•As VP, Governor charge Africans to develop continent
The Vice President of the Republic of Zambia, Mrs Mutale Nalumango, has commended Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his administration’s commitment to human capital development.
She also praised Governor Sanwo-Olu for ensuring women’s inclusion in his government.
Nalumango said Zambia is ready to learn and partner with the Lagos State Government on issues relating to development.
Vice President Nalumango, who was accompanied by top government officials from Zambia, spoke on Thursday during a courtesy visit to Governor Sanwo-Olu at Lagos House, Marina.
She said: “We have a long-lasting relationship between Zambia and Nigeria. It is a relationship that has not been interrupted by circumstances. We should speak and come together as brothers. There should be a new beginning every day.
“We have a lot of things in common. We should be able to share and learn from one another. So, it is important to look for opportunities between ourselves within the continent of Africa. I believe we will do well if we start thinking outside the box and do things together.”
Governor Sanwo-Olu said there is a 30-year development plan by the Lagos State Government to ensure that “Lagos becomes a place to come for any level of human resource for professional development in the tech space, sports, entertainment and entrepreneurship.”
The Governor implored all African countries to develop their young population for the future, engage in bilateral trade among themselves and facilitate development at all levels.
“We have similarities. We know that Africa has the young population to be the leader of the world tomorrow. But we need to get them ready. We need to play our part. We need to ensure that we have a space in the room. We need to tell our own story and tell it convincingly.
“We need to say to ourselves, what are the strengths that we both have?’ Since there is no division, we should be able to cross countries and borders effortlessly. We should be able to produce what we use and use what we produce.
“We should do trade among ourselves first and facilitate development at all levels of government and the private sector to ensure that nobody is coming out of the continent to tell us what we already know. We should fix things ourselves,” he advised.
Speaking on his administration’s commitment to women’s inclusion, Governor Sanwo-Olu said: “We ensure that we have full women’s participation in everything that we do. In fact, in our THEMES+ development agenda, which is our economic blueprint, we ensured that women’s inclusivity is critical in everything we do.”
SIGNED
GBOYEGA AKOSILE
SPECIAL ADVISER – MEDIA AND PUBLICITY
28 MARCH 2025
