Politicians who share money, gifts for votes are liars- Amosun

The Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has criticised politicians who are in the habit of distributing food and other items to members of the public to win their votes. Mr. Amosun said politicians who share gifts because of politics only do so to deceive the citizens into voting them into power. Mr. Amosun stated this on Monday while speaking with journalists after the Eid-l-fitr prayer at Lantoro prayer ground in Abeokuta, the state capital, declaring that he would never be part of such “crude” method. The governor expressed confidence in his second term ambition, saying the state needs much more attention in terms of employment generation, infrastructure development, industrialisation among others than distributing rice. “I have said it severally and I am saying it again that governance should not be reduced to what we call ‘Amala politics’. People must come in with genuine plans, with focus, with vision because without it we cannot develop. Look at the army of unemployed youths. Unless we develop the real sector, it will be like that,” the governor said. “How many people do you want to start giving money to everyday? When we get all the infrastructure in place and our people are educated. Infrastructure does not end by roads alone, water must be running, the State must be secured, the environment must be good and those are the things we are doing. And I know that we on the right path, we will not lose focus, eyes on the ball and we will continue’ the governor explained. “We will give arms during the festive period but to now start distributing rice because of vote, that will not happen in Ogun State, whoever does that, does not want development for our state, it is only those that have no programme for the state, this is the only thing we can do to bring employment, development and further boost our economy,” Mr. Amosun stressed. “Our people are selling petty things at Itoku in Abeokuta, Ita-Aje in Ijebu-Ode and almost all markets, we should find a way of empowering them, we should make them wholesalers and distributors of goods. We must find a way of creating more jobs, even at the grassroots through Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs), that is what I am concerned with’ he emphasised. “How many people should we be distributing money to? We have to do what is right, there will be a lot of employment generation and our businesses will be better. Without all these we are doing, people will only deceive us”, he declared. Speaking further, the governor preached peace and harmony in the country adding that Nigerians should not take up arms against one another whatever the circumstances. He thanked the people of the State for the support given to his administration promising never to take their support for granted. “The only thing I’ll say is that we should, this is the month where sins are forgiven and this month is the holy month. When prayers are answered, whatever happens, we should not resolve to violence. That is the number one thing we need in Nigeria-Peace. I also want to thank the good people of Ogun State because without the people giving the government support, we cannot succeed. We want to thank them and we won’t take that support for granted. And I want to pray that the best is yet to come for us in Ogun State, Citizens are my godfathers and they are our backbones,” he said.