LG Boss to promote financial empowerment for teeming Youths in Akinyele

When youths are equipped with essential skills, they can feed, assist others, and fully take charge of their lives thereby paving path for a better future. In this interview the newly elected Chairman of Akinyele Local Government, Honourable Taoreed Jimoh shares how he intends to empower youths in his local Government and other plans for accelerated development.

Anu Oyeleye

Can you please introduce yourself?

I’m Taoreed Jimoh, I was born and bred in Moniya, ward 5 area of the local government, I have a first degree in health education from the University of Ibadan and I have been in politics for the past 20 years. Before now, I have served as a Counselor and Leader of the house from 2007-2010. I have great passion for my community and even when I was a Caretaker Chairman, I was able to satisfy the majority in Akinyele Local Government.  This, am sure, influenced my election.

What is your development agenda for Akinyele Local Government?

I have so much to deliver; I’m using a multi-dimensional approach. Like I said earlier, I was born and bred in the local government. So, I know the challenges people encounter in their daily lives. In my campaign promises, I stated that I would work on infrastructure development such as rehabilitation of existing road and the construction of a new one. You know this local government is considered as a less city and some parts are rural, that is why the improvement of roads is important to help the farmers to easily transport their produce the urban areas. Yes, there is an existing road but I want transportation to be hitch free.

I also plan to support the educational programmes in the State. Education is one of the key point agendas of the Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde and I would like to complement his efforts in Akinyele Local Government.  As population increases in our schools, I would like to ensure that the facilities available are in good shape and procure new ones where necessary. We want to ensure that there is a constant supply of furniture, writing materials and uniforms. I intend to do a constant assessment and ensure that bad furniture; facilities used in the laboratories are replaced.

We are also working on electrification projects. Some communities do not have electricity because of bad transformers or inadequate poles and so on. We would ensure that our communities are connected to the National Grid. The Electrification projects would improve the economy and help members of the communities in their businesses. We’ve started this, we just gave a community a cheque of N600,000 to replace their transformer so that they can have light. We are moving on to other communities to assess their needs in this regard.

As I have said, I intend to positively turnaround the different sectors. On healthcare, we would work on ensuring that every ward has its own primary health care Centre. Actually in this area, we would be complementing the effort of the State Government. The Government is equally particular about the health sector as you can see in his response to addressing COVID-19. We are particular about the people’s health. We will equip the health centre so that people will only go to the teaching hospital for major health issues.

Proper Sanitation is also one area I would like to improve on. We would sensitize the people on the need to keep a clean environment and provide potable water. When there is an increased access to clean, potable water, health challenges will be minimized.

The Local Government has teeming youth populations that are not employed, what are you plans for their empowerment?

Well, we plan to employ some of them in the local government and give soft loans to those that are interested in business.

Actually, I intend to introduce a lot of them to Agriculture. My vision is to make them become employers of labour. We also plan to empower those that are butchers. We want their businesses to flourish and so we will support them through their associations.

How do you intend to maintain adequate security considering the recent case of violence in your local government?

We’ve been battling with the issue of insecurity nationwide and Akinyele local government was  affected. But luckily for us in Oyo State, we have a Governor that is highly concerned with the protection of lives and properties. The Governor played a significant role in restoring peace. He has recently directed all the 33 local governments to equip all the local security. He is not relying on the national security agencies alone. He wants everyone on board; he has empowered us to provide facilities for these local securities and provided funds for logistics. We have empowered the vigilante groups, OPC, Agbekoya, soludero and even the hunters to maintain adequate security. The government is going through great lengths to ensure a peaceful environment. I’m sure that at the end of our tenure, the people would be satisfied with our performances at the State and Local  level.