“I have more than 70 out-of-school children in my scholarship scheme” — Irekandu

An architect and member of Osun State House of Assembly representing Obokun State Constituency, Adewumi Adeyemi talks about his one year in office as a public servant and what he’s doing for persons in disability in the state at large.

Reflecting on your first year in office, what do you consider your most significant accomplishments?

I clocked 1 year of my second term in office in June, and reflecting on my journey, I consider many things as my accomplishments in office. I have several initiatives on different programmes I do for the betterment of my constituents. For instance, looking at the education sector, I believe education is a tool we can use to end poverty in Nigeria. That’s why most of my initiatives have been focused on education.

There was data released some time ago which stated that the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria has been on the increase. So, I came up with initiatives on how to reduce them and start from my own Constituency. Presently, I have been able to take more than 70 out-of-school pupils and placed them on scholarship. I take care of other needs in their academic pursuit including their school fees. We have them in different classes, we have some of them in secondary schools.

There was once a young man I met on the road, he was hawking while he was supposed to be in school. Shortly after we finished the election, I called and asked him some questions. I realized that he was someone we needed to help. I think he was in JSS 3 or going to SS 1. He was just one out of many we helped.

Very soon, we will be doing more because they are resuming now and we have to pay their tuition fees and maintain them throughout their school years. I will pay for those in secondary schools till they finish and those in primary school will be paid for, till they get to secondary school and finish too.

In the same vein, we have some final year students in secondary school who want to write their final papers, especially WAEC, but have difficulties. I paid for more than 40 students from my constituency, NECO SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME SUPPORT, an initiative of the IREKANDU BACK TO SCHOOL PROJECT.

Another thing I do in education, because it can be formal or informal training in Obokun Constituency. I have over 600 women trained in collaboration with the Enterprise Development Center (EDC), Pan Africa University. We had 200 people in 3 batches. We trained them on entrepreneurship. We weighed in businesses they can do and see how they can maximize the profits. It was for women between 18 – 35 years of age.

We are not just training them, we are providing opportunities to access funds and the EDC has said they will provide funds for those that require them. The Center will do advertisements for those who are in need of it free of charge.

We have also established a cooperative society for women in Obokun Constituency, by the grace of God, it will be launched soon. It will be an interest-free initiative and they will have to revolve the money among themselves, especially those that have been trained, and the fund I will be given belongs to them entirely. It has been registered already. You know I said we had trained 600 persons and we are continuing.

On physical projects, I have the Irekandu Water Scheme, we are doing that. We also have some renovations going on in collaboration with the Agency for Community and Social Development Project (CSDP)  alias OSUN CSDP.

Another one that comes to mind is the 33 KVA transformer in Obokun. We have been having issues with electricity supply for years now and the problem is with the feeder from Ilesha. It affected 96% of Obokun Constituency. I wrote the ministry of energy and the Governor known for his compassion for his people approved it. It was flagged off two weeks ago.

That’s part of our duty, it is to bring the voice of the people to the central Government, amplify it and make sure their yearnings are met. We still have some letters of request and the governor has assured me they will all be attended to. We have another road construction in Obokun Constituency, in Obokun precisely. It’s part b what Governor Ademola Adeleke did as soon as he was sworn in into office.

I also have a food scheme, Irekandu Food Support which I use to periodically donate food to the vulnerable – PWDs, widows, elderly, etc. My wife handles that. She helps me out, we would go to different wards and distribute. We do this so as to cushion the effects of hunger and poverty. I understand that poverty is on the increase.

I also have a “pet project” called New Gen Leadership. This is inspired by my belief that one of the problems we have as a society is leadership. I use it as a platform to mentor youths, aspiring leaders, people who have interest in governance and leadership. I started in my constituency and now extended to Osun State. I teach and mentor them. I share my experiences, tell them what I could have done better so they can do better. If anyone is having a challenge, we have a platform that we will use to communicate, discuss and solve them. That’s part of what we have been able to.

Could you elaborate on the journey of the disability bill you sponsored and how its passage into law will benefit your constituents and Osun State at large?

One of the things I have been able to do and I love was the Disability Bill that’s passed into law. Prohibition Against Discrimination against People Living With Disabilities (PWDs).

