SEN. OLORIEGBE: The Reformer of Legislative Representation

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SEN. OLORIEGBE: The Reformer of Legislative Representation

The criticism that greeted senator Oloriegbe’s decision to commission some of the life-saving water projects he facilitated to the rural areas dogged with age-long water problem is jejune, facile, and groundless.

The senator has in his efforts to provide sustainable access to potable drinking water for the people in rural areas facilitated motorized boreholes to address the age-long water crisis in some of the rural communities in his constituency. And that took him to a two-day journey across the four Local Government Areas making up the senatorial district he is representing at the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

A man of unassuming personality with a very simple lifestyle who sees himself as a public servant decided to go by himself to the commission, inspect and evaluate the quality of the works done. Gratifyingly, this decision availed people of the beneficiary communities the opportunity to have interactions with him and further acquaint him with their needs.

A very humble man who without any trace of condescension interacted with the people, during which a member of the Aiyetoro-Oja community in Ilorin East LGA, Wasiu Ologede lamented the shortage of staff in their community school and that he has voluntarily been offering service to the school, this gladdens the lawmaker, he applauded the young man and offer to be paying him a monthly stipend of Twenty Thousand Naira to motivate him for the voluntary service offering to his people. The tumultuous applauds that followed this announcement were deafening. If the Senator has sent a proxy to the place, would this have been possible? If Oloriegbe had towed the repulsive path of his predecessor that has become a norm to his lackeys, would this patriotic young man have secured this huge favor?

I was moved to cry when aged women at Olokobiri community bleated, they had for years been suffering the affliction of walking a long distance to fetch water until Senator Oloriegbe came to their aid. These women with beatific smiles on their faces appreciated and showered prayers on a man that has given them succor.

While the implacable critics were fatuously quibbling over commissioning on social media, the beneficiaries of the laudable projects were celebrating, rejoicing, and reaffirming their support for Oloriegbe’s cause saying “Ibi o balọ la n lọ” that is “we shall always follow you to anywhere you go.”

This gesture by Sen. Oloriegbe has again distinguished him from his predecessor who was dismissive of the people that propelled him to power just like a greatly exhilarated man at Idi-Apa asserted, “Oloriegbe’s visit to our village when the election was not even approaching accentuated Saraki’s disdain and contempt for us who when he held sway only thought of our existence during the electioneering campaign, never again shall we support him and his minions.”

The fact that Sen. Oloriegbe is attuned with the needs of the people and bringing them into actualization is placing him in good stead to secure the support of the people if he chooses to seek re-election.

The rabid remnants of the defeated dynasty have been sniveling over the commissioning of these life-saving projects to deflect people’s attention from its significance and obfuscate the fact that the project will not only put an end to the age-long water problem but will also save our people of the insufferable need of having to walk miles each day to fetch water.

Very laughable was the forlorn attempt by one of Saraki’s stooges to downplay the importance of these laudable projects who falsely claimed that his vanquished principal drilled ‘non-existent’ 365 boreholes across Ilorin. Interestingly, people with great knowledge of history swiftly confounded him with pictorial evidence of an ABS tanker that was ferrying water to the core part of the city. If the people in the city could suffer this unwholesome treatment, what then would be the fate of the inhabitants of the rural communities? Thanks to Senator Oloriegbe for being sensitive and not playing second fiddle to the rural areas as the people of the past.

While you can choose to be mischievous and disgorge garbage, we the progressive-minded people are also at the liberty to refute your false narratives and terrible fabrications with superior fact.

If Saraki had considered it condescending to go to his people for the commissioning and assessment of his facilitated project, if there was any, it is perverse to castigate anyone that chooses to be different by being humble, responsive, and accessible.

What is even your fuss about the commissioning?

There have been several high-ranking Senators that personally and proudly commissioned water projects in their various constituencies among which are Sen. Ike Ekeremadu (in 2017, as deputy senate president with proving links as thus:

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/06/jubilation-ekweremadu-commissions-agbaogugu-water-projects/),

Sen. Godswill Akpabio (in 2018, the minority leader https://sweetcrudereports.com/senator-akpabio-commissions-solar-powered-boreholes-others-aibom/),

Sen. Gbenga Ashafa of Lagos East(https://thenationonlineng.net/senator-inaugurates-borehole/) and many more.

The above brought to the fore the fact that not everyone can choose to be haughty or live in hubris as Saraki.

Let me end this treatise with the gratitude expressed by an aged man at Alapa market that “he who gives water has given life, senator oloriegbe we will forever remember your name for good for giving us succor and ending our perennial water problem, and not only this, you still built us a modern toilet to end open defecation and wiped out its threat to our privacy and dignity”.

Comrade Aremu S. is an indigene of Ilorin West Local Government of Kwara State

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