He is not a novice in the political space at least not in Ondo State and if not for providence, probably he'll still be acting in the background. I am talking about Hon. Gbenga Edema, former Chairman, Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) Hon. Gbenga Edema recently emerged the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State come November 16, 2024. MP3 Weekly Newspaper had a chat with him, below are his response to three major issues...
_On Local Government (LG) autonomy as being proposed by the Attorney General/ Minister for Justice on behalf of the Federal Government,_ he promised to ensure that full autonomy is granted to every Local Government Area in Ondo State, because it is his belief that development should begin from local communities.
...Also skill development for our youths would be given priority to create employment, also sports and creativity would be developed especially in our sportsmen like footballers and more.
Hon. Edema's political journey started way back 1990 in the era of the National Republican Convention (NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), two Parties created under former military President Ibrahim Babangida administration. He was part of the delegates to the SDP Jos Convention that produced Late Chief MKO as it's Presidential Candidate for the June 12 1993 elections, an election that ended in an annulment followed by crisis that led to the proscription of both NRC and SDP by late Gen. Sanni Abacha on November 17 1993. On the return of political activities in 1999, he joined the People's Democratic Party (PDP) which was predominantly an opposition Party in the South West.
His travails in politics continued and in 2011-2015 he was elected a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly under the banner of the Labour Party (LP), he later decamped and joined the then newly formed All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2014 even as a sitting member of the Ondo State House of Assembly. Subsequently he participated in the National Convention of the APC held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos that produced former President Mohammadu Buhari as it's Presidential Candidate for the 2015 General Elections and participated actively in the emergence of President Buhari as President of Nigeria in May, 2015,he also contributed to the election of late Rotimi Akeredolu as Governor of Ondo State in 2016.
Hon. Edema initiated a 35 Kilometer road project that would have linked Lekki (Lagos State) to Araromi seaside in Ondo State despite not being a member of the Federal parliament as the road project cuts across three or more States, former Governor Akeredolu did all he could to see to the execution of this project through the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to no avail. Late Governor Akeredolu later appointed Hon. Gbenga Edema Chairman of the OSOPADEC where he performed excellently.
_On his assessment of the Tinubu government especially the performance of State Governors,_ he asserted that State Governors ought to be doing more with the increased revenue they collect periodically from the center, wondering the impact governance is having on the citizens citing Ondo State as an example; "Ondo State used to receive about Three Million Naira (N3bn) as Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) before but now this amount has increased to about Seven to Ten Million Naira monthly (N7bn-10bn) yet there is no impact on the masses, with the State still struggling to meet obligations like payment of civil servant salaries as at when due, this is not peculiar to Ondo State but common to all."
He praised the Tinubu administration for doing it's best noting that it is only a matter of time before the impact begins to be felt.
_On what Ondo citizens should expect from him as Governor,_ he says,' education will be free during my administration in line with NNPP mantra, *Education for All!*
