How we built our profile with wide acceptance through education, sports, empowerment – Ajeromi-Ifelodun LGA Chairman, Ayoola

Honourable Fatai Ayoola is the Chairman, Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government. He is widely endeared to the people of the Local Government Area. In this interview with Faizat Adeboye, Ayoola Florence and Esther Filani at the Local Government Secretariat, he shares the secret of his popularity and wide acceptance by his people. Excerpts:

Many have applauded your efforts in this Local government, what have you done actually to attract such accolades?

Before coming on board, we did what we call, post-mortem of our problems and I came up with an idea, that instead of having too many programmes for the space of four years, we have just four point agenda that covers Education, Health, Infrastructure, Youths empowerment and Women Emancipation and the last round that can enhance good governance is security. In our bid to situate the problem and proffer  solutions, we discover that some of the adults already form their mind on how to do things in life. We now went back to the kids between the ages of 6 to 13. We were able to capture their attention and reshape their thinking by imputing into their normal educational curriculum, sporting activities and music. We also extended by giving them computer literacy. After normal class room teachings, they can also do sport and have computer training within the school complex. Then, we organised competitions to sharpen their brain and sporting prowess. So, on those areas, we were able to catch a lot of people’s attention.  Then on health, one of the basic challenges people of this clan get is adequate and free medical attention. So, what we have been able to do is to intervene, by giving them free malaria drugs. Malaria is also a very potent killer as far as the black nation is concern; it is deadlier than COVID-19. So, we gave all our Primary Health Centres (PHC) a general face lift and we also brought in what we call ‘Doctors’ Quarters’ were some PHC were upgraded to a 24-hours service. We also made free treatment our priority for women and children. So, those are the programmes that really endeared us to the people. In post COVID-19 era, we felt that a lot of businesses are dwindling and shutting down, so we injected into the economy of the local people.  We have made provisions for a sum of N100,000 per person for 40 people for the past two years now. We have been doing it periodically but we have started doing it every month after the advent of COVID-19. So, 40 youths and women get N100,000 each on monthly basis to inject into their businesses and we have data to determine who and who gets this funding. One of the criteria or prerequisite is that you must have a shop. If you have a shop and your market is dwindling, and you inject N100,000 into that business, it picks up and you start doing well. We also told some people you cannot access our N100,000, if you are a girl using Iphone12; if you are a lady wearing N350,000 hair; it is not for you; allow people that need it to get it. How do we get to know this? On the day of the disbursement, you will be asked how you got the message to come for money and if then you bring out an Iphone12 that, this is the text message you received, you will be disqualified. So we look for persons who really need it. In our community again, during the COVID-19 lockdown, we also discovered the ‘Ko mu oko wa community‘. ‘Ko mu oko wa’ means someone that did not bring husband home to her parents but eventually got pregnant and have children. We have a community were they have a landlord that arranges where they are going to sleep for them and they pay token on daily basis. They give them 4 litres of custard bucket to go and do their toiletries, take their bath and they pay.

What are these girls’ job?

Most of them are sales girls at mama-put (local food vendors); they use these to feed their children. Some of them are selling and hawking local herb (the paraga, ale etc). So, by the time they sell to a conductor or driver and that one takes the paraga and gets charged, he uses it on them at the market table at night and pregnancy comes. The driver might have come from Ibadan or Port Harcourt or whatever. You know, it is a transitional community. They don’t know the husband, they don’t know the father of the kids. So, what we are looking at is quickly taking care of those children before they become a problem to the community.  So, we put them in school, give them free education and free uniform. We also try to empower those women so they can stand on their own. Those are the basic programmes that we have been running that has endeared us to general public.

For your first term, you had four point agenda, running for second term, are you still looking towards those four point agenda or you are going forward to picking another four and focusing on them?

When you listen to what late Fela (Nigerian Afro-beat star) sang in the early 70s and 80s on “water, food, light”; it is still constant up to this moment. So what we are really looking at is providing the basics for people as a government, but the danger in this is that the more you do, the more people will come to make request and because governance is also a function of availability of funds, we are kind of constrained to do what is within our power and limit.

