Former Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, SAN, yesterday, urged social clubs in the country to play prominent roles in the social re-engineering of Nigeria in ensuring sustainable national growth amid socio-economic challenges.
The former governor made the remarks while delivering a lecture, titled ‘The role of social clubs in engineering,’ at the 50th Anniversary celebration of Eko Club, held at Bode Thomas in Surulere.
Fashola, in his lecture, said: “This process will determine the extent to which the club can fulfil the role envisioned by the founders, as documented in the club’s constitution.
“When I served as the Governor of Lagos State, I took a cue from this tradition by consistently using social clubs as platforms to test and disseminate new policies.
“One notable example, as mentioned earlier, was the introduction of the Lagos State Road Traffic Law in 2012, which aimed to improve road safety and traffic management in the state.
“Of course, we are also concerned about how our government, in a representative democracy, ensures that our common interest in these things is preserved, protected, and promoted.
“For now, let us go back to the founding of Eko Club in 1974. History tells us that Eko Club was created by a group of young men who, like all social clubs by definition, had a “common interest.
“While history is being revised about the development of Lagos, there is no such endeavour concerning the development of Eko.”
