 |
| Senator Folarin |
The attention of the peace-loving and progressive youths of Oyo State, especially the discerning crop who constitute the youth wing of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has been drawn to a recent malicious news report wherein the former Governor of Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, labeled Senator Teslim Folarin, a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and by the grace of God, the duly and popularly elected flag bearer of our great party in the next election, a fraud. He didn’t stop there. Among other porous and poorly-strewn together allegations, Akala also falsely accused Senator Folarin of possessing fake academic qualifications, being administratively empty and violence-prone. In our reckoning, this is political blackmail taken too far. Indeed, only a disgruntled turncoat like Akala can call a self-made man, astute and selfless politician like Senator Folarin, a fraud among other distasteful names. We beg to differ.
As a sub-group within the PDP whose credo is to join hands with credible and cerebral individuals to help grow and develop Oyo State, we cannot sit back and watch a perfidious individual with zero credibility and zilch achievements to show for his four year reign to rewrite the biography of a man who the entire Oyo State is clamouring for his humane leadership style. It is on this premise that we decided to set the records straight and enlighten Akala and his delusional followers on the virtues and qualifications of Senator Folarin. A 1987 Political Science graduate of the University of Ibadan, some of Senator Folarin’s classmates include notable names like the successful businessman and proprietor of Jogor Events Centre, Engineer
Femi Babalola, who is, incidentally, a co-aspirant at the just concluded PDP gubernatorial primaries and a close friend of Akala’s; Diran Odeyemi, who was an aide of Akala’s while he was in government, Alhaji Alao Lateef, Victor Oluwadamilare of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, and Yinka Fabowale, the regional editor of the Sun Newspaper among many other distinguished Nigerians. Earlier this week, he was hosted by his Alma-Mata’s Hall of Residence, Sultan Bello, as part of programmes to commemorate the Sultan Bello Hall week.
 |
| Chief Akala |
Interestingly, Senator Folarin was also the captain of the school’s football team among other extra-curricular activities which made him a very popular face and name in the University of Ibadan. The in-coming Governor of Oyo State is also a proud alumnus of the Kennedy School of the Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA, where he attended an International Leadership Course in 2009. Some of his classmates were Mr. Chih-Yang Huang of the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Senator Ewa Henshaw (the current Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC) and former Minister of Mines and Steel, Sharafadeen Ishola, a native of Ogun State. Senator Folarin also holds a M.Sc. degree as a qualified Computer Systems Engineer from Elite College, London. Not forgetting that he also diligently served his fatherland during the National Youth Service Corps in Kaduna. It is therefore indecent and immature for a man like Akala with no clear-cut educational odyssey to accuse Senator Folarin of possessing fake academic qualifications, forgetting that his records are there at the University of Ibadan for verifications.
This is why we also find the ill-informed, laughable and ludicrous melodramatic outburst of Akala that Senator Folarin was a newspaper vendor when he lived in the UK as a young man. Let us educate Akala. There are no newspaper vendors on the streets of England. Rather, newspapers are bought from designated news-stands or delivered to the homes of subscribers. Funnily enough, this was the same man who claimed that Senator Folarin was a dish- washer and a taxi driver. Point of correction Chief Akala; Senator Folarin held only one job in his entire 14 years in the United Kingdom, and that was under Her Majesty’s Civil Service where he started out as an Administrative Officer in the Department of Trade and Industry, and rose through the ranks to serve under two members of the British Parliament, Patricia Hewitt MP, and Stephen Byers MP. Both of them are still alive.
There were also infantile allusions to his senatorial odyssey. First and foremost, the comparison between him and Second Republic Senate Leader, late Olusola Saraki, has been allowed to fester for too long because of the differences in the epochs during which they served as Senators. More so, Baba Oloye did not have deceitful and fraudulent people whose specialty was making up lies and blackmailing around him. The people of Ilorin in Kwara State were simply proud of him and as the heartbeat of the people of Oyo State, we are proud of Senator Folarin too. Senator Folarin spent eight years in the Senate without a single scandal, financial or otherwise. We know those who regularly have to present themselves to EFCC after raping the people they were elected to protect, under the guise of ‘man of the masses’. Despite Akala’s several concerted attempts to frustrate his reign as Senate Leader by making the atmosphere in Ibadan tense, with pockets of violence engineered to make Senator Folarin look bad, he still rose above Akala’s petty political style to deliver unprecedented democratic dividends to the people of his constituency. Unlike some people who will summon an owambe and share aso-ebi to commission projects, Senator Folarin’s records and executed projects speak for themselves. And very loudly too. We stand firm and pleased with his achievements as a Senate Leader.
For a man that Akala and his co-travellers describe as being administratively empty, why was he so hell-bent on getting him out of the way in the run up to the 2011 elections? Of course, as keen observers of the Oyo State political scenario, we recall how you framed Senator Folarin for the killing of the NURTW helmsman, Eleweomo, leading to his unlawful detention in 2011. Alao-Akala would be fooling himself greatly if he did not know that Nigerians know he vehemently fought against the easy-going Senator’s release, which came as a complete shock to him when it happened. We recall how you went as far as, in your usual bumbling way, taking the Attorney General of the Federation through his State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, all the way to the Nigerian Supreme Court, to complain about my release in Suit SC51/2011. The case was finally thrown out on June 22nd, 2011.
On his claim that Senator Folarin is an administratively empty person, Akala should be reminded that Folarin was saddled with the administrative responsibility of running the day to day business of the Nigerian Senate and produce a Daily Order Paper for four years, to present all Executive Bills without one incident or complaint from Mr. President and 109 Senators, the successful carrying out in 2007 of his role as the Amirul Hajj (Ambassador of Nigeria to the Holy Land and organiser of the national pilgrimage) handling one of, arguably, the most hitch-free Hajj liftings to date. If he didn’t discharge these federal duties effectively, he would not have been bestowed with the National Honour of OFR, and numerous awards, many given to him by this same Alao-Akala for his outstanding contributions to society. Akala’s doublespeak makes us conclude that someone is suffering from foot and mouth disease.
The former governor also typically claimed that Folarin has not won any free and fair elections in his life makes one laugh uproariously because in the 2003 and 2007 elections, Senator Folarin won his two elections to the senate with a landslide. No one took him to a single election tribunal. If Mr. Akala is now adjudging the election that brought Senator Folarin to office in 2007 as fraudulent, he should be reminded that he was also a product of the same political equation.
Finally, it is expedient to state for the records that Senator Folarin is a very reserved person and a hardworking family man with enviable domestic felicity who is averse to the mudslinging and brickbats of Akala and his soap-opera followers. This is a digital era, so cheap theatrics will not fly. That is why we need more educated people to run our affairs. The days of gutter politics are over. The issues at stake in Oyo State are too high for us to ignore in a desperate power struggle. We should stop running away from issues, and stop trying to undo the good intentions of people who genuinely want to serve.
The people of Oyo state know those who have had the opportunity and the means to turn their lives around, but wasted it all on the altar of profligacy and wanton corruption. Oyo people are tired of pettiness and want REAL change in their lives. They want food on their tables, a roof over their heads and places of business, their children in school, potable water, medicines in hospitals, jobs for their youth, and so much more. Not cheap calling of names like the proverbial fish-wife.
Thank you in anticipation of the understanding of all the discerning people of Oyo State.
Signed
PDP YOUTH LEADER,
No comments:
Post a Comment