The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bimbo Daramola

  • Lawmaker says Ekiti has grown under Fayemi

    Lawmaker says Ekiti has grown under Fayemi

    House of Representatives member and Director General, Governor Kayode Fayemi Campaign Organisation, Hon. Bimbo Daramola  has said Ekiti State’s progress in the last three and half years under the present administration is unprecedented.

    At a conference in Lagos yesterday, he said Ekiti State government eight-point agenda has raised the standard of living, achieved infrastructural development and recorded massive investment in education through prudent management of scarce resources.

    He said the people of Ekiti would not be distracted by the campaign of calumny from the oppositions, noting that Governor Fayemi’s performance since he took over are glaring testimonies that he is the best man for the job.

    He said: “For one, the atmosphere of gangsterism, insecurity, and crudity at the highest echelon of the state have given way to peaceful, decent and humane governance.

    “Those who gave Ekiti a bad name by exhibiting negative traits, those who showed glaring disregard for traditional authorities and those who turned a well respected state into a theatre of absurd are back, asking the same people they traumatized in their time to vote them into office,” he said.

    The lawmaker urged the people of Ekiti State both within and outside to be vigilant. “Eternal vigilance is the price for freedom and that Ekiti people must not return to Egypt. While we are at it, we believe that we must share with them and indeed all Nigerians the information at our disposal.”

    He said the Labour Party candidate’s promise to turn Ekiti State into and Eldorado without clearly stating his mission was deceitful.

    “He knows he can’t and he won’t win but to prevent Governor Fayemi from winning at all cost because of nothing more than a bruised ego.”

    Daramola further said: “The people of Ekiti should ponder this and other questions in the days ahead and to prevent anyone, least of all a well-conceited political harlot, from making themselves a tool in the hands of those who are bent on taking Ekiti people back to Egypt.”

  • ‘PDP can’t bounce back in Ekiti’

    ‘PDP can’t bounce back in Ekiti’

    The Chairman of Fayemi Campaign Organisation, Hon. Bimbo Daramola, spoke with EMMANUEL OLADESU on the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s preparation for the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State and issues that will shape the exercise.

    What are the issues that will shape Ekiti governorship election?

    There are a number of issues. The performance of Governor Kayode Fayemi is the main issue. That is the first thing of substance. That will be the thrust of the campaign. We are going to have a campaign that will be issue-driven and agenda setting. My candidate , the campaign organisation and, by extension, the people are not just angling for a second term for the sake of second term. In the last three and half years, Governor Kayode Fayemi has laid a good template. That is an issue that would shape the campaign and the election . I know that the opposition is also there rearing their heads. As a political party, they want to expand their territory and I am inclined to assume that, between 2003 and 2007, they were in power and the train that moved from Lagos hit Edo , ran through Ondo and berth at Ekiti and Ekiti and then, moved to Oyo and eventually closed in on Ogun State.

    You will also agree with me that, may be, it may not be nice that one of us who used to be a member of the family said he would be at the ballot for this election. All of these will shape this election by all intent and purposes. There is nothing you can do about that. You cannot run away from these facts. Elections are won on the basis of political parties and driven by individuals and the people ultimately have their way and every other thing will key into this.

    In the last registration, Ekiti APC registered about 200,000. Do you think that your candidate stands a chance of defeating the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party?

    The APC registered members in excess of 200,000 and the total registered voters in Ekiti is about 649,000. Elections are won on the basis of so many factors. It would have been a completely different thing, if we did not have an incumbent or all the candidates are running as fresh candidates. But, the truth of the matter is that the strength of the party is a factor. But, strength means nothing. It is just like trying to ascribe power to the size of a dinosaur, which today is facing extinction because the size of dinosaur may not be helpful. They have said that the PDP is the largest party in Africa and all that jargon. But, we also know that the party is depreciating and decimating as we speak . I don’t want to bench mark the success of our elections on the fact that we are driven by population. Dr. Kayode Fayemi has been able to do many things for Ekiti in three and half years .

    I have said that at different times that up to now, there is no one coming into the election with tangible assets as my candidate. He is not coming into the election with promissory notes. He is coming into the election to say that he has done some things and that he will do more, if re-elected. You do not mouth reputation. You earn reputation and the performance and reputation of delivery and good governance have added value tangibly to the lives of Ekiti people . It is something on the streets that no one can deny and I will expect that those people who are direct beneficiaries of the impact of his good governance in the past three and half years will not fold their hands and entrust their fate and fortune into unsteady and shaken hands. They will rather entrust their fate and fortune into a steady hands and consolidate on the good work in the past three and half years.

