•  It’s Too Early For Campaign

Honourable Saheed AkinadeFijabi, National House of Representative member of Ibadan North West/South West has said the Honourable Minister for Communication, Adebayo Shittu is distracted from his duty due to his aspiration to run for governor in the 2019 gubernatorial elections.

According to the Honourable, it is too early to start campaigning for 2017 elections. Hence he said this might as well be