An umbrella body for youths in Agege Local Government, the Agege Youth Vanguard, has purchased the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmanship nomination form for Abdul-Ganiyu Vinod Obasa, the son of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
The group announced this at a press conference held on Thursday at the council secretariat.
Vinod Obasa has expressed interest in the chairmanship race of the district amid criticism from various quarters.
The Coordinator of the group, Ismaeel Garba, stated that the group’s interest was neither motivated by personal gain nor aimed at making the district a private fiefdom of any political leader.
He added, “We will all agree that the change we desire in Nigeria can only be achieved when the country is in good hands; and key to the development of a nation is its grassroots management.
“Therefore, for Nigeria to get out of its present challenges, our local governments must get it right.
“To us in Agege Youth Vanguard, the journey to the promised land starts with ensuring that the council does not fall into the wrong hands regarding the next Chairman and seven councillors who will manage the affairs of millions of residents and business operators that make up our community.
“On our part, we conducted thorough background checks on aspirants for both chairmanship and councillorship positions in all the wards based on information available to us, and arrived at the following decisions:
“That the best man for the council’s chairmanship job is Abdul-Ganiyu Vinod Obasa.
“That his academic record surpasses that of all other chairmanship aspirants across all parties. For your information, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, England, and a Master’s degree in Accounting and Finance from Aston University, Birmingham, England. A PhD student at Babcock University, Abdul-Ganiyu is an affiliate member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
“That the work experience of other aspirants is no match for his, which includes positions at Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), Providus Bank Limited, and Parallex Bank Limited, where he served as Head of Performance Management and Strategy. Currently, he runs a private business, a thriving real estate venture.
“That none of the chairmanship aspirants have his record in terms of community service in Agege. This is exemplified by his football academy, VINOD, which currently has four football talents in Europe on the brink of signing professional contracts.
“That the fact that his father is the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly must not deny Agege its best chance to reach new heights.
“That we will mobilise all the good people of Agege, including his indifferent father, to support him.
“We have put our money where our mouth is by contributing N5m among our members to purchase the APC nomination form for Abdul-Ganiyu to enable him to contest in the party primary.
“In the same vein, seven councillorship aspirants across all the wards, whom we find worthy to manage the affairs of our local government alongside him, will be given free APC nomination forms by us.”
Garba commended the outgoing Chairman of the Council, Alhaji Ganiyu Egunjobi (JP), for improving the local government during his tenure.
He said, “Agege under his watch has witnessed tremendous development in terms of infrastructure and human capital. As they say, ‘The reward for a good job is more job.’ So keep it up.”
A chieftain of the party and one of the leading aspirants for the chairmanship race, Remi, stated that Vinod Obasa has been actively involved in the political process in the council area.
He said, “I can confidently say, as a chieftain of the APC, Vinod has been active in all our programmes over the last decade. He is a bona fide member of the APC and has participated in all party elections. His philanthropic gestures are beyond doubt. He has been part and parcel of our electoral processes, and now is his time to contest. We are confident that come 12 July, he will be sworn in as the Chairman of Agege Local Government. We have aligned with the choice of Agege Youth Vanguard.”
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