Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate aspiring to the House of Representatives, to represent Osogbo/Olorunda/Orolu/Irepodun Federal constituency of Osun State, Mr. Oluwabukola Oyewo has given reasons why President Muhammadu Buhari deserves a second term in office.
According to him, the president’s achievements in the last three and half years would give him an edge over other presidential candidates.
The next presidential election is just here, do you think President Muhammadu Buhari deserves a second term in office?
Honestly, President Muhammadu Buhari has really tried. Immediately he took over from the former president, Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, his first area of focus is on how to retrieve almost a trillion naira that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration stole thereby putting the country into serious economic hardship. But, today President Buhari has succeeded in retrieving about five hundred billion naira through the anti-graft agencies while some of these thieves have also been arrested, prosecuted and jailed to serve as deterrent to others.
In the area of security, kudos should be given to Buhari because on his assumption of office in 2015, the security situation he met was very poor with the money meant for the procurement of firearms to fight Boko Haram insurgency, diverted to personal pockets of some politicians, apart from retrieving the stolen money from the politicians, President Buhari also tried his best to make sure that nearly all the Chibok school girls that were abducted by Boko Haram during Jonathan regime were released.
President Buhari also created employment opportunity for the youths and unemployed graduates through recruitment into the Nigeria Police force, federal government parastatals, ministries, customs, immigration, Nigeria security and civil Defence Corps among others. He introduced N-Power programme where youths were employed and paid N30,000 per month and train on various vocational programmes so that they can be self employed and as well become employers of labour.
So, with all these listed achievements of President Muhammadu Buhari, I want to believe that he will be re-elected next month. If re-elected, there will be continuation of his good programmes and Nigeria will be better for it.
You are one of the candidates aspiring to the House of Representatives, why are you in the race, having succeeded in your chosen career?
Service to God and humanity is the major reason why I choose to represent the good people of Osogbo/Olorunda/Orolu/Irepodun Federal Constituency of Osun State in the lower chamber of the National Assembly.
Secondly, the current House of Representatives member from my constituency, Lasun Yusuf who also doubles as Deputy Speaker of the House of Representative who is of the APC, is representing the constituency meritoriously well and I believe there must be continuity of that good representation, so that is another reason that prompted me to come out. If I am elected to succeed him therefore, I will continue from where he stops.
I will ensure that I sponsor meaningful and people oriented bills that will touch the lives of my people directly and the nation at large. I will move reasonable motions on the floor of the House, support reasonable bills sponsored by my colleagues and also ensure that my constituency projects allowance is used to complement the state and federal government efforts in the area of road tarring, construction of drainages towards the prevention of erosion across the nooks and crannies of the four councils that I want to represent.
In addition, I will render financial assistance to the students, farmers, market men and women as well as artisans. The final year students of Nigerian higher institutions who are indigenes of my constituency will be assisted financially, so also the unemployed graduates. All unemployed youths including graduates in my constituency will be assisted to secure federal appointments, and I will ensure that I bring federal presence to my constituency.
The asphaltic tarring of the remaining part of the road from Lameko to Ifon which has been left unattended to for a long time will be completed. So also the federal roads in Osogbo and Olorunda councils will be tarred, among others.
Governor Gboyega Oyetola recently took over as the new governor of Osun State. Are you comfortable with his emergence and do you think he will match his predecessor in terms of achievements?
Yes, this is a normal thing that must happen since the tenure of the immediate past governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola lapsed. Had it been it is possible for Aregbesola to go for third term, I would have supported it because Ogbeni Aregbesola has really changed the face of Osun State. In fact, there is no area that his government did not touch.
Oyetola was part and parcel of Aregbesola’s eight years administration where he served as the Chief of Staff to the governor. So, going by this experience of Oyetola in the governance of Osun State ever before he became the governor, and going by the way he managed his own personal businesses successfully before joining politics, I want to believe that there is no doubt that he will deliver and serve us meritoriously well. Oyetola to me, is a distinguished and worthy leader, a man of courage, vision and resourcefulness, a believer in the principle of collective responsibility, a man of good integrity and persistence, very forthright, honest, hardworking and unassuming, a possibility thinker, and ever kind personality. So, I believe he is going to deliver and take Osun to the next level.
The present government in Osun State must have inherited a lot of debt; will this not affect the governance of the state under the leadership of Governor Oyetola?
There is nowhere in the world that they don’t borrow to execute projects. Even advanced nations of the world borrow and since government is a continuum, the new administration will inherit both assets and liabilities.
The truth is that the present administration in Osun State will continue where the immediate past government stopped and I am sure the new government will be determined to do well, because Aregbesola had set the pace for development in the state. It is now a challenge for any government in Osun State to ensure that it serves the state well and achieve greatly in terms of the dividends of democracy.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is on strike, does this portray the present government well?
Both ASUU and the federal government are already negotiating and very soon everybody will see that this government is serious with issues that concern the people of this nation. The education sector has received a boost since President Buhari assumed office and you will recall that what ASUU is fighting for are not new but they are things that the former government failed to do.
Do you think the APC is still as popular as it was before?
APC to the glory of God is more popular than it was. Before we came on board as the ruling party in 2015, how many states were under the control of the APC and how many states are under the control of the party today. This is an indication that the party is more popular than it was before.