Ekiti
State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has appealed to members of the Road
Transport Employers Association of Nigeria against allowing themselves
to be used by kidnappers to perpetrate evil.
Speaking
on Thursday during the swearing-in of the new State Executives 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.
“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, but 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 – in his first term, said
the occasion was a sign that good things were coming in 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 potentials 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 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 make the payment of
salaries the first thing, because this will keep the people and the
economy going.
“I received close to 200 to 300 calls
and messages daily on stomach infrastructure. Though, 90 percent of it
is about money, but 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.”