Lawmaker facilitates empowerment, grants for constituents

Rep. Stanley Olajide of PDP-Ibadan South-West/North-West constituency says no fewer than one thousand people in his constituency have benefitted from his empowerment programme.

Olajide made this known at the empowerment programme held at Lekan Salami Stadium, on Saturday evening in Ibadan.

He said that the programme was aimed at enhancing the livelihood of the beneficiaries, thus giving them lifelines and to reduce the unemployment rate.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some of the materials distributed to beneficiaries included 150 sewing machines, 100 grinding machines, 100 hair dryers, 50 freezers, 50 laptops, 20 motorcycles and cash grants.

“We are here to change the narratives of our people. Gone are the days when politicians thought that people should rely on them and that their daily livelihood should come from them”

“I don’t want to give them fish, I want to teach them how to fish. We are here to give back to our people and all of these were done in conjunction with different agencies” he said.

The lawmaker said that the beneficiaries were selected regardless of religion and political party affiliations, saying he was the representative of all.

“The total number of beneficiaries we have are over a thousand and cut across every sector of the nation’s economy. For piggery, we have about 200 beneficiaries, for poultry, we have about 250 beneficiaries”

“When we go through this process of budgeting, we get budget allocation and that is what we use to do this empowerment. I am a lawmaker, but we facilitate these for our people so that they don’t think we are just in Abuja as benchwarmers,” he said”

Olajide urged the beneficiaries to make good use of the empowerment materials and cash grants, promising to do more.

In his remarks, Dayo Ogungbenro, the state PDP Chairman, commended Olajide for the kind gesture to his constituents, urging others to emulate him.

“This is marvelous in my eyes. This is what we expect from all our representatives. You can see the enthusiasm from all our people and that is what politics is all about”

“This is the only way our people will feel the impact of their representatives. The beneficiaries should buckle-up, because to whom much is given, much is expected” he said.