A Former President of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Mr Wale Ajani, has said that sharing bike, sewing machine and so on is not real empowerment adding that leadership is not about building structure but it about building people.
Ajani who declared his intention to represent the people of Oyo Central Senatorial District at the Senate under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP said this on Thursday while speaking with journalists in Ibadan, the state capital.
He admitted that distributing those items can’t be ruled out in Nigeria politics. He said he’s going to do his own distribution differently from the way others are doing it.
His words: “There are a lot of people that are coming out, and some are saying ‘omo kekere yen’, the truth is that, I know in National Assembly, apart from your salary and statutory, if you are bringing things to the National Assembly, you have to struggle for it. Failure to do so, you may end up not getting anything.
“To me, sharing bike, sewing machine and so on is not empowerment. Leadership is not about building structure but it about building people. It is about making sure that we empower our people so that they can have global recognition and education.
“We are going to put our empowerment in different sections. People that are educated, those ones that are elites, we would have programmes for them that would enhance what they know and give them leverage globally. But those ones that their own is dryer and what have you, we will still do it but we are going to do it differently. There is one thing to give somebody a dryer, there is another thing for that person to use that dryer. The new thing we are bringing into it is yes, if we are giving you a dryer and you don’t have a shop or you don’t even have the requisite skills that will make people to come and patronise you, what is now the purpose of giving you a dryer? The dryer will end up under your bed.
“So, we are going to add skills development to it and open your eye to the fact that you can do this job and still become a better person. It ain’t going to be purely for elites but it is going to be all round and we are going to carry everybody along.”
Ajani also spoke about his history in politics and why he wants to contest the senatorial seat in the 2023 general elections.
He said: “If you listen to my story, I followed Senator Ladoja to Accord party. He went to PDP, I followed him to PDP in 2018 and he left PDP that same year. We now followed him to ADC, we got to ADC again and there was crisis and in that same 2018, I contested for Rep. But I was asked to take House of Assembly ticket instead of Rep due to one reason or the other. I got the ticket and it was a very good campaign. That was when I learnt the game of politics, when some will tell you, you are the best and they will go behind again and say, the other person is the best. You will get confused who is actually the best.
“It was a very good training ground for me and I thank God that after the election, I congratulated the winner and I went back to my work again. Politics to me is like service to humanity. If you people want you, fine and if they don’t want you, move on, go back to your family and serve your God diligently.
“We have been on that until recently, that the urge started coming. The gear has changed now. I was challenged by one of my PA when I was the President of youth council in person of Senator Abo. When I also looked back, I looked at Oyo Central, where I hail from, the truth is that we’ve had Senators and they have really done their best, but it could be better as far as I am concern.
“Again, if you had gone to school and have used typewriter, you can’t use Ipad now. And we are now in the generation of ‘soro soke’. What do you know about National Assembly? National assembly is purely for legislation. National Assembly is where you go and advocate for your people.
“If I could check well, our people rarely talk. And there is this Yoruba adage that says ‘aile soro, ibere oriburuku ni’. Again, I looked at so many indices and I felt like, yes! I can do it. In fact, Yahaya Bello is a friend and he is a second term governor. Who is saying that we can’t do it? Talk of anything, we have it. We can do it. That is the way I see it. So, for me now, I am here to present myself to the members of this first realm to share my idea with you because I belief that, we can change the narrative. We can bring a new order to legislation within Oyo Central.”
