By Abolaji Adebayo
On Saturday, February 25, 2023, the people of Surulere Constituency I will again troupe out to vote for their representative, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
Gbajabiamila, the Speaker, House of Representatives, has secured the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to represent his constituency for the sixth term.
During the last primary election held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium on Friday, May 27, the reps member emerged the winner with total victory, getting all the votes from the 30 delegates to emerge the APC candidate.
He was the only aspirant in the primaries as no other candidate collected nomination form to contest against him.
The constituents said his landslide victory is a payback for his achievements in the constituency.
Since he was first elected into the lower chamber of the National Assembly on 2003, Gbajabiamila has been doing great things, turning Sururlere to a mega constituency among others in Lagos State.
With Gbajabiamila at the National Assembly, Surulere has continued to witness series of socio-economic and human developments.
His party leaders recognised his true commitment to party ideals and worked with him to emerge victorious at the general elections.
His first term in the House demonstrated his true passion for issues concerning his constituents and Nigeria as a whole, he worked passionately to address matters of great concern to him and quickly earned a reputation as a true and brilliant legislator.
A true believer in qualitative representation, he took an active part in debates on the floor of the House and was fast recognized as one of the brilliant minds in the National Assembly. He was always on the side of truth and justice and his view truly reflected the wishes and aspirations of his constituents.
This was especially evident gbaja.com during the “third term debate” when he was chairman of the 2007 movement in the House, a group largely credited for ending the “third term agenda” and machinations of the then President Obasanjo to perpetuate his stay in office.
He did this at great risk to his life and political career. His exceptional record saw him overwhelmingly re-elected in 2007 and elected as Action Congress leader and Minority Whip of the House. By the end of his second tenure, Gbajabiamila had sponsored the highest number of Bills in the National Assembly amongst all the legislators.
Amongst his Bills and Motions in the House, Gbajabiamila has been very passionate about the Employee Rights Bill, Local content in Construction Industry Bill, Vocational Schools Bill, The Economic Stimulus Bill, Interest-Free Students Loan and Establishment of Nigeria Education Bank Bill etc. Gbajabiamila fought tirelessly on the floor of the House through motions to compel the National Assembly to recognize the newly created local governments in Lagos State.
He has also successfully sponsored several far reaching amendments to the Nigerian Constitution. In 2011, Gbajabiamila for the third term contested on the platform of his party, ACN and won. He was once again re-elected ACN leader and leader of the opposition in the House of Representatives.
In the short time he has held this position, Femi Gbajabiamila revived the role of the opposition in the House and continued to maintain a tough stance against the ruling party, PDP.
A popular cliché amongst members of the House and particularly the ruling party was that “the fear of Gbajabiamila is the beginning of wisdom. Such a pronouncement was borne not out of fear of Gbajabiamila but out of the profound respect his colleagues accorded him. Femi Gbajabiamila is the initiator of Lagos Job Fair, the first of its kind in SouthWest Nigeria, the job fair brought employers of labor drawn from public/private sectors and job seekers under one roof.
Instant employments were given to meritorious candidates who are currently excelling in NAFDAC, SMEDAN, MIKANO, Lagos Inland Revenue Service and many others. After this remarkable success some states including Oyo adopted the Gbajabiamila model. Femi Gbajabiamila was the first and only legislator to bring a motion on the floor of the House for the invocation of the doctrine of necessity, during the illness and absence of President Umar Musa Yardua, which led to the the swearing-in of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as Acting President.
He championed the call for fiscal federalism and accountability in public spending. He filed several lawsuits against the then federal government who he accused of operating an illegal excess crude oil account and spending tax payers’ money without appropriation.
Gbajabiamila’s struggle did not go in vain as the federal government then adopted a Treasury Single Account policy which has returned a semblance of accountability to government spending.
In 2011, Gbajabiamila was nominated for a high ranking National Award, Officer of the Federal Republic, (OFR).
He surprised many Nigerians and received several acclaims when he turned down the award on the grounds that he did not deserve it and that the awards system in Nigeria was no longer achieving its original intent, to this end, Gbajabiamila put up an amendment to the National Honors Act of 1964 to make stringent guidelines for selection of National Award nominees.
Gbajabiamila thus became the third and youngest Nigerian to reject National Honours after Late Chinua Achebe and Prof. Grace Alele-Williams.
Out of his personal resources, the lawmaker has established various programmes in his constituency to improve the lives of his primary constituents many of who regard him as a true and worthy leader.
