By Albert Asipa
“When I was thirsty, you gave me water, when I was naked, you provide me with cloth and when I was hungry you gave me food. They asked Jesus when did we provid you with all these things? Jesus answered, since you have done it for one of my bretheren, definitely, you have done it for me”.
The good people of Ogun West Senatorial District in Ogun State of Nigeria would not forget in a hurry the real empowerment programme organized by the Senator representing the district in the National Assembly (NASS) and the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known in the political circle as OMO TO YAYI. Since the creation of Ogun State through the balkanization of the then Western State over 49 years ago, the Senatorial District has been a cesspit of poverty occasioned by neglect and abandonment.
The tune of the music however changed for better with the emergence of Omo to Yayi as the District’s Senator in the 2023 general elections and after which he was appointed as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation of the Upper Chamber. In just about two years, the people’s Senator has confirmed a verse in the bible that says, “when the Lord returns the captive of Zion in Ogun West Senatorial District, we were like them that dream”!
No wonder, a Yoruba proverb says ” OJO OJO KAN BORI EGBAA ODA (A day of shower obliterates thousand days of drought” In Ogun West today, hardly would you see a house that could come out to say “we have never benefited from Weep not, Ogun West People” programme of Omo to Yayi. As at the last count, over 40,000 people have been moved out of poverty through the kind natured empowerment programme of the Distinguished Senator.
Between 25th March to 31st March, 2025, Sen. Adeola led his All Progressives Congress (APC) faithfuls on a tour of all the local government councils within the senatorial district in a bid to take his constituents to another level. During the tour, Omo to Yayi made a bold move to bridge the digital divide and invest in future leaders, empowering 700 Secondary School Students through a Comprehensive ICT training and Laptop distribution initiative under the program “Catch them young”.In the second edition of the scholarship and bursary programmes established by the Distinguished Senator in 2024, a total of 3,892 Students benefited, a significant increase from 1,700 beneficiaries recorded in the first edition.
Then, the empowerment items that were dished out to the artisans and market women already trained in different skills acquisition programmes were lips dropping. Beneficiaries were seen going home with Mini buses, Tricycles (Keke Maruwa), Motorcycles, Welding machines, Deep Freezers, Generators, Vulcanizing machines, Sewing machines, including Embroidery machines, Hairdressing equipment, entrepreneurship Cash grant, Barbing equipment, bricklaying Cash grant, Make up kit and Catering equipment. All these were given without any condition attached- a simple philantrophic and humanitarian gesture. Before the items could be afforded by majority of the beneficiaries if they were to acquire them on their own, it would be either on higher purchase or through the popular nerve breaking loan commonly referred to as ‘Gbomu-le-lanta’. Thus, the Distinguished Senator Adeola by that singular act has given the affected families a long lasting life line!
Even at that, Omo to Yayi in his own estimate has just begun as he pointedly told the people of Imeko/Afon Local Government area while addressing them that they were yet to see anything, likening the programmes ahead to Fulani stick, which is usually longer at the back than the front portion. The traditional institution was not left out of the touch of kindness of Omo to Yayi as all the
Baales in each of the Local Government Councils in the Senatorial District received his ‘hand-shake’.
To my Distinguished Senator and Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, I would like to draw the curtain of this piece with a Biblical verse which I also want you to hold on to as your guide. It says, “For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying fear not, I will help you” (Is.41:13).
Albert Asipa writes from Iwoye/Jabata ward
