Yayi Restoring Peoples’ Trust & Confidence

KEHINDE AKINLADE 

As a Yayist, I get inundated regularly with enquiries from Ogun West constituents and beyond: “When is Yayi going to distribute empowerment forms again?” “How can I benefit from Yayi skill acquisition training?” Help us with Senator Yayi’s phone number, our community needs transformer?” “Our communities are ready to support Senator Yayi, can you help register us? “When will Yayi construct the road in our community?” “Help me to benefit from Senator Yayi” “Our community school too needs Senator Yayi’s intervention”. “We want to meet with Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, can you help us?”

The generator of these inquiries and questions is the trust that the people now have in Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi as a political office holder, who has proven himself to be accountable, reliable and delivered on his electoral promises. A man who has been fulfilling his promises to the people and has so far set a unique record in political representation. The simple fact is that our Distinguished Senator has set records of performance that will take a long time to beat.

The obvious answers to the above questions and enquiries is that Yayi’s commitment to fulfilling his promises, particularly on student scholarship and bursary programmes is total and sacrosanct. Activities across Ogun West in these regards in the past few weeks attest to this fact.

Two years into a four years term of office, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi has delivered dividends (enough for two terms of four years tenure of office) of democracy in Ogun West and has extended same to other parts of Ogun State.

Indeed, in Ogun State, trust, like a wary returnee has returned into the political relationship between political office holders and the electorate on whose mandate those in government found their ways into power at different levels and arms of government that our kind of democracy allows.

Trust did not just return.
Aremo Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi, the ranking Senator representing Ogun West in the Red Chamber of Nigeria’s National Assembly, found, earned the trust and shepherded it through the path of his most outstanding, unprecedented, transformational performance as the representative of the good people of Ogun West in the 10th Senate. Yayi’s remarkable representation in Ogun West has caught the attention of the people across and beyond the borders of Ogun State. Consequently, people across the state are already clamouring for him to aspire to become the next governor of Ogun State to consolidate the landmark achievements of Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun CON.

Before the entry of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi into Ogun West politics, trust was like a mirage in the point of view of the electorate;- Campaign promises made by politicians were received by the voters with derision. Politicians on campaign stages were seen as expert liars who would not fulfill their campaign promises. Then came Senator Adeola Yayi, who was described by a section of the electorate as a man that would win election and run back to Lagos where he came from without delivering on his mandate. Two years down the line, Aremo Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi has not only proved himself worthy of the peoples’ mandate, he has practically distinguished himself as a rare breed politician that can be trusted.

Today, he is a darling of election thumb printers with an excellent performance in office that has even surpassed peoples’ expectations. He has been able to prove that sustainable trust can exist between political office holders and the electorate. Yayi has shown that good and impactful governance is no rocket science and has proven that it is possible for politicians to be accountable, fulfill campaign promises, upgrade constituencies and transform the lives of mandate givers.

The Distinguished Senator even went beyond giving promises to penning a covenant with the people of Ogun West. He had published and presented same to the electorate during campaigns.

Today, across the land, the fulfillment of that covenant by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi is practically evident. New and aesthetically designed modern schools, roads, hospitals, markets, ICT centres, town halls, pavilion, solar streetlights, youth, equipped with marketable skills and tools are testimonies to the quality representation of Senator Adeola in Ogun West Senatorial District.

It is noteworthy that the word marginalization has become a forgotten lexicon in political discourse in Ogun West. Complaints and petitions from across several project sites in the zone has become the norm today. This is pointer to the massive infrastructure revolution currently ravaging the entire zone, championed and facilitated by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi.

Undoubtedly, this ‘social reformer’ has been able to use his wealth of experience as a ranking member of the National Assembly to facilitate rapid and consistent socio-economic growth and the development of his constituency.

Almost on weekly basis, Yayi’s facilitated skills acquisition and empowerment programmes keep churning out graduates in different fields like information technology, agriculture value chain, artisanal vocations like tailoring, hair dressing, confectionery making and so on. Some of his ardent supporters have nicknamed him ‘Mr. Project’ in appreciation of the upgrading of Ogun West that Senator Adeola is effecting in terms of infrastructural development and the upskilling of the people for enhanced opportunities in the labour market.

Trust is back in Ogun State politics. Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi, made it happen. The same people who once said Senator Yayi has occupied political office for far too long are the same people now calling for his continuity in government beyond 2027 to become the next governor of Ogun, the Gateway State. That is what trust can achieve, that is the relationship between Senator Yayi and the electorate of Ogun State.

Kehinde Akinlade arpa
writes from Iboro, Yewa North, Ogun State.