For close to a month, insideoyo.com went round the 14 federal constituencies and 3 senatorial districts in Oyo stateto examine the level of performance of lawmakers representing the state in the National Assembly.
Below is the excerpt:
They were elected with pomps. Four of the 14 Reps members from the state are serving their second terms in office while the 3 senators defeated the incumbent senators. In all, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has 12 members in the House and 3 senators in The Senate. Labour Party, LP, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has one each.
In the course of this work, we discovered that many constituents are concerned about the physical presence of their representatives and what they do to ‘ameliorate’ their sufferings than the bill they sponsor or motion they move.
Out of the 14 lawmakers, only six of them were found to be far away from their people. According to the people of the three senatorial district, the three senators have succeeded where their predecessors failed. However, there are still more grounds to be covered.
Read about the 6 elusive lawmakers:
1) Olusegun Ogunwuyi: He represents Ogbomoso North, South and Oriire federal constituency. Between 2011 and 2015, he represented Ogbomoso South state constituency in the Oyo State House of Assembly under the platform of PDP. His benefactor, former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, was said to have fielded 43-year old Ogunwuyi in LP after his estranged goddaughter- Mulikat Adeola failed to defect from PDP to LP with him.
According to some of his constituents, the only empowerment programme he did- computer training programme ‘crashed midway. It was learnt that he had lost many followers due to his inability to defect with Alao-Akala to the APC.
It was further learnt that he does not come home regularly. In fact, much have not been heard about as regards legislation in the green chamber.
This was unlike his predecessor- Adeola-Akande, who proved her mettle apart from being the House Leader.
If he fails to perform, son of his benefactor, Olamiju Alao-Akala, who is the caretaker chairman of Ogbomoso North LGA, Wumi Oladeji who represents Ogbomoso North state constituency, Adediran Alao and Gongo Aso crooner, Abolore Akande (9ice) are warming up to slug it out with him.
2) Olajide Olatunbosun is of the APC. He represents Saki West, East and ATISBO federal constituency. It was learnt that he got the ticket of his party through the effort of his elder sister who is ‘powerful’ in the system. “Nothing much was heard about him before he got the ticket. He was one of the products of ‘Buhari-tsunami. And since he was elected, I can count the number of times he has been here,” a constituent told insideoyo.com.
His predecessor, Tajudeen Kareem Abiodun, who spent two terms, was said to have raised the bar of representation in the area.
It was also gathered that Olatubosun recently empowered his contituents with transistor radios, sprayers, motorcycles among other things.
He has a big battle ahead as the deputy speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly, AbdulWasi Musah is being tipped as possible replacement.
3) Olugbenga Ayoade is also of the APC. He represents Ibarapa Central/ North federal constituency. He defeated Muraina Ajibola, a second term lawmaker, to win the seat. He enjoyed sympathy votes from his people.
His people are also complaining about his representation. This cannot be disconnected from the performance of his predecessor- Ajibola who was said to have impacted his people.
4) Taiwo Michael Akintola is an engineer. He represents Egbeda/Ona-Ara federal constituency. He defeated the incumbent- Olayemi Busari of Accord after defeating the duo of Ibrahim Bolomope and Moshood Erubami and others in a keenly contested APC primaries.
Many had voted for him because of the abysmal performance of his predecessor but according to them, his performance is not different.
Since he assumed office, he has not been behaving like his people had expected. He was said to have escaped the wrath of his people at a recently organised ’empowerment’ programme in Gbagi area of Ibadan.
Many people are battle-ready to replace him. Billionaire NairaBet founder, Akin Alabi, who contested the last election with him under PDP is now in APC. This is just as Bolomope and Erubami are still interested in the position.
5) Sunday Adepoju is spending his second term in the House. Omoyin, as the Eruwa-born politician, is called, has always been a member of a progressive party. Between 1999 and 2011 when he was elected, he was a senior special assistant to Lagos State Government.
His people in Ibarapa East/Ido are complaining bittery about Adepoju who is the leader of Oyo State Caucus in the House of Representative.
According to his constituents, the 56-year old politician is more of Lagos than his constituency. “It is either he knows he cannot win a third term or he is waiting for election time to come to us,” one of his constituents said.
The quartet of Oyo State education commissioner, Prof. Adeniyi Olowofela, caretaker chairman of Ido, Wahab Oladejo, ex-caretaker chairman of Ibarapa East LGA, Lanre Olaosegba and the speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly may decide to take his seat.
6) Abiodun Olasupo represents Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Iwajowa/Kajowa federal constituency. Many of his constituents are also complaining bitterly despite ’empowering’ them recently. They want to be seeing him. In fact, the people of Itesiwaju, Kajola and Iwajowa, said that they can count the number of times they have seen him.
Apart from being described as an Abuja-based politician, many see him as relying too much on his benefactor, Dauda Wasiu, who is also believed to be eyeing the seat. Azuzu, as Dauda is fondly called, is commissioner for works and transport in Oyo State. He was said to have outsmarted the ticket from an Iwajowa indigene who had almost clinched the ticket due to the unwritten rotational politics of the constituency.
Olasupo, who contested and lost the 2011 election under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, was accused of being elusive, adding that he comes home whenever he wishes and not when he is needed. He was said to be banking on the popularity of Azuzu in Iseyin, the most populated council areas in the constituency.
He has the ‘thickest’ opposition in his benefactor, multi-millionaire son of late Iseyin-born magician, Moshood Peller, Shina Peller, who owns Club Quilox and Acquilla Records; Niyi Adeagbo and Samuel Egunjobi who are caretaker chairmen of Itesiwaju LGA and Iganna LCDA respectively.
