Stakeholders Set To Raise N500Million Endowment Fund ...As 2022 Agege Day Celebrations Hold February 3 To 14

The year 2022 Agege Day Celebrations is set to hold from Friday February 3 to February 14, 2023.

Speaking about the annual event at a press conference at the premises of Agege Local Government on Thursday, Chairman of the Planning Committee, Hon. Afolabi Ayantayo stated that event ought to have held in December 2022, but that it was postponed to February 2023 due to unforseen circumstances.

He added that the event would feature the launch of N500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million Naira) Agege Education Endowment Fund on February 14, 2023, when the grand finale party would hold at Agege Stadium.

The celebrations, he said, encompass all aspects of lives of the Agege people namely, religious, cultural, social, education, sports, and are scheduled to begin on Friday, February 3, 2022 with

Special Jumat Service at Markaz Central Mosque, Markaz Street, Agege, Lagos by 1:00pm.

This, he said, would be followed by Awareness Rallies across the length and breadth of Agege town by artistes of various musical genres and theatre practitioners.

Special Sunday Service is slated for February 5, 2023 at St. Saviour’s African Church, Old Abeokuta Motor Road, Agege by 10:00 am.

On Tuesday, February 7, 2023, there would be Secondary School Debate at Government College, beside NYSC Camp, Ipaja Road, Agege with the topic: “Moral Decadence among the Youths: Who is to blame, Government or Parents” at 10:00am.

There would be Cultural and Traditional Displays at Agege Stadium, 1, Oshitelu Street, Ijaiye Road, Agege on Thursday February 9 at 10:00am.

Miss Agege Beauty Pageant is scheduled to hold at WAB Event Centre, 68 Capitol Road, Agege on Friday, February 10 at 2:00pm.

Novelty match and final football match between Agege and Orile Agege would hold at Anwar’ul Islam Model College, Oniwaya Road, Agege on Sunday February 12, 2023.

The Grand Finale is fixed for Tuesday February 14 at Agege Stadium with Fuji Music superstar, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall (KWAM 1) performing.

Also performing is Hip Hop artiste, Small Doctor.

Ayantayo said further that Agege town has grown over the past century from an ancestral settlement to a cosmopolitan township, attracting settlers from within and outside the country, with estimated population standing at over a million people.

He stated that the Committee was set up to implement the various programs that have been slated for the celebrations, "and we, members of the Committee have decided to launch our programs and schedules before the world so that everyone might rejoice and celebrate with us.

"In celebrating the Agege Day 2022, all hands are on deck to guarantee a hitch free celebration that will educate, entertain, illuminate and excite the entire populace and well-wishers who will be welcomed to felicitate with us from across the world. We have hordes of accomplished Agege indigenes in the diaspora who are looking forward to felicitating with the rest of us that are home based," he said.

He said: "in the course of its growth, Agege has faced various problems bothering on the economy, education, security among others. Over the years, with the downturn in the nation’s economy, the town has had its fair share of gloom as its working, middle class residents became more impoverished and reduced to lower class citizens in terms of economic capacities and availability of resources. 

"As the economic woes of the nation persisted over many decades of wrong economic policies of the various military juntas, the working class which is dominant in Agege became further deprived and this tipped the balance of social responsibilities against them and their offsprings. 

"The result was a teeming population of disadvantaged people, across board, having to endure the doldrums of the economic gloom. As families broke, so did society, leading to the overwhelming presence of unemployed and dissatisfied youths and adults alike," he said. 

He added that in recent times, concerted efforts aimed at "alleviating problems of social dislocations among the people have been paying off as the town now inches its way towards sanity. However, the road is still long and there are still many rivers to cross towards actualizing an egalitarian, and completely reorientated society devoid of strife."

According to him, with the advent of democracy, "especially in the last twenty three years, the township has begun to count its blessings in terms of infrastructural, social and economic development, not leaving out the political and communal cohesion that have brought peace, tranquility and progress to the town."

"The present administration of Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu has further improved on past administrations’ investments into various sectors of the social lives of the people of Agege, be it education, security, infrastructure, poverty alleviation, health, transportation and a host of others.

"In the area of infrastructural development, the people of Agege will not forget in a hurry, the completion and commissioning of the iconic Pen Cinema Bridge which has gone a long way in resolving the harrowing experience commuters used to endure prior to its construction. 

"Next are massive road construction projects many of which have been completed and now in use, while yet others are ongoing renewal projects that will definitely transform the face of the densely populated town from a blighted, lowdown, dirty and dusty environments, difficult to maneuver, to a cleaner, neater, smoother and more environmentally friendly society.

"In the area of education, Agege children have benefited immensely from the statewide Eko Excel Program meant to improve the standard of teaching and monitoring of primary school teachers for premium performances and which, in the same token has rubbed off on Lagos pupils. 

"This is just one of the many innovations that have been infused into Lagos State education renewal project and which have improved overall performances of Lagos State students by over thirty percent. Students in Agege are not exempted from this overall improvements.

"In the area of transportation, by the time the Lagos State owned Red Line rail project, which is expected to ply Oyingbo to Agbado Crossing eventually takes off in the near future, residents of Agege would definitely be the direct beneficiaries of this laudable investment in transportation as commuters will have a better, faster means of transportation that will replace the harrowing traffic situations daily experienced by commuters who reside in Agege but work on the Island," he saidsaid.

The Committee Chairman said that reeling out what Agege people have benefited in other areas such as health, poverty alleviation, security among others would necessitate a lengthier prose and longer time, adding that in all these achievements, the realization of these goals by government, Agege itself has produced a personality that has added fulcrum to the realization of these lofty achievements.

"He is no other person than the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudasiru Ajayi Obasa who has become the brand ambassador of our humble town.

"Rt. Hon. Mudasiru Obasa has, through his political accomplishments injected much of the development the people of Agege are enjoying into the town by soliciting the support of the Executive arm and other entities, including non government organizations (NGO) and other business concerns into making direct investments in Agege, measures that have had direct impacts in the lives of the people of the town.

"Agege has equally produced many other prominent personalities too numerous to mention, from all walks of life names of whom this Committee is going to reel out and confer with various categories of prizes and awards in recognition of their contributions to our motherland, Agege.

"In taking stocks of the struggles of the past, and modest achievements recorded so far, we, the people of Agege have decided to celebrate our journey, our resilience, our conquests, our strides and our victory over adversities, our unity over disunity, the forbearance, bravery and undying spirit of survival, of never losing hope, and of the belief in a better future," he said.