It is to be expected that, as a community or society moves up the ladder of modernization, certain social problems associated with that level of modernization were bound to emerge. The problems that plaque Ikorodu today is those societal problems associated with rapid urbanization. Ikorodu is a fast growing satellite city of the greater Lagos metropolis. There is a very high rate of unemployment especially among young school leavers and graduates. ‘The devil,’ of course, it is said, ‘finds jobs for the idle hand.’ There are some factories around that people provide employment opportunities but they are not sufficient in number to absorb any appreciate proportion of these unemployment youths. The fact that Ikorodu is now cosmopolitan and a mixed grill of persons from all over the West African Sub Region, makes competition for the new jobs available keener. Experience has also shown that many of these young people have an orientation that makes them less push-full and enterprising as their other competitors for jobs. For example, it has been found out that our youths have preference for less strenuous jobs, have less attachment to jobs and therefore leave jobs on very flimsy excuses.

The need to re-orientate many parents on the need for them to create time for the monitoring of the social, educational and religious preparations for responsible adulthood. This is a very urgent assignment. The in structured or rather forum to accomplish this Herculean task must be worked out, and very urgently too.

Our tomorrow will be a product of our today. The responsibility for the correct upbringing if children should not be abdicated in favour of teachers. Today’s teachers are modern Nigeria as well and they are as busy pursuing the acquisition of wealth as the rest of us.

Another problem of Ikorodu of today is the high incidence of drug abuse. We surely cannot expect our children to be immune to events happening in metropolitan Lagos. Our society at large therefore has a duty to educate the youngest ones on the dangers of drug abuse. Governments, in Nigeria, happily are already investing a lot of their resources to check the spread of drug abuse. Individual parents have a crucial role to play too

I have asserted in the one or two places above that Ikorodu is experiencing daily influx of people because of the fact that metropolitan Lagos is ‘Load shedding’ not only is life becoming ‘too not’, fiancé wise for the Nigeria low income earner in Lagos but the ‘sappy’ atmosphere has made landlords to attempt passing on the effects of SAP to tenants generally. Naturally people are looking for environment that would be more accommodating and welcoming, Ikorodu of today provides that alternative, the growth has hastened with the completion of the dualisation of the Owode-Onirin Ikorodu segment of the Lagos Ikorodu road now in use.

This leads us to examine the problems. However, Ikorodu local Government has gone into the lead to provide inter-city and inter-village transport service. Vehicles from other local Governments in the state also assist by playing the Lagos Ikorodu route. The state government’s jubilee line that has been put in place has also help tremendously in alleviating the people’s transportation. In spite of all these efforts, there is the need for more decisive approach to the problem.

I happened to know that there is in place, a world bank project, aimed arts solving the transportation problems of metropolitan Lagos. Unfortunately, the plan indicated by the federal government some years ago did not include Ikorodu within the scheme. However, I had made a case for including ikorodu in the scheme at a meeting which I had the rare opportunity to attend in the federal Ministry of transportation in 1991.