    Why is the governor insisting on second term in office?

    There is no insistence on second term. We are saying, if you have a family or mechanic who has been attending to you or a mechanic who has been fixing your car over the ages and he has been doing it well, it is likely that you will trust him much more when challenges arise. My candidate has tried in the last three and half years to justify the mandate the people gave him in 2007 . My candidate and my party are products of adversity . We are all students of history. We all know how we got to this point. Thank God, today, my candidate has turned our adversity to prosperity. What he has done justifies the fact that people were behind and beside him during the period of adversity and travail. I am sure all of those things will come into reckoning. I don’t think the people will suffer selective amnesia. It is the officials that suffer amnesia, not the people. If the people suffer amnesia, nobody will give credit to Chief Obafemi Awolowo today for his free education programme.

    Why is the governor expressing fears about rigging?

    I am not aware that my governor is expressing fears. In any case, there is the fear of the unknown. As human beings, we wake up , step out of our homes , committing our lives into the hand of God. There is always the fear of the shadowy. But, the truth of the matter is that we have to confront our fears because we will soon know that they do not exist .We have seen it before. Don’t forget that we are Ekiti people, that we do not brook cheating, we do not brook injustice. Dr. Kayode Fayemi was not in office when Ekiti people stood by him head to head, toe-to toe and did not blink. We were not in government. But, we pursued the mandate and, by the grace of God, it was eventually delivered into our hands. He has treated that mandate with so much sanctity. The recognition of that alone will aid the resolve of our people to stand beside him and by him to ensure that, no matter what the electoral marauders are trying to do, they will not succeed.

    In concrete terms, what are the fears?

    The fear is not be too far-fetched. We have seen the seeming incompetence and lack of capacity of some of the institutions responsible for the conduct of elections in the country. We have seen time and time again how INEC has been apologising to Nigerians for the failure in Anambra and Delta. It will be in the interest of President Goodluck Jonathan and his party to ensure that they play fair and ensure that the will of the people prevails in the election. It will be the fairest thing to do. We know that this country is been tugged out at every corner, regardless of the talking session in Abuja . The true test of the direction of the conference will be determined by elections in Ekiti because the election is about allowing the people to exercise their civic responsibility.

    What do you think was responsible for the high number of aspirants in the PDP, ahead of the primaries?

    It is a sad spectacle and I am too sure this is one of the eternal legacies of the Fayemi Administration. By the grace of God, before the end of the second term of Governor Fayemi, those aspiring to Okebadeke in Ekiti State will not find it very comfortable anymore. Dr Fayemi would have sufficiently raised the standard such that anybody that aspires to lead Ekiti State will, first of all, benchmark himself. People will point to him that, having seen the legacy and credential that your predecessor has left, you are or not competent to fit into these shoes. Some of the things they have said about Governor Fayemi is that he is not governor ‘jule’ or a governor who goes to eat ‘bole’ on the street, market place or doing things that are populist. He is not building stomach infrastructure. He has no character of a governor who goes to the streets to buy bole and groundnut from the woman on the street. That may not be bad. But, can you compare that to a governor who ensures that 25,000 senior citizens get a stipend of N5,000 monthly and subsidies their healthcare. In the long run, people are better off than a governor given to emotional sentiments and goes to the street to say how much is your ‘bole’ and pays N5,000 for it and that is where it ends. You don’t wish to just be a leader. You must earn it. You must possess some qualities. One of them is the clear vision of where you want to take your followership to. You must have an agenda that will be driven by the people.

    The leader must take the lead. This is a governor that provided 30,000 laptops for students and another 18,000 laptops for their teachers and trained them. This is because he knows that there is no profession that does not have ICT components in it. The world is not waiting on Ekiti and we cannot afford to play catch-up anymore. Governance all over the world has a goal and the ultimate destination is to ensure that the quality of life of the people gets better. That is the essence of governance. Anything that is short of that is defeatist. If a governor has imbibed that and manifested that sufficiently enough and the people are saying, if we have entrusted our mandate into your hands for three and half years and it turned out this well, you deserve another term. For instance, the Ikogosi Spring laid prostrate for 21 years under the successive governments.

