Quality Representation: The Bunvic In Us !! By Adegbola Oluwaseun ‘Triple Tee’
Quality Representation: The Bunvic In Us !! By Adegbola Oluwaseun ‘Triple Tee’.
Quality political representation is a function of grit, agility, and mental readiness. On another side, useful experience also plays a significant role on the democratic gains apportioned to any legislative district in the strongly competitive National Assembly.
It transcends the ability to move motions on the floor of the chamber. It is most significantly about proper linkage with the grass roots, and attracting life-changing projects to constituencies. It involves building a strong linkage with the executive arm of government, and being above the board in the discharge of legislative duties. Beyond the charity of vote, the struggle for communal gains are usually won or lost on the strength of representation. A good representative with bad political influence will wane at home. He or she will exist for vote counting at the legislative floor, and statutory earnings alone. Other weighty gains will elude him and be to him like strains of maize trapped inside a closed bottle and placed before a mother hen to feast on. It will injure her beak, wattles and nostrils trying.
In Oyo State, today, no federal legislative district is as blessed as ‘Ogo Oluwa and Surulere’. The dearth of quality representation witnessed all around the country is a pointer. Bunvic made political representation look too easy. He must have been helped in this journey by a number of factors. But most evidently is his prior experience in grassroots politics (and governance) where he made the people the fulcrum of his service time. Next is his upbeat personality and engaging personal lifestyle which enabled him to effectively interact with communities and the inhabitants under him. He is not working for his own people. He is working with them. He identified their precise need and solved it. Simple!
In his legislative journey that has spanned three terms, he has consistently made the people the central piece of legislative policies and intervention programs. He understands patronage. Several federal projects are now in Ogo Oluwa or Surulere on his influence. Every wards has a feel of Bunvic presence and so is every household. He has over 16 bills and 37 motions to his credits, one of the highest in the country till date. Notable among which are; Federal Polytechnic Ayede (establishment) Bill, 2021, Bill for an Act to Amend the Firearms Act Cap F28 LFN, 1959, to check proliferation of Arms in the Country, Penalties for Offenses, Miscellaneous Provisions Under the Act and another for an Act to Amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act Cap F40, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria to Ensure Transparency, Due Process and Accountability in the Administration of Public Funds amongst several others. Very recently is his motion on the overview of the directive on foreign exchange restriction on food importation.
It is still unimaginable that a single federal district would get a federal Polytechnic and another Federal Radio station in quick succession in a state that has 14 federal divisions. Apparently, Ogo Oluwa and Surulere is the luckiest electoral district in the state. The clear difference is the front man. Aside from his capital projects, he has embarked on several intervention programs to improve the economy of his constituents, particularly, the youths and women. He gave out about 100 laptops, and digital cameras to ensure his Constituency is not left out of the blossoming ICT revolution. There is the BEEP program for young students and undergraduates. He has a revolving loan scheme for market women and traders and pays a survival fund to the aged. He has also facilitated tons of federal employment in juicy departments and parastatals for people in his federal district. He has recently connected the Iregba community to the national power grid for the first time in their long history. Yet he is not abating.
His people have demanded that he run again. It is their way of showing gratitude to the man that has genuinely served them. They understand in Bunvic the district has a major chance to produce a key principal officer in the national assembly come 2023. They will not compromise this huge gain and go for a starter whose trust index and capacity are unverifiable. They understand that beyond wish, it will take a proven (and useful) experience for Ogo Oluwa and Surulere Federal constituency to challenge for a leadership position in NASS. It is a big craving for them.
Dokun Odebunmi is meek, kind and humane. He understands the place of Love and compassion in public service and knows without them humanity will not survive. Bunvic exemplified this basic attribute in its finest sense. His political ideology centered around human kindness. He is a unique breed. It is this unique trait that has put him in us. Bunvic again!!!
Adegbola Oluwaseun (Triple Tee) writes from Oyo state, Nigeria.
