With Sheriff Musa, Ado-Odo/Ota LG Will Witness Massive Development Ogun- APC Chieftain, Segun Ojuko

My name is Hon. Segun Ojolowo Ojuko. I am a leader of the party from Ota Ward 2 and I am also a leader of the party in the local government. Hon. Sheriff Musa might look very young, but he has been in politics for a very long time. As young as he is, he has been in politics for decades now. He is the kind of person that should rule this local government. This is because of his personality, he is somebody I know quite well. I know him in and out and I know he is going to perform. He is not someone that believes too much in materialism. He is somebody who believes in people, he is a team player. I can assure you that he is going to work well very well with his councillors. He will not see himself as the sole owner of the local government. Sheriff Musa is somebody that is loved by everybody because of his person. I have never seen Sheriff Musa getting angry for once and I have known him for about 20 or 25 years. If you know someone for such a long period and you didn’t see him getting angry over an issue then who else do you need. He is somebody that can absorb pressure, somebody that can take so much pressure without even making any negative response about things. We should all congratulate ourselves for having Sheriff Musa as the party’s Chairmanship Candidate for the local government.

The local government needs a lot of turn over and I want him to concentrate on revenue generation. Ado-Odo/Ota is seen as the financial hub of Ogun state. As a local government that is looked upon as the major part of the revenue of the state is being generated from it, it has to reflect on the local government from roads, to health and education. We cannot leave everything for the state government to handle. Local Governments should be able to handle some areas and the only way to do this is by generating revenue on their own without affecting the people of the local government. I have Iived in Ota for so many years and I know how local governments generate revenues to sort themselves out. Sheriff Musa was a banker, be worked in a bank for so many years. He is a prudent person, and so whatever he raises as revenue from the local government, he is going to make judicious use of it. I want him to sit down and look at the way he can raise revenue such that the local government would not need to wait for the state government before do whatever they want to do.

The autonomy that people are talking about, it is usually about the money that comes from the purse of the Federal Government. They want the money to come straight from the federal government to them. If a local government like our own and someone like Sheriff Musa becomes the Chairman and he is in-charge of the local government, I can assure you that he will raise revenue without waiting for anybody. It happened in Lagos State, when former president Olusegun Obasanjo did not give them the money meant for the local governments, and they were running the council well. So, Ado-Odo/Ota too can run.

Why not, we have never had it so good like this before. Few days ago, Governor Dapo Abiodun of the state commissioned 130 housing units at Kemta in Abeokuta, the state capital within how many years. Just within one-year because COVID-19 took one year. I am the Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to the Governor on Housing, as I speak, we have 300 units of housing, flats ready for commissioning in the next two weeks in Kobape. So the Governor is somebody that will give everybody opportunity to generate funds and develop their areas. He is a gentle man and a gentle worker. Some people said he is slow, but when you are slow you are steady. Our Governor is doing what the people want and not what is important. There are what is important and what the people want. What the people want is paramount in what the Governlor is doing. That is why everybody is clapping for him as he is doing what the people want and what they requested him to do.

Unfortunately, we are disadvantaged in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government because we are surrounded by federal roads. Look at Sango-Idiroko express road, Lagos-Abeokuta Road, Atan-Agbara Road and the Governor has even taken that one up now, he is going to repair it. From Sango to Ijoko, and Akute. Road are federal roads. When the Governor got into office, the first two major roads he did were Ilo-Awela and Obasanjo-Navy Road. If he had left those two roads, we would have been trapped and no one would have been able to come inside Ota. But I can assure you that the Governor is not resting. I wrote the Deputy Governor about one of our roads just yesterday and they will do something about it too. Talking about palliatives on the roads, these are just waste of money to me. Palliatives have gone into that road more than four times since the beginning of this administration. But for our people to enjoy, permanent solution would be found to it. I am sure that our Governor is not resting on his oars, he is going to make sure that the road is repaired.

What else can I tell them. There is always a process in politics, it could be consensus, election or hand picking of candidates and there is always going to be more than one persons aspiring for one position.

I mean for the election since Hon. Sheriff Musa has been adopted as the Chairmanship Candidate of the party in the area,

they are going to vote for him now.

This goes beyond Hon. Sheriff Musa, what of the councillors because some people are not too happy with the councillors that were chosen.  But it is always like that in politics. There is always going to be aggrieved persons. Some people would believe that they were cheated. But we are going to do reconciliation meetings amongst the councillors, and chairmanship aspirants. I just left a meeting as a member of the mobilisation committee of the local government election campaigns. All the councillorship candidates were there and we told them to go back home and see themselves as the candidates of everybody rather than candidates of particular groups. Some people complained about some of them and we told them to go and adjust. We will go to every ward and address all the aspirants during the process. We will address them and appeal to them.

I am not privy to that to be sincere with you. But whatever the case may be, we will do all that we can do to neutralize whatever they are trying to do.

Confidence is in the hands of God Almighty, but I know that with what we are doing we are going to win no doubt about it.