    It never caught their attention. It took Dr. Kayode Fayemi to reverse the trend and created jobs for people. Ikogosi t played host to the Nigerian Media Merit Award. In December, last year, 20,000 people went to the place. If everyone of them spent N200, that would have developed the economy of Ikogosi, which eventually would have robbed off on the economy of the state. This is what a leader should do. But, the only governor who had the mind that something good could come out of Ikogosi was Otunba Niyi Adebayo. If your child has performed well, the next thing is to promote him to the next class. We have a candidate the Ekiti people believe have earned it.

    The opposition is saying that the governor has been completing the projects of the previous administration. What will the governor do differently in his second tenure, if re-elected at the poll.

    The argument is a bad one. You spent public money to repair roads in Ekiti and you didn’t finish the roads and another governor came out to do the right thing. Is that not a laudable achievement?

  • Bimbo Daramola fetes thousands on Governor Fayemi’s birthday

    Bimbo Daramola fetes thousands on Governor Fayemi’s birthday

    In Ekiti State where he is the member representing the people of Ekiti North Federal Constituency 1 in the House of Representatives, Bimbo Daramola bestrides the social scene like a colossus. His entrance into any venue is greeted with the chants of Nitori ojo ola wa (because of our tomorrow), his campaign mantra when he was seeking the support of the electorate in 2011.

    That Bimbo speaks the language of the grassroots people is a fact known to everyone in the state. That much he demonstrated last Saturday on the occasion of Governor Fayemi’s 49th birthday. He went round Ado-Ekiti to fete the people. As he took a walk to the campaign office of the All Progressives Congress (APC) where he holds sway as the Director-General of Dr. Kayode Fayemi Re-election Campaign, a sea of heads gathered behind him, singing Fayemi’s praises.

    In a matter of minutes, a large crowd had gathered around him. He then led them to numerous relaxation spots and restaurants where he feted them with sumptuous meals and drinks.

  • Is anti-graft war on course?

    Is anti-graft war on course?

    House of Representatives Speaker Hon. Aminu Tambuwal has alleged that President Goodluck Jonathan is not committed to the anti-corruption battle. In this piece, VICTOR OLUWASEGUN and DELE ANOFI examine the circumstances that led to the public outburst and its implications for the executive/legislative relations.

    When House of Representatives Speaker Hon. Aminu Tambuwal dropped the bombshell, many Nigerians were taken aback. The number four citizen dissected the polity, saying that the anti-corruption battle was not on course. In his view, President Goodluck Jonathan has not shown enough commitment to the crusade against graft.

    The Speaker attempted to substantiate his allegation. After presenting a paper at a one-day roundtable marking the International Anti-corruption Day by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Tambuwal objected to the manner the President handled the pension fraud, the N255million bullet proof car scandal, and the alleged fraud in the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC). He said President Jonathan is encouraging corruption by his reluctance to promptly address the high profile corruption unearthed by the legislature.

    It was the first time the Speaker would speak against the administration in the public. While some people hailed him for his boldness, others said that his remarks were a brazen assault on the Presidency.

    However, barely a week after, former President Olusegun Obasanjo also wrote a letter to the President, accusing his administration of corruption.

    Few days after the Abuja outburst, Tambuwal dropped another bombshell during the inauguration of the House Ad-hoc Committee on Oil Theft at the National Assembly. He accused the Federal Government of complicity in oil theft, adding that N750 billion was being lost annually. Also, in his letter, Obasanjo alluded to the same crime, urging the President to halt the trend.

    Tambuwal has been a moderating factor in the House of Representatives, although he is largely portrayed as a friend of the opposition. Many believe that, as a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, he has been instrumental to the maintenance of a reasonable equilibrium in favour of the President in the House. Therefore, some said that he has a moral burden to refrain from washing the dirty linen of the government in the public.

    However, many legislators supported the Speaker’s approach. They said that Tambuwal’s outburst was borne out of the passive attitude of the executive to the legislative resolutions on corruption.

    Many legislators have expressed concern over the way the Presidency handled the allegations against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) headed by Ms. Arumah Oteh. The matter led to frosty relationship between the two arms of government. The investigation by the Chairman of the House Committee on Capital Market and Institutions, Herman Hembe, went awry when he was accused of fraud by the Director-General. Eventually, the resolution by the House that the Oteh should be removed and the suggestion that the SEC should be excluded from the budget were ignored by the President.

