My pact with the people of Owo/Ose Federal Constituency -Dr.Abiola Oshodi

As the countdown towards the APC delegates election begins, a foremost contender for the seat of  Owo/Ose Federal Constituency in Ondo State at the Federal House of Representatives in Abuja, Dr. Abiola Oshodi has taken time to enumerate what he stands for and what policies he intends to pursue in the Green Chamber. In an interview with the newsmen recently, he enunciated the PACT he has with the good people of Owo/Ose communities.

Listening to him reeling out his various corporate social responsibility which he has executed for the people of the area in recent past, one has the believes in the hedonistic philosophy which states that “happiness is the only good thing for human beings while pain is an evil that no man desires.”

No wonder, he quotes copiously from the Jeremy Bentham’s all-time classic, The Fragment insisting that “It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” He added that “the obligation to minister to the general happiness of the people is a paramount obligation of all leaders who seek to lead and represent the people in any given society.”

Dr. Abiola Oshodi, the Canada-based medical practitioner simply derives  pleasure in seeing other people happy always.

How does Dr. Abiola Oshodi get here?

He narrates his humble beginning and how he admires his hero,  the late Chief Awolowo’s philosophy of people; living a good life; of creating an egalitarian society where everyone enjoys the good things of life; of developing a society where no one is deprived of education just because his/her parents could not afford school fees; of managing a society where no one dies of common diseases just because they cannot afford money to buy drugs; and having a community where none goes to bed hungry just because poverty still persist around him.

Growing up further, he observed another hero of his late Chief MKO Abiola’s philosophy (incidentally his namesake) of giving back to the society and of alleviating the suffering of the less privilege in the society by dishing out his hard earned money to pay school fees, sponsored football clubs, sponsored people to pilgrimage, advancing money to small entrepreneurs without the hope of being paid back, etc.

These and many more he wishes to replicate in his own little way if God will bless him. So, the the desire to serve the people, the desire to give back to society, the desire to show the light to other people to follow and the desire to rise up by lifting others has been a life long pursuant of Dr. Abiola Oshodi.

In every thing he does later in life, these factors/virtues have been his driving motive.Career wise he chose early in life to study medicine because he dreamed a life of saving other people from dying unnecessarily from avoidable diseases.

Beyond saving lives, he chose to become a philanthropist just because he desires a society where everyone has access to education, to good accommodation, to good health and more importantly he envisages a society of happy and joyous people as was earlier imbibed in him by the actions of his two hero’s, Chief Awolowo and Chief MKO Abiola.

He subscribes to the belief that it is not rich people that are givers but people of good hearts. That maxim made him to start out early in life to purse and embark on philanthropic gestures not because he was rich himself but because of his desire to enthrone an egalitarian society where no one lacks.

Fortuitously enough, destiny brought him to Europe where he observed the way the white people built a society where no one is too poor to live a descent life. He seeks to replicate this life of poverty eradication even back home starting from his own immediate society, Owo/ Ose constituency.

Charity they say, starts from home, he felt burdened seeing people suffering from all fronts, he felt very uncomfortable with deprivation, hence, from his base in Canada, he chose to create time out of his tight schedule to come home to feel the pulse of the people by instituting some life changing policies which have impacted positively on the life of the people of Owo/Ose in the past six years or so.

His philanthropy took a new dimension in 2017 when he instituted a Foundation, Abiola Oshodi Scholarship Foundation as a statutory body to henceforth, formally administer his long established act of annual payment of school fees of some student who have issues with school fees payment.

Prior to the formal inauguration of this body, Dr. Oshodi has consistently been in the habit of paying the school fees of students who cried to him for help. But seeing that there are still more indigent students out there suffering and who may not have access to him for one reason or the other, he felt the best way out of the problem and the reasonable solution is to constitute a body which will advertise the program, distribute the forms (free of charge of course) and do the selection devoid of unnecessary bias.

Since 2017 when this programme was formalised, it has recorded an outstanding success even far and beyond the initial dreams of Dr. Abiola Oshodi himself.It has become a source of hope for the hopeless and each year a lot of new students are enrolled in the programme and they are been succoured by the prompt release of funds, as soon as, the process of selection is completed.

Whatmore, parents who are being relieved of the pressure of school fees payment annually are praying for Dr. Abiola to live long to continue with this life changing policy. Testimonies abound everywhere of the timely intervention of this program in saving the education of a lot of Owo and Ose residents thereby changing their story for good, for ever.

It should be noted that this scholarship program is available to every student resident in Owo/Ose community and not necessarily for indigenes only, hence, we have people from Akoko, from Kogi states, as well as, Benue states but resident in Owo/Ose Local Governments enjoying the scholarship currently.

According to Dr. Oshodi, this programme, he intends to continue even on a larger scale in years to come. It should also be noted that these and many more other philanthropic gestures by this world acclaimed humanist medical practitioner has been embarked upon long time ago before he dreamed of coming home to vie for any elective positions in his constituency. The desire to serve further and the fact on ground that his people are been shortchanged by lack of quality representation by the current occupier of the post necessitated his resolve to contest for the position.

While the APC delegate election is taken shape, Dr. Abiola Oshodi once again reiterated his desire to serve his people very effectively at the Lower Chamber of the National Assembly. He further enumerated those policies he desires to pursue while holding the leadership position in his Owo/ Ose Federal Constituency; policies that will liberate the people from poverty as he has seen and observed while working in the advanced countries of the world. Such policies and programmes that will enable him free his people from the shackles of poverty.

On what he has done before which he intends to continue with:

Dr. Abiola Oshodi said he has done so much that he cannot finish recounting them in a day but some are so dear to his heart to the extent that he intends upscaling them after the elections, by Gods grace.

