 |
| Hon. Femi Kehinde as he got the flag to run |
The event that witnessed the
presence of party members across the country commenced around 12pm with a hope
and an assurance to the people of Osun state that hard time is over. All
Grassroots Alliance in its official flag of had the roll calls of its national
chairman of the party in present, the state chairman and other executives and
working committees.
In his address, the state chairman,
Prince Ayoade Adanri as he handed over the party’s flag to the National Chairman,
Olukayode Oshiariyo, he described Femi Kehinde as a very reliable person the
state needs at this point in time. He said, “Our party is what the good people
of Osun need now. Olufemi Kehinde/ Alhaja Hafsat Lawal will bring a great
fortune to our state. The era of abject poverty will fade off in Osun, our
people should trust us with their votes, a vote for AGA is covenant for a
brighter and secured future. He said.
The national chairman of the
Party Oshiariyo in his words described All Grassroots Alliance as a party that
is committed to make the masses enjoy their existence as human beings. He said,
“Our party is purely for the masses, I could remember in the days of Pa Awolowo,
Nnamdi Azikiwe when they founded party, they claimed it was for the masses but
along the line, those party was actually formed by the noble and the
influential people in the society. The formation of AGA as a party was purely
the contributions of poor people; we did contributed money to get the party
registered. No one can boast of total ownership of the party, it was the
collective responsibility of so many people that put up the All Grassroots Alliance.
We did not collect any money from any money bag, so it belongs to the people
and it shall be for the masses of Nigeria.
 |
| With Ataoja of Osogbo |
Olufemi Kehinde in his
interview with journalists said, “Our government will focus mainly on how to generate
wealth and work for the prosperity of our people. In the whole of South-West,
Osun is well blessed with gold reserve in Atakumosa East Atakumosa west up to
Ife Central.
The entire belt of Itagunmodi,
Iperin; Owu-Epe; Ajana, they are abundant gold opportunities and our gold depth
fortunately is about 100 meters deep unlike South Africa where you have to go
about 500 meters deep and Ghana like 200 meters deep. The estimate by a
Professor from University of Ibadan, Professor Ogunlola about the gold resources
embedded on our soil worth 5.6 billion US dollar. We are in wealth but we are
living in poverty. We want to revamp this by going into a serious understanding
with professionals who will come and generate it to our advantage.
The Gubernatorial aspirant
stressed further that there is abundant wastage in governance, he said, “We are
ready to curb this and if we leverage on agricultural potential Osun state has;
we will be out of poverty. Nigeria produced 52 million metric tons of yams
every year, Osun state could be a beneficiary of this. Also there is cassava in
Osun state and have not taken advantage of it, meanwhile ethanol could be
gotten from cassava. There is no single bio-diesel plant in Osun state; going
into all these and many more are our goals to better the lives of our people.”
In his reaction to solving the
issues of salary in his first 100 days in office if elected, Olufemi said,
Salary is key to his government. He said, “Osun state has become a place where
workers get half pay, it has become habitual, now workers are owe 37 month
salary in Osun, this is ridiculous, all these shall be confronted vigorously in
our first 100 days. With my experience of over 35 years as a lawyer coupled
with political experience from being a counsellor to a law maker in Abuja with
an educationist as my running mate, I believe Osun will move to greater height.
He said, “In a situation where
all income is pushed into debt; how do you fund education, how do you motivate
teachers and other workers? I am not interested in engaging anybody in probe, I
want to face the windscreen, I will rather be a driver facing the wind screen
than engaging on things that will slow down the prosperity of my people.
“Naturally there is no government
that will not look into the books of a past administration, but I want to
assure you that our government is not for witch-haunting, we will look into
books so that we can proceed and develop the lives of our people.”
“I have been to 80 different
Royal kings across the state in Osun to seek for their blessings and they have
all given me their blessings. They knew our party is the real political party
that can deliver Osun from the fang of poverty.
In one of my visits, I told
Orangun of Ila that the college of education in his domain shall be upgraded to
a university in my first 6 months in the office. Since 1979 that the school was
established; it saddens my heart that the citadel of learning still remains a
college of Education till date. Our government will upgrade it and same will
happen to the college of education in Ilesa, they shall become a university of
learning.
 |
| As he paid obeisance to the king |
Reacting to the notion from
some quarters that it would be difficult for the party to oust out a popular
party in the state with structure, Barrister Femi Kehinde said, “If people
could recollect, Michael Otedola of NRC had no god father, and no viable structure
in Lagos but God in His infinite mercy gave him the seat against SDP and then
man ruled Lagos. Same thing happened to Olusegun Mimiko, his party then, Labour
Party was mocked by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, but Mimiko won and he
ruled for 8 years. God that did those wonders still lives, All Grassroots
Alliance will surprise people in Osun; we shall win and rule our people to prosperity.”
The gubernatorial aspirant with
his running mate, Alhaja Hafsat Lawal and other members of their party later paid a
courtesy visit to palace of Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji Olanipekun, the
king welcomed them and advised the politician to be of good conduct during their
pre and post-election period, he said this is the only way we can sustain our
democracy.
The party also promised the
king that All Grassroots Alliance will do all its best to give Royal fathers a
special place in its government.
No comments:
Post a Comment