Sen Adeola: Representing Face of Renewed Hope Agenda

Bosun Adeleye

At this period of economic hardship in Nigeria, only a few political players can be counted as genuine representatives of their constituents. This is because a sizeable number of those who often masquerade as popular choice of the electorate at the grassroots won their elections by pretence, thus creating a huge disconnect between the government and the people they were elected to serve in the first place. Without the basic social capital-trust and confidence that exist between the government and the governed-little can be achieved in terms of deliverable. Directly or indirectly, elected representatives are the links between. Regrettably, quite a good number of state actors who have been trusted with people’s mandate have abdicated their responsibilities and abandoned the grassroots.

Notwithstanding this disappointing scenario, however, looking around, one will still find a few exemplary individuals who will always hold the banner of service high in all manners of circumstances. Comes rain, comes shine, they will always be there to give back to the society. Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (aka Yayi) stands tall among these few exemptions. Whenever a roll is called of sincere representatives of the people, he will boldly and rightly rise to say ‘aye’ because he has raised the bar of service in his Ogun West Senatorial District.

And he is not just doing so. Right from the outset of his political career, his selflessness has earned him a great deal of admiration among his constituents. He had done it before while representing Lagos West. Now, he’s more determined to do better for his Yewa/Awori (Ogun West) people to put them on a higher pedestal of socio-economic development. In a sharp departure from the past, he’s here with us with something newer and refreshing. As a fond supporter of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Yayi represents the face of the ‘renewed hope’ agenda of the present administration not only in Ogun West but in Nigeria as a whole.

Within one year of his stewardship as a Senator representing Ogun West, Adeola already has a plethora of achievements that speak to his vision and genuine determination to transform the socio-economic landscape of Yewa/Awori people in particular and Ogun State in general. His signature projects covering human capital development, infrastructure, healthcare service, security, job creation, youth and women empowerment are all over the place.

These are too numerous to mention, but a shortlist of the critical ones will suffice. As of the last count, he has over 78 life-impacting projects to his credit, while several others are in the pipeline. The one that still remains a talking point within and outside Ogun West Senatorial District months after the initiative is the recent disbursement of financial grants to 5000 market women, empowerment training of 50,000 artisans with supply of equipment as startup capital.

The vocational training programme included such areas as fashion designing, leather works, interior decoration and event planning, fish production, confectioneries and cake making, hairdressing, Solar energy and agric-value chain. The beneficiaries numbering over 15000 were given equipment worth over N2billion together with startup grants of between N80,000 and N150, 000 all amounting to over N1billion.  

Similarly, 5000 market women went home with N50,000 each to boost their trades and end their dependency on high-interest loan facilitates.

So impressed was the Deputy Senate President, Senator Jubrin Barau, who was on hand-to-hand glamour to the occasion, that he aptly described the initiative as a “super” empowerment. And rightly so, considering the huge capital investment sunk into the three-day empowerment programme.

This was in addition to the disbursement of scholarship and bursary awards to 1532 undergraduates. While university undergraduates received N200,000, their polytechnics and college of education counterparts got N180,000 and N150,000 respectively.

The financial assistance followed the successful verification of the academic records of each beneficiary in line with the set-out criteria and guidelines. Speaking at the event, Adeola, explained that the scheme was in fulfillment of his electoral promises to the people of Ogun West.

Several other physical projects have also been facilitated across the senatorial district to increase traders’ access to affordable spaces in the market. These include 2 Lockup (40 units) and 3 Open Shop (60units) at Lusada, Ado-Odo/Ota LGA, 2 Lockup (40Units) and 3 Open Shop (60 Units) at Agosasa, Ipokia LGA, 2 Lockup (40 Units) and 3 Open Shop (60 Units) at Ijoun, Yewa North LGA, 2 Lockup (40 Units) and 3 Open Shop (60 Units) at Igbo Aje Market Ilaro, Yewa South LGA.

One major significant thing about these empowerment initiatives is the transparency of the process. To engender ownership of the process, major stakeholders were allowed to use their discretion to choose beneficiaries based on the principles of fairness and a good sense of judgment without political or religious bias. For openness, public announcements were also made on mainstream and social media platforms for interested applicants to apply while selection was done on a first-come, first-served basis.

Complementary to the infrastructure transformation agenda of Governor Dapo Abiodun, Adeola has promised to leverage his position in the Senate as Chairman, Appropriation Committee, to make Ogun West a “Small London” by the end of his four-year tenure. He pledged this in one of his outings at Ilaro.

And so far, he has facilitated over 100 Federal Government projects including 19 roads of various lengths with culverts, the construction of 13 new 12 Classroom Blocks with staff rooms and libraries, the construction of seven ultra-modern town halls across the five LGAs of the senatorial district construction of four Primary Health Care Centres which has now been handed over to the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta as outreach stations. Others are the construction of three Intensive Care Unit (ICU) centres in hospitals, three modern Police Stations, Primary Health Care Centres, Information, and Communication and Technology (ICT) centres, to mention but a few.  

