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Tag: Opeyemi Bamidele

  • Ekiti APC guber election: I wont step down- Bamidele

    A former Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Opeyemi Bamidele has vowed not to step down for anyone ahead of Saturday’s governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti.

    Bamidele, an aspirant, made the vow while addressing delegates for the primaries in Ado-Ekiti, describing as “laughable” the rumour making the rounds that he had stepped down.

    He said there was no reason for him to quit when he was convinced that he had a good chance of clinching the party’s ticket.

    Bamidele stated that with the assurances given by the APC National leader, Bola Tinubu, and other leaders of the party at a meeting held in Lagos on Friday, he had no reason to doubt the credibility of the process.

    He said he expected the party leaders to conduct a free, fair and credible primary election that would produce a strong candidate capable of defeating the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.

    “It will be tragic for APC to lose after passing through this stress;  so we must do the right thing for us to get the right result.

    “I have traversed all the 177 wards and I am now visiting all the 16 local governments in search of delegates.

    “At 54, if I want to step down, I won’t waste time, energy and money, moving around. I will not even pretend in telling the public about it

    “Let me say that I am on the field, in the race and on Saturday, we are looking forward to getting the ticket by the grace of God,’’ he said.

    Counselling the delegates on the choice of candidate they should vote for, Bamidele said they should choose someone who has the acceptability and clout to win as well as the knack to organise the party and make it a formidable force.

    “APC needs an experienced person and someone with scientific understanding of what has gone wrong in Ekiti and how to resolve it.

    “I have been commissioner for over 10 years in executive arm, I have been a member of House of Representatives and I am also a lawyer, which falls within the judicial arm

    “I will not in any way disappoint if given the ticket because I am a loyal party man and I know how to work with everybody to get the useful result,’’ he said.

    On the sincerity of members of the Chief John Oyegun-led National Working Committee to conduct credible primary election, Bamidele said: “I have no reason to doubt their integrity.

    “All the aspirants had gone through screening and as we were doing this, we were given a copy of delegates’ list each. We all know who will vote on Saturday.

    “With this, I don’t envisage that anyone would try to tamper with the list or see anyone trying to do accreditation at another location different from where they will vote which can give opportunity to transport fake delegates to the venue.

    “The NWC, National and zonal leaders as well as the aspirants have agreed on some pacts and I believe these shall be allowed to prevail in this election.”

  • Opeyemi Bamidele loses Dad

    Pa Ogunjuyigbe Stephen Bamidele, father of a prominent politician and former member of House of Representatives, Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, is dead.

    A statement issued  in Iyin Ekiti on Friday morning by his son, Opeyemi Bamidele revealed that, he died at about 3:30pm at The NEWDAY Medical Center, Ijapo Estate, Akure on Thursday, April 19, 2018.

    The late Bamideles” patriarch, according to his son, was aged 86. The statement said his remains had been deposited in the morgue.

    Bamidele said burial arrangements would be released soon by the family. Pa Bamidele was a community leader and politician during his life time.

    He was at a time the Chairman of Iyin Ekiti Ward B on the platform  of both the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN) in Ekiti State.

    Commenting on his father’s virtues, Bamidele said his late father lived an exemplary life by striving hard, even in the face of hard-biting poverty to give his children a befitting education, saying: “The legacies my father bequeathed unto us were those of honesty, hardwork and passion for greatness.

     

  • Arms purchase scam has damaged Nigeria’s reputation – Bamidele

    Arms purchase scam has damaged Nigeria’s reputation – Bamidele

    The $2.1 billion arms scandal has damaged the reputation of Nigeria in the international community, a former House of Representatives member, Opeyemi Bamidele has said.

    He described the unfolding revelations on the alleged sharing of arms funds by key figures of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as “very embarrassing and breach of public trust.”

    Bamidele said these in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Sunday by his media aide, Ahmed Salami, congratulating a former Senator representing Ekiti Central, Babafemi Ojudu, on his appointment as Special Adviser, Political Matters, in the Presidency.

    He, however, tasked political office holders under President Muhammadu Buhari to render selfless service to the nation and not to loot the treasury like some officials of the immediate past administration.

