Alleged Non-Performance A Cheap Blackmail-Senator Balogun
Senator Kola Balogun has described as a mere falsehood and cheap blackmail an online attack that he is an under-performing senator who has no business being in the Senate.
One Comrade Adedokun Sunday, from Eruwa in Ibarapa East Local Government Area of Oyo State, in a report published by a blogger, had challenged Senator Balogun, saying he does not worth being a senator.
“The performances of Senator Kola Balogun at the upper chamber of the legislative arm is (sic) not worthy of being a senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Amidst the three senators we have in the state presently, he’s the least performing figure. Should we agree that inexperience is cogently undermining the better performance of that senator.
“The senator has been underperforming, and also neglected the people of Ibarapa in his administration (sic),” Sunday had claimed in the report.
However, Senator Balogun, who represents Oyo South Senatorial District, in a release by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Mr Dapo Falade, said the allegation was coming from a frustrated blackmailer.
He said his response to the allegation is in order to correct the false narratives being spread by “somebody who we all know as Asiwaju Omo Boboye but chooses to call himself Comrade Adedokun Sunday.”
Senator Balogun said Omo Boboye had sought for personal help from him and also sent several messages to him, thanking him for all the projects he has been facilitating for the people of Oyo South Senatorial District.
“I don’t want to get involved in dirty exchanges with a person who has been seeking for personal favour from me. Why should I respond to a man who had, at various times, acknowledged what I am doing for my people in Oyo South Senatorial District?
“For the avoidance of doubt and in order to clear the false narratives being bandied about, I will like to humbly set the record straight in respect of what I have done so far for my people,” he said.
Balogun said Nigerians can easily recollect that, no sooner was he pronounced the winner of the keenly-contested senatorial election in 2019 than his opponent instituted various litigations challenging his victory.
“These litigations consumed the larger part of the first six months of my assumption of office as an elected senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“As if this was not enough distraction from the performance of my legislative duties, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a sudden catastrophic spanner in the wheel of all the planned programmes of action for my district.
“However, in spite of all the distractions, both natural and human, I still ensured my constituents enjoyed the dividends of democracy, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, during and after,” he said.
Senator Balogun listed the projects and programmes he had facilitated for Oyo South Senatorial District to include facilitation of N60 million Continuous Revolving Loan Scheme and capacity building for nine cooperative societies in Ibadan in February 2020 ;
Facilitation of N50 million capacity-building programme for 45 youth and women selected from the nine local government councils of the district in the art of film-making and business, held in Ibadan in February, 2020 in collaboration with the Nigerian Film Corporation, Jos;
Facilitation of N50 million Capacity-Building and Empowerment on Agricultural Entrepreneurship for 100 youths and farmers in the nine local government councils of the District, held at the IAR&T, Moor Plantation, Ibadan 19-21 January, 2021;
Facilitation of over N350 million COVID-19 loan to over 450 different trade groups, big markets, members of the press inclusive of the Ohaneze Indigbo traders in the district between June and August, 2020;
Facilitation of payment of Federal Government N30,000 each Survival Fund to 434 tradesmen and artisans in the district in June, 2020, totalling N13.02 million;
Facilitation of the payment of N20,000.00 each palliative grant of the Federal Government to 100 women in the district in February 2021 at the State Secretariat, Ibadan, totalling N2 million;
Facilitation of payment of N20,000,00 grant to empower 1,000 women and youths in the district through the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development, via beneficiaries’ personal accounts, totalling N20 million;
Facilitation of N14 million grant provision to market men and women, paid via Nigeria Prisons Micro-Finance Bank in February 2021 through the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN);
Facilitation of N11 million Continuous Revolving Loan Scheme for fresh eight cooperative societies in Ibadan and Ibarapa in April, 2021;
30 solar-powered street lights provided at Oke-Aremo, Agala Estate, the UCH and the University of Ibadan all in Ibadan North Local Government Area;
Provision of solar-powered borehole, with overhead water storage tanks for NECO Office at Agodi, Ibadan North Local Government Area;
A completed block of two classrooms with toilet, office, store and solar-powered light and other facilities at Oje-Igosun Grammar School, Ibadan North, already handed over to UBEC who in turn had handed it over to Oyo SUBEB;
Provision and Installation of 300KVA electrical transformer and accessories at Ashi Community in Ibadan North Local Government Area (protected with fence and gate);
Provision and installation of 300 KVA electrical transformer and accessories at Fagbamila Community in Ibadan North East Local Government Area (fenced with gate);
Provision and installation of 500 KVA transformer and accessories at Padi, Oke- Ofa, Ibadan North East Local Government Area, fully energised;
Provision and installation of 300 KVA transformer with accessories at Ogungbade Area of Molete in Ibadan South West Local Government Area (properly fenced with gate);
Provision and installation of 500 KVA transformer and accessories at Falola Street, Osoba Area of Ibadan South West Local Government Area;
Provision and Installation of 500KVA transformer and accessories at Salvation Army Area of Ibadan North West Local Government Area; provision and installation of 300 KVA Transformer at Arise Area of Iddo Local Government Area;
Provision and installation of 300 KVA with accessories at Riverview Estate, Idi-Ishin of Ibadan South West Local Government Area; provision and Installation of 300KVA transformer and accessories at Alatere Community of Iddo Local Government Area;
Construction and completion of one block of three classrooms at Community Primary School at Itabo, Lanlate, Ibarapa East Local Government Area;
Construction and completion of one block of two classrooms at Oke-Oba, Eruwa Local Authority Primary School in Ibarapa East Local Government Area;
Construction and completion of one block of three classrooms at Okusehinde Primary School, Aremo, Ibadan North East Local Government Area;
Rehabilitation of one kilometre road at the BCGA to the railway line in Ibadan South West Local Government Area to Ojutelegan in Iddo Local Government Area;
Rehabilitation of the Oke-Oba Road to the Expressway at Eruwa, Ibarapa East Local Government Area; Construction of bridge and Rehabilitation of Odo Eran Road at Igboora in Ibarapa Central Local Government; sinking of a new solar-powered borehole at Yanko-bi-ororo in Ward 10 Lanlate, Ibarapa East Local Government Area;
Supply and provision of study materials to three community primary schools- Community Primary School, Olomo, Iddo Local Government; Community Primary School, Oke-Ayo, Odo-Ona Ibadan South West and L.A. Primary School 1, Oke-Oba Series, Ibarapa East.
Senator Balogun also listed his intervention in public schools by the provision of plastic chairs, Mathematics kits, hardcover notebooks, ledger books exercise books and textbooks, among others.
Through his personal efforts, Senator Balogun donated One Million Naira to traders at the popular Dugbe Market, following a massive fire outbreak in the market on 15 April, 2020.
He donated cash in support of many communities and associations across the district to assist self helps projects initiated by landlords associations and others.
His personal intervention forestalled the massive job loss that could have happened, if the Oriental Oriental Foods Industry Limited, a molk-producing industry located at Kilometre 14, Ibadan-Lagos Expressway Ibadan and outside his district, had closed shop.
The Ibadan-born lawmaker has been pursuing, in collaboration with the executives of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), matters relating to the creation of Ibadan State from the existing Oyo State.
He stood against the recent invasion by midnight of the Bodija International Market, Orita-Merin and Oja-Oba Markets in Ibadan by men of the Customs from Ikeja Unit in Lagos who carted away thousands of bags of rice, millions of Naira, gaaari and vegetable oil on suspicion that the items were imported.
Following his presentation of their petitions to the leadership of the National Assembly, the House Committee on Ethnics took it up and brought both the Customs and the traders before the federal lawmakers.
Today, the locked up shops had been opened for the traders by the Customs and efforts are on-going for the return of their products.
He visited and identified with the traders at Araromi, Agodi, Spareparts Market in Ibadan that got burnt overnight in May 2021.
He invited the leadership of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to the market and they both decided on steps needed to provide reliefs for the traders; he did same for Gbaremu Ijokodo and Mammy Markets in Ibadan.
Senator Balogun assisted some of his constituents who were owed large sums of money by federal agencies after the completion of their contracts, executed before the commencement of his tenure.
But for the various crisis confronting the Federal Government, quite a number of youths who had been slated for employment at the federal level would have resumed, just as a handful of them have been lucky to secure employments through his efforts.
He donated a car and a reasonable sum of money to the yearly beauty pageants competition in Oyo State, just to ensure that the youths are happy.
Senator Balogun’s district office is always besieged by parents seeking admission for their children into secondary and tertiary institutions across the country, and quite a handful of such requests were attended to promptly and admissions were secured for them, through his intervention.
