Princess Abiodun Oyefusi is the Lagos East Senatorial candidate on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the daughter of the late Ayangbure of Ikorodu, His Royal Majesty, Oba Salaudeen Oyefusi. THE IMPACT reporter, Kunle ADELABU, engaged her after her House-to-House campaign on Friday, February 1, 2019, to get her reaction concerning her campaign so far. Excerpts:
IMPACT: Experience since the commencement of her campaign :
Oyefusi: It has been very interesting. I have been opportuned to interact and talk to the people one-on-one. I got to know what their concerns and needs are and where they expect improvement. The most important thing for them is that they get to know the candidate, speak and interact with her. This was very encouraging to them because they have been complaining that most times, they don’t get to know the candidates before voting for them. They are saying that they only see their faces on the campaign posters and that this is the first time that they are seeing a senatorial candidate coming to them. We also tried to assure them that the elections will be peaceful and that they should go out and exercise their rights.
IMPACT: Surmounting the incumbency power of the ruling party :
Oyefusi: Of course, my opponent has been at the State Assembly for 16 years but Assembly is quite different from the Senate. Senate is all about representing your people at the national level. My opponent, despite being at the Assembly for 16 years, has done nothing. If you go to Kosofe, you will not find anything that he has done for 16 years. Senate is not going to accommodate what they are doing at State Assembly and also you cannot give what you don’t have. There is no way that you can truly represent your people if you don’t know what you are going there to do. This is not about you being a godfather or philanthropist, but more about developmental issues; it’s about creating laws and bills that will help develop your people and nation; it’s about monitoring the responsibilities of the federal to the state and checkmating the executives. I am going there to represent my people and create bills that will have direct benefits on them. I will also make sure that I interact with them constantly through senatorial offices that we are going to have in all the constituencies. They are going to see the effects of all the constituency projects that are meant to augment what the federal and state governments are doing.
IMPACT: Areas of focus as a Senator :
Oyefusi: There are three key areas that are of great interest to me. The first one is the educational system. If you see what people are going through to educate their wards, you will know that the education they claim is free is actually not. There is no water and other facilities in most schools. How do you build a school without water? We have schools where infrastructures are appalling and no toilet and security for students. Another area is health. Where you have 500 people in a community, such community needs health facility. When people fall sick in most communities, they have to travel all the way and before they could have access to health, that sickness might have developed into something else. Health facilities need to be close to the people and in some communities, there is no water, they still go to the river to get water to drink and for domestic use.
IMPACT: Advice to electorate :
Oyefusi: My advice is that the people need to go out on the election day to vote. Do not be afraid or allow anybody to intimidate you. Don’t let anyone tell you that your vote doesn’t count because it does. More importantly, please, do not sell your votes because if you do, you will be denying your people developmental projects just because of N5000.
IMPACT: Take-out from House-To-House Campaign in Ikorodu :
Princess Oyefusi: My take on the campaign is that I felt the love of the people and I have to say a big thank you to my father because he left a big legacy. He left good legacy of development for his people. His good legacy motivated people to identify with me and believe that they are going to experience real development with me being their Senator. I was able to have direct contact with them and garnered their demands and requests.
