The Chairman of Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Lagos, Olusegun Odunmbaku, has reeled out his achievements in office in the last three years.
Odunmbaku stated that the council has donated 700 General Certificate Examination (GCE) and 900 Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) forms to students.
He added that no fewer than 150 pupils recently got back to schools materials with over 60,000 exercise books distributed.
According to him, N1 million was recently earmarked for best teachers in the council.
According to him, the council has a network that is training pupils across the LCDA, with 2,631 pupils trained so far in the primary school category, and 2,168 trained in the junior and secondary school categories.
Two higher institution students who bagged First Class were given N500,000 each.
In the health sector, Odunmbaku said the council had employed 120 medical personnel including medical doctors, physicians, midwives, public health attendants in all its eight primary health centres to fill up the vacancies created by workers who had left the country.
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He said: “Not only that, we have our own in-house emergency medical records, which will allow for faster service delivery. That means with your cards, you can have access to any of our places.
“We have procured three ambulances, two ambulances directed by the local government, with two mobile tricycle ambulances.
“These tricycle ambulances, as you see, will allow for outreach missions to places that are very difficult to get to.”
On empowerment, he stated that the council partnered with other companies and institutions within its area, to train its students to acquire industrial knowledge and industry network.
The council boss urged youths to key into entrepreneurship and vocational skills rather than look for white-collar jobs, which are not available.
Odunmbaku said embracing entrepreneurship and vocation skills, especially when the youths are still in school, would help them to contribute to economic growth, aside being self-reliant and employers of labour.
“Let me call on all Nigerian youths to embrace entrepreneurship and be contributors to the economy of the country and not to expect government to contribute to them.
“In developed countries, it is the citizens of such countries that contribute to its development and not the other way round.
“Be exceptional in what you do, be resilient and persevere. Resolve to be a job creator and live with integrity. Get a business plan and give back to the society and train other people.
“You should also be innovative and you can raise money for your businesses through personal savings, support from family members and friends, bank loans, and cooperative societies,” he added.
The chairman expressed confidence that the youths had the potential to strive for entrepreneurial success and their enthusiasm could pave the way for a brighter future.
He noted that in the last three years of his administration, he had provided youths with opportunities, regardless of their backgrounds, and reaffirmed his commitment to education and skills development as key priorities.
Odunmbaku noted that on assumption of office in July 2021, his administration was faced with various challenges and demands, which, he termed, as a cog in the wheel in terms of the social and economic life of the people.
According to him, however, these challenges have become a thing of the past because his administration took the bull by the horn and came up with the H.E.Y.S (Health, Education, Youth and Women Development and Social and Infrastructural Development) Agenda.
He added that the agenda was also in tandem with the state’s THEMES PLUS, saying that the agenda was a deliberate effort to allow the delivery of resources at the state level.
Odunmbaku said that he had partnered with some organisations to produce and train hundreds of youths in mechanical, electrical and plumbing works, and provided working tools for them.