It’s a fantastic bill. One of the bills I love so much. The thing is, anyone who has a right to vote also has a right to benefit from the dividends of democracy and benefit from government.

How would it be if someone who has a right to vote be deprived of his benefits from the same government he voted in? I have people with Disabilities who voted for me in my Constituency. And I’m sure it’s the same with everyone including the governor. There are 28 people who were elected. So, if they can muster the courage to go and vote, they should be allowed to benefit from the government too. This is why I took it upon myself.

Well, this bill was first submitted at the 7th Assembly. Unfortunately, for best reasons known to them, it was not considered. I resubmitted it in the 8th Assembly and it was passed. Not only passed but signed into law. This was one of the first bills I submitted when we resumed.

In other words, it’s a criminal offense to discriminate against anyone living with Disabilities. It’s now an offense and has a jail term attached.

The origin of the bill is that a former commissioner for women affairs in the state introduced a young man to me. That was in the 7th Assembly. He was challenged, visual impairment, but I did not know. He used to chat with me on WhatsApp and he has a Degree from University of Lagos (UNILAG). He could also play keyboards and drum sets. When I met him, I was truly inspired. The only thing he asked for was he needed a job and I gave my assurance, but I could not get it for him – as Providence will have it. That’s when it dawned on me that we need to have a law in place that will assure people with disabilities of job opportunities. So, for instance, if the government wants to do recruitment, they will need to leave a quota – no matter how small – for people with disabilities, this will ensure equity.

I did some research and I discovered we had a law in Abuja at the National Assembly on it, so I domesticated it and submitted it at the 7th Assembly. We thank God today it’s now a law.

Education is now free for PWDs, as well as healthcare. Even before the Governor signed the bill into law, he mandated all People Living With Disabilities to go register for the Osun State Health Insurance Scheme so they can benefit from the free health care from the state government.

It’s also a crime to discriminate against someone who’s working for you because he’s living with a disability. Or you sack someone off the job because of his disability.

So, if someone has an accident in the course of working for you, we will encourage you to keep the person in the job, while we understand that it may be difficult to keep the person working for you because of the disability. There may be a kind of money you will be paying the person. So, the law is all encompassing. It also has a bureau which will be managed by people living with disabilities or people interested in people living with disabilities. In other words, the people with disabilities will be the ones managing their own affairs. They will be included in everything that has to do with the Osun State Government.

Access to buildings is part of it. You know some of them have difficulties accessing public buildings, as they use wheelchairs and clutches as the case may be, so by this law, we have given a time frame to every building in Osun state be corrected and allow people with disabilities access. So, it’s all encompassing. I have met with PWDs through their associations several times and I see the joy in their faces.

I sincerely appreciate the Speaker, Rt Hon Prince Adewale Olumide Egbedun, for supporting this kind of initiative. Without his support, this might not be possible. I must also appreciate the Governor. He has an interest since it was submitted to the floor of the House. Even as the bill was scaling through Readings, he had been expecting it so he could append his signature and make it a law.

I also appreciate the House Committee on Youth and Special Needs, and all house of Assembly members. I have also submitted a number of bills, but they are not laws yet. And, I will still submit more bills.

How do you engage with your constituents?

Yes, I have been engaging with my Constituents. Regardless of what I do on the floor of the House, I must give back to the people who sent me here. I engage with them from time to time, the last one was less than two weeks ago. I give them updates and I also hear from them.

I have a Constituency Office where I take feedback and all my social media pages are active. There was a time I visited kings in my constituency. I went to the palaces so as to get feedback from our Royal fathers. It’s in the course of these visits that I noticed one palace in Esa Oke, Ilare Palace precisely. I was not pleased and appealed to the king to make me give it a face-lift. This was done. I was able to know this because I went to them.

Can you share the challenges you faced while implementing your agenda during this first year?

Well, I was a minority member at the 7th Assembly. There were just three of us. We served under Rt Hon Timothy Owoeye. The challenges we had in those days were anyone any minority members will have, because the majority always have their ways and the minority always have their say. Well, like I said, I submitted some bills that didn’t see the light of the day

Why?

Well, that’s best known to the House and Speaker. All the three bills that were submitted to this Assembly had been submitted to the previous Assembly. They were not considered. You know leaders see further than the followers.

