By Akombo Aondona, Abuja
A frontline governorship aspirant in Ondo state, Chief Olusola Oke, SAN, over the weekend pledge to reduce poverty and end insecurity in Ondo state through agriculture and the reintroduction of technical education in the state to engage the people meaningfully.
Oke stated this at the APC Media Centre while addressing APC correspondents shortly after submitting his governorship nomination and expression of interest forms at the APC National Secretariat Abuja.
Chief Oke said what poverty does is to take away shame from individuals and make most of them a threat to peaceful coexistence among citizens.
His words: “My motivation is not the love of the office, I have enough cash on me. As a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, I have reached the pinnacle of my career and I am doing very well in my profession. So if it is wealth, comfort, I have all of that. But I have gone through history and I never read where a man is remembered or recognized for eating very well, dressing very well and having a good house. A man will only be remembered for standing up when his people are being challenged.
“Ondo state at this moment as it’s always in Nigeria, has problems, which require a man of courage, vision, sense of direction. Created in1976, for those of you who are familiar with the environment will agree with me that we have deficit in every phase of our lives which I think required a new order orientation, a new philosophy of believing in Ondo state”.
Chief Oke continued: “What was a major economic platform of the South West in the past was agriculture. Each time I try to interlocate what is responsible for the level of poverty we have in that community, I discovered in the cause of it that it is because we have abandoned the mainstream of our economy which is agriculture. During the Awolowo days, farm settlements were built, creating a situation where people were migrating from urban to rural areas because in those farms settlements there was light, water, basic amenities. Ondo state was the major beneficiary of that policy in those days. But since the creation of the state in 1976, no government has made any effort to open up her resources in our forest. Having discovered that this is responsible for the level of poverty in Ondo state, my decision if I become the governor of Ondo state, first by the grace of God is to open up the farmland. In every local government area, I’ll open up good roads. We will traverse the entire landscape of the farmland. I’ll build farmer’s guest house inside the farm land. Any farmer who wants to go and do farm work and don’t want to come back on daily basis even if they have vehicle, the cost of fueling you have a place there where you can sleep one or two weeks. I’ll bring equipments that will help farmers to clear their land . I’ll provide security and other incentives for the farmers.
“If we do these, we will reduce the level of poverty in Ondo state. What poverty does is to take away shame from you. And when a man is shameless, he can do anything. That’s why the level of criminality in Ondo state is very perversive. Everywhere there is a crime. I want to applaud the major role of my brother and friend, who has gone to answer God Almighty’s call, Chief Rotimi Akeredolru, SAN. He did a lot in terms of security but I think what is remaining is to extend it to protect our farmers in their farmlands.
“Another discovery that I made is that technical education which used to be very important in those days is down not just in Ondo state but the entire South West. People who would not make it to university now lack capacity because there is no technical education. Most of technical schools have gone down. Things that the youths could learn and give them opportunity to work are not there. Under my administration, I’ll revive technical education. I’ll build people capacity.”
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