The Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila has unveiled a new transport scheme for students, elderly and vulnerable people in the Surulere area of Lagos State.
Speaking at the commissioning of Gbajaride free public transport programme in Surulere and environs on Saturday, he said the GbajaRide programme is a product of determination to use the instruments of government at all levels to ease the lives of people and empower citizens to do more and achieve greater things.
According to him, access to safe, efficient and reliable public transport services is imperative in an urban environment, maintaining that access to these services, especially for young children in school, for older people, for the less abled and for all those who struggle with their income, can be the difference between succeeding in school or failing because of a lack of regular attendance.
‘It can be the difference between being able to get to the hospital on time to receive life-saving medical assistance or dying at home alone.
‘It can be the difference between getting to a job interview on time or missing the opportunity of a lifetime. The buses we are presenting here today will be operated in partnership with the Lagos Metropolitan Transport Agency to provide free transportation to and from school for all secondary school students in the Surulere axis to ensure that our young people can get to and from school on time and in safety.
‘Parents in these areas no longer have to worry about providing money for transport or fear for the well-being of their wards while they are on the way to school in the morning and back home in the afternoon.
‘We do not intend for these buses to remain idle outside the school run hours. Instead, we will make these buses available to other residents for intracity shuttles at a steep discount of 25 per cent below the prevailing rates for all the routes where these buses will be available’, he stated.
The chief of staff said the purpose of government and indeed, the point of all public service, is to create the conditions that allow individuals in society to pursue their God-given ambitions, achieve success by the strength of their own endeavours and thrive through the best efforts of their hands.
‘This recognition of the role of government underpins the Renewed Hope programme of the Bola Tinubu administration.
‘It informs all the policy, political and administrative decisions this administration has taken since assuming office nearly two years ago’, he stressed.
However, because this is a social intervention aimed at those who need help the most, priority will always be given to our senior citizens, the less abled, the pregnant women and women travelling with young children.
‘I have said before, and I will repeat it, that building a working society is a collective responsibility requiring the joint efforts of all citizens’, he stressed.
He said the buses would be managed in collaboration to help with LAMATA manage the scheme sustainably and effectively.
‘However, ensuring this programme succeeds and endures is the collective responsibility of all the drivers, the conductors, and the passengers who will use and benefit from this programme.
‘Therefore, I urge everyone to treat these buses with the same level of care and consideration that you would ordinarily give to your own vehicles, and I pray that God will reward your diligence by granting you your own cars in due time.
‘I am grateful to my brother, the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the management of the LAMATA, and all those who in one way or the other have helped manifest the vision of the GbajaRide programme’, he added.
Earlier, the Managing Director, Nigeria Railway Corporation, Kayode Opeifa said the programme is unique and would be a model for other states in the country.
He said the free rides will also create job opportunities for the state’s teeming unemployed youths while also encouraging more parents to send their wards to school.
