{"id":8801,"date":"2013-08-22T07:44:53","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T07:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/bimbo-daramola-a-legislator-delivering-on-his-mandate\/"},"modified":"2013-08-22T07:44:53","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T07:44:53","slug":"bimbo-daramola-a-legislator-delivering-on-his-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/bimbo-daramola-a-legislator-delivering-on-his-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"BIMBO DARAMOLA: A Legislator delivering on his mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Donated items<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

B<\/span>y Jide Aluko<\/em><\/p>\n

To my reader who lives in an SMS age \u2013 very short message devoid of any historical details – I\u2019m starting this piece with apologies. Apologies hereby tendered because I will first go down the history lane to paint. Here I go!<\/p>\n

Prior to 2003, all my interest in Ekiti’s political firmament was just to know who was at the helm of affairs for mere academic reasons. What I knew about the state was a few stretches away from what I knew about any of the other 35 states. Throw up the name of any state; like an average student of Social Studies, I\u2019d throw up the name of its capital and governor. #Thatsall!<\/p>\n

Anyways<\/em>, who needed my \u2018outsider\u2019 opinions when an average Ekiti man is politically conscious and interested in how he is governed. It is not out of cerebral flippancy that Ekiti has been labelled \u201cthe state with the highest number of professors in Nigeria\u201d (en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ekiti_State\u200e). We are exceptionally swift at taking up pens (not arms) and write petitions after petitions when the socio-political atmosphere becomes stifling and inclement (from our point of view). I was once privy to a conversation between late Peter Ajayi and my dad, when the former held sway as Managing Editor, and later Managing Director of now defunct Sketch Newspaper. I heard late Ajayi say that Sketch received its highest number of reader\u2019s reactions, views and complaints from Ekiti indigenes. The incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi alluded to the political sophistication of an average Ekiti man in a recent interview. So, what weight would I have pulled if I had poked my nose in \u2018erudite adult political affairs?\u2019 Confessedly, I was more interested in the politics of my immediate environment (Lagos) and Nigeria in general. Moreover, Lagos politics has always had enough intrigues woven around it to engage the attention of most Lagosians like me. We all own Lagos jare<\/em>, irrespective of what Femi Fani-Kayode and Uzor Kalu might have traded in words.<\/p>\n

I started taking more than passive interests in the politics of my state (Ekiti) when former Governor Ayo Fayose came out from the blues to wrestle power from Adeniyi Adebayo, the first civilian governor of the state, in 2003 against all political punditry. Like all other states in the South West (with Lagos as an exception), which former President Obasanjo oversaw their “capture” even before he inserted the “do or die” eruption into Nigeria’s political lexicon, Ekiti was scooped away from the grip of Alliance for Democracy (AD). It never crossed anyone\u2019s crystal ball Fayose would garner as \u2018much\u2019 as he did to upturn the incumbent governor with massive state fund under his control, and a political platform which only needed to proclaim ‘Awoism’ as a trump card for electoral triumph. Fayose thrust the hitherto sleepy Ekiti into a national conversation with many of his controversies.\u00a0 To some people, he was enfant terrible of the Nigerian politics; to others, he was the \u201cArchitect of Modern Ekiti\u201d (apologies to Chief Fola Alade). Fayose might be found wanting in some ways, he scored \u2018A\u2019 in drawing national attention to Ekiti State with his brash approach to governance. And so, this \u2018born-again\u2019 active citizen started giving Ekiti politics the attention it deserved. Digression enough!<\/p>\n

In my quest to add ocular evidence to what I have read and heard about Honourable Bimbo Daramola, the House of Representatives\u2019 member representing my constituency, Oye-Ikole Ekiti North Federal Constituency 1, I took a trip to Irepodun-Ifelodun Pry. School in Ikole Ekiti on Saturday, August 18, 2013, the venue of his stewardship-rendering event tagged \u201cABOMIRE 2.\u201d<\/strong> I had read about the second edition of the then upcoming event on Bimbo Daramola\u2019s Facebook page, and so I told myself, \u201cI will be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

I left Lagos wearing the toga of a neutral observer but I armed myself with my midget recorder and camera, with a mindset to scoop any newsworthy item when Daramola starts detailing his constituents with the number of passed bills drafted by him, number of motions moved by him and ratified by HoRs, his contributions to debates in the House of Representatives and other legislative responsibilities well carried out. Should one-on-one opportunity present itself, I had stuffed a page of my writing pad with scribbled questions bordering on his legislative activism and advocacy for probity and accountability as depicted in some of his motions like:<\/p>\n