June 12: Ekiti Lawmaker Gives N6m Empowerment To Community

A member of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mrs Omowumi Ogunlola, recently gave scholarship and items worth about N6million to about 60 widows, students and other underprivileged members of her Ijero constituency.

Ogunlola, who is the Chief Whip of the House, also challenged her colleagues in the assembly to give back to their constituents, pointing out that the phasing out of the constituency allowance “should not be an excuse to deprive the people of the benefits of democracy.”

At a well-attended ceremony at Doherty Memorial Secondary School, Ijero-Ekiti, the lawmaker, who pointed out that the gesture, was in commemoration of the celebration of June 12 and one-year of her election into the Assembly, also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delineate the constituency without further delay.

According to her, the gesture was a demonstration of the love and kindness towards the people that voted her into office, urging the political office holders to always run people-oriented programmes as a way of justifying the confidence reposed in them by the electorate.

The lawmaker, who is the Chief Whip and Chairman, House Committee on Information, assured the people  of her constituency  of qualitative  representation  at the parliament and ensure that more infrastructural developments were brought to the constituency by the state government.

Ogunlola pointed out that the constituency remained the largest among the 16 local government areas that exist in the state, with little development due to its largeness.

Ogunlola submitted that the constituency consists of about 14 towns and 33 farmsteads, which she described as too big to be a constituency.

The parliamentarian said the call to INEC to carry out the delineation exercise was predicated on the provision of the Electoral Act, which stipulated that delineation exercise should be carried out in every 10 years based on the people’s request.

She hinted that the largeness of the constituency was robbing the people of the deserved dividends of democracy.

“We have one town local government in every part of the country, so for Ijero to be 14 towns and several villages Local Government is an injustice.”

The Ajero of Ijero-Ekiti, Oba Joseph Adewole, praised the lawmaker’s contributions to the development of the Council, saying she had actually proved that women could be better representatives in appointive and elective positions.

Oba Adewole urged the politicians to be responsive to the yearnings of the people, adding that Nigerian populace still expected much from their elected representatives as a developing nation.

Written by Sam Nwaoko, Ado-Ekiti

This article was first in The Tribune on June 14, 2012

Last modified: June 14, 2012