By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
A coalition of civil society organisations in Ondo state has threatened to deal with any lawmakers representing the people of the state at the upper house, but failed to bring dividends of democracy to the people.
National Coordinator of Occupy Senators, Retson Tekedeh, stated this yesterday at a press conference after the maiden inauguration of “Occupy Senators in Ondo state” in Akure, Ondo state capital.
“With the monumental political corruption in the Senate, it is the ordinary Nigerian people that are suffering. Our senators are playing politics in Abuja while the President is working to fix Nigeria.
“No senator representing the people of Ondo state can decide to play with our future, support looters of our commonwealth and fight a President who has shown the desire to govern rather than play politics,” he said.
He alleged the lawmakers of undermining the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari to develop the nation, urging the leadership of the National Assembly to cease from becoming “a major clog in the wheel of progress.”
The representative of ECOWAS Youth Assembly, Mr. Ikumapayi Smith, described the group as the Citizens’ office for good governance that would force the representatives to be accountable to the electorate.
MOSUP President, Mr. Dappa Maharajah, however, added that there should be serious reorientation among the people, especially the youth, “so as to achieve speedy results.”
“One of the reasons the politicians have their ways is the enforcement of the vices among the electorate which Ola Rotimi described as ‘Janupsychosis of oppression’ in his book, ‘If…the Tragedy of the Ruled.”
Ondo state Coordinator of the Occupy Senators in Ondo, Mr. Ayodele Oladimeji, said the idea was to bring the campaign to the grassroots rather than the constant protest in Abuja.
Oladimeji revealed that some of the strategies that would be used to make the representatives accountable for the people’s votes, saying town hall meetings would be an integral part of the representative democracy as it is a global practice.
They said: “We are calling on all sons and daughters of Ondo state to begin the battle to force the senators representing us to conform and comply with the President’s people-driven agenda or we will force them to do so with anger, vexation and frustration.”
“We are demanding that Ondo state senators request for the audited expenditure and budget breakdown of the Senate over the past five years. The Senate is accountable to the people and it is time they lead as the people dictate not as their pockets.”
