A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State, Mr Gbenga Akinwande, has declared his intention to run for the local government chairmanship seat in Yewa North Local Government Area in the state.
Akinwande, who has been an advocate of financial autonomy for local governments in the country, noted that it will be unpatriotic of him to now fold his arms at a time poor leadership and economic skills have taken over the affairs of Yewa North Local Government Area.
The socioeconomic and community development advocate disclosed that he had expended over a hundred million naira in the last decade towards the development of Ogun West, especially in scholarship programmes, sports development in schools and communities, palliatives/economic relief programmes during the COVID-19 pandemic, donation of motorcycles to National Population Commission (NPC), construction of pedestrian crossing across schools, just to mention a few.
“None of my fellow contenders in this chairmanship contest has taken such tough decisions and efforts towards the development of our communities,” he said.
He disclosed that, if elected chairman of the local government, he would lead the economic transformation of the area and grow its economy by N50 billion yearly.
“If elected, I will leverage on the last five years of Governor Dapo Abiodun’s hard-work and economic transformation to grow Yewa North Local Government Area’s economy by N50 billion yearly by exploring the Malaysia economic approach of the 1980s. Yewa North Local Government Area has a population of about 400,000 people on an area of about 2,000 square km, with an active working population of about 300,000 people and l will explore these strengths to our advantage. Many of these young people will become multi-millionaires in a few years as my administration will incorporate and explore modern techniques and technologies such as drones to boost farming activities
“If elected, l will also explore internal generated revenue (IGR) particularly taxes; the idea of the new government is to get most of our population productive to be able to pay taxes. Our tax payment method will be formalised and digitalised. A new economy approach and payroll payment solutions will be adopted
“I will restructure the educational system in such a way that no school will lack any major teachers, especially the sciences, mathematics and English teachers. I will also explore opportunities for linguistics study
“I will restructure the educational system, such in a way that no school will lack any major teachers, especially in Science, Technology, English and Mathematics (STEM). I will also explore opportunities for linguistics study.
“Another area of priority if elected is security of lives and property. In Yewa North Local Government today, we are fighting two wars; a war against herdsmen and another o against poverty. Both these wars are wars of choices, l believe with proactiveness, we can overcome these challenges. Although, with the ascendancy of PBAT, the security situation has improved, I will put in place solid plans that will curtail those poisonous herdsmen in the future, so that our people can go to their farms and then we are able to defeat the war against poverty permanently,” he explained.
While reeling out his contributions at the grassroots level in the area of security, Akinwande said: “In the last four years, I have donated hundreds of thousands of naira to the vigilante’s groups in Ketu, Ayetoro and Imeko axis to flush out and diffuse these killers in our communities. I have also been involved in perimeter wiring and provision of generator set for the police station at Ayetoro. I will further explore upgrading of the vigilantes groups in Ketu, Iju and Ayetoro.
“Health, youths and sports, social security, women affairs, e-government, among others, are all areas that are vital and important to my administration if elected the next executive chairman of Yewa North Local Government Area.”
Speaking further on his principles, he said: “I will learn from the mistakes of the two legendaries of our democracy, late Chief Gani Fawehimi (SAN) and Chief Femi Falana (SAN), who initially joined hands with NADECO and Afenifere to fight the military, but after the military returned to the barracks in 1999. Rather than fusing together with the likes of Abraham Adesanya, Bola Tinubu, Segun Osoba and co in the then Alliance for Democracy (AD), where these two great men should have gotten to the senate and helped shape our laws, their decision to form the National Conscience Party (NCP) had devastating effects on our democracy till date.”
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