During the 2019 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos State declared results for the House of Representatives, Ajeromi/Ifelodun Federal Constituency election inconclusive in a fiercely contested exercise between the then incumbent on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Rita Orji, and All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Kolawole Taiwo, a popular figure among youths, having been a two-time chairman of the local government and former deputy speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
The declaration heightens tension among residents in the Lagos most volatile community.
In the first result declared by the INEC for the February 23 election showed that the PDP candidate, Orji polled 31, 982 votes, while Taiwo of the APC got 28, 758 votes. The difference between PDP and APC’s scores was 3224.
In the bye election conducted by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) Kolawole Taiwo was able to edge out his opponent, with 988 votes to emerge winner. Since his election into the lower chamber, Taiwo has continued to affirm his resolve to transform his constituency and constituents, through quality representation.
He said that he has made a clear sketch of the structural needs of his constituency to include prompt tackling of the drainage problems in the three divisions of the constituency, re-orientation of the mindsets of the youth in the area of model selection shift through purposeful engagement and direct emancipation of the constituents through empowerment programmes that have thorough impact on the lives of the people
“Ajegunle is divided into three parts, the Olodi/Wilmer side is the outlet; I inspected all these areas during my campaign, they took me round and I have a firsthand view of the problem, especially the customs yard which I am going to take up soon.
“They have the culvert blocking the major outlet of water into the street and instead of them to do a box culvert, they did a ring culvert, it is not good for us. I spoke with them and told them I am going to remove this if I win and I have won, we are going to remove it, because in the process of trying to save the flow they now block a section of it again with some iron blockage and that one gathers dirt and prevents flow of water which directly affects our roads,” he said.
According to him, “One of the best layouts we have in Ajegunle is that of the Olodi and Wilmer. Imagine the drainage is good and you are on that road you see the road very straight and so beautiful, but most of the roads are bad and I know we are going to attract a quick fix for that.
“I am going to do a lot of visitations, I am a trained legislator, we do a lot of work in the house and I know the National Assembly is different from the state assemblies, we still need to learn some of their moves, but the outside contact is the same.
“In Apapa, we allowed heavy trucks to ply our roads; they have damaged most of our roads, many of which are made for small vehicles not big trucks, but because of what we permitted in Apapa by allowing them on our roads they are in deplorable shape. We will use that to solve those problems, because I am aware we need to put in so much for the people to know the difference between our government and the previous government.”
Taiwo, in an interview session with a select group of journalists, said the youths in Ajeromi had been exposed to all forms of negative influence taken from the street and that as a result decisive action needed to be taken to save them from cultism and all other social vices.
According to him, “I also raised these issues during my campaign about our children picking wrong models, if there is one area that anything from the street would affect, that area is Ajegunle, because we are always on the streets, our own life is on the streets.
“I was discussing with one of our council chairmen and said why can’t you build a mall like Ikeja mall, where our children can stay, they will not be living on the street again but in the mall, we will take them out of the streets to the malls because now the street is dangerous.
“The bricklayers, carpenters, mechanics are now cultist and our youths pick this wrong model from there. They pick wrong models and it is giving us problems, that is why I talked about building a youth centre, we want to have a platform where we can bring people that have passed through Ajeromi who are good to be role models to come and sensitise our youths.”
The legislator also harped on the importance of having a functional stadium in Ajeromi/Ifelodun “The two previous governments have tried, they were unable to deliver; I know I am going to persuade the governor-elect about the Maracana stadium; we have the site, we are ready to go, let them give us and we are going to return it positively; we are going to use it to remove most of our youths from the street.
“I am the pillar of sports in Ajeromi; I am always proud to say it; I told my people, and boxing is back. Our boxing competition would be revived and we would make it to be under HKT foundation now; therefore, it is not going to sink with politics because we must do everything to remove the youth from the street.”
“Overseas, they use sports, most of their sports women and men made their millions when they were young; therefore, they had no reason to be wayward rather they focus on improving themselves. We are going to use sports because we are gifted,” he said.
Jonathan Aderoju
