EDO APC House of Reps candidate, Osawaru condemns an attempt by a rival to substitute his name

The All Progressive Congress, APC, House of Representative candidate for Orhionmwon/ Uhunwode Federal Constituency, Edo State, Chief Dr. Billy Osawaru has condemned an attempt by his close rival in the party primaries to substitute his name at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja even when he won the primaries with a wide margin to emerge the flag bearer for the 2023 general election.

Chief Dr. Osawaru made this known while fielding questions from journalists in Benin on his candidacy and plans for his constituents.

Chief Osawaru stressed that the primary that made him the flagbearer of his party was free, fair and credible and however, frowned at the move to criminally replace his name.

“I was declared the winner. But I was shocked when information reached me that somebody was trying to change the result. Initially, I thought it was a joke until I got there before it was finally rectified that I am the right candidate for Orhionmwon/Uhumwonde Federal Constituency.”

On his rural transformation agenda, if he emerged victorious in the forthcoming general election to represent the good people of his constituency at the National Assembly, he said, “My vision is to have my constituency as the biggest champions of socio-political, economic, infrastructural and technological development and policies in Nigeria.

Over time, the issues that affected us as people have not fully been addressed. I promise to give every Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde people a voice and strengthen the socio-economy of all communities in Local Government Areas through quality representation”.

Continuing, “It is my track record, my track record all these twelve years, I have been here, they step me down so many times, I relent not coming back. I have always been back using my hard earn money to impact people that are not even directly related to me by blood. So, I built that goodwill over the years, that is why whenever you mention my name, these people are ready to move.

“We must correct all those things and the oversight function is one of those things I will really take seriously. You have to learn how to build relationships. I am not going there with a gun or knife to start fighting with the executive. There are areas I need to build relationships. Yes, I know there are MDGs, there are agencies, and there are ministries responsible for different types of developmental projects. I need to go build relationships with those people because I am the one that will do a lot of town hall meetings with my people, I need to know what they mean and what solutions are based on.

“If I know the area my people need rural electrification, what do you think I need to do? I need to approach the ministry in charge, build relationships, and let them see why they need to come to me because that is the priority. The same thing with water, the same thing with roads, I know if I build relationships with those people, they will definitely come to your aid, and that is part of what they call the constituency project.

“My constituency project is not the one to buy more fancy cars, not to build more big houses. Constituency project to the best of my knowledge is for the people, and they must be for the people. Why? Because if I give them good roads, I will enjoy the good roads myself, if I give them clean water, I won’t be scared to get good water in my own village. So, those are things we must change. Constituency projects mean constituency projects. If I want to build houses, there area I need to go make money to build houses. So, all these are the things I would change.

I live in a developed society, and I am somebody that have volunteered, I know there are different problems. For example, in the USA I lives, they are here in Nigeria, they are in a lot of developing country, they are here for a reason, they are here to help developing countries with different types of aid; some are even grants that you don’t have to pay back, but are we taking advantage of those programmes? A lot of our lawmakers don’t even know those things exist, I know because I am coming from that society and I will make the best use of organisations like that. There are proposals we can write.

For example, in the US, we have what is called a Sister City Programme. What the programme is all about is, that they want a city in the united states to abduct another city in a developing country. So, whatever they have that they think they can part with, they give to those sister cities, 1Lagos is a sister city to Atlanta. So, those are some of the programmes that I want to bring to Edo State, if possible encourage other states to do the same. Those programmes are right there.

All you need to do is, write a proposal to them; you want Benin City to be a sister city to Atlanta, to Oklahoma, Saint Francisco, etc. So, if I am representing the good people of Orhionmwon/Uhunmwnde, don’t you think I will want to make Orhionmwon even a local government, Abudu is a city in Orhionmwon, I can make Abudu sister city to the city of Oklahoma, I can also make Ehor in Uhunmwonde a sister city to the city of New York. It is doable and I have done them in the past, only that I did them for people that were not even from Nigeria.”

Going further he said, “One of my clients has become a Mayor in the city of Cote D’Ivoire, Tender City because he is from Cote D’Ivoire. I wrote a proposal for him and Oklahoma City abducted the city as a sister city, built a hospital for them, gave them agricultural equipment, built a stadium for them, and even equipped police cars to their American standard and shipped them to him. I wrote the proposal; I have videos on YouTube where he was thanking me for helping out.

So, if I could do this for a friend, why do you think I can’t do it for my people? Those are the kind of programmes we would want to start bringing, is a like a pilot project. Other legislators will approach me and I am sure if we have chairmen of the council, they would come to me to show them how some of those programmes can be done.

I invited some past chairmen in Edo State to the United States to come to sign up for some of those projects; they never show up, because they didn’t see it as money that will be coming into their personal pockets. You can’t count on people to do what is right, but I can count on myself to do what is right, and that is why I am running for Federal House of Assembly to represent the good people of Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde.

So, I encourage everyone who have being in the mainstream of politics – the easiest way to win an election is to build goodwill. If you don’t have enough time to build goodwill, don’t give up, still be consistence and persistent. A time will come when people will really identify with you because of what you have done. So, the only thing I have in form is this I just told you, the track record.

Let’s come together and make Orhionmwon and Uhunmwonde great. We are not supposed to be going through what we are going through right now. Uhunmwonde local government is strategic position. You cannot access the Eastern part of country without passing through Uhunmwonde, you cannot access the Northern part of the country without passing through Uhunmwonde.

Orhionmwon is one of the largest producer of gas in the country. How come we are still the way we are today. Is a shame. Where is our corporate socio-responsibility, are we exploring this enough. All these oil company we have, what are they doing for our society.

I am the one that is carrying the touch now. I am calling on all Orhiomwonde and Uhunmwonde people to back me up, so that four years from now, we would be singing Halleluiah. We can do it, but I can do it by myself. I need every one of us for us to succeed,” he said.

On reports of massive vote-buying in the Ekiti State governorship election, Chief Dr. Osawaru called for urgent legislative intervention and punitive measures against voting buying and noted that all hands must be on deck to ensure proper electoral reforms are put in place to protect our electoral system and process.

” The job of legislators is to make laws, move motions and sponsor bills. One of the first things I want to do when I get to the National Assembly is to bring about electoral reforms. How we fund our elections is very important. In developed climes, there is a limit to which an individual can spend on elections even if the people are volunteering to support them financially.

There are certain actions that must be condemned through policies and not paying lip service. Policies that come with sanctions for offenders and some few people must be used as scapegoats and if that is done naturally people will desist from it.

Laws are meant to be implemented. But when we don’t do that I can assure you that the Executive will just be the Executive. They will tell you they are only implementing what they have in the books. The judiciary will only interpret and that is why some of us are interested in having good laws in the country if you don’t have the enabling laws there is nothing you can do. I’m optimistic that when I get to the national assembly I have the convincing power to actually get some of my colleagues to do the right thing.”