Lagos is the safest city in Africa, Ambode says
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has said that the greatest achievement of his administration was the protection of lives and property of residents of the state.
The Governor also enthused that Lagos State has become one of the safest cities in Africa even as the state has invested over ₦20 billion on security in the past three years.
The Lagos State Governor who was the guest speaker at the 2018 Executive Intelligence Management Course Participants of the Institute for Security Studies, Abuja, Tuesday, explained that with the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corp, set up by his administration, crime rate had drastically reduced in the state.
Speaking on the theme, “Cultural Values, National Security and Challenges of Contemporary Governance: Perspectives from Lagos State Experience”, the governor said that the problem with the country was problem of discipline and the challenge of attitudes.
According to him, “Indeed, I strongly believe that the fight against crime and all forms of criminality would be better enhanced if efforts are geared towards embracing community policing to complement the police and other law enforcement agencies.
“This is what informed the setting up of the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corp Agency of which I shall later speak. However, what we have found in our experience in Lagos State is that intelligence gathering through community policing will be ineffective in the absence of certain germane cultural values in the society.
“Indeed, the security of lives and property of citizens remains the topmost pursuit of my administration. Indeed, one of the biggest achievement of my administration in the last three years is the security of lives and the property of Lagos state residents. And of course, it is gratifying to note that Lagos State is now one of the safest cities in Africa.”
Besides, he stated that an adequate, efficient and effective security architecture would ensure the implementation of all other policies and the preservation of investment made, adding, “after all that is what really grows our GDP and that is what makes other people to want to come to Lagos State to live and work and invest.”
He noted that to reclaim the cultural values in multi-cultural and cosmopolitan Lagos state, there were four cardinal values that should be observed such as truth, justice, hard-work and character.
Governor Ambode who noted that 65 percent of the Nigeria population was people beyond the age of 35, however, pointed out that security was the exclusive responsibility of the Federal Government, though the Lagos State government had gone ahead to support the security agencies to ensure security of its citizens.
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