Ever ready and controversial Ekiti State
Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has appealed to members of the Road Transport
Employers Association of Nigeria to refrain fom an act that will allow them to be used by
kidnappers to perpetrate evil.
Speaking on
Thursday during the swearing-in of the new State Executive of the union in Ado
Ekiti, the governor, who said he was once a ‘Danfo driver’ appealed to the
drivers to be orderly and not to be desperate.
He said, “Please,
I want to commend you for contributing immensely to the development of the
state’s economy, but don’t allow yourselves to be used by evil doers. You can
see that some kidnappers were paraded recently. Information from them revealed
that they have been using some of your members.
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“I was once a
driver like you. I used the money I got from driving to sponsor myself for HND
at Ibadan Polytechnic, but I did not get desperate. All I’m saying is that
being a driver you can make it in life. You will become what you want to become
in life with hard work. Don’t join evil gang for you to get rich overnight, try
and rise through the ladder like we did.”
He cautioned
drivers against reckless driving, reminding them of the ‘don’t drink and drive’
rule.
“Though I am part
of you, if you breach the law, I won’t save or spare you. You will be arrested
and prosecuted by the security agents,” he said.
The governor, who
recalled that he united the two unions — RTEAN and National Union of Road and
Transport Workers — during his first term, said the occasion was a sign that
good things were coming to Ekiti.
“We should
emulate this kind of occasion. This is very good. We will always identify with
this kind of achievements. You are doing a good job for this country. I don’t
want to be the enemies of drivers, I want to be your friend.”
He also thanked
the unions for standing by him during the failed impeachment plot against him
by the former 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers.
Fayose, who had
earlier spoken at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Institute of Strategic
Management, appealed to leaders to focus attention on how to banish poverty
that is killing the potential of many Nigerians.
Speaking on the
theme, ‘Strategies for Poverty Alleviation’, Fayose said his desperate bid to
banish poverty in the land had propelled him to pioneer the stomach
infrastructure concept that had become a brand in the country.
“In tackling
poverty, the first thing to do is to empower the people. But before
empowerment, you must make them look healthy through provision of food. Let
them get access to you as a leader, this will give them a sense of belonging
and relief.
“Some of the
projects being executed by MDGs centred on poverty alleviation. Poverty has
become a serious issue in Nigeria. That was why my government made the payment
of salaries the first thing, because this will keep the people and the economy
going.
“I receive close
to 200 to 300 calls and messages daily on stomach infrastructure thing. Though
90 per cent of it is about money, we should not shy away from the fact that the
concept has become a way of life in Nigeria as a good weapon to tackle poverty
among the common people.”