Are you saying Hon Timothy Owoeye had seen some things, especially in these bills, that Hon Egbedun is not seeing?

What I will say is that the party had the majority then. And I will say Rt Hon Egbedun has a listening ear and wants to record progress. He wants to do things that will project and progress the course of the 8th Assembly. So, seeing a bill as a Disability Bill is good and best for a people-oriented House to pass.

The difference now is that we are in the majority and go in line with the agenda of the Governor. The Governor has a human face and will do things that will better the lots of the people. That’s what the Rt Hon Egbedun-led House is doing.

Can you discuss the scholarship programme for the 70 pupils—how were the recipients selected, and what are your long-term goals for this initiative?

I have more than 70 of them. I shared the story of a boy who’s on the street hawking while he’s supposed to be in school. That’s the kind of cases I take up. We will then proceed to take consent of their parents and or guardians. We are taking them out of the streets and taking them to education.

I have representatives in the constituency. I have ten wards and I have more than 20 towns. That means, I have more than 20 bearded kings. These are parts of ways we use to get information. These stories are overwhelming, but we hope to add more.

I realize that even those who are not out-of-school, the conditions they go to school in, is pitiable. Having issues with shoes and no good clothes on them. We need to return as many people as possible to school.

What have you been doing in employment for women and human capital development?

Let me share what’s recent with you. I gave a grant to some women after a training session. This was because I was inspired by their resilience and enthusiasm during the course of the programme. I come to know that one of them used the money to buy more wares in her shop and she’s doing fine.

Another one is a woman living with a disability. She could not hear or talk, she communicated to me through an interpreter that she had learned hairdressing and she only needs some equipment. She just wanted a hairdryer. I promised to do more for her. So, I called people who trained her and they gave me a list of everything she needed for her graduation and to get her established.

I also went to their meeting to speak to them, and they made me realize that I had to pay some amount for her freedom and I did. I paid some two years rent for her. Today, she’s independent. She may not be making billions, but the fact that she’s able to fend for herself and take care of her responsibilities is enough.

You said you have ten wards and more than 20 kings, how have you been managing communal clashes or resolving disputes as a representative of your constituency?

By grace of God, we have not had any communal issues. There could be issues on boundaries and all, but it has not resulted in comatose. They are being handled maturely. Most of these things don’t get to my table because the kings and baales take charge of all these things.

We all are brothers. People from Ilare are related to people from Obokun, and people from Obokun, and same with people from Otan Ilé and Ipetu Ile. We are all one family, so we have not been having issues that require government interventions or declaration of curfew. Most of these things are being settled in court.

Let’s go a bit higher: what is your assessment of President Tinubu’s performance so far, particularly in addressing inflation and the rising hunger among Nigerians?

First of all, let me create a kind of picture, the challenges we are facing in Nigeria are not novel. They are not new. These things have been happening for several decades. Is it today we start having fuel scarcity or hike in its price? Is it today we start protesting against the government’s decisions? NANS and NLC have always been protesting. By the grace of God, I’m 40 years old. Since the time I know left from right, we have been shouting “Up NEPA”. We still do till date.

The challenges confirm that we have been revolving in a circle. And there’s a way forward. We need to check our leadership.

On the administration of Tinubu, I’m sure he wants to be successful too. I don’t see any administration that will tell you it wants to record failure. I will just encourage him.

I love his decision on local government financial autonomy. He fought to ensure that the local government gets financial autonomy. That is going to solve lots of our problems because the local government is the closest government to the people. No matter what you do at the Federal and state levels, if it doesn’t get to local government, it is as if you have not done anything. I had released a statement on it.

But the Osun State Government joined other state governments to challenge the Federal Government decision. What’s your take?

Before the Supreme Court judgment, the Governor Ademola Adeleke-led Osun State Government through OSSIEC that he formed immediately he came on board, has released a notification of LG election.

The Supreme Court has the final verdict. If the government is not in support of LG election, we wouldn’t have released a notification of LG election, we wouldn’t have amended OSSIEC laws, to allow them work effectively.

We even reverted to the old number of LGAs and removed all the LCDAs, so the election will be held in 30 LGAs.

If the Governor doesn’t want the democratically elected local government chairmen, he wouldn’t have fixed the elections a year before and months before the Supreme Court Judgement. It’s one of the campaign promises of Governor Ademola Adeleke.

