YABA LCDA CHAIRMAN, HON. OMIYALE CHATS WITH TREK AFRICA, SAYS HIS SECOND TERM IS ‘TO DO MORE’
By Oki Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
Hon. Omiyale Adejare Kayode; Executive Chairman, Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
Still smarting from the feat of getting a nod for second term from party faithfuls at the recent Lagos LGA All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries, the Executive Chairman of the Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Hon. Omiyale Adejare Kayode was full of praises to God and showered accolades on his people leaders of the APC party for showing him great support. In this exclusive interview, the council boss shared his experience during the first term and expectations for the upcoming tenure when elected for second term at the July 2021 Local Government Election in Lagos State with Oki Samson of Trek Africa Newspaper.
Trek Africa: You emerged the flagbearer for APC in Yaba LCDA for your second term. How do you intend to raise the bar on your first term performance?
Hon. Omiyale: Well we thank God for the success of the first time and what God was able to do with us in that first term. We intend to use it as a yardstick on the second term. We know the schools we have been able to build, we know the roads we constructed and we know the impact we made in health in our first term. Coming back for the second term, we now know the terrain and it is not new to us. So we are going to improve on what we have done before. We intend to do more which means our people will be able to enjoy more dividends of democracy than they have enjoyed before.
Hon. Omiyale Adejare Kayode; Executive Chairman, Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
Trek Africa: In what areas do you intend to raise the bar?
Hon. Omiyale: One, we want to see to the welfare of the people; the poverty in the land is quite alarming. Any government that is not interested in the lives of the people is not encouraging. In our first term, we went round the wards giving stipends to the aged and the widows. In our second term, we want to increase this from 100 to 150, that is, the number of people. We were doing it eighty aged persons and twenty widows. In this coming tenure, we want to make it a hundred aged persons and fifty widows. We want to see to the youths, give them employment as much as possible; make sure we remove the youths from the street to stop this problem of cultism. So we are going to establish a very vibrant center for skills acquisition like fashion design, mechanic, hairdressing and such. In the area of education, you see, in our first tenure, we were able to establish a good relationship with all the tertiary institutions in our community. We have a university here which is the University of Lagos; we have Yaba College of Technology and the College of Education. We have a good rapport with them. What we have done in our first term was to give out GCE Forms and to those who passed the GCE, we gave them JAMB Forms. This time around, we are going to take a step further; collect the JAMB results and send them round the higher institutions in our domain and make sure anybody who makes the cut-off marks is given admission without any stress.
Trek Africa: What are your plans for women development?
Hon. Omiyale: Yes, we have been carrying the women along. There was a program we were supposed to do last year but we didn’t do because of the Covid-19. God willing, immediately we resume, we are going to host all the women in our Local Government. We already have the materials and we have the money; we are going to empower them at least a larger number of them; especially those of them who already have one petty trade or the other. We make sure we empower them and contribute to their trades. The widows as I have said, it is twenty before but now, we are going to increase it to fifty.
Trek Africa: There is tension in the country because of insecurity and you have a majority of higher institutions in your domain, with regards to the students in these institutions, what is your Local Government doing to ensure the security of these students given the rampant incidence of kidnappings in the country?
Hon. Omiyale: Well, in the first instance, it might interest you to know that there is a peace and security committee on ground in the Local Government and we use to meet at least once a month. This committee consists of members of the community, religious leaders, traditional rulers, market women and all the security agencies; Immigration Officers, Police Officers, Army Officers, Civil Defense and the DSS. With the situation on ground now, we are going to take another step further by involving the higher institutions where we can all sit and come up with ideas to create a safe environment for all the people in the environment especially the youths.
During the recent EndSars Crisis Yaba was one of the local governments where we did not lose any property. This is because of the good relationship which the Local Government has with the youths and the security agencies. We are going to improve on that.
Trek Africa: What assurance are you giving us that in your second coming, you will not come to take care of yourself as we see many politicians do?
Hon. Omiyale: As people do say; the sky is the limit. We are not going to stop at the Local Government level. The three senior staffs we have here which is I, the Vice Chairman and the LSG, three of us still have projections of moving to the next level. And to move to the next level, we have to make sure we create a good image. In fact, that was what gave the three of us endorsement that we have now. And we have to improve on that. We still want to move further; either elective positions or political appointments, so, we have to give ourselves a good image. We want to leave a very good legacy to be remembered for.
We want to be remembered for the fact that in our own tenure, we did not have any crises in our domain and the community was peaceful.
Trek Africa: On a final note, how can you describe your national leader, Asiwaju Tinubu.
Hon. Omiyale: Asiwaju is a leader; he is an achiever and a pathfinder. An Iconic personality of many parts. You see, I believe that God has a way he does His things; you cannot dictate for God. But those of us who loves and follow Asiwaju, we are praying that God will give us a leader for 2023 and we are sure God will answer our prayers.