In terms of road infrastructure, Yayi has disclosed that work would soon commence on the 90 kilometre Ilara-Ijoun-Oja Odan, Ifonyintedo- Ilashe road that cuts across the four LGs of Yewaland, promising to deliver it under his four-year stewardship.  

In response to the hardship being faced by motorists as a result of the rapidly collapsing Lagos-Abeokuta expressway, Adeola has also raised the “Motion of Urgent National Importance for the commencement of the necessary palliative works to remedy the situation.  

His genuine concern for the challenge of epileptic power supply has equally seen him donating 78 500kva transformers to different parts of the senatorial district to bring electricity supply to some areas that had been hitherto in darkness for upwards of over a decade.

By way of comparison, Adeola stands tall in the game of lobbying. Lobbying is an essential part of the democratic process. Organisations, interest groups, representative bodies, industries, NGOs all provide inputs and feedback through communication of their views and concerns to the government. Having been in the business of lawmaking for close to two decades, Adeola has learned through the rope.

In terms of relevance in the business of lawmaking, his legislative competence is the reason for his emergence as the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Before then, he had served and proved his mettle as the chairman in other important capacities such as the Committee on Finance as well as a member of the Appropriation, Local Content, Science and Technology, Banking, Insurance and Financial Institution, Health (Primary and Tertiary), Aviation and Inter-Parliamentary Affairs Committees, among others. 

Today, Adeola is among the most experienced and respected members of the National Assembly. During the election of the leadership of the Senate, he played a leading role in the emergence of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the Senate President. Since he began his political journey as a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly where he represented the Alimosho constituency for two terms, in the first instance, all through the House of Representatives to the upper legislative chamber, where he is now shinning like china wares, he has not lost confidence of his following at the grassroots.

With an experience spanning over two decades, Yayi has a long list of bills he has sponsored in the Senate. At his first Town Hall meeting held with the stakeholders after his election to give an account of his stewardship, he gave a catalogue of motions and bills he had sponsored since he clinched a seat in the red chamber to the admiration of his audience. The most significant of these is the bill for the establishment of a Federal College of Geological and Cement Studies Iselu. This, according to him, has passed the Second Reading and ready for public hearing at the committee stage. Others are awaiting listing for first reading.

When eventually approved, the college will be a good centre for learning and research. It will also improve the economy of the State and the country at large and by extension enhance the quality of life and living conditions of the people of the area. The timing for the proposed legislation is even more auspicious especially now that the Federal Government has shown renewed commitment to the diversification of the economy from oil dependence to mineral development.   

To further demonstrate his passion for the growth of education in Ogun West and his determination to support the only Federal Government-owned tertiary institution in Ogun West, Yayi has equally built and donated a state-of-the-art library to the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro to boost learning for the youths of his land of birth.

In one of his recent public statements, he said that the Senate would work with the Federal Government to make the nation’s educational institutions globally competitive for economic and technological development.

Other than his purposeful representation, Adeola’s reputation for philanthropy in his immediate constituent and beyond has no equal. Through his Foundation (Yayi Foundation), he has been giving awards of scholarship to youths of Ogun West willing to further their education in tertiary institutions of their choice nationwide. This has not stopped.

As part of his contributions to human capital development, Senator Adeola was also responsible for the sponsoring of a bill in the Senate seeking the upgrading of the only Federal Government higher school of learning in Ogun West to a university. The bill has passed all the necessary reading stages.

Before his intervention, the Ayetoro-Yewa campus of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye had been running on costly diesel until distinguished Senator Adeola sponsored the electrification project of the institution thereby bringing university education closer to the marginalized people of the Yewa community.

The recent commissioning of a block of classrooms and office complexes at the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED), Ijagun, Ijebu-Ode Federal College of Education (FCE), Osiele Abeokuta, all in Ogun State, is also another testament to his commitment to qualitative education for the youths of his constituent.

According to him, the projects valued at over N7 billion were sponsored by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND). During the inauguration of the project at FUNAAB, he assured that the 10th Senate would continue to support TETFUND to advance tertiary education through the enactment of legislation. The state’s former Commissioner for Agriculture, Prof Tope Popoola, who spoke on his behalf, said: “I wish to reiterate that the National Assembly would continue to work harmoniously with the Executive towards making our educational institutions globally competitive for economic and technological development of the country.”

It is, therefore, not surprising that Adeola has been honoured with an honorary Doctor of Accounting as a mark of his commitment to the socioeconomic development of his constituent.  In his speech at the occasion, the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibril, confirmed that Adeola had been using his position and influence to promote the development of his Ogun West Senatorial District and the State at large.

Adeleye writes from Obantoko, Abeokuta