, while 2 (two) more are awaiting hand over and 3 (three) are at advanced stages of construction.

Our other strategy was to clean up Lagos and manage waste disposal more effectively by using Transfer Loading Stations, to contain the waste in the area of its generation and move them at night to prevent the trucks being caught in traffic.

We have delivered on this promise. We have finished the Simpson Transfer Loading Station and put it to use over 2 (two) years ago.

Even as the Simpson Transfer Loading Station continues to attract visitors from within and outside Nigeria, we proudly gather today to hand over the Oshodi Transfer Loading Station, into which we have incorporated a Medical Waste Treatment Plant to deal with medical waste that have hitherto constituted a health hazard to our people.

Our work in this plant is not finished as we will be encouraging investments in specialized medical waste trucks, like our PSP Trucks, who will be collecting medical waste from our various hospitals and health facilities for delivery to this site and proper disposal.

When we decided to clean up Oshodi, the investment in this Transfer Loading Station was one of the many reasons apart from security, the need to build the rail track to ease transportation and the desire to improve the image of our State and our country.

The missing links in the regeneration and transformation of Oshodi, which is a strategic gateway into our country, are the Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki Expressway, and the road to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, which are in highly deplorable conditions.

These are clear responsibilities of the Federal Government and we hope the agencies of the Federal Government will rise up to the challenges.

I will conclude by expressing my personal delight for this opportunity to hand over the Oshodi Transfer Loading Station and the Medical Waste Plant to the glory of God, the benefit of the dear people of Lagos and the improvement of health status of our people.

Eko o ni baje o.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State