And, I think the president should understand that there’s suffering in the land. We know but he needs to make us know that he’s working around the clock to make this hunger disappear. I think one of the ways is to talk to us, not by reading prepared statements written by media aides. Speak to us, from your heart. Tell us what you are facing. “These and these are the challenges you are facing. In the next one, two weeks, three weeks, these are the steps we are going to take and solve them.”

I learned leadership while on campus, and I learned the importance of communication. Communication is part of the skills of a leader. If a leader cannot communicate, it doesn’t matter how good you are — once people don’t know what you are doing, they are free to form any opinion in their mind.

The president needs to talk to us. I do that to my constituents. I’m just enjoining the President to communicate with us. We voted you in, he should try as much as possible to communicate everything he’s doing to reduce the inflation in Nigeria.

How do you think poverty can be reduced in Nigeria?

I believe in education. Education and more education. Let’s invest in education. When we talk about education, we don’t mean the four walls of the classroom alone. Now, what are we producing in Nigeria? If you look at statistics of what’s in this office now, you can guess which of them is being produced in Nigeria. Raw materials. Thank God for Dangote now, we are refining our fuel.

We need to increase our productivity level and to do that, we need to make our education better. Without education, we will continue to be poor.

I’m an architect. I’m doing my PhD programme in architecture. If you want good artisans to handle your job, most of them are not from Nigeria, we bring them from neighboring countries because their technical education is sound. So, they have trained their carpenters, their masons (bricklayers) and others. They will give you clean construction. So, if we are talking about education, I don’t mean formal education, let’s improve in all ramifications of educational experience.

What’s the essence of people having certificates without value? We are churning out graduates year in, year out without productivity. So, I will implore the President to invest heavily in education. When he does that, I feel our challenges and problems will be solved.

How would you evaluate Governor Adeleke’s performance in Osun State, especially concerning infrastructural projects?

His Excellency, Governor Ademola Adeleke has performed credibly well. If he doesn’t invest heavily in infrastructure, other developments may not come in. He is the real architect of modern Osun.

There are different constructions going on in Osogbo. He’s dualizing roads, especially those that have economic benefits. There’s no local government that the Governor has not tarred at least a minimum of 1.5 kilometers of road. And there’s no Senatorial District that has not done a dual carriageway including an overhead bridge.

In Osun Central, we are having a dual carriageway with an overhead bridge in Okefia, in Osun West, there’s another one going on in Ede, one going on IN Ile-Ife and Ilesha.

The Governor also continued all the abandoned projects he met on ground. He believes Government is a continuum and the fact that he met a particular project he didn’t initiate doesn’t mean he should not finish it. This was what informed the completion of Ikirun road. He did that within 100 days in office. So, I give it to the Governor.

He initiated water projects across the state.

He also employed teachers. What impressed me about this is that the Governor said the recruitment will be merit based. No party affairs, no slot, but purely merit based. The Governor said he wants qualified teachers to teach his students.

Are there specific areas where you believe the Governor has excelled or needs to improve?

I will just admonish the Governor not to get tired, because when there are results, there could be some criticism. The Governor is generating results. A few days ago, we had an Industrial Summit, where the Governor was the Chief Host. The Governor is trying to Industrialize the state and invited investors from Malaysia, Britain, South Africa and all. That means, Osun State won’t be known as a Civil Servants state but an Industrious State.

In Agriculture, he distributed tractors, fertilizers and inputs to farmers. This is in a bid to make the state the food basket of the Nation.

I will love to encourage the Governor not to give up and I will advise that every vision he has before he is sworn in, he should not forget them. He should keep on working on them. People are watching.

Have you heard of the Edenization of Osun? It’s being said a good chunk of goodies in Governor Ademola Adeleke’s government are being domiciled in Ede, his hometown.

I don’t know about that. If I had mentioned only Ede and not Osogbo, Ile-Ife, Ilesha in the dual carriageway with overhead bridges project, those saying that might be right, but that Edenization of Osun is absolutely wrong.

Would you believe that the 33KVA didn’t not require much lobbying before I got it done? It only took a letter from my office to the Governor through the ministry of energy and it was effectively attended to.