    Also, the punitive recommendation by the House against the Minister of Aviation over the allegation of N255 million bullet proof car fraud was ignored by the President, who set up an administrative committee to look into the matter.

    Tambuwal frowned at the way the fuel subsidy probe was also handled by the President. He said many of the recommendations were not implemented, based on the fact that the probe was discredited by the bribe- for- clearance allegation against the Ad hoc Chairman, Hon. Farouk Lawan. The House was of the opinion that, in spite of the allegation, the recommendation, if implemented to the letter, would have cleansed the petroleum sector

    Tambuwal’s warning did not start overnight. On Jan 6, he had warned the Executive against corruption while speaking on the amendment of the constitution. The Speaker had sent a clear signal to the Executive and the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), saying that the House would not condone a situation where few people feed fat on the wealth of the nation and majority of Nigerians wallow in abject poverty. He said the House will monitor step the MDAs and ensure that the national wealth is judiciously used by them.

    The Speaker said: “We are convinced now more than ever before, that a situation where the majority of the citizens continue to live in abject poverty while an insignificant minority corner the commonwealth is not only unjust, but unacceptable.

    “In this regard, we shall continue to adopt a pragmatic and functional approach to ensure that the war against corruption is removed from the realm of rhetoric by exercising absolute diligence in our oversight function to enhance transparency and accountability in both high and low strata.

    In November last year, the House raised an alarm over the non-remittance of N4 trillion by 60 MDAs indicted by the House panel report. The Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) was summoned to explain $7bn missing crude oil funds. Also, Alhaji Rilwan Lukman and Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke were asked to appear before the investigative committee. The position of the Executive has always been that funds were not missing.

    Sequel to reports by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) over the non-remittance of over N4 trillion by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the 2009 fiscal year, the House summoned the Minister of Petroleum Resources and past chairmen and members of the Board of the NNPC. They are among 60 MDAs investigated by the Public Accounts Committee headed by Solomon Adeola.

    Adeola said that a comprehensive probe into the operation of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is underway. He alleged that the company has not remitted any revenue into the government coffers for seven years.

    “On the issue of the LNG, you will agree with me that the only thing that constitutes revenue today, apart from taxes, is oil. The LNG has been on for over six to seven years and they’re not privatised and we’ve not even heard from them”, he said.

    The House also supported the Senate’s call for the sack of the Chairman of the Pension Task Force Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, over pension fraud and corruption. It ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, to appear before its committee on Police Affairs to explain why he did not act on the warrant issued by the Senate. But it was later alleged that the Presidency was shielding Maina.

    In March, the legislators, through a motion moved by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Hon. Bimbo Daramola, agreed that the immunity granted the former governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, “was not well thought out.”

    On July 28, the House Committee on Anti-Corruption, National Ethics and Values resolved to investigate the Ministry of Aviation over the award of contracts running into billions of naira. The committee alleged that the contract money was paid for jobs not executed. Its Chairman, Abiodun Faleke, said the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) and the Ministry of Works would be investigated for breaching the Public Procurement Act.

    He said: “The impunity with which we do things in this country is appalling, like the abuse of ‘No Objection Certificate’ given by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). All agencies are using this loophole to issue contracts of over N20b without advertising them, once they write to the BPP that allows for selective tendering.

    “Talking of impunity, during an oversight of MDG projects, we discovered that a canal was conducted in Okrika for over N2billlion. The consultancy fee for the project that was not even in the 2012 budget and not appropriated for was N900m”.

    The House has also criticised the Federal Government for the poor implementation of the budget. In its view, the President only selects and implements some items in the budget.

    The 2014 budget presentation to the National Assembly was aborted by President Jonathan at the last minute, due to the insistence of the House on $79 per barrel.

    However, the public has always had the impression that the face off between the House and the Presidency is related to the manner in which the Speaker emerged in 2011 against the will and zoning formula of the PDP. But, Tambuwal is of the opinion that the House was living up to its vision, which is “ pursue an aggressive legislative agenda to reposition itself as a key branch of government, able and determined to deliver on the key elements of governance”.

    A legislator, who craved for anonymity, said that “that is why the House frowns when the Executive says that its resolutions are mere advice”. But another legislator said: “Tambuwal is only playing to the gallery by attacking the President in order to gain favour from the opposition in the House”.