Amosun should forget about second term —Osoba Posted by David Smart Labour Party in Ogun State appears to be growing strong by the day, what are the chances of the party winning elections in the state in 2015? We have decided that our leader, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, the former Governor of Ogun State should take over from the APC led administration because of the fact that we have seen a lot of wrong going on in the state, we have seen a lot of maladministration, lack of vision; we saw oppression, deceit, violence and acrimony. This present administration is bad. We are regretting it that Ogun State that has been the pride of South-West states, and the nation which has produced the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Earnest Shonekan, MKO Abiola and a lot of others is now being made a laughing stock due to bad governance. We have seen the regime of Segun Osoba in this state, we have seen the regime of Olabisi Onabanjo we saw the one of Otunba Gbenga Daniel and we have realised that Ogun State has been put backwards for decades and we felt challenged. We therefore decided we must come out and identify with the platform with which we can effect a change of government in Ogun State. We looked at our PPN and we discovered that we need to collaborate with other platforms. We also looked at PDP and its numerous challenges even though at the national level we see the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan. We looked at APC and we discovered that it is retrogressive in nature; we therefore decided to identify with Labour Party because of its ideology which centres on social democratization that Awolowo practiced. We looked at the philosophy of Labour Party which preaches equity and social justice, so we discovered that the only party which can be appealing and can appease the people of Ogun State is Labour Party. We knew hitherto that the party is not strong in Ogun state but we decided to identify with the party because of its ideology and here we are. Within a short time that Otunba Daniel became the Leader in the state, we realise that because of his good will because of the love people have for him as somebody that does things with human face, we now ride on his goodwill and on the principle and philosophy of Labour Party which has now been working for us. I want to tell you that today the strongest party in Ogun State is Labour Party. And in truth the people, artisans, market women, workers, students, Okada riders, religious leaders, all have agreed that the regime of Gbenga Daniel cannot be compared with this present one in the state in terms of achievements and acceptability. I want to assure you that we are not going to let them down, we are going to provide alternative government we have done it before and we will always do it. You said Gbenga Daniel is the leader of Labour Party but we have seen him lately romancing with the PDP. Where does he belongs, or is Labour Party planning a merger with PDP come 2015? Let me tell you that Otunba Daniel is in Labour Party. He is the state leader of the party. Labour Party has become the envy of other political parties in Ogun state. I want to tell you that people in the APC ruling government have moved to the Labour Party. I am sure you are aware that a faction of APC has crossed over to Labour Party, a faction of PDP has crossed to LP, and the whole lot of PPN has gone to LP. This is a coalition, we call it rainbow coalition and so there is no party that we don’t have in LP. In fact, by the grace of God we hope that Chief Olusegun Osoba and his group will soon work in collaboration with LP. OGD has been mandated by the party to open discussions with any party AGM, PDP, any party whatsoever that can work with him because what is paramount to us in Labour Party is that the government of Amosun must go. We are not personalising it, when we say Amosun must go, APC must go because Ogun State people are disappointed, Ogun people are regretting their step, Ogun state want to rescue themselves against the oppressive regime. Ogun State people want to stand up on their foot to fight for their future, and they discovered that it is going to be worse if Amosun stays in office beyond 2015. We have agreed to work with other well meaning Ogun State people and political parties that the APC government must go and they have agreed that the leadership of Amosun must go. So because of the credibility and goodwill of Daniel and Osoba we believe that we can work together, and we have good people in PDP that we can still work together with including in the APC those that have defected to Labour Party. We also have good people in APC who are waiting to leave the bad administration and so we have said that Otunba Daniel should continue to open discussions with parties, so therefore it is this approval to Daniel that people misunderstood to say that OGD is in PDP. Note that Labour Party has agreed nationwide not only in Ogun State that our presidential candidate is President Goodluck Jonathan. We are satisfied with his conduct, activities and programmes of his administration not minding the insecurity that is man-made and politically instigated. And we know that the issue of insecurity and Boko Haram is something that will soon be over, and I am sure you heard lately that fingers are being pointed at some people. We are going to get there, so when we remove the issue of security which the government Dr Jonathan is addressing critically, the man has performed and therefore we have unanimously agreed that our presidential candidate is Jonathan. That is why LP was at Ibadan Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) rally and we were led by our leader, Otunba Daniel and we went there to endorse and support the reelection bid of Jonathan. We did not go there because we want to join PDP. So you are hearing from the horses’ mouth that we don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but for today we are in LP and Daniel is in Labour party. We are not unaware that one or two parties are selling dummies that OGD is in PDP simply because they admitted the strength, goodwill and credibility of OGD to sell their party and therefore they are confusing people not to go to Labour Party. OGD and Labour Party has become the beautiful bride and that is why they are selling dummy but we have taken time to tell our members that OGD is in Labour Party and he remains in Labour Party until we reach consensus. Of course political collaboration is going to be fine tuned by terms and agreement if they are workable and therefore if that is not yet done we cannot say that has been done and until then we are in LP. Few weeks ago we learned that Buruji Kashamu and Daniel met at Bode George’s house in Ikoyi to resolve their grievances. And that they reached an agreement to work together whereby Daniel was given the Ogun East Senatorial slot, can it work? Let me tell you that we must be benevolent and we must be Godly and we must not keep malice or keep ourselves as enemies. At one time or the other, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and OGD were friends and another point in time they were not friends but now they are talking and they are friends. So if at one time Buruji Kasham is a friend, political associate or whatever of PDP wherein OGD was in PDP and if of course they parted way and they have come back now to say we are friend, yes, I know that was what the elder Bode George has done that first and foremost let us settle our differences. We have given our leader, OGD, the right to discuss and even negotiate on our behalf but just two days ago Daniel reported that we are discussing but we have not moved from where we are. He did not rule out that we could move and moving in that sense has not been defined; are we saying Labour is going to PDP, are we saying that PDP is merging with Labour Party, we have not said that. All these things are not only by merger and if it is merger who is merging, but don’t forget that it is the party that is the strongest that has the advantage to subsume the one that is a little bit strong. However, the one that is strongest can bury its ego and decides that for certain reasons we can merge, so don’t let us talk on hypothesis, as Chairman of Labour Party I have the mandate of our state leader to tell the press and the world that we are firmly in Labour Party. Our members should remain faithfully in Labour Party and they should not mind whatever discussion that is ongoing until consensus is reached we are in Labour party. There is the issue of Labour Party in Ogun State breaking into two camps following the leadership crisis which resulted in litigations. What is the situation now and what do you think the government of Amosun has achieved? The court case has been celebrated so much by the press and particularly some political gladiators in other parties, because the court case to us was just an in-house affairs of Labour Party. We had disagreement and of course one party quickly ran to court so that its right would not be infringed upon. We don’t see it as a disturbing issue and we want to tell you that in the last three to four weeks you have not been hearing about any faction. Nobody has been coming out to say I am this, I am that because we have used our internal mechanisms to settle our misunderstanding and we are moving on. We have gone to Political Summit at Ifo where we had the former Chairman of the party, Comrade Bode Simeon, who by the grace of God will be contesting for a national position very soon at the national level of Labour party. That is to tell you that we have settled our rift and any court case is only imagination of political gladiators. We don’t have problem in our party and our party today is the strongest not only because of size but because of the fact that we don’t have factions. Name any party that is in Ogun state that is powerful, the PDP, APC remain factionalised till tomorrow but we have crossed the stage and thank God we are one and united and cohesive. On the positive thing the APC government had done. Let me tell you without being sarcastic, the only area that we have seen and which my leader Daniel has pointed out always is that there is road construction and bridges by this administration and which applies to be good. It has given Ogun State what we can regard as aesthetic beauty because some of us when we were young we go to Lagos, we felt great when our father’s car cross over the bridge and we see the environmental beauty. We noticed one lane of road in Ijebu Ode from Mubalufon to Imowe-eleran; we noticed one stretch of road from Shagamu garage to Sabo area that has one bridge whereas Ijebu Ode has two brigdes. We noticed much construction of roads in Abeokuta Township, the state capital and one stretch of road in Yewa axis. When we look at the fewness of road construction comparing it with numerous areas, township roads etc in 296 wards or 20 big towns in Ogun State you will discover that it is minuet and insignificant. The Amosun led government has not taken a deep thought at the issue. It is right to say that Amosun’s government is only elitist, it segregates and discriminates. if you go to Ijebu North East Local government, you will see a lot of bad roads, if you go to Ijebu Ode you will see bad roads in Okeowa and other places, name the town and villages we don’t have bad roads. The quantum of money that he spent on the bridges which is over N5billion is enough to do towns and villages in Ogun East. Of what merit is it for you to climb a bridge and go on a two Kilometer road that is fine and thereafter the rest are bad. He has forgotten that the agrarian products will move from the rural areas to the urban and therefore if those roads are not done it will not get to the consumers in good time, and by the time it comes it becomes expensive. Let me tell you if you don’t have good township roads in remote parts, to move their people to nearest hospitals like Ijebu Ode, Shagamu etc will take more time which might have cost the death of the sick. You are spending so much money on roads construction which I call aesthetic and you have not provided good education. You told students that you are going to reduce the exorbitant school fees you alleged Daniel imposed on students, only for you to increase it and three years after you reduced it. You have slowed down activities in ICT polytechnics and attempted to scrap the first University of Education in Nigeria, second in Africa and the seventh in the world and that means you are not concerned about the legacy and the business of Ogun State people. The first business of Ogun State people is education, and again it means that he is not concerned about the employment and job security of those that work in those areas. It is important to note that Governor Amosun sacked over 2000 people that were recruited towards the tail end of Daniel’s administration, which Daniel did not do to over 2000 people that were recruited towards the end of Osoba’s regime. Osoba recruited my wife towards the end of his administration and Daniel did not sack her. Daniel recruited over 50,000 work forces in his administration and this government only takes people for menial jobs. He does not believe in tourism that is why he destroyed churches, mosques and essential places. That is why he destroyed the business concern of a lot of people and that is why people have died today and that is why people keep on dying under his government. And when you look at the welfare of workers, the workers in Ogun State are not happy and they are clamouring that we need that kind of OGD regime. There is one day Amosun saw AMG written on the wall in the secretariat at Oke Mosan and he asked the Head of Service what is the meaning of AMG, and the man told him he does not know who wrote it that it is “Amosun Must Go” and Amosun said because the man said the truth he will leave, but had it been he told him false he would have been in trouble. That is the mind of the Ogun State people. Look at the business opportunities created by Daniel; we have free-trade zones and OKNLG which are not working again. The cargo airport which was established by Daniel was not allowed to see the light of the day. It is ploy by APC government and Tinubu which they are working in concert with. He directed Amosun that he should not go into those hydro-cargo and sea port because he knows Ogun State is better than Lagos if that happened. So Ogun State people should open their eye and be conscious of their environment and conscious of political enemies of the state. That means that the APC government must be changed and we put in government people that believe in Ogun State project. What advice do you have for the present government of Senator Amosun? The advice I have for Governor Amosun is that he should start packing his load and that he should not contest for second term because he will be disgraced out. So for him to maintain his integrity, he should bow out when the ovation is loud because Ogun state people have made up their mind. Students have made up their mind, workers have made up their mind to vote him out. They have seen the difference and they are tired of his administration. AMG vs AIG
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 07:24:43 +0000
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