    He urged government officials to be conscious of the fact that “Nigerians voted for Buhari based on his enviable anti-corruption credentials,” warning them not to betray the confidence reposed in them.

    According to him, Nigerians are anxiously looking up to Buhari’s government to clean up the already debased system and bring the needed renaissance in the areas of the economy and morality, for Nigerians to rise again and regain its lost glory.

    He said: “One cannot but feel ashamed as a Nigerian about the information on how public official shares money running into billions of naira to political associates as a show of patronage. One could only feel the enormity of damage this has done to our corporate image if you travel out of Nigeria.

    “This is highly embarrassing to all of us and I personally feel disappointed as a patriotic Nigerian.”

  • Buhari needs political will to confront sponsors of terror – Bamidele

    A former House of Representatives member, Opeyemi Bamidele, has explained that President Muhammadu Buhari needs more political will to tackle sponsors of insurgency in the country.

    Bamidele made the call while delivering a lecture at the 5th Annual Law Week of the Ado Ekiti Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Tuesday.

    The lecture delivered by the members of the 7th House of Representatives was titled: “Terrorism and Security Challenges to Consolidation of the Gains of Our Democracy: What Legal Implications and What Role for the Bar and Bench?”

  • Bamidele defends Buhari on non-appointment of ministers

    Bamidele defends Buhari on non-appointment of ministers

    A member of the seventh House of Representatives, Opeyemi Bamidele, has defended President Muhammadu Buhari on the delay in appointing ministers and other key aides.

    Bamidele while speaking at a thanksgiving service and prayer session to mark his 52nd birthday in Iyin Ekiti Wednesday condemned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other critics of the President who accused him of being “slow and clueless.”

    The birthday was celebrated by members of Bamidele’s political family, Ekiti Bibiire Coalition who celebrated the virtues of the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain who had just concluded his four year term in the Green Chamber.

    He said Buhari cannot take action on impulse and needs to take his time before assembling a winning team based on the rot left behind by the Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

    Speaking through the Director General of his Campaign Organization, Ropo Ige, Bamidele said Buhari was taking his time to come up with people of integrity that could drive his vision of bringing the expected change in the system.

    “President Buhari must learn from the past mistakes. Looking at what happened in the last few years, he has to take his time to avert mistakes.

    “He must take time and look at the characters of those he will work with. Some of these appointees will be recommended to him and he has to study them because he has not worked with them before.

    “He has to scrutinize and ascertain that they are men of integrity who can really fight corruption.”

     

     

  • Bamidele urges new lawmakers to represent Ekiti well

    Outgoing House of Representatives member, Opeyemi Bamidele, has charged newly-elected members of the National Assembly from Ekiti State to represent the interests of their state well in their new assignment.

    Bamidele, who represented Ado Ekiti/Irepodun-Ifelodun Federal Constituency in the Green Chamber, said in a statement he personally signed and made available to reporters on Monday that expectations are very high from voters who elected them.

    He urged the new federal legislators who were all elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to live up to expectation and be good ambassadors of Ekiti State.

    The outgoing lawmaker advised them to always put the corporate interests of their constituents above personal or parochial interests to ensure the development of their constituencies.

    Bamidele used the opportunity to appreciate the people of his constituency for giving him the opportunity to represent their interests at the National Assembly in the last four years.

    The lawmaker said he would always cherish the opportunity and the experience for the rest of his life, adding that he would always be ready to serve the people in any capacity.

    Bamidele while describing his experience as a member of the National Assembly as very rewarding and worthwhile, lauded the electorates for their unflinching supports which make him to survive the onslaught during his political sojourn out of the Action Congress of Nigeria and back to the All Progressive Congress.

     

  • Bamidele formally joins APC

    Bamidele formally joins APC

    House of Representatives member Opeyemi Bamidele on Tuesday formally joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) with his supporters promising to contribute his quota to strengthen the party.

    Addressing a news conference in his native Iyin Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area, Bamidele explained that he had consulted widely with members of his political family, Ekiti Bibiire Coalition (EBC) and the national leadership of the APC before arriving at the decision.

    The Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Budget and Research said EBC members are now at liberty to attend ward APC ward meetings and register as members.

