December 7, 2014 -Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola at two different fora at the weekend continued his sustained campaign for his Party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and urged Lagosians to vote for its Governorship candidate, Mr. Akin Ambode, in order to sustain the programmes of the present administration.
Fashola who also registered at the weekend for INEC Permanent Voter Card(PVC) with his wife said supporting the new candidate and the Party would also ensure that the State would continue to enjoy the good governance and high performance attributes of the Party which have been variously demonstrated in all the States under its control.
Noting that the 2014 Annual Seafood Festival would mark his last as Governor of the State, the Governor declared, “I urge you all to support the new APC Governorship Candidate; support him, support the Party and make sure that the Festival continues”.
He told the scores of fishermen and women as well as other related stakeholders at the well attended event, “If you want this to continue, you have a role to play; you have to register and you have to collect your Permanent Voters’ Card and then you can use your vote to choose what you want”.
“So, if you want this Sea Food Festival to be here next year, if you want Count Down to be here next year, if you want Beach Soccer to be here next year, the only way you can get them is to vote the Government which is providing these activities in Lagos, the All Progressives Congress Party. So, if you want to keep them, you must do your part. Vote APC”, the Governor said.
Thanking all the fishermen and women from across the riverine areas of the State – Epe, Badagry, Bariga, Eti-Osa and others – Governor Fashola said what his administration tried to do in instituting the festival was to bring the rural fishermen and women into the City once every year as the build-up to end of year activities begin adding that the event is one of the series that characterize the end of every year.
Other activities that mark the end of the year, the Governor said, include the Beach Soccer event, the Count Down and the Christmas festivities which lead to the New Year, adding, “I hope that you will all do what is necessary to sustain these activities”.
He paid glowing tribute to the brand sponsors of the Festival, Maggi Brand, noting, “They have seen a good thing and they have appended their brand and their very endearing tradition on this event. I hope that other brand partners would come up in the fullness of time and this festival will grow from year to year”.
He added, “This has not been without the support of the people of Lagos. This is what we do with your taxes, empowering people; ordinary working people, farmers, giving them a chance to earn a living so that we can equalize the distribution of wealth so that everybody can have an opportunity and be a part of this democracy”.
Highlight of the event was the Maggi Brand sponsored Pepper soup eating Competition which had the first, second and third winners going home with N500,000, N200,000 and N100,000 respectively.
Also speaking in the same vein earlier in the day at the 10 Degree Event Centre, Oregun, venue of the fifth edition of the Youth Stakeholders’ Forum organized by the State’s IGNITE Enterprise Partnership Project in conjunction with the After School Graduate Development Centre (AGDC), Governor Fashola, who reiterated that all the programmes were initiated by an APC Government in the State, said the people must do the right thing during the next election in order to sustain them.
“This intervention and several others that have uplifted the lives of the vast unemployed graduates and other youths have been made possible with the usage of the taxpayers’ money by the ruling party in the State – the All Progressives Congress. So if you want a continuation, you know what steps to take during the next election”, the Governor said.
The Governor said Government has realized that some of the trainees under the AGDC programme do not have money to procure equipment and that the Chair Centre owned by the Chairman of AGDC, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika, has come up with an idea to provide a seed sum of N10 million that would be available to 100 trainees at N100,000 each over a 26 month period.
He explained that the State Government has decided to support the initiative by providing an additional N100 million that would be available to 1000 trainees thus making the seed sum a total of N110 million that is available to 1,100 trainees.
Governor Fashola reiterated that the first six months would serve as a moratorium period when the business is expected to gain a foothold and be steady and that for the following 20 months, the lucky person would pay back N5,000 monthly to offset it.
Governor Fashola maintained that the fund would be managed through a micro finance bank but that each of the beneficiaries must realize that the soft loan can indeed solve the problem of collateral because with the transaction, the trainees are building their collateral before the financial institution.
He urged all those who intend to apply for the soft loan online to have a business plan in place and that the mindset of the trainees should be about identifying that there is a problem to which a solution is being proffered through the proposal.
He reminded that as each of the beneficiaries pays back and the loan is rolled back, it is opening new doors to others who have not benefitted and allows the trainees to create a credit history with the financial institution.
