From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
As the race for the 2026 governorship election is about to begin in Ekiti State, the former candidate of the African Democratic Congress(ADC) in the 2022 governorship election in the state, Dr Wole Oluyede, has said that only a productive government can liberate the state from the problems confronting it.
Oluyede, an Australia-based medical practitioner blamed past and the current government for over relying on allocation from the federal account, saying
it is the cause of poverty in the state.
According to him, successive governments have failed to utilize the resources God has blessed Ekiti State with as they did not invest in any meaningful venture that will make the state self-reliant, develop as well as create wealth for its citizens.
Oluyede made the remarks when he spoke with newsmen in Ikere-Ekiti, his country home, after holding a meeting with the leaders and members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, where he told them to close ranks, work for the party and take it to its pride of place in the state.
The party men and women from across the 16 Local Government Areas of the state, came to woo him to join the party and work for it.
He said, “God has blessed us with a lot of resources in Ekiti. The stones and other materials I used in building this house were bought in Ekiti, I didn’t import them. I was told in China that these stones are from Ekiti State. A Chinese man said to me these stones you want to buy in China, they are in Ekiti.”
“We are complaining that we are hungry. but we are richly blessed in Ekiti.
The Eden God gave us called Ekiti, how are we taking care of it? If God gave us the mandate to take care of Ekiti, how are we taking care of it?
“Another thing I want to point out is if the bible says out of your sweat you will eat. What is the sweat of Ekiti that goes to federal allocation? None! So, our spending federal allocation is not God ordained and we may not prosper from it.
“The day Ekiti started spending federal allocation was the beginning of our problem. Most of our old schools and other infrastructure were not built or constructed with federal allocation.
“When we were growing up, Ado-Ekiti then was more prosperous than now.
My father was a teacher. As a teacher, my father didn’t wait for palliative and I had a good life. I had the best education in the world.
“Those days, our people don’t look on the government for palliatives. Ekiti was based on federal allocation, it is a wrong premise which we must change and stop. That is not who and what we are and we have to start producing again like in those days .
“When we were growing up, we used to have businessmen and industrialists like baba Anisulowo, the Bellos, baba Adejugbe and others in Ekiti, they were all Ekiti people.
” We should stop relying on federal allocation, some people will say it is our inheritance . A Yoruba proverb says, He who relies on inheritance exposes himself to poverty. So, we have actually been establishing ourselves on nonsense, it is time for us to change.
“And I am challenging everybody.that has ruled Ekiti, may be we don’t realize what we have done, only a foolish man eats his yam seedlings and what has happened in every government that has ruled Ekiti is that they will take our yam seedlings, peel it, cook it and pound it and use vegetable soup to eat it.
They will go and sun dry the peels and use it to make flour, and use the flour to serve the people.”
He emphasized the need for Ekiti to start producing to eradicate poverty and develop the economy of the state.
“We have to liberate ourselves. We have to go back to start producing. It is only when we start producing that we can be proud of ourselves.
“There is no amount of appointments that will make us wealthy. We need to create wealth and that is why we have to have a government that will be inclusive of all of us. Let us create a government that will be for all the people and everybody will have their hands on deck and say we need to produce.
” Every government that has come to Ekiti has used one word, we are going to bring investors. Why are there no investors, have you ever asked yourselves that question?
” If I become the governor of Ekiti State, it is a challenge to my life.
If God has managed to bless me and I go back to steal money in Ekiti, what for? What is it going to do for me.?
“The reason there is no investment in Ekiti is that we are very poor in spirit but we are very rich in God’s blessings.
” if it is only the rocks we have around us that we are breaking and selling as granite to other states, we cannot be poor and hungry as a state. Mining them will make us rich. So, our next government should not be the type that will not be productive.
” I can promise you that if I am the governor of Ekiti State come and challenge me I will not leave this state at least for the first two years, the reason is that there is a lot to develop here. And I want to promise you, I will leave this place a blessed man and I will be richer that I came in but I will not steal a kobo and I will make everybody in Ekiti rich because that is what we deserve.
“I know how to raise money for health in Ekiti without costing the state a dime and I can raise 36 billion naira to that effect without stealing money, making anybody loose money, without even touching the federal allocation. This is what I have done for the past 30 years for governments all over the world, we can do it and it is possible”.
Earlier in his address, Oluyede advised the PDP members on the need to be united and work together to reposition the party to be able to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2026 governorship election and other future elections in the state.
“There is the need for PDP members to be united and come out to wrestle power from the APC. This work must start from the wards, local governments to the state level. The party has the people. If the party fails to achieve this, it has failed and the gathering will not be meaningful.
” The coming government is of God and will be installed by God. The power belongs to the people. PDP has to wake up from slumber to take power from the interim government”.
Disclosing to newsmen what informed the gathering, Oluyede said,
“The people who came to visit me today had only asked me to join their party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). They have approached me severally to come and join them over the last few months that is what we are meeting for.
“Let’s separate this, I have not declared that I am going to run for the governorship of Ekiti State yet, I am not ruling that out but I have not made a decision about that. I have challenged the party today with the members that came to visit me to go back and rebuild the party.
“This is the third time that a party will approach me to come and run for the governorship in the state.
“Certain elements of the APC came to see me in 2015 to come and do the same. I was never a politician and not interested in politics then. They asked me to come and run and I did accept that at that time and I joined the party and made consultations about it.
“I have sustained three political parties, this is the third I am going to sustain and I am not afraid of doing it. But I am challenging everyone today. Do we really want a change in this state and in Nigeria? That is why I said they should all take me off the look. I am not the problem, by the grace of God, it is not pride, I am not looking for what to eat or any personal thing in the government house, what I am looking for is the growth and development of Ekiti and Nigeria”.
PDP leaders in attendance at the meeting included, former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Pastor Kola Oluwawole, former state chairman of the party, Barr. Gboyega Oguntuase, former commissioners in the state, former members of the state House of Assembly, former Special Advisers (SAs) and Senior Special Advisers (SSAs) former local government chairmen, among others.
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