In order to speed up the implementation of the Lagos Resilience Strategy (LASRO), the State Government has enlisted the help of local government officials, who have been sensitized on the importance of promptly implementing the provisions in the plans across the city.
The state government went on to say that the councils’ involvement was necessary because the provisions in the strategy could not be implemented without the help of the local governments and the state’s Local Councils Development Area (LCDA).
The Chief Resilience Officer (CRO), Folayinka Dani, revealed these during the opening ceremony of a two-day Resilience sensitization workshop conducted in Ikeja on Monday, with the theme: Imbibing resilience culture in Local Governments program and projects within their councils.
Dania further stated that the councils’ engagement was to ensure that the state and local governments approached the requirements across the state collectively while underlining that the councils were essential players for the state to meet the provisions specified in the strategy.
According to her, the approach included potential future shocks and stressors, as well as answers that the governments must give before they occur within Lagos.
She went on to say that the state government was committed to creating a city that was efficient, inventive, and inclusive for everyone through the strategy, which accommodates all initiatives, including the THEMES agenda.
“So after this two-day workshop, we expect that the local governments would key into the resilience plan for the state. They are part of the development plan initially and we are saying now that it is time for them to initiate the strategy within their councils.
“From our interaction with the councils, we are saying that the strategy is not the one that should end up on their shelve, rather all those things that we have planned to do must be done within the next few years”, the Chief Resilience Officer added.
Dania then stated that the plan would be revised by 2024 in order to assess the provisions and either drop or reinforce them in order to handle current difficulties that might harm the state.
Jubril Olusegun, a delegate from Orile-Agege LCDA, then responded by describing the meeting as an eye-opener to the state’s development adding that future problems must be anticipated in order to keep the wheel of progress turning in Lagos.
“This workshop has exposed me to the importance of planning ahead to address the shocks and stress that could arise in the future across the state”, he added.
Also, Babatunde Ali-Balogun of the Lagos-Island Local Government pledged that they would return to their councils to implement the strategy to make the city more robust, noting that they did not want to have cases of fallen structures or other shocks in the future.
