ALIMOSHO'S GOT BRAINS 1: ODE TO ADEGUNLE FOUNDATION -- OKO OPO

I’M IN POLITICS FOR STATE POWERS TO DO MORE FOR THE WIDOWS AND VULNERABLE PEOPLE

Story by Razaq Adedeji Jimoh

ON the day of his final parting ways with Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, what the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, told Aregbe to be his greatest disappointment with him was that when ever the Party asked him to present people from Alimosho for leadership positions, he (Aregbe) would be acting as if Alimosho has no educated people qualified to present by submitting names of mediocres. In this serial publications -- Alimosho's Got Brains, we want to tell the world that Alimosho not only gets well educated people, but also has creative minds in matters of politics and humanity cause. We begin with the story of Barrister Adekunle Adegunle, fundly called Oko Opo, who has finally Japa to settle in United Kingdom with his family. But this was not after he had contributed immensely to the growth of Alimosho progressives, particularly towards the just concluded elections on the platform Alimosho Solidarity Movement (ASM) of the All Progressives Congress (APC). His story you are about to read was the last interaction of Civics Weekly with him in 2021, when he was an aspirant for the House of Representatives.

BY the records of his Foundation's charity services, catering to the widows and the less privileged, an Alimosho based cheer giver and philanthropist, Barrister Adekunle Adegunle (aka Oko Opo) had spent over N8million on his monthly Free Food Program for the widows and vulnerable. This, of course, excluded the expenses of the 2021 edition of the special day for the widow – International Widows' Day (IWD), when he feted 3000 widows at the De-Rock Event Centre in Egbeda area of Alimosho. Also as a cultural part of his Foundations' annual project, a minimum of 1000 widows get live fowls for Christmas along with other food stuff. This years' edition did not fail either, as it came up on December 23, 2021 at the same venue.

Referencing his source of funding, Barrister Adegunle described it as “a miracle and wonderful works of God” he was yet to discern since three years the foundation opened its charity works' doors to the needy. “That is why I am seeking elective public office with my declaration for the House of Representatives in this coming 2023 general election”, he added.

Adekunle Adegunle Global Foundation (AAGF) was launched about the month of July 2018 as a part of activities marking his birthday for that year. Philosophers have described this kind of initiative of finding a value for the purpose of birthday celebration as the workings of great minds and the thinking of men and women of honour, who strive to seek a purpose for their existentialism. The annual Tinubu Colloquium follows this path to parturition since his exit as Lagos State Governor in 2007. For the avoidance of doubt about the Colloquium's social value, it is a lecture series where a galaxy of the elite brainstorm on the current and prescient problems of the human society with the Nigeria's peculiarity and what could be the feasible solution. That for fact, is all about solving human problems at the macro scale of Tinubu's elite class status. Adekunle Adegunle Global Foundation is no less related in value and purpose – solving human problems even though it is yet at the micro scale of community levels across the City of Lagos. But Alimosho Local Government would nevertheless seem to be its beneficiary catchment area of the charity works thus far.

In the three years of its existence, the Foundation has sunk two modern boreholes for communities in Idimu and Ijegun areas of Alimosho. The third of such project due for delivery this year was delayed because of an outcome of a mandatory Impact Assessment Evaluation (IAE) conducted for that purpose. The founder explained this. “The fact is that we don't just jump into anywhere in the hope of siting a project like borehole. We subject such to a technical analysis we refer to as Needs Assessment Evaluation (NAE). This is before we site the project. And when we have delivered the project for public use, we conduct another assessment to evaluate the impact of the project on the lives of the target beneficiaries. We call this Impact Assessment Evaluation (IAE). This normally comes up within 6th and 12th months of the project's life. So, what happened in the case of this due but delayed borehole was that we found a conflict of this NAE for a new community in Ijedodo with an IAE for the Ijegun community where we have had a presence already. By this, I mean that there was parity of priority rating for both communities. This put us at crossroads with confusion as to where to go first and it turned out to be an unfortunate dilemma for our operation”.

Oko Opo thence revealed how a situation like this shaped his decision to go for elective office in the coming 2023 election. “I had told you earlier that it's by the grace of God that the foundation remains alive and kicking today in terms of funding resources. While I see the financial records of Adekunle Adegunle Global Foundation now entering two digits in Millions of naira – that is tens of Millions of naira, I always caused to reflect on the wonders and miracles of God that all this is coming out from my private pocket without any major assistance from any quarters of corporate organization or any other bodies.

