Former Oyo South Senator, Peter Adeyemo Olawuyi said if we are to have sustainable development achieved in Nigeria, representation must be effective by politician’s, connection should be made with them as they are the people’s servant.
Senator Adeyemo made this known while speaking with CEOAFRICA, at the just concluded the 10th Annual Ibadan Sustainable Development Summit (ISDS) 2019, where policy makers, researchers and Civil Organizations gathered to discussed on the theme ”Building and Sustaining Strategic Partnerships for the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals” to provide solutions to the sustainable development in Nigeria.
The former Senator said “As a resource person for the ISDS Conference, it was with great joy that I shared my thoughts again this year. This was my third time of being at the conference to presents papers. The presentations were done by those who have the experience as you can see, Professor Olu Ajakaiye, was very dissecting in terms of the analysis on what we needed to do to achieved the sustainable development goals in Nigeria and so was, Professor Labode Popoola during his keynote address. I will say I was not surprised at the quality of presentations, we have a problem, but it seems that those who ought to put it to practice has dump-deaf and that was the reason why I have come to sound out. Now, if you see Nigerian and the quality of the intellectuals that this country produces, in terms of intellectuals, it is stars sprinkled but we don’t see that in terms of development. We are not connected just as the politicians are not connected, I think the intellectuals, the academia are not connected as they should to the people and this was why the Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), University of Ibadan hosts an important place in the development process of Nigeria through the conference”.
“I had been in the academia too and I know the problem is that, we have all these papers and then put it on the shelves. There is the need for connection both to those whom we have elected to represent us who at this point doing their own thing and they are not supposed to be doing their own thing, they are supposed to be doing things that are our main issues of concerns. I am no longer a member of any political party, but I want to sound this to the people that, if we are to have sustainable development in Nigeria, representation must be effective and people should not be scared to meet with politicians to get connected because they are the peoples servant”.
Speaking on how the sustainable development can be achieved, he said “The point is that, the knowledge is not scarce, is not that we don’t know what to do but those who are responsible to fight leadership don’t know what to do and I told the academia and they said, the politicians don’t listen and I told them, it is not only in Nigeria, in the USA they would write and the people would say the conference is not listening but the issue is that, the academia themselves have to go to the people, the elected. For instance, the constituency representations and constituency services, when I was in the Senate, there were two main constituency services that I provided Oyo South with. I provided Oyo South with ‘Oyo South Brain Trust’ as at that time, the then University of Ibadan Vice Chancellor, Professor Falase, the then Director of Nigerian Institute of Economic and Social Research (NISER), Professor Olu Ajakaiye and some others were the 12 committees for the Brain Trust which was like having the sustainable development goals and then we proffered solutions to what we needed to do. We invited Shoemakers and Tailoring Associations, others who were part of this make up, so we were connected”.
While recalling his selfless representation to his constituency and as ‘Akitiyan Senator’ which he is popularly known as, he said “Akitiyan Senator’ on BCOS every Saturday, I was always there on phoning-in programmes so that the people themselves would be able to ask me questions like, what are you doing? what is happening there? Why is this happening? And they were being responded to, to bring the government closer to the people. I had issues for instance, NEPA privatization, I called a Senatorial constituency meeting to discussed individuals’ positions to the privatization programme and I bundled all of these among other issues then. We did all these for the four years and then, it stopped suddenly and since then, I haven’t been seeing anything like that. I have to let the people know that we don’t need to be taking money from the politicians, they are our servants but if they are too big to serve us, then let them stay in their businesses but once you come out and you say you want serve, then you must know that you are to provide accountability to the people. The people will now have the right to say this is what we want. This is why I said to those who cares to listen, why can’t federal government give One-trillion to higher education every year because that is what we needed most and another trillion naira to health institutions to be well equipped instead of going to India and other countries for medical tourism when we know what medical size professionally was in the 70s, 80s in this nation”.
In attendance at the conference were; the Vice Chancellor of Chrisland Univesity, Abeokuta, Ogun State Professor Chinedum Peace Babalola, the Vice Chancellor of Osun State University, Osogbo Professor Labode Popoola, the Vice Chancellor University of Ibadan, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka ably represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Professor K. O Adebowale, Professor Walter Vermuelen, University of Utrecht, Netherlands; Mrs. Abimbola Solanke, The Senior Special Assistant to Ekiti State Governor on SDGs; Ms. Vannessa Fajans-Turner, Director, SDGs Financing, SDSN New York; Dr. Farai Kapfudzaruwa, University of Pretoria, South Africa; Professor Adeniyi Gbadegesin, Former Vice Chancellor, Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho; Professor Olu Ajakaiye, African Centre for Shared Development Capacity Building; Dr. Folarin Gbadebo- Smith, Director General, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER); Professor Mohammed Kuta Yahaya, Faculty of Agricultural Science, University of Ibadan; Dr. Ibrahim Barry, UCAD-Senegal; Professor Grace Offorma, Chair Thematic Group on Education, SDSN Nigeria; Mr. Adebimpe Aderounmu, Head, Operations Development Practices Academy (DEPRA); Fola Adebayo, Nigeria Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) Abuja; Professor Adeolu Adewuyi, Director, School of Business, University of Ibadan; Professor Kehinde Kester, Department of Adult Education, University of Ibadan; Mojisola Akinsanya, Executive Director, Women for Peace and Gender Equality Initiative, Oke-Ilewo Abeokuta, Ogun State; Dr. Funmi Akinyele, Executive Director, Food Basket Foundation International, Ibadan, Nigeria; Ambassador Caroline Usikpedo-Omoniye, National Coordinator, Civil Society Advance Forum on SDGs, Noble Delta Women Resources Centre, Asaba, Nigeria; Crystal Chigbu, Executive Director, Irede Foundation, Lagos; Professor Ngozi Odiaka; Dr. Christianah Egbeola; Dr. Opadeji Olusegun; Dr. Afolabi Emmanuel Olowookere and Aare of Ofikiland, Oba Gbenga Adeoye among other participants across the world who graced the conference to find a lasting solutions to the sustainable development growth for the nation.