*We established the AT&T farm for the purpose of creating jobs for the people in the area. We established the Remedial Academy to train our students who are preparing for JAMB and WAEC to prevent them from wandering around. We established the Football Academy to scout and sharpen the skills of our youths in the area of sports development. We set up the IT Academy to develop the abundant technical skill of our bubbling youth in the constituency. God willing we intend scaling up these Academies as soon as we get into the House.

He also intends to put in place a leadership aura that will crystallise the abundant talents embedded in the youths of the area, a leadership aura that permeates the tender minds of the youths,  tickles the mind of the elders to action and catalyses the creative side of the youths in the community.Of course, a leadership aura that harnesses the abundant resources of the land to purse the greatest good of the greatest number of people in our society.

Dr. Oshodi challenged his opponent, Mr. Adelegbe, to come out to tell the people of this constituency those things he did for them before he became the Legislator representing the area. “Like for like, no one can safely say, I repeat, no one can boast of matching up to our record or our legacies in this constituency”, Dr. Oshodi said. So, let a debate be instituted and let us face ourselves and let’s enumerate our social responsibility projects that we did before now before the people. “I am aware that my opponent has been going round listing his constituency projects as his CSR projects.”

 No sir! Constituency projects are constitutionally guaranted for each constituency by law. It is quite different from CSR projects which you as a leader in the society is required morally to carry out among the people. Giving back to the people for the blessings you received from God.”Of course,” “there is virtually none that our man can point to.” We are simply unbeatable and unmatchable in that noble field.”

On the core issue of legislation

On he core issue of legislation, Dr. Oshodi said  he intends to sponsor bills that seek to influence Government to site youth-oriented projects, such as IT hub, farm settlement, skill acquisition scheme and artisan villages across the two communities to prevent excessive youth migration (rural- urban drift). “Of course, we intend to be one of the prime movers in the House. We intend to be proactive and be heard, loud and clear. We will not be an ‘l concur’ Legislator. We will certainly not be another bench warmer from our constituency.” He concluded.

“Naa! Owo and Ose’s voice must be heard loud and clear too.” “Owo no dey carry last”, he joked. These and many more, we vow to purse while in the house. It is both a vow and a pledge to the good people of Owo and Ose. “From me to them, it is a pact we intend pursuing with all the grain of blood in a body,” he concluded. And if the feelers currently from the people in the two communities are the gauge of the voters, then, Dr. Abiola Oshodi is the candidate to beat in the forthcoming election both at the delegate election which comes up in a forthright, as well as, in the general election next year

A random sampling of voters’ preference of candidates within the two communities of Owo/Ose reveals a general acceptance of the candidature of Dr. Abiola Oshodi as he was generally believed to be a kind of a “Daniel come to Justice.” He is believed to be shoulder higher to his opponent who is generally regarded among the populace as a lame duck, bench warmer Legislator.

In all the communities within the two local governments visited by Éclat News editors, for obvious reasons, Dr. Oshodi’s name resonates well with the voters in the constituency compared to the name of his other opponent. His good deeds have preceded his candidature.One responder told said that the gentle Doctor has watered the ground by his various act of kindness a nd it is now time for him to walk on the proverbial ‘ile tutu.’

Another responder simply compared Doctor Oshodi’s act of giving to the people and to the society to that of Late Chief Jimoh Ajanaku’s legacy of giving in those days. He said the difference between them is that Dr. Oshodi capped his own corporate social responsibility with abundant humility and unparalleled  humbleness.

And yet another responder said that before Dr. Oshodi signified his intention to vie for the post, the incumbent Legistaor was simply on AWOL. No presence on ground both physicaly and socially. “We only get a glimpse of him occasionally with his coteriè of siren blasting black limousines running through our roads but no physical or social contact.” 

The responder, Mr Sola Ijabade opined that the coming on board of Dr. Oshodi has certainly changed the narrative as the current Legislator has come down from his high horse to interact with the people.

This assertion of Mr Ijabade only corroborates what another responder, Mr. John Adeola Isijola said at Ute about the lack of empathy and the aloofness of the current Legislator towards the people he represents. According to Mr. Isijola, our Legislator is simply not socially responsible to the people of the community. He simply does not know the difference between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and constituency projects. He passed of the constituency projects as his corporate social responsibilities of which some of us are enlightened enough to know that they are not the same.

While the constituency projects are constitutionally guaranteed in the house budgets to be carried out by government in each and every delineated constituency, the corporate social responsibilities are the ones to be carried out by our representative from his pocket and from his huge monthly and quarterly take home. This he has not done at all only for him to hoodwink to people with the setting of constituency projects as CSR projects.

To cap it all, another responder said “the most annoying part of all is the inability of our Legislator to sponsor even a motion let alone a bill since 2019 that he has been in the house.” “He concurs always to every bill and ‘Aye’ to every motion.” He mimicked while laughing at the same time.

He went further to say that “even when the Fulani Herdsmen were kidnapping us, killing our people and raping our women, we expected our Representative to come out boldly on the floor of the house as Dino Melaye and Smart Adeyemi used to speak out but nothing was heard from him.”  We simply need a better representative this time around, Mr. Lekan Arotiba concluded.

To attest to the popular saying that “vox populi, is vox dei,” one has no fear that the people’s voice will prevail at the forth coming polls. Dr. Abiola Oshodi is surely the people’s choice and the people of the constituency have accepted him as their own project.

They have subsequently reserved the constituency seat at the National Assembly for him in 2023.  They are eagerly waiting for the elections to come in 2023 so they can formally install him as the Legislator representing Owo/Ose federal constituency at the National Assembly.

For a better society