    Bamidele left the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), one of the legacy parties that merged to form the APC and the platform through which he was elected into the House of Representatives, to join the Labour Party (LP) in November 2013.

    He joined the LP and contested on its platform in the June 21, 2014 governorship election in which he came third.

    Before joining the APC formally, Bamidele had on January 24 appeared at a presidentially campaign rally addressed by President-elect Muhammadu Buhari where he announced a working agreement between LP and APC for the March 28 presidential poll.

    Bamidele had clarified on the day of the APC presidential rally that he still remained a member of LP and would join APC after the general elections since his former party was presenting candidates for the national and state assembly elections.

    While thanking LP for giving him a platform to fulfill his political aspiration when he needed one, Bamidele explained that he had no alternative than to leave the party for APC because he was returning to his natural habitat.

    Bamidele argued that his joining APC was not borne out of personal ambition but to join the change train the party represents adding that politicians of like minds should join the party in the interest of the people.

    According to him, “Our coming together with those that are there before will further strengthen the party”.

    He praised the national leaders of the party including Gen. Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and his predecessor, Chief Adebisi Akande for their roles in his return to the progressives fold.

    Bamidele added that despite leaving APC, he was always in talks with leaders of the party saying he would work hard to ensure peace, unity and stability of the party.

    He assured that with his entry into APC, the party would not be “the same APC the electorate rejected three times at the last general elections”.

    He said: “By and large, politics, if it is meant to serve the common interest, must be a dynamic aspect of human endeavour that embodies a whole process of expression, competition and reconciliation of personal interests for the ultimate benefit of the people.

    “Let me use this opportunity to reiterate that my decision to contest for the governorship of Ekiti State was borne out of my innate conviction and that of many like-minds of mine, most of whom are illustrious sons and daughters of this great State, that though the ACN-led administration then was doing its best, however, its best was not enough for our much expectant but highly disillusioned people.

    “Invariably, I would have loved to stand in for the gubernatorial race on the platform of the ACN as a vision-driven progressive party under the leadership of an equally dynamic leader, benefactor and mentor of mine, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    “But when it became apparent that party primaries for candidate selection was not likely to hold in the Ekiti Chapter of the ACN/APC, I had no choice at some point in the course of expressing my intent to offer our people a better leadership, than to move to another suitable party where I could be offered the ticket to contest in the ensuing governorship election.

    “All of us the candidates contested on different platforms. But as we all know in any contest, someone must emerge the winner.

    Whether or not the contest was fair, posterity and the court of law shall judge. That is not the bone of contention for today’s press briefing. I sincerely urge you to let us defer that to another day.

    “Today, by the special leading of Almighty God and after the due consultation with my immediate family, friends, confidants and political associates within and outside Ekiti State, I, Hon.  Opeyemi Bamidele, the Federal lawmaker representing Ado/Irepodun-Ifelodun Federal Constituency hereby wish to declare my intent to decamp to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as from today, Tuesday, 19th May, 2015”, he said.

    Bamidele said the progressives bloc offers Nigerians the hope for the realization of a great country where poverty would be history and where corruption would be a thing of the last.

    “This was the more reason I felt comfortable to be part of the movement for the realization of the Buhari/Osinbajo project despite my membership of the Labour Party then.

    “It was an age-long vision of the progressives in the Southern part of the country to join forces with equally visionary and progressive politicians in the North to rescue our nation from bad leadership and its attendant hydra-headed manifestations that have come to characterize Nigeria in recent history: corruption, poverty and insecurity.”

  • Bamide to Fayose: stop disgracing Ekiti people

    Bamide to Fayose: stop disgracing Ekiti people

    A MEMBER of the House of Representatives from Ekiti State, Opeyemi Bamidele, yesterday described as alarming Governor Ayo Fayose’s relentless vituperations on the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd).

    Bamidele, who represents the Ekiti Central Federal Constituency I in the lower chamber of the National Assembly,   said Fayose’s death wish for Gen. Buhari has ridiculed governance in Ekiti and has brought disgrace and odium on the people of the Land of Honour State.

    In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital yesterday,  Bamidele described Fayose as a “cancer to the body politic of Nigeria” and advised the governor to toe the line of civility like eminent citizens of the state rather than offer himself as a hatchet man.

