Hon. Tobun Mustain Abiodun is the Lagos lawmaker representing Epe Constituency 1 at the Lagos House of Assembly. He has spent 3 terms as a lawmaker representing his people.
Last week, he spoke to Nifemi about his successes as a lawmaker. Below are excerpts.
Can we meet you sir?
I am Tobun Mustain Abiodun, Honourable Member Representing Epe Constituency 1, Lagos State House of Assembly.
Is this your first term in office?
By God’s grace, this my 3rd term as a parliamentarian.
What have you done so far in the last 3 years in office?
They are too numerous; Education, Women Capital Development, Youth Empowerment, Women Empowerment, Infrastructure, ICT Development, Sports. So much more. But if we want to be a bit specific, let me divide it into 2. Some we attract and others are attracted. That is using your position as a honourable member to request from the government to do one or two things in your community, that you feel you are lacking. The other one is the one you are doing directly, spending your little resources. So when we talk about those we attracted, they are numerous, as the building of the mother and child care centre.
This was started during Babatunde Raji Fashola’s tenure which was also my first term in office and was completed by Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu during that time, he was able to construct so many roads for us, places like Kasali Oluwo road, Oba Animashaun road, Isale Agunru road and about 7 other roads, which includes Alade, Sanni, Toyinbobor so many other roads and he was able to rehabilitate Oredegbe Street. He also built schools like St. Michael School, St. Teresa Primary School. We were able to take about 20 transformers to the community to energise the environment Tumuyi, Oke Balogun Moshalashi, Ajagonabee, Iposun, among many others.
There are so many more that I can’t even remember but they are in the records.
Former Gov. Ambode also opened internal roads which were completed by Babajide Sanwo-Olu even the major express road was commenced by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu completed it, this includes the rescue centre, the modern junior secondary school and he has initiated his own construction based on our request, based on the clamour of the people of Epe, he was able to do concrete on Eleko Epe Expressway, three-way going, three-way coming and creating a dedicated lane for trailers and creating an avenue for rail in future.
Personally, I was able to do so many things on my own in the health area, apart from free three screening for diabetes, glaucoma and cataract, I was able to conduct operations on cataracts, in conjunction with Eye Foundation, we did that three times. I empower so many people every year, we are able to train about 3,000 people over the year and we also empowered them.
We empowered them by giving them working tools, when I say working tools, I mean working materials to work with, those who are fashion designers, we bought them sewing machines, those who are caterers, we gave them oven and some other working materials. We also trained them on tie and dye, we bought computers for all of them in ICT. So we were able to do that severally and I was able to construct a foundation to the roofing of the ICT centre in Odobu-Ajina High School with brand new computers to train the children. We have been able to do educational empowerment programmes in primary schools and secondary schools. We gave them uniforms, books and bags. Apart from that, I have been giving JAMB forms to students in the last 8 years, at least 300 JAMB forms have been given to the indigenes of the community and this year, we paid for 400 students. We ensure that those who are less privileged are able to access JAMB and free education and we also send some students to technical colleges today as we speak, lots of them are doing very well in society. Some are working on their own and some are also working in big companies, like Dangote. We have engineers, carpenters, etc. For women’s empowerment, we gave them money to trade. We also gave them working tools, we encourage them. Some of our students are doing well, some are studying medicine, law some of them are being given Scholarship, we pay their school fees and train them well, We sent some to the school of Nursing because we discovered that we have a shortage of Nurses in our area, so I gave a scholarship for about 20 students and they were there for three years and after their graduation, we registered them as certified nurses, today they are happy and working as professional nurses. I may not be able to remember everything offhand but because we are involved in it, I was able to mention some. I was able to complete Iga, Lagbade, Etitun, Oke Balogun, Igannabee, Ojude Ebute where they are selling fish, the boreholes there are still very much in existence.
What about the youth?
Well, in those days they say the youth are the leaders of tomorrow but I believe they are the leaders of today because if we don’t focus on them, they will become something else and majorly I focus on the education, support programme and youth empowerment, those who want to go to school are encouraged to do so, we give them items. Like last year, the best three students were given generators, laptops to encourage them to do more and those who want to do more and those who want to be artisans because they believe not everybody will want to go to school and I was the first person to organise Female Football Competition in my community. Now we have our female soccer teams, they do play every year, the third edition is still coming up this year by God’s grace.
Under what party did you contest?
All Progressives Congress (APC) under the able leadership of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, incoming President by God’s grace, come 2023.
What is your relationship with Asiwaju?
Father and son.
Is he the one that discovered you?
Well, he discovered every one of us, I first came out to contest in 2006 and as a leader and a father to all, he felt I had to wait to allow those who are there before me to serve their tenure and I agreed with him.
So by 2011, he gave me the go-ahead and he discovered that this boy is doing wonderfully well, and he said we should keep the flag flying and to God be the glory, the people of Epe got me encouraged because they know we are trying our possible best to serve them, so based on that we were asked to go back and represent them again and again. So if you want to say Asiwaju discovered us, yes he did and encouraged us, we were promoted by him. We are trying to follow in his footsteps, knowing fully well that you can only do good if you see your leader is doing it.
Do you have any political background?
In my family, we are politicians-in-crime (Smiles). Our father was a member of the parliament before the independence, as far back as 1957. I was also a unionist and I have been involved in union activities for about two decades as a civil servant, I was involved in party politics.
Within the next one year, what should the people of Epe expect more from your representation?
More and more work is in progress. You can bet on it like Babatunde Fashola will tell you: the reward of good work is in more work done. You’re leading and representing your people and you cannot afford to fail them. You have to keep encouraging them so that when you are not there, they can remember you for good and others that are coming.
Are you saying you have met their demands?
We cannot say we have met their demands because human beings always want more and I still feel we still have a lot of things to do. They are happy with me that I am doing their bidding, for example, I mentioned earlier that we are about to build the jetty. The jetty is to encourage water transportation and we are going to get more boats, from Epe to Ajah, Ajah to Obalende and Epe to CMS.
So that people can commute easily and from Epe to Ondo axis. We still want to have a business audience in and out of Epe, we feel that Lagos State Government should come and establish a G.R.A. We have lots of land that can be used. We are also planning a deep seaport. Government should establish an airport. That is why we are trying to monitor it to a logical conclusion. We have three free zone trains that will connect Solu to Epe directly. If you are coming to Epe, you don’t need to go back to Eleko junction. There should be a direct link to Epe to discourage the traffic we used to witness along the Eleko area and we feel that the government should open the Ita-Omu, Ladaba, Ipesu, Gadangba, Oregun, Oreba axis for development because that is the only area we have good lands that could be used for estates and we also want healthcare facilities in Imobudo, Tiere Idaso and Irege.
What is your advice for the youth?
They should be informed and educated. Those who can not go to school should endeavour to learn a trade.
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