In the aspect of infrastructure, the lawmaker has facilitated so many developmental projects into the constituency both from the federal government and private sector, using his influence to woo various companies into the constituency.
Within the first few months of this year, he has commissioned some constituency projects in Surulere Federal Constituency 1.
Gbajabiamila said he has constructed and rehabilitated over 100 roads since June 2019.
The roads commissioned recently include Mabo-Fashoro, Bishop link road, Shodipe Akobi Crescent, Owokoniran-Laniyan link road, Odejayi crescent, Olodeokuta street, Ramos street, Iponri zone A, B and D, Rosamond street, Mayday Road, Bishop Kaale, Royal Estate road, Bishop Howell and Eric Moore Towers road.
In addition to that, the lawmaker also recently inaugurated no fewer than 14 constituency projects in his constituency.
The projects included road projects facilitated by the Speaker as well as an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre in some selected secondary schools in his domain.
This was the second in a series of 136 constituency projects facilitated and recently commissioned by the Speaker.
The Speaker also inaugurated the reconstruction and renovation of some primary schools in the state including AL-WAJUD Nur/Pry School and Ansarudeen Nursery / Primary School, Babatunde street at Ogunlana; Subuola Nursery/ Primary School; Methodist Nursery/Primary School, by Sam Shonibare
Also, some of the roads commissioned included Ashimowu Bakare Street, Itire-Ikate; Oshogbo Street, Itire-Ikate, and a new building for Agricultural Training Center facilitated by the Speaker in Odo-Olowu, Itire -Ikate, Surulere.
While inaugurating the ICT Centre at the Murtala Ajadi Animashaun Community Senior Grammar School, the Speaker admonished the students to make use of the ICT centres to become better equipped in ICT skills.
Describing ICT as the future, the Speaker tasked the students to ensure they do not lag behind in the IT world.
He stated that this was the idea behind the ICT project in selected schools in his constituency.
At the commissioning of the newly reconstructed primary schools, Gbajabiamila emphasised the importance of education, saying this would go a long way in building a generation of educated Nigerians.
The Education Secretary of Surulere LG, Hon. Babatunde Awoyelu hailed the lawmaker for converting some of the Public Primary Schools to a highly befitting standard more than most of the 1st Class Private Schools in town.
Apart from these, the Speaker also embarked on various empower programmes for the people of his constituency. He has empowered 1000 constituents on farming activities.
The Empowerment Programme, which involves training on Fishery, Snailery, Rabbitary, and Bee, took place at both Teslim Balogun Stadium and Calabar Hall within the Constituency. This was in addition to other various empowerments with startup cash and equipment.
In February, this year, he shared various vehicles, including buses and cars to members of his constituency.
Gbajabiamila also gave education grants to 351 students in public tertiary institutions across the country, while 1,020 secondary school principals and teachers were given laptops for ease of teaching.
The Speaker shared these to his constituents at an outreach programme held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, according to a statement issued on Saturday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Lanre Lasisi, titled ‘Again, Gbajabiamila Touches Lives of Constituents, Distributes Cars, Laptops, Others.’
According to the statement, the vehicles include “fully equipped medical ambulances, security vehicles and gadgets, new school buses initiative and e-hailing cars,” which were distributed to some beneficiaries.
Gbajabiamila also gave financial support to 1,596 existing/prospective small scale entrepreneurs and business owners in the constituency.
According to the statement, empowerment programme was held about 24 hours after the Speaker inaugurated several ICT centres and newly renovated school buildings around Surulere.
Speaking at the occasion, Gbajabiamila said the event was organised to appreciate and witness the benefits of the interaction between a legislator and his constituents.
Expressing his happiness, Chairman, Community Development Association (CDA), Games Village, Bode Thomas, Surulere, Johnson Oguns, said: “We have never had it so good for the past 30 years. This road enhances the value of the estate and the lifespan of our people will increase. The state of the road before now was terrible; it takes someone 10 to 20 minutes to drive through the estate; it affects our vehicles, but now we have a rest of mind.”
A community leader, Chief Bamidele Aduke Hussein extolled the lawmaker for creating social impact on his constituency.
He said: “We are smiling because we have seen a miracle in the Speaker. He has done so much. From Thursday to Sunday, January 2, 22, we’ve commissioned so many roads and we’re still commissioning. It’s not just roads, he has constructed hospitals and he’s still constructing more. He has constructed schools and he’s given out educational materials to schools and empowered so many people.”