    According to the lawmaker, “no decent Ekiti man or woman either in private or public sector or decent Ekiti politician either in People’s Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC) Labour Partry (LP) or any other party can be proud of the way Fayose has “continued to portray the image of Ekiti as a community of people with integrity deficit.”

    He urged the governor to drop his “one-day-one-trouble style”,

    saying Fayose’s hate campaign against Gen Buhari and his tantrums against former President Olusegun Obasanjo have not added value to the presidential campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan.

    Bamidele described as unfortunate that the governor of Ekiti was busy desecrating the exalted office on a day the University of London was celebrating an illustrious son of the state – Aare Afe Babalola with a honourary doctorate degree.

    Governor Fayose has consistently been describing Gen Buhari as too old and sick to be President of Nigeria, the latest being his allegation that the General travelled to the United Kingdom (UK) on medical ground.

    Bamidele, who was the Labour Party (LP) candidate in the last

    June 21, 2014 governorship poll in Ekiti, noted that Fayose’s comment on Gen. Buhari’s health status constitute a “rude invasion of the General’s privacy and a roughneck tactic to try to dog such a national figure that way.”

    He argued that the APC presidential flag bearer deserved a rest and even a medical check-up after a rigorous campaign hustings around the country for over 30 days without missing a single rally, even if indeed he has visited a hospital during his foreign trip.

    His words: “Just like President Jonathan has a right to contest

    and legitimately expect to win, he has equally assured all and sundry that if he loses the election, he will honourably handover to the winner, making it clear that neither a military nor an interim regime would be an acceptable alternative.

    “If President Jonathan is speaking in this parlance and Governor

    Fayose is busy abusing former President Olusegun Obasanjo while denigrating the age and person of Gen. Buhari to the extent of wishing him dead, then, surely, Governor Fayose must be weeping more than the bereaved. And when a sympathiser is weeping more than the bereaved, there is definitely a cause for suspicion.

    “Let Governor Fayose call himself to order. Let him leave Gen. Buhari alone and come up with a more positive and decent manner of adding value to our democracy and politics. Right now, he is a like cancer to our body politic.

    “Let him stop dragging the name and image of Ekiti in the mud. Ekiti people abhor hate politics and if even Abuja would disown Gov. Fayose’s hate campaign style, then the extent of damage he is doing to the Jonathan campaign in Ekiti State is better left in the realm of imagination.”

    Bamidele advised Fayose to settle down and face serious business of governance as Ekiti, according to him, needs a critical, sober and scientific leadership intervention and not jackboot approach as being allegedly applied by the governor.

    He added that the precarious situation of the state’s economy called for a conducive atmosphere that would enable all well-meaning sons and daughters of Ekiti at home and abroad to pull ideas together on what is to be done to rescue the state from imminent collapse and restore its glory back from sabbatical.

    Bamidele expressed sadness that many leaders of the political class would rather celebrate a poverty of ideas at the expense of ensuring robust reasoning and proffering perspectives on the way forward for Nigeria in a way that potential voters would be able to make up their minds on which candidate to vote for on the basis of superior postulation and demonstrated strength of character.

    He said: “No decent Ekiti man or woman, either in the private or public sector, and no Ekiti politician, either in PDP, APC, Labour  Party or any other political party can be proud of how Governor Fayose has carried himself since the beginning of this campaign or how he has continued to portray the image of Ekiti as a community of people with integrity deficit.

    “As an Ekiti stakeholder, I, like other credible illustrious citizens of the State, deal with this issue on a daily basis, taking pain to

    explain the Ekiti personality and core values to those who care to listen, reminding all concerned people at home and abroad that fine gentlemen and patriots like Aare Afe Babalola, Chief Wole Olanipekun, Comrade Femi Falana are indigenes of the State”.

    Bamidele also listed other Ekiti icons Prof. Akin Oyebode, Pa Ayo Fasanmi, Sir Remi Omotoso, Prof. MobolajiAluko, Prof. Jide Oluwasanmi,  Justice Ademola Ajakaiye (rtd.), Prof. Tunde Adeniran and Prof. Babalola Borisade, among others whom he wants Fayose to emulate rather than behaving contrary to the core values of integrity Ekitis are noted for.

