Ekiti North Senatorial District is one district amongst the three in Ekiti State that has not for once lacked representatives who are outspoken and passionate about the development of their constituency. Senator Duro Samuel Faseyi, a former two term House of Representatives member is the Senator representing the good people of Ikole, Oye, Ido/Osi, Ilejemeje and Moba Local Government Areas at the National Assembly. He bore his mind on some matters in the polity to Nigerian Mirror crew
Excerpts:
NM: You empowered the people of your constituency with various items including cars, tricycle, motor cycle, cash gifts and so on some months back, will that be all for now?
Faseyi: That is not all, it is an open ended thing, it is continuous, I have started once again from each local government, we have a lot of unemployed youths and I have to do whatever I can do to lift them. I have started that and we are moving to Ido/Osi, in Ilejemeje I have about 45 youths that I given substantial amount of money, I didn't detail what they will use it for, let them use it at their pace. We are moving to Ido/Osi, we'll do it across the senatorial district, just quietly like that.
NM: There has been antagonism and muscling of the state government by the federal government, what are Ekiti Senators doing about it?
Faseyi: Well, I won't say much about the federal government, as at today, as a senator, I cannot say we have a strong central, what we have is a government of revenge, a government of vendetta, a government that doesn't care about the suffering of the people, a government that has no focus, a government that has no plan. Imagine what the economy has become, imagine the standard of living of Nigerians under this administration and up till now, no plan, no palliatives, nothing.
NM: You would recall that during the PDP days, in the days of former president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, if there was going to be a N10 increase in pump price, he will first come up with palliatives, the PDP government will tell you with this increase, we are going to put so so so in place as a way of cushioning the effect of the increase so as to alleviate the effect of suffering the increase may bring. But today, we are on N145 per litre, we have not seen any palliative, nothing whatsoever, life is becoming miserable for the common man.
Faseyi: Yes, we are in opposition but at the same time, the government doesn't allow the opposition to participate and contribute, they forgot PDP ruled and our achievements are numerous, if you are just coming into a place, it behoves on you to call those you met there and ask them how did you do this, what do we do, how did you do that and you succeeded but instead, they don't want to see our face. See what is going on now, they don't know what to do and they cannot do it.
On Ekiti State, Fayose is my governor, I will continue to support,my governor, all these persecution is of no effect, it has nothing to do, just because he's an outspoken governor, a governor who will tell you the truth. In democracy, you need a vibrant opposition and if you are being criticized, that means they want you to perform very well, but now they are turning it to another thing because he's telling them their lapses and they don't want to listen, instead of that, they are persecuting him. We stand by our governor, all of us representing Ekiti at the national assembly are behind him, let them go to any length, we will remain behind him.
NM: What more should your constituents expect from you
Faseyi: The people of my constituency wants me to bring federal presence to them but the government is not making any provision for that, when you talk about constituency projects, the project is to enable me have the share of projects from the budget to my constituents but now today, they are saying they are not doing that, within myself, I know what I have been doing and I will continue to do that at least to the people of my senatorial district but at the same time, my focus is more on the youths, the unemployed youths, to make sure I get them out of the miserable life of unemployment, if that is all I can achieve, it is enough for me.
NM: Are you saying the Buhari Administration is saying No to Constituency Projects?
Faseyi: The Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF said they are not going to implement it, the cost is not up to one percent of the nation's budget and this is the only way you can spread projects across the nation down to the grassroots because someone sitting in his office in Abuja, putting a project on paper, a permanent secretary or a director who doesn't know Ifaki, who doesn't know Iludun, Ikole, Moba and so on, I am the one representing these places, I know what they want, I am the one who is supposed to influence those projects and make sure it gets to them, we approved some projects in the budget but they are saying they might not implement it, that is what we heard but we are waiting to see what happens at the end of the day. As for me, I will continue to do what I can do for the benefit of our people.
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