Ekiti 2018: Wole Olanipekun wants PDP, APC pick candidates from Ikere

Agency ReporterDecember 11, 2017

0 3 minutes read

As various political parties prepare towards the 2018 governorship election in Ekiti state, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), has urged the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress to pick their candidates for the election from Ikere Ekiti, his country home, if they are desirous of winning the poll.

Olanipekun, who described Ikere as the second largest city in Ekiti after the state capital, is ripe to produce the governor 21 years after the creation of the state, adding that the town is also the biggest town in Ekiti South Senatorial district, a zone that has not produced a governor since 1999.

The senior lawyer while commenting on the reported selling of Nigerian illegal migrants into slavery in Libya said the leadership failure, leading to the wanton neglect of Nigerian youths was responsible for the pathetic situation.

Speaking in Ikere Ekiti on Sunday when the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi commissioned the newly built Hall of Fame at the Palace of Ogoga, Oba Adejimi Adu Alagbado, Olanipekun, who praised the PDP for adopting the deputy governor, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, an indigene of the town as its sole candidate, urged the APC to follow suit, saying the town parades excellent aspirants in the party that can do the state proud.

The museum, according to Ooni and Ogoga, will protect the historical heritage of the town and serve as a veritable ground for learning and research.

The hall consists of six compartments thus: historical museum, royal court, brave men of the oath, Ikere from another town, pioneers and the town’s legends in history.

Olanipekun said, “The APC has a successful medical doctor, Wole Oluyede, a businessman, Mr. Kola Alabi and a retired permanent secretary, Sesan Fatoba and many other Ikere indigenes as aspirants. The party must field one of them because I know they will do the party proud.

“I know some politicians may not like my position, but that is the truth, Ikere deserves it. As the President of Ikere Development Forum, I have to lead the course of Ikere people. We have over 86 professors and tested technocrats and the population to make things happen.

“But let me warn that this may not happen when we are in crisis. There are no two Obas in Ikere except Ogoga. Let us rally round him for development to be sustained and for the governorship, we are eyeing to come to fruition”, he advised.

Olanipekun said the slavery in Libya and other countries will continue unabated if the government fails to identify and empathize with the unemployment youths.

“When I was at the University of Lagos in the 70’s, I had over six offers as a fresh graduate who had not attended the law school. But today, nobody sympathized or empathized with the youths, they were abandoned in their own fates.

“After graduation, no unemployment, nobody attends to them and they thought they have to take the tortuous, winding and dangerous routes to where the greener pasture is.

“And most of us who are successful are not helping matters, we are wicked. We don’t tell the government the truth. What is in Libya that our youths are going for? This is a shame on all of us.

“Libya has just been rescued from a major crisis, they have no human rights protection mechanism, no freedom because they have always been in a military dictatorship.

“The main reason why we are not faring better is that government is muzzling the private sector. They didn’t allow it to grow. A private body can only plan based on budgetary provision and policies of the federal government, that is why it is difficult to classify our economic system, it was so narrowed and monolithic in nature.

“But let me say this if Nigeria fails to take care of its youths by creating tomorrow for them, we are inadvertently planting a revolution and threat for the future”, Olanipekun warned