Lobbying is part of the government. For me and any other person to get anything done, we need to lobby members. If you know me, you can lobby me. So, if someone knows someone who knows the Governor and he lobbies for him, I don’t think there’s anything wrong therein. As long as you don’t break any laws and it is bringing development to the state. The 33KVA I got for my people, is it not helping the state? If it takes me to lobby someone from Ede, I will do it.

You see, Government is big and there are so many people in government. If I know you know President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I can reach out to you to connect me to him.

I saw a visual from Ogun state, of a king appreciating the Governor Dapo Abiodun. I think he kneeled down and that caused a lot of furore online. I heard the statement he made afterwards, that if he was in private with the Governor he would prostrate for him, you know why? He was not requesting, but appreciating the Governor for what he had done. I can’t remember the details, but he was very happy. I don’t say kings should be prostrating for Governors because it’s against Yorùbá culture.

We have had governors from Okuku, Iragbiji and some other places, and if we have a Governor from some other place later, everybody in that place will have a level of influence on their Governor. And anybody who knows anybody can use the influence.

As you look ahead, what are your top priorities for the coming year, and how do you plan to further support your constituents?

I will continue to build on my programmes. I have programmes on education, on health, food support, empowerment, training. Very soon, we will be giving grants and equipment to my constituents. Many of us are farmers in Obokun and many of us are small scale traders. We believe the small scale traders will become big. So, they started from somewhere. I will continue with these. So, it’s all about employment, education and representation. It’s all about making them proud. It’s a privilege for me to be representing them, so I promise them greater representation.

And I have been having positive feedback.

It’s said you are one of the people who contested the leadership of the House with Rt Hon Wale Egbedun, because you felt you deserved the seat as a returning lawmaker…..

I did not contest. If you observe what played out on the floor on that day, you will realize that it was a unanimous decision. We had just one nomination.

It’s always a privilege to be called to service, as I am in the House of Assembly now, but it’s not a do or die affair. We want to serve people. That’s the essence of all the struggles. So, every opportunity you have to serve should be fully utilized.

And on ranking membership of the House, this is our party, and we always respect the decision of the party. The Governor is the leader of the party. They gave a directive and we have to align with it.

Are there any new initiatives or legislation you are currently working on that the public should be aware of?

I’m working on several bills. One of them is Property Protection Bill because I observe government and private people’s properties get destroyed and nobody takes responsibility for it. If there’s a protest and properties get destroyed, who’s going to take care of that? So, there should be a law in place to protect them – government and public properties. I have not submitted this.

So, there are two others I have submitted: Community Social Responsibility and Local Content Bills, the former is to ensure that companies embark on some developmental projects for their host communities and the latter is to make sure the government purchases local products by indigenous businesses.

We are also looking at domestication of the Federal Government’s Students Loan Bill in Osun State. I have not submitted that one either.

Governor Ademola Adeleke dismissed some teachers when he just came to office. What’s your reaction to that?

The Governor believes in due process. We all know the recruitment was done at the tail end of the last administration.

Same extended to Obaship?

I believe the two cases were similar. Due process was not followed. The government didn’t tempered with those that are in court, but those that are not in court and due process were not followed were reversed.

But the acts incited violence?

Where is the violence? Is there violence now and are they still fighting? I understand that this was natural because people will react in some way. It has all been resolved now.

What legacy do you hope to leave at the end of your term, and how do you plan to achieve it?

Impact and quality representation. I want it to be said that, “there’s a House of Assembly member that passed through this place and gave people quality representation and quality Constituency engagements.” I wish to be remembered for how I have been able to inspire leadership, how I have been able to positively impact my people. I want to be known as one person that sparks leadership instinct in people. I believe we have leadership deficiency in Nigeria.

What are your prospective political plans?

Well, I have a principle that works for me. While I was on campus, I served as PRO of the students Union in 2006/2007. I later won the presidency of the students union in FUTA. Before I became the president, questions were asked, “REEVOO (coined from Revolution), won’t you aspire for this, won’t you aspire for that?” I told I was still in school and had duties and responsibilities to fulfill at that time. If any other opportunity presented itself later in the future, fine. That’s the same answer I will give now. I’m currently an Osun State House of Assembly member, which is a huge privilege which I intend to focus on.

Are you recontesting?

Any opportunity that presents itself to serve, I will  embrace it.