However, because we are determined to do more, we are going to do more. We are going to do more on infrastructure, security and we are not going to relent on Education. We are also going to focus more on annexing our sporting talents and the musical prowess embedded in our community here. We have a number of sporting talents that grew up from Ajegunle.  One of them is playing for Manchester United before he went to Saudi Arabia, Odion Ighalo. He is a boy from my neighbourhood. So, we built something in his honour; this pitch Odion Ighalo 02 Arena, (pointing at it in the community magazine) was built in his honour and we also built a Cenotaph where people can just recreate and sit down. This is a cenotaph (showing us the picture in a magazine) this is where he started his career, in this place, you can sit down and enjoy free Wi-fi as a young boy in that community. So, these are the things we intend to do more on our second term.

While you have achieved what many couldn’t within four years, do you think there are areas you need to work on and is there any abandoned or unfinished project?

No! We have a seven-month window to complete ongoing projects. We are not initiating new projects, we are completing. Look at this beautiful edifice (an uncompleted building in the secretariat), how can we abandon this and go to do something else, it doesn’t make sense. In the light of good governance, you must be able to complete this and move over to the road. There are some roads that are about 70% to 80% complete.  So, those are the areas of priority for the period in question. By the time we come back, when we initiate new developmental programmes, it is going to be in conjunction with our amiable governor (Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu).

Some youth were discovered to be rendering free community services at the secretariat, what have you done to them to attract this gesture and what plans do you have for them?

There are a lot of programmes that are mapped out for the youths. There is the Ayoola 400 kids club. There is a club for best students at public schools; 400 of them were picked in different schools. We have the highest number of schools in Nigeria. We put these students in a place, tutor them and we are monitoring them. We are training them in a number of areas including ICT and Sports. We are also constructing our recreational centres for youth. You know if you want to take them off the street, you must also give them something that is equally appealing to them. Sports and music are the most appealing to these young boys and girls. Like the last competition we had, it was called ‘Ayoola Peace Cup’ where we had street competitions. We did the competition street by street in football. The winner in the best street got N1 million, the runner up got N500,000 and the 3rd place got N250,000. So, this kind of competition comes periodically.  We just had our nation’s cup; the mock nation’s cup. It is an Ajegunle thing but it had problems; I had to intervene, inject funds and make sure finals were played. So we are going to do another thing called Community Shield. We have communities: Ayetoro, Dantata, Baale Ayetoro, Alaya bi agba communities etc. They are going to interact and play football both boys and girls. So, these are the programmes that keep them busy and take them off the street.

So now focusing on the Education aspect, apart from curricular activities put in place for them, were there schools built for children?

These are verifiable projects. We built schools where a number of facilities were provided. Apart from building schools, we also built teachers’ resource centre.  These are some of the schools that were built (pointing at it in the community magazine); as you can see sporting facilities inside the school. We also have a brand new school called Saint Mary, it is a catholic school and Father Sadiku. If you see what was there before we rebuilt it, you will shed tears. So we had to come in and build super-structures for them and an ICT centre and sporting facilities and we won the best chairman in Education in Nigeria. We are also building a Housing estate on 20 acres of land where we evacuated refuse and it is going to be the first estate in the whole of local government in my own time.  So, these are the N100,000 given to recipients, you can see the state chairman of our party presenting the cheque of N100,000 given to recipient (pointing at it all in the magazine). These are things that happen every month. These are what we have done and we intend to do more.

Seeing the projects you have executed surpassing the records in other local government areas, do you have extra sources of funds?

I won’t be able to speak on that because all politics is local. What is obtainable in your locality might not be obtainable here. Your priority in your locality could be borehole while the priority in my own local government might just be football.  So that is circumstantial; it depends on the aspect you are looking at.

Since you became chairman, has there been any notable challenge that you faced as a chairman?

There are lots of challenges.  One of it is the #EndSARS protests. The youth came all the way from Orile and they started burning down police stations all the way down here. When they got here, there was a SARS building opposite us; in an attempt to burn down the building and the police resisted them, they now vested their anger on the council and burnt down the council. Now, what show is that? I was in pain because with all what we have been doing for these youths, we didn’t expect them to do that. However, because of our resilience and resolve about bringing the best to our people, that is why you are seeing the turn around of the ruins to this beautiful edifice.