Ondo 2024: ‘I’m people’s choice’ — Aiyedatiwa

Ondo 2024: ‘I’m people’s choice’ — Aiyedatiwa

Joel Oladele, Abuja 

Few days to the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in Ondo State, the State governor,

Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has said he has nothing to fear as he remains the choice of the masses.

Aiyedatiwa expressed this confidence while addressing Newsmen on Thursday, after submitting his Nomination and Expression of Interest Forms at the National Secretariat of the party in Abuja.

The governor who was accompanied by some party bigwigs in the state, including; 

His deputy, Dr Olayide Adelami, Speaker of the Ondo House of Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, and Senator Robert Ajayi Boroffice, among others, said he’s in the race to heed the clarion call of the good people of the State.

National Periscope recalls that a group of APC elders under the aegis of APC Aborigines has recently thrown their weight behind Aiyedatiwa to be the flagbearer of the party in the April 20 primary election.

According to the elders, they arrived at the decision after Aiyedatiwa scored the highest points out of the three aspirants shortlisted by the group.

Confirming the elders’ stance, Aiyedatiwa said although other aspirants in the race are also qualified to govern the Sunshine State, he’s the most qualified amongst them to remain as the landlord of Alagbaka Government House.

 “We have almost 15 aspirants jostling for this same office and they are eminently qualified. Let me tell you here that we know ourselves; they have been around and we know who they are and what they can do.

“There is nothing to fear; we are all indigenes of Ondo State but the people know what they want. The students, the men, the support groups, and the artisans are calling for me to continue. These are the people who will determine who will be their governor, and I can tell you they have even spoken, by all that they have been saying since this whole process started. So there’s nothing to fear,” he stated.

Reacting to the question on why he’s contesting again having served as the deputy governor to Late Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, before becoming the governor, Aiyedatiwa noted that he still has more to offer the State which he could not do as deputy governor as his roles are constitutionally subjected to orders from governor.

“In a democracy, the deputy cannot act on his own. As deputy, I was then serving the state through the governor because the deputy has no function of his own unless what is assigned to him by the governor.

“So, in the years of being a deputy governor, I was serving the people through the governor and running with the agenda put in place by the governor, though we were on a joint ticket.

“As acting governor, yes, we follow through, the period was just for 21 days when the governor is on vacation. I want to commend the late governor for all that he did when he was governor of the state. We worked together for the vision he had for the state. I couldn’t do anything differently because it was the same joint ticket.”

Reeling out his achievements as governor within the last three months which according to him has endeared him to the people, Aiyedatiwa said he has redefined governance through various people oriented initiatives.

He added that, having been part of Akeredolu-led government, he knows exactly what the state needs currently and he’s leaving no stone unturned to ensure the aspirations are met.

“Now as governor, in the last three months I have tremendously brought innovation into governance by the things that I and my team have been doing.

“In governance, we have seen in the last three years as deputy governor areas of weaknesses, and areas that we can improve upon.

“These are the areas we are working on so that we can improve on what has been before because I have always been part of the administration in the last three years. And part of that we have been able to improve upon is to ensure that no staff of Ondo State is being owed their salaries. All their arrears had been cleared immediately I came into the office

“We are also recruiting about 2000 teachers right now both in primary and secondary schools levels to cover the gap that has been created by the death of teachers in our school.

“These are the things we have been improving upon so that we can have enough teachers in our various schools.

“We just paid for the WAEC examination of all students in public schools in Ondo State.

“I have just set up agric and food security committee to look into how we can improve on our agriculture and agric business in Ondo State to make it attractive to the youths

“I have been able to assemble the best we can get in our state – the chairman of farmers Congress, the president of OSAKA, the South West chairman of poultry farmers association and some other technocrats to work with them so that we can improve on our agriculture because Ondo State is blessed and we can make agriculture our mainstream,” the governor stated.