President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to begin a two-day working visit to Lagos State from Monday, thereby making him the first Nigerian President that will officially visit the state in the past fifteen years.
The Lagos state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, who made this known in a statement, said that the President would inaugurate some landmark projects which the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had fully executed in its first year.
In the statement, Ayorinde said that President Buhari’s official visit “is the first time in about 15 years that a sitting president will be visiting the state on a working visit.”
Ayorinde said that during the visit, Buhari will formally inaugurate the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) Rescue Unit in Cappa Oshodi built by the state government to ensure prompt and swift response to emergency situations in the state.
The commissioner said that after unveiling the LASEMA Rescue Unit, the President will inaugurate the newly constructed Ago Palace Way in Okota, Isolo after which he will pay homage to the Oba of Lagos, His Royal Majesty, Oba Babatunde Rilwanu Aremu Akiolu at the Iga Iduganran, Lagos Island.
“The President will later be hosted to a reception by the state government at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos where he will also commission and hand over security equipment and vehicles contributed by the Ambode administration to security agencies to beef up security in the state.”
He said that Lagos residents are looking forward with excitement to receive the President in the state, just as he urged residents to bear with law enforcement agents and traffic control authorities who will effect road diversions in some of the routes that the President motorcade will pass through during the visit.
Meanwhile, the state government has released traffic guide, which it said, would help its residents to review their travel plans between Monday and Tuesday to avoid undue traffic congestion in the metropolis.
It would be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo made the last official visit to Lagos in November 2002 and thereafter, there has been no sitting president that had officially visited the state despite its status as Nigeria’s economic capital and its contribution to national economy.
However, all the past Presidents had, during their tenures, used the Murtala Muhammad International airport in the state as transit point and paid non-state visits to Lagos. [myad]