  • That Fayose-Bamidele entente cordiale

    That Fayose-Bamidele entente cordiale

    One of the distinguishing features of the June 21 Ekiti governorship poll was the unprecedented collaboration between the supposedly progressive politician and House of Representatives member, Opeyemi Bamidele, and the Governor-elect, Ayodele Fayose, the conservative who passes himself off both as a progressive and pragmatist. Before the poll, the two entered into a gentleman’s agreement to join forces to help Mr Fayose sweep the poll. The agreement was disseminated in hushed tones, but reporters still got wind of it, and attributed the woeful showing of Mr Bamidele in the election to the fact that he had surrendered his goodwill to Mr Fayose’s cause.

    If anyone doubted the existence of the entente cordiale or its potency, Mr Baimdele himself gloatingly told a newspaper last week that among the reasons Governor Kayode Fayemi lost the election was his unbridled pride. But if so-called progressives could smother one another in this fashion, like a husband who slept with a whore to punish his wife, then they are in more trouble than they imagine. And judging from Femi Fani-Kayode’s volte face – apostasy, some say – we must ask how on earth progressives recruit politicians into their leadership cadre?

    In 2015, Mr Bamidele will likely have his path to the Senate paved by Mr Fayose, except he chooses something more exotic, something more mercantilist. By coming out openly to identify with Mr Fayose, he has indicated a permanent split with his erstwhile political family, a family that I have always argued is held together by the most tenuous of threads. More, the new conservative cum pragmatic alliance in Ekiti all but exemplifies the difficulty in assigning ideological colouration and conviction to Nigerian politicians. The leading political parties, especially the PDP and the APC, are still roughly cast in ideological colours, and mouth programmes along lines that show their leanings. Not so the politicians themselves. They migrate very liberally across the divides and flirt as expediently as their whims carry them, incommoded by our protestations and outrage.

    The greater burden is on the APC, given its proselytising tendency, to firm up its ideological disposition and scrupulously vet those it admits into its leadership. The PDP basks in its expansive disposition to welcome everyone irrespective of his background and conviction. The APC cannot hope to match the PDP on that all-comers’ turf. It must rely on its distinguishing properties, its intuitive embrace of political morality, its instinctive and adaptable humanism. As its politics in Ekiti showed, the APC has not always got its priorities right, nor has it found ways to concretise its philosophy of governance, let alone stay faithful to the ideals of its founding. It must urgently address its mistakes if the Ekiti poll and all other prospective entente cordiales are not to turn its momentary defeat into a permanent rout.

  • ‘Don’t disenfranchise Ekiti students’

    ‘Don’t disenfranchise Ekiti students’

    Labour Party (LP)  governorship candidate Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele  alleged plans by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to prevent tertiary institution students from voting at the poll.

    Bamidele said this in a statement signed by his media aide, Ahmed Salami, in Ado-Ekiti, that the governor had issued subtle threats to  students to leave their hostels and the state, after initially ordering the closure of their schools.

    He frowned at the recent closure of Ekiti State University for security reasons, adding that students were forcefully ejected from hostels.

    The LP candidate said: “What the APC intends to achieve by this is to disenfranchise majority of the students who have voter’s cards and are willing to vote out Fayemi and the APC.

    “This is to caution the APC-led state government and the governor of Ekiti State to desist from its plot to disenfranchise tertiary institution students in Ekiti State. It is very undemocratic and uncivil for any government to embark on psychological warfare with these youths all in an attempt to prevent them from casting their votes.”

    “To us, the ongoing forceful ejection of these students especially those from EKSU from their private residences in Ado Ekiti is a defeatist mentality and apparent fear being daily nursed by APC and its co-travellers ahead of this election”

    “It is a public knowledge that these students are significant population of the state with majority of them having voter’s cards. Those behind this plot may have known that they are not popular with the students, going by their odd policies of hike in school fees”

    “These students have left the hostels as directed by the state government on the  9th of June, but yet government’s agents are still trailing them about to make sure they vacate the state before Saturday. We urge the government to desist from this act and allow freedom of choice to reign”, it read.