Two Years of Purposeful Legislation: Doing it the Hon Ajuloopin Way.
By Abdullahi Haruna Haruspice
In a clime suffering from acute leadership crisis, it’s always a rarity to come by a selfless and diligent leader who means well for he’s elected to serve.
As advanced by development experts and good governance advocates, leadership is all about service. Once leadership is weaned off service, the rest is meaningless, a mere carcass.
A lot of the times, because of the general apathy of the people towards their leaders over the years, the exceptional ones who do well for the governed are often not celebrated until after their death. Such is the case of the first civilian Governor of Lagos State, Lateef Kayode Jakande, who passed on recently at 91.
In any case, the subculture of celebrating performing leaders until after their death, is changing, though at a snail space.
It’s against the background of the above that the purposeful legislative representation of Hon Tunji Ajulo-Opin in the 9th House of Representatives can be justifiably x-rayed vis-a-vis his superlative performance in the last two years.
Although we all do know that the textbook twin responsibilities of a lawmaker are that of lawmaking and oversight functions to checkmate the actions and inactions of the other two arms of government -judiciary and executive – yet a lawmaker’s impact is beyond these two primary functions. That’s for a lawmaker who knows his onions, anyway.
Generally, Hon Ajuloopin, elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in the last two years, has done some stuff for his constituents, played politics of inclusive governance, exhibited decorum on the floor of the Green Chambers and contributed meaningfully to debates and motions geared towards bringing development to his people back in Kwara State and the generality of Nigerians at large.
Hon Tunji Olawuyi Ajulo-Opin representing the Ekiti/ Irepodun/ Isin/ Oke-Ero Federal Constituency of Kwara State, is today being celebrated within his constituency and the entire Kwara State because of his exceptional leadership capacities and his grassroots philosophy of governance.
There is a reason for his Kwara-wide popularity and acceptance:
The distinguished MHR is an extremely humble person who sees himself as first among equals. He is an integral part of the state government though a lawmaker at the national level who is forever connected to the masses, his primary employer whom he holds in high esteem. His accessibility is top-notch and his readiness to listen to the issues of his constituents unequalled.
For the two years, he has spent in office, Hon Ajuloopin has been able to touch the lives of his constituents positively as well as different sectors of the Constituency through the provision of life-changing projects and emplacement of life-saving skills.
His intervention in the healthcare chain alone has led to free eye treatment and eyeglasses for about 2000 beneficiaries in places like Oke-Ero Local Govt. In his efforts to make his constituency COVID- 19 free, Hon Ajulo-Opin deployed his team to the four local governments in the constituency to provide safety measures via community health sensitization, distribution of alcohol hand based sanitiser, face masks among others.
He also made a donation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Kwara State COVID-19 Technical Committee and distributed palliatives to the masses to help cushion the effect of the lockdown on his constituents etc.
As a firm believer in education, Hon. Ajulo-Opin has constructed blocks of classrooms in his constituency. Some of the classrooms so far constructed are at Okesa Community Primary School in Isapa ward, Ekiti local government; classrooms at Apata Kajola primary School in Ajase1 Ward, Irepodun Local government (ongoing) in addition to the distribution of educational support materials to various basic schools in the constituency.
In the same vein, tens of hundreds of UME candidates and undergraduates across Nigerian universities have benefitted from his financial generosity through scholarships and other essential aids. At the last count, over 360 students across all the 82 public schools in his federal constituency have benefitted from his scholarship scheme.
Of course, as someone who knows the criticality of basic infrastructures to the development of any society, Hon Ajulo-Opin has facilitated the completion of Erinmope/ Ekan Meje road. His service-driven attitude also made the installation of solar power street lights across his Constituency a successful project. He has also sunk solar motorized boreholes across the wards that make up his constituency for easy access to water for the people
On empowerment, it has been good news galore. Hon Ajulo-Opin has distributed industrial sewing machines, grinding machine and generators to empower the good people of his constituency. He has also facilitated CBN loan to more than 500 people and sponsorship of business training such as on micro flush toilet.
He has trained and empowered over 200 youth of the constituency through certified in various areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The programme is tagged ADEP (Ajuloopin Digital Empowerment Programme).
Agriculture is not also neglected in his sundry interventions as a large swathe of his constituency is largely agrarian. Apart from facilitating CBN loans for farmers and business-minded individuals, Hon Ajulo-Opin has also enhanced the registration of farmers’ association with the Corporate Affairs Commission. This is just to mention a few in addition to the construction of 5 processing farm buildings across the 4 local government areas of his constituency ( Isin, Irepodun,Ekiti and Oke-Ero.)
Hon Ajulo
pin has only spent two years in office with a record of achievements to show for his representation. He has two more years to complete his first term of four years in office. There’s no doubt that he will do more for his constituency taking into consideration what he has been able to achieve within this short space of time and the limitations usually associated with his office. Other things being equal, his constituents can look up to more years of impactful representation.
