Yayi's Legacy: Sustenance of Abject Poverty

Sen. Yayi Nursing and Promoting Poverty in Alimosho

Across the world, governments and leaders are popular for their campaigns on poverty alleviation programs and agendas. Back in Alimosho, the Senator representing the Lagos West senatorial districts is popular for his strategies of promoting and sustaining poverty around the district he represents at the Red Chambers in Abuja.

Close sources to Senator Adeola Olamilekan (Yayi) have continually emphasized how the Senator nurses poverty among his followers. The fashionable lawmaker strongly detests seeing his followers look good, as he does not waste time in challenging and sometimes accusing them of having stolen from him.

His bi-annual and sometimes Olympic appearances at Constituency meetings are direct indicators for the Senator's disregard and non-challance for the people of Alimosho where he started his political career in 2003. This highly favoured lawmaker comes around only when he feels he needs the people of Alimosho. He has successfully portrayed being in the Senate as being an advanced species whose association with the lower class is detrimental to his existence.

Before general elections, Yayi calls everyone and attends every gathering just to woo the people again. Yayi, a very lively Senator, has a very broad smile that could melt iron when he intends to subdue his angered constituents. At meetings, he would sing and dance, making them forget he ever abandoned them. He becomes attentive to every complainer and promises heavens and earth, just to secure their confidence to bring him back to office. Before the end of the meeting, he makes a loud announcement of funds that most often never leaves his purse. What a Senator!

Immediately after elections and on the assumption of office, Yayi disappears into thin air again, never to be seen again until the approach of another election. The same man who personally attended to all calls, and called every Dick and Harry before the election, would suddenly become unreachable, as he sees but would never pick calls from his constituents. He would suddenly become a celebrity Senator only to be seen on TV screens.

A quick analysis of the funds given by Yayi at meetings:

At the recent constituency meeting, Yayi promised to give each LCDA, a sum of one million naira (₦1,000,000). Each LCDA has a minimum of five wards - some have seven. Assuming party leaders do not pinch these funds, an LCDA with seven wards should return with ₦143,000. These wards are further subdivided into zones, each with at least, five. With this, each zone, with a minimum of 100 persons, should receive ₦28,000. Each party member goes home with less than ₦300 after having spent, at least ₦200 to attend the constituency meeting and another ₦200 to attend the LGA meeting. After wasting so much time and resources, a family man or mother with kids would be handed ₦300 after four consecutive meetings. What a loss! What a waste of time and resources!

By 2023, Senator Yayi would have served the people of Alimosho for 20 consecutive years. But what do the people of Alimosho have to show for their continuous and massive support through votes to our Olympian - a Senator who appears once in four years?

After inviting the Obas of Yewa to the Red chamber, a gesture never enjoyed by the Obas in Lagos West, Yayi recently sent the Obas of Ogun West to America on vacation. He gave them millions of naira to enjoy themselves - all in a bid to secure their support for his third term Senatorial ambition at Ogun West, where these Obas rule.

A couple of years back, Her Excellency, Adejoke Orelope commissioned a project in Alimosho that attracted dignitaries across the state and Federal level including ministers and representatives of the First Lady, Her Excellency, Hajia Aisha Buhari, including the then Governor, Akinwumi Ambode, the Commissioner for Health. On the instruction of  Enilolobo, a sadist, all Council Chairmen and all other political office holders in Alimosho including Yayi did not attend the groundbreaking ceremony which was the commissioning of a Maternal and Child Healthcare facility inside Igando General Hospital. However, the occasion was a success as their absence was not felt rather, it exposed the chains around the necks, wrists and ankles of Alimosho political office holders under Emperor Enilolobo.

But On the 29th of April, 2021, Yayi was televised in Ogun giving a speech and making a commitment at the Flag-Off Ceremony of Atan Lusada Agbara Road Reconstruction in Ado-Odo/Otta Local Government. This is a clear body language of where Yayi's loyalty now lies. He has moved his Senatorial assignments from Lagos West to Ogun West, 

just as he had always chanted; West To West. While Ogun West has two Senators, with Yayi moving to join Tolu Odebiyi, the sitting Senator, Lagos West is now like an orphan in Nigeria as it does not have anyone fighting for and protecting her interest in the Senate.

Politics is not done for God but our personal and immediate gains. Yayi's cruelty to his district and  constituents is second to none. Yayi's representation at both the State and Federal Assemblies has not improved the lives of the people he claims to represent. There is not a single beneficiary of Yayi's magnanimity or generosity among party members. Yayi has not facilitated a single appointment or project to Alimosho since his inception into the Senate.

Are there still people who believe in Yayi and his unending lies in Alimosho? We sincerely hope the people of Ogun West are closely following the happenings in Lagos West under Yayi and would not repeat the mistake of entrusting their only chance in the Senate to a man who only cares about himself and would only remember them after four years.

A word, they say, is enough for the wise