“Yes, I thank God for some little supports that had come by way of direct gift to the widows in some instances. We have had cases where someone donated N5000 (Five thousand naira) in their modest capacity to the Foundation with a mandate of being empowerment cash to one widow. In such cases, you cannot sink such fund into the Foundation's operational cash flow because it is tied to a specific cause and purpose. In like manner when you have supports in kind of direct purpose. For instance, in this late December, just some days past, an organization (name withheld) requested that I give them five widows. Each of them got a bag of rice with a cash gift of N5000. What I am trying to say is that not all type of support falls into our Foundation's direct operational decision making process, which is determined by the size of our cash flow.

“So when we were faced with the purported dilemma of conflicting IAE and NAE I explained earlier, I realized the real limitations we are facing in actual resistance to the rate of speed we intend to impact lives. If I had enough cash to sink the two boreholes based on the priority we found about them, we would have delivered the two boreholes for the respective communities' use since July 2021. Yet the cash we are looking for to take up the two project is what someone takes for granted in huge cash and with easy assessment in the name of 'Constituency Project Funds'.

“You may recall when the media published how some legislators squandered trillions of naira in the name of constituency project they never executed after receiving the funds. It was the findings of Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), when it constituted a committee of evaluators drawn from civil society organizations to go around the country to assess the impact of constituency projects in the lives of the constituency dwellers. Of course, the findings were shocking that some projects which already had cash backings did not exist in the first place. I think I read my version of the story in this your magazine as then Civics Journal – your old brand title. So, I expect you will know what I am talking about.

“But you may wish to ignore what we read in the media to face practicality, I will cite an example of such none existing constituency project value that is not farfetched from our idimu corridor here. Now go to Anjorin street before Calvary Bible Church, you will see one abandoned huge community borehole project there. I learnt that it was not out of use that the project got dilapidated. Rather it was a constituency project from the House of Representatives sometimes in the early years of this Fourth Republic that never saw the light of day. It was never completed much more being used by the people of Idimu in the first place”.

When reminded that such beautiful tales of failures by some politicians are replete in the public domain and they always make easy pick for new aspiring ones to cite as reasons for seeking election, Oko Opo said it was not his own case. He therefore went further to discuss the criteria for making a success of political carrier, pointing out that the most valuable one is when the politician takes humanity cause for passion.

He said: “First and foremost, you must realize that having a human feeling to the level of altruistic mission by anyone is a special emotion and is a rear gift from God. It always takes the grace of God for anyone to think of others first before himself. Following that as equally important criterion is that you must have the resources to pursue and show the humanity cause however small you may be doing that in your corridor of the world. And I think by my self-evaluation, I can score myself with excellent performance in this regard with the operations of Adekuinle Adegunle Global Foundation. If only you could know what passion drives me when I seek to give those in need of help and the less privileged people. The kind of empathic emotions I put into it is a kind that defines your passion for the cause of humanity, and when you discover that you are not doing it at the pace you want to reach many, the passion begins to push you to seeking more legitimate means to meet up with more responsibility in fulfilling it. “Curiously again; the more you do the spending, the more the passion keeps challenging you that you are not doing enough. Such was the experience of the late Chief M.K.O Abiola. You may wish to agree or disagree with me on this point, it was the passion to do more of humanity cause that led to his early death. The best thrust of the wheel you could ever need to drive your passion for humanity cause is political power because it helps to aide your control of public resources in the manner of your desire. This is the power I want to get in order to do more in my cause of humanity for Alimosho people.

“To the extent that I know politics as a service to humanity, I want to use my aspiration to change the narratives of political participation in Alimosho. I want to seek the direct mandate of the people even as an aspirant. What do I mean? I want the people to own my aspiration to the House of Representatives. In other words, I want them to be the one sending me to go and represent Alimosho Federal Constituency. Thus so, they will be the one to pay for my application form when the time is due. This is the direction I will be taking my campaign through. I want to make it a collective participation, where the people could have the absolute right to demand accountability and participate directly in the decision making of the National Assembly through regular constituency feedback meetings”.