by Opeoluwa Quadri
A visit to the Chairman of the Iwaya technical committee, Alhaji L.A Balogun by our reporter revealed that the community is not giving up on the abandoned World Bank projects. According to the Chairman, the community recently had a meeting with the LCDA chairman and the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode where they raised the issue of the abandoned projects.
“We raised the issue of the abandoned schools and roads in Iwaya to the governor at a recent Town hall meeting held in Badore, the governor acknowledged that he is aware of the projects, and he said they were going to look into it” said the chairman of the committee
The people of Iwaya community are perhaps still hopeful that the three abandoned World Bank schools in their community will still be completed by the government, even though that hope hangs in the balance. The projects had been abandoned for more than four years; the community technical committee had been in the fore front of advocacy pushing for all the World Bank abandoned projects in the community to be completed.
The World Bank abandoned projects in Iwaya includes:
- The three Secondary Schools’ Building at:
- Fazil Omar Senior High School, Iwaya- Yaba, Lagos
- St Francis Junior Grammar School, Iwaya- Yaba, Lagos
- Onike Girls Junior Secondary School, Onike- Yaba, Lagos.
These Schools according to the Technical committee have been roofed and later abandoned uncompleted for over five years.
There is also the case of the 15 abandoned road projects.
The projects were all world Bank assisted projects, which were supposed to be executed by the Lagos Metropolitan Development and Governance Project ( LMDGP).
The community technical committee has written several letters to the Yaba Local government and the state government calling their attention to the projects. Especially the three schools which have been roofed and later abandoned. The present state of the schools is nothing to write home about, and if the situation is not addressed, the schools might constitute threat to safety of lives and properties.