Hon. Adebayo Oluwafemi Fowokanmi is a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, representing Ibadan South West State Constituency 2 and Chairman, House Committee on Education. In this interview with PMParrot’s KUNLE GAZALI, Fowokanmi who is also the President, Christian Legislators Fellowship International (CLFI) decried the indiscriminate erecting of kiosks and shanties on the walkways, waterway and by the fences of public schools. He also gave an advice to Oyo state Ministry of Environment on the need to provide a safe environment for the people of the State. Excerpt:
In your effort to ensure a safety the environment, you raised a motion on urgent need to remove illegal kiosks and shanties on walkways and public school fences within Ibadan metropolis and other parts of the State, can you shed more light on the motion?
You know that street trading plays a very important role in the livelihood and survival of many people in Nigeria, and not only in Oyo State. Unfortunately, this has degenerated to erecting illegal structures like kiosks and sheds on the roads, thus reducing the aesthetic value of streets, it causes noise pollution, creates unnecessary traffic jam and generates wastes in public places – it also contributes to various environmental challenges. Unfortunately, erecting such structures do not conform with the master plan of Ibadan city. You will understand that past administrations in this regard did well by removing some illegal trading kiosks and shanties situated on the highways and also controlled wrong street trading habits within Ibadan metropolis. The present administration ably led by Governor Seyi Makinde is not interested in creating hardship for the people. However, people have been abusing this humane approach of the governor with increase in the placement of indiscriminate kiosks and shanties on the highways especially within Ibadan metropolis. Roads where flowers were planted to beautify the highways have been turned to commercial centers in such places like Mobil at Ring Road, Challenge, Efusetan Roundabout and Molete among others. Therefore, we have to ensure the enforcement of environmental sanitation laws to curb the habit and to protect our environment. In the resolutions passed by the House, we urged the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to deploy environmental officers to highways to enforce sanitation laws to curtail these mentioned activities. Also, to impose strict sanctions and adequate punishment on erring street traders who erect kiosks or shanties on walk ways or road setbacks.
As a legislator, what are your objectives as far as education is concerned?
The state of our education sector has been giving me a lot of concern, hence my goals and objectives as the chairman, House Committee on Education overtime is to ensure that the standard of our educational system improves. Some of the motions I have moved in the house include, an urgent need to check unapproved collection of fees and levies from pupils and Students of Public Schools in Oyo State and the need to put measures in place for the accreditation of some courses in some State-owned tertiary institutions. Some of the matters of urgent public importance I have presented also included urgent need to include vacancy for the recruitment of Arts Teachers in the on-going recruitment of teaching staff by the Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) and urgent need to stop the Ministry of Education from prohibiting the reopening of unregistered private schools in the State.
Some of my constituency projects include the skill acquisition, employment for 100 youths in seven different skills. We will supply them the needed equipments after their training. We have also rehabilitated major bridges at Bolumole-Elewura Community, Challenge Area and fixed the third phase leg on a transformer at Imalefalafia, Oke-Ado and provision of Covid-19 preventive measures materials to all 86 public primary schools in Ibadan South West.
I and my team also embarked on a project called “Adopt a School Initiative” which has almost reached 70% completion. The idea is to encourage wealthy families in the society to adopt a public primary school for structural renovations and also get same properly equipped. I have plans to adopt three schools to serve as an example and I have also invited my friends to join the initiative, so that our public primary schools would have better structural shapes and aesthetics values.
On the quality of service offered by the teachers, plans are underway to raise the bar of their effectiveness and efficiency through training. I am using this medium to urge well-to-do individuals to come and sow a seed into building the destiny and future of pupils in public primary schools as government cannot do it alone.
You spoke about renovation of dilapidated buildings in public primary schools and periodic training for teachers to enhance their productivity, what plan do you have to inspire the pupils to be more committed in their studies?
I believe that all the aforementioned would energize and inspire the pupils. Teaching and learning in a conducive environment would tickle their interests and enhance their academic performance. Those that would adopt schools will also make provisions for well stocked and equipped libraries so as to improve upon the reading habits of the pupils because a reader is a leader.
How has Oyo Assembly been able to collaborate with the executive to impact on the educational sector in the state?
We observed that many schools’ environment have been turned to hideouts for hoodlums in the night to attack the neighborhood because of insecurity. We discussed with the government to erect fences in all the public schools. In line with this, plans are in top gears by the executive through the Ministry of Education to construct gates at the entrances of public schools. The project would have started but it was hindered by Covid-19 pandemic. Motions have also moved like I said before to give the education sector in the state a boost and all our resolutions are well adopted by government and will soon be implemented by God’s grace.
What’s your assessment of the performance of the ninth Assembly in the first 12 months in office?
We have done greatly well, despite the fact that majority of us are new in office. We all contribute and perform well. During plenary sessions, we debate and take far-reaching decisions on bills, reports, correspondence from government, petitions from the public and so on. We also undertake oversight functions at committee levels and have not shirked on our responsibilities. I believe that with time there will be more results in the coming years by God’s grace.
What inspired you into politics?
I was motivated by the likes of Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Late Basorun MKO Abiola and former President Goodluck Jonathan. I was not born with silver spoon, I came from a poor background and from that point, I started nursing the idea of being in politics. My parents and I, including my four siblings making a family of seven lived in a room around Akufo/Popoyemoja area. I remember in those days, when going to school, I passed through Ring Road’s Fodacis Area. There was a force in me each time I passed through this road, and saw beautiful edifices owned by rich and successful men. This inspired me so much and I made up my mind, to be more committed and focused on my education, in order to become successful in life as well. In pursuance of my dreams, I joined the Nigerian Army as a recruit at age 19 in order to gather funds for my education. After undergoing the 6 months mandatory training, I worked in both Niger and Borno States. I later resigned to pursue my academic career at the University of Ibadan, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science. Thereafter, I made up my mind that the moment I clocked 40 years, I would join politics. So my journey into politics started in 2013, which means, I am just seven years old in politics – to the glory of God.
You are representing a constituency with high density and
mixed population, how do you meet and get feedbacks from them, and how have you been able to impact on the community?
I opened a constituency office where I attend to complaints and ideas from the people of my constituency. We have a legal team there to pick up minor issues and help the less privileged in settling cases out of court free of charge. It (constituency office) also serves as an avenue where I meet and discuss with my constituents on issues relating to their welfare and related matters. We are planning to initiate a project called Destiny Helper. The idea and framework of this project is to connect the wealthy people with the less privileged for assistance. This platform will be connect, interview and ensure proper delivery from the wealthy to the poor. Our focus is to generate about 10,000 Destiny Helpers in the next one year. I am also planning to participate by rendering help to about 100 of less privilege, in order to show an example to others and encourage them as well.
