Accord Party candidate for Egbeda State Constituency seat at the Oyo State House of Assembly, Olamide Ogundokun has raised concerns on under-utilisation of dam’s as one of the reasons for Nigeria’s prevailing socio-economic challenges.
Narrowing his concerns to Oyo state, Ogundokun speaking on AIM FM TV’s Politics Today on Wednesday, described Egbeda Local Government as a blessing to the state adding that a giant project like Asejire Dam has a great potential to stimulate economic growth if tapped to.
“There is a need for us to bring Asejire to life. Aside from the fact that the dam has the capacity to generate electricity and water for irrigation activities in the Southwest, it can also help promote tourism and enhance agricultural businesses. It will also aid massive job opportunities and wealth creation for our people,” he said.
“The Only natural resources oyo state can tap in Egbeda local government and that is the Asejire Reservoir, areas around the dam are rural areas and I believe in the productivity of the dam, with good system of irrigation, fish farming, the source of water can also be useful for some industries, though some are using it already, the likes of Coca cola and Nigeria brewery.”
He added, “We can also create a water spot through that dam, that a lot of people will benefit from, look at the employment formula, there is no equity fairness in the company I earlier mentioned benefiting from the Asejire Reservoir, I personally feel there should be a law that will take care if at least 30% of Egbeda youth employed in those companies.”
According to Ogundokun, the presence of an international airport in Ibadan would complement the activities of the Ibadan inland dry port and accelerate the derivation of the expected socio-economic benefits from the inland dry port.
“Egbeda also has an airport and if we have a serious government, we can make it a cargo airport and a lot of people will also benefit from it.”
“If the airport is upgraded, it will attract more foreign investments and the benefits would not only be to Ibadan or South West but the country in general, it would also attract foreign investment to the region, economic development to both Oyo State and other neighbouring states in the South West, and improve the quality of life of the people and ultimately increase the gross domestic product, GDP of the country.” he added.
The State House hopeful while further unveiling his agenda, premised on qualitative, passionate, visible and result-oriented representation for the constituency, which he alleged had been lacking in the constituency.
Ogundokun also lamented that successive leaders had failed his constituency in the last two decades, promising to continue with his empowerment programs in his constituency aimed at tackling poverty and unemployment if elected.
“I see people representing us at the house of assembly ripping us, I think they have failed in their duties, I am unapologetic about this, the man representing us in Egbeda is doing nothing, they don’t know their duties as law makers in the house, which is supposed to be oversight functions, the legislatures feels they are not visible because people don’t even know their duties.”
“There beautiful things in Egbeda that has paved way for any representative, Egbeda is supposed to be the commercial centre of Oyo state because no local government in Oyo state has what Egbeda is blessed with, the largest market in Oyo state is situated in Egbeda, that is the Gbagi market.”
“I want to know if the revenue the government is getting from that market is proportional to the employment opportunities available on the state, the tax generated from that market needs to fine-tuned, because majority are going into some individuals pocket, as a representative, the first priority is to look into that area, when I was younger there was a car park in that market, I don’t know what changed.”
May God bless you,these are the leader we want