Youth Party Chairmanship: Adio Ayodele reveals' his game plan

Guardian Nigeria

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00:00Thank you very much Mr. Yodili for joining us today but more importantly you've expressed

00:12some of your plans on what you want to do in Etiosa but more than expression we need to

00:17implement some of this and you know going back to the bio energy you mentioned earlier

00:23fascia law has tried this in the past you try to do it with a slum when you're approaching

00:29or just have you looked into why that project did not work because more importantly we need

00:34to make sure this project work is why we're having this conversation and what do you plan

00:39to do differently well what fascia law tried to do at the time I must add that some of them

00:46were successful the one when you come from Adeniji you know there's a big recycling plant

00:53somewhere to your right and that works so what he was trying to do was to set up another of

00:58such there and not necessarily the one that you know transform food waste to bio gas now again what

01:06I'm trying to do is not to get government in the business of recycling but to partner with

01:11private sector organizations who are in the business of doing that and create a conducive

01:16environment for them to come in you know to do their work and this technology has already

01:24been mainstreamed it's not something that is hanging in the stars in fact I'll shock you to tell you

01:29that there are already even small entrepreneurs in Lagos who are doing these things at small scale

01:36you have people who are collecting used oil from your house granite oils and you take it and recycle it

01:43and turn it into value there are people who are collecting as you know plastic bottles and exporting it

01:49and making decent revenue from it you know you have people who are converting many of this waste into

01:55tiles that you can use to construct roads you know around communities now so people are already doing

02:02these things in silos what I want to do is to create an environment that will attract the right kind of

02:08investment into it you sir because the raw materials are there it's being generated every day but it's how to

02:16capture that value and ensure that the community benefits from it uh yes uh that's going to lead

02:21me to my next question but you already mentioned you plan to partner with private individuals because

02:27this is a very capital intensive uh project yes but let's move on to a migration uh you mentioned uh or

02:35you also mentioned about the slums it's been reported that most people moved from Makoko waters waterfront

02:41to itiosa waterfront and they're fishing there do you have this information or how do you what how do

02:47you plan to tackle things like this or is there a current situation of uh you know a large number of

02:54people there resident um now fishing in itiosa that are not supposed to be there so I mean again we must

03:01not there's a tendency to always want to criminalize poverty in Nigeria particularly in Lagos and and that's one

03:10thing that my administration will not succumb to um if they are fishermen like you rightfully said who

03:16are fishing in many of these communities and many of them have interacted with in many of these fishing

03:20communities we've told their stories um you know with my community newspaper at the time these are

03:26hard-working people who are earning an income um and who can add tremendous value to the society the problem

03:34is that they are living in environments that have been abandoned that like you rightfully said are

03:40not considered slums um that lack basic investments in those places what I'm going to do in partnership

03:47with the state government because it's important to partner with the state governments and things like

03:52this and with development organizations who are already seeking opportunities to come in and do that work

03:58is to improve the living conditions in many of these places that are described as slums and you simply do

04:04that by improving the conditions of living collect their waste effectively improve the quality of the

04:12housing that they are in of course I'm not talking about um they already build their houses with you know

04:17woods and you know things like that but just improve the quality of those housing there and just render

04:23basic services and that way you improve the quality of life there you can then begin to collect as little

04:31taxes as possible for the services that you're providing there and then you'll see that they are

04:36adding value to the community I do not believe that poverty should be criminalized I think that people

04:42who are adding value to society by fishing on Sundays you see so many people from Ikoi and Victoria

04:49Island yes sorry to quote you but it's it's good to look at it from one lens of upgrading their life

04:55but some other people look at it from another lens of maritime and blue economy which says that this

05:00is legal fishing domestic fishing should not continue it's your side is a largely uh water well

05:08a water area so what are your plans on this we've had people catch um you know

05:12fishing for livelihood is a thing in Etiosa and in different parts around Lagos and some people

05:21argue that this is also you know making a problem of what if we plan to make money out of maritime and

05:28blue economy because of the type of fishes that these uh fishermen now get to catch at some point and

05:34we also need to educate them so if you speak about elevating their lives from slum and you're looking at

05:39it from the lens of poverty we are looking at some people are looking at it from the lens of this can

05:46make this can make the government money from the lens of economy so what so I think there are three

05:52sides to it and like I tried to explain earlier first of all you can make a lot of money by putting

05:58together a huge fishing festival where you bring all the fishing communities together and you can create

06:04a proper tourism attraction by proper you know fishing festival and track people from all over the world to witness

06:11the second obviously is that we don't control maritime policy as a local government you know

06:17neither does the state government even control maritime policy

06:21what we can do in the absence of a coherent policy from the federal government which at the moment is a lot of

06:28leap service and nothing really happening on ground um is to be able to educate the fishermen um you know on the

06:36kinds of um you know fish that you know should not be you know caught and killed because you know that you

06:44know because of environmental situation um you don't want setting animals to go extinct um because of wildlife

06:51conservation and all of that um we're going to invest in that kind of education with these fishermen

06:58to know you know the kinds of fishes that they should take back into the waters and the one that can be

07:03formalized and used for business but ultimately i think that many of them were born grew up in many of

07:12these riverine communities they've lived on waters all their life they fed from the fish you know that they

07:18caught um and for me my role in this is to improve the conditions upon which their daily existence

07:27revolves and how to help them capture more value from what they are doing already and so this will

07:33include formalizing you know many of these activities so that they can you know capture more

07:38value yes i i uh thank you so much for answering that question actually i understand but i was shifting

07:44your lens into looking at it as maybe moving them from this waterfront might benefit the state or the

07:49local government in the long run because now we are going also going to have the calabar

07:54highway passing through it yes as well yes yes yeah but more importantly uh we just want to make

08:00sure that uh you know people say uh when people are contesting they always have a cosmetic way of

08:07approaching things and just to make sure that all you're expressing has a game plan what are the top

08:13three things you want to do if you get it i think the first thing is the environment right and i like the

08:21fact that you asked you know you don't want a cosmetic approach to some of the solutions that i am

08:27talking about you see the real problem with local government and local governance is that the solutions

08:34to the problems are not esoteric they don't require professorial thinking in that regard they are basic

08:41solutions the problems that people grapple with daily you don't need complex thinking to collect waste you

08:49you don't need complex thinking um to organize communities in a way that provides basic security

08:57for them you don't need complex thinking to be able to improve classroom experience to motivate teachers

09:03and retrain teachers to be able to teach children better in primary schools and so that's why the

09:09cardinal principle and philosophy upon which i'm running um are two things which is to deliver effective

09:15public services to the people and to ensure transparency and accountability in in local

09:22governments because once you do these things fundamentally once you open the books and once

09:27you can tell where every naira is spent and people can see the projects that these monies go into and

09:34those projects are projects that benefits the lives of the people that way you unlock value automatically you

09:42inspire confidence in people and you'd find organizations both local and international that also want to

09:48partner with you to do more um than you're doing so i just wanted to clear that fact that you don't really

09:55need um the problems that were faced in this local government does not really require the kind of um

10:03um exactly they're very basic really and truly it's just people that have a commitment to solving

10:11those problems and people who want to work um for the people who do not have all that interests you

10:16know at heart so the most important thing for me is the environment um because if we can transform the

10:24environment um in etiosa we can capture tremendous value from simply transforming you know that

10:31environment and obviously the second is job creation for young people we have too many young people in etiosa

10:37who are on drugs they're on drugs because they have lost hope um they have lost hope because they

10:44can't find anything meaningful to do with their lives and i want to solve that problem thank you

10:50i want to solve that problem by providing them an opportunity to climb the ladder by providing them

10:57an opportunity to live a decent life where they can also contribute meaningfully to society yes thank you

11:04very much that leads me to my last question etiosa is a very unique place uh place and its people i mean

11:12we've seen that in the last three elections how uh how are you currently trying to partner and connect

11:19with your people well it's not interestingly um it should say not some monolithic kind of people in in that

11:30area you have there's a lot of diversity you have high income middle income low income people you have

11:37people from different parts of the country you have people um who are engaged in different kinds of

11:43activities so i'm trying to engage with people at all levels you know um yesterday i was with the

11:51hausa community you know broke bread with them had fruitful conversations you know with them and these are

11:58groups that i'm constantly meeting with for canaisers association um okay um kekena pep associations

12:06landlord and residence associations so i'm engaging people at every strata and every level um sharing my

12:13vision sharing my plans and i must admit that you know a lot of people um really want change in their

12:21local government a lot of people want to see things happen or being done differently and a lot of people

12:27believe that um you know they share my vision for for a more prosperous etiosa that works and that

12:35delivers services you know to them yeah uh yes uh good luck on your ambition i wish you the very best

12:41as you journey will follow the story up until now to the elections looking forward to it yes

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