Kunle ADELABU
It was commendation galore from the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), for Hon. Wasiu Adesina, Chairman, Ikorodu Local Government, for his sterling performances in his two years in office.
The commendations were delivered at the event organized to mark the two years in office of the chairman at the council secretariat hall recently.
At the well attended event, Hon. Adesina introduced three empowerment schemes and also presented one acre of land to 12 party men and women that have contributed immensely to the development of APC.
Also, about twenty market men and women were given products and goods with N20, 000 cash each as business support while another ten beneficiaries were presented with micro buses for commercial purpose.
His Royal Majesty, Oba Kabiru Shotobi, the Ayangbure of Ikorodu, also speaking at the event , said that the chairman has put smiles on people’s faces.
“I have come here today to see if my people are happy and I have seen how you have been able to put smiles on their faces.
“I thank your administration for impacting on our town and the people”.
The monarch urged the beneficiaries of the micro buses to put them to good use. “As we have been told, this is the first phase of the empowerment and the only way to ensure that the second phase takes place is by ensuring that you pay back the money for this.
“This is a good gesture by the chairman and I have no doubt that the people will support his administration to perform better”.
Prince Abiodun Ogunleye, former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, speaking at the ceremony, stated that Hon. Adesina has performed, thereby, justifying the award of recognition he recently received .
“He has been performing. I followed him to Abuja when he was honoured with an award as one of the best council administrators in the country.
“You can see from what is happening here today that he has really performed”.
He, however, enjoined Hon. Adeshina to improve on his performances in the remaining two years of his administration.
“I expect him to do more in the remaining two years of his administration to better the performances he has recorded in the past two years”.
The APC Chieftain also solicited for support for Hon Adeshina administration while also asking residents to always trust him with their mandates.
“I want the residents to give his administration more support and support him for whatever post he would be contesting for after his chairmanship position.
“Although, I don’t know his ambition but he is somebody that you can rely on, you can go to sleep and count on him. He is somebody that can do the job and that is the kind of person that we all need. You don’t have to force him to do things”, Prince Ogunleye stated.
Asiwaju Oloorunfunmi Basorun, former Secretary to the State Government, stated that the chairman has transformed Ikorodu in two years and called on other chairmen to emulate his performances.
“Adesina has been performing very well and I will ask others who are not doing well to copy him. But he must not rest on his oars, he has proved that he was truly part of the team led by late Awolesi to transformed Ikorodu Local Government when he was a Councilor.
“What he has done today has confirmed that his performances truly earned him the awards he has received since coming on board . He has touched lives across the four corners of Ikorodu division.
“He has used the resources available with his own sense to perform like Awolesi”, Basorun stated.
Princess Adenrele Ogunsanya, former Secretary to the State Government and APC Chieftain, while also commenting, did not only commend the chairman but also stated that the people will be willing to give him another opportunity based on his performances.
“He is doing well but he could do better. You know that the money that we get in Ikorodu is smaller than elsewhere but he has done well with it. Ikorodu people are happy and I guess that they would like to see him for second term as the chairman.
“Ikorodu must start voting for people who merit it and who can deliver”.
Hon. Babajimi Benson, member, Federal House of Representtaives and Chairman, House Committee on Defence, stated that he was impressed with the performances of Hon. Adesina’s administration.
“He has done very well and may the good Lord continue to grant him, his vice chairman and the administration at large wisdom, fortitude and hard work so that they can see their tenure through. I am very impressed with what they have been able to do so far”.
While advising the administration in its remaining two years, the two-term lawmaker stated that :
“The reward for hard work, they say, is more work. I will be expecting them to up their ante. The road in and around Ikorodu are delapilitated and I expect the chairman to do more palliative work on the roads, construct more roads and evolve a better synergy with the Lagos State Government so that more roads can be tarred and constructed in Ikorodu.
“As long as the council is doing well, residents will be more prosperous because there is nexus between development and welfare of the people. We pray that he continue to dig in and be more hardworking so that the residents can be more prosperous and in return give more support for his administration”.
Prince Rotimi Ogunleye, former Commissioner for Physical Planning & Urban Development, stated that the chairman, apart from impacting on the infrastructural development in Ikorodu, is also building human capacity with his empowerment schemes.
“He has performed creditably well and I can say that he really deserved to be supported because he has the vision to upgrade the level of development in the local government and apart from the infrastructural development, he’s now doing capacity development by empowering our people to generate income”.
The former Commissioner, like others, also solicited for more support from the people for Hon Adeshina and his administration.
“It is only when you generate income that you can be able to pay tax and rates and the government would get more money to further execute more projects. It is a good administration and I really give him good rating .
He, however, challenged the chairman to consolidate on his performances.
“In the next two years, I expect him to consolidate on what he has done so far and to move to other areas that need more attention.
“For the people, I urge them to continue to support his administration because when you have the support of your people, you will be encouraged to do more. As they say in Yoruba, “Yin ni yin ni, ka le se imi”. The people should support his administration by paying their rates as demanded by the council and taxes, it is only then that the government can get more money to do more projects”.
Mr Folami Sotubi, APC LGA Secretary and one of the micro buses beneficiaries, also stated that the council chairman has justified his award as the best chairman in rural development in the country.
“There is no gainsaying that my humble Hon. Ayodedeji Wasiu Adesina has performed wonderfully well. That was what informed the recent award given to him as the best rural development local government chairman in Nigeria out of the 774 local governments. It’s a great achievement to Ikorodu and to the party, APC, in general.
“Definitely, the present APC government cannot afford to under perform in order to take APC government to the next level”.
He stated that the micro bus empowerment initiative would take people out of poverty circle.
“Sincerely, there is poverty but what the chairman has done will empower many people and take them out of the poverty circle . If other local governments can emulate this, the question of protest by disgruntled residents would not arise .
“We really appreciate him for trying to empower the masses and take them out of poverty. He has done a brilliant job and I want him to keep it up. It’s a very good development “, he stated appreciatively.
Alhaji Luqman Shonibare, Chairman, Central Development Committee (CDC) in Ikorodu LG, stated that Hon. Adsina has contributed greatly to infrastructural development in Ikorodu.
He also commended him for supporting Community Development Associations (CDAs) in the council.
“His administration has contributed overwhelmingly to most of the CDAs in Ikorodu, especially through the road rehabilitation and construction effort of his administration. We have a close relationship with the local government.
“He has done many roads, including Adaroloye which people are enjoying now . There is also Ayanra and many others that we are all enjoying. He has performed creditably well.
“He has done so much for us as far as CDAs are concerned. He is our person, our chairman and he has done well for this local government too .
“Incidentally, most of our programmes have been sponsored by the council chairman”.
He, however, called for more involvement of the CDAs in projects execution .
“We would like to be part of any of his project henceforth. CDAs should be able to take ownership of projects in their domains because maintenance is very key for development”.
