2 Yrs As IJEBU North East LG Boss

•Hon. FOLUSHO BADEJO Tells City People

Talk of local government councils in Ogun State that have witnessed tremendous development in recent times and you would find Ijebu North-East Local government among those worthy of mention thanks to the vibrant council boss, Honourable Funsho Badejo.

It will interest you to know that Ijebu North-East local government sits on a very large expanse of land covering 118 km2. The region is partitioned into 10 local wards such This is made up of Idona, Atan odogogo, Oke jara,Odotu, Imurokko and Igbasa. Odosenbora, Odosimadegun, Odosiwonade, Egunsen, Subugbawa, Ibido, Ilodu Oke-Eri,Oriwu, Oketi, Ilumerin, Oke-Aye Idorunwon, Iworo-MosunGbawojo,and Omutedo.

Since the administration of Honourable Badejo which began in less than 2 years, the council has been waxing stronger and better courtesy on the feasible development going on within the area few weeks ago. City People Reporter, JAMIU ABUBAKAR (08085185886) and Photojournalist, LEKAN ADENIJI engaged the vibrant council boss in a chat where he took time to reel out how his administration has been running Ijebu North-East local government and the many achievements they have recorded in less than 2 years. Read and enjoy!

You have spent over a year as the council boss, what have you been doing to develop the people?

First and foremost, I want to appreciate my principal, the Executive governor of Ogun State, Dr Dapo Abiodun for giving us that privilege to be that who’s now in the council. What he’s doing is what we’re castigating to the local government. He has been able to do a lot of roads, if you see the roads from Erunwon to Atan, that road has been abandoned for so many years. They even said it has been done before but it wasn’t. The moment my governor came, he gave it priority, that road has been almost completed now. It is supposed to be an 8.5km road but it’s just 2km remaining to be completed, not only that so many of our health centres are now functional with drugs. Our schools are very effective, the same thing we have with our assembly representation who’s also participating. Honourable Yomi Fad is also doing very well here and I have no choice but to compliment what they’re doing too. For example, from Atan to Ita- Marun, within the little resources we have, we have been able to use our public private-partnership to make sure that the place is fixed. We have dug about two boreholes; we have rehabilitated the rice mill in this local government. Now you can mill rice within this local government instead of going far. When you go to our local government, we have rehabilitated vehicles even the conference centre has been rehabilitated and we are eager to do more. Our vehicles that have been abandoned for so many years have been rehabilitated, we have bought even another bus with the little resources we have and we’re ready to do more, our people knows what we want to do in fact they’re praying for us every day and we thank God that their prayer is working for us. We are energetic, we’re looking forward, we’ve our vision. Very soon, we are also planning to have a modern abattoir in this local government and we mean it and it’s going to be done by the grace of God. By next week, we’re starting grading some selected roads. We have done solar street lights, go and check from Ilisan to Barracks all through the barracks, you’ll see our street lights there. We’re already doing construction from Erunwon to Ishonyi and to Gidi junction. Go to Ilisan, you’ll see our hands channelling the water and after channelling, we’ll rehabilitate the roads that are by the Central Mosque.

You have done a lot in just less than two years and I understand that the local government is quite expensive, how have you been able to manage running it?

 It takes a lot of vision and good mission and your commitment to service, I’ve told my people when I was coming that I’ve come for a selfless service and I’ve not come for my own but to serve the people, I’ve served in the financial institution for over three decades, now I’ve come to serve my people that’s why I give it everything immediately I got confirmed to be the chairman, I moved my family back to Ijebu. All the while, I was going and coming but now I’m fully on ground in Ijebu so that gives me a lot of time. Sometimes I’ll go and check things on my own, I don’t need to wait for anybody to tell me, and I always carry the people along. I will ask the traditional rulers whatever we want to do and they would give me priorities of things we want to do. I would ask the oko ilu too and they will give me priorities of what they want to do. I’ll ask my chancellor and the party stakeholders, they’ll give me what to do, then we’ll begin to strategize on how to do it and God has been helping us.

The 2023 general elections are very close by, what are your expectations?

I have known that in my mind that my Party, All Progressive Congress, is going to win the election. That is because they have been focused on the development of the community and we have been given the dividend of democracy.  I told you about my governor, go through Ogun State, he has touched virtually every local government in terms of roads, look at the one very close to us, the one from Ijebu to Epe, was it like that before? Go and look at the interchange to Abeokuta. Was it like that before? …and so many projects like that.

Even just last week, we went to commission a road in Ijebu Igbo very close to us here, Molusi College Road, and so many like that. He has reconstructed over 420km of roads within the three years. So, what else do you want? The job is not about those who boast, it’s about those who can do it. And when we’re talking about the presidency, we are talking about somebody who’s always tested we have Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, you know what he has done in Lagos so what else do you want, do you want to start trying and trying, you have to use those who you know have done it before and they can still do it. We have the likes of Gbenga Daniel who was a two times governor, we know what he has done. Do we need to announce that, When he was the commissioner for health, we know his impact during COVID-19, we’re not talking about people who out of exuberance think,  that they have this money, we’re talking about people that are ready to do the work where the shoe pinches the people and we’ve our son, Honourable Yomi Fad who’s supposed to be making laws but is also participating in the development of the community, he has distributed white boards in the schools, he has participated in building of roads and he has been doing a lot of social investment In the local government. We don’t need to waste our time. God will just see us through and like you see my bill board here, all these people I mentioned here, I didn’t just sign for them to be voted for. Anywhere you see APC in our community I can assure you just go ahead and vote for them and I’m sure you’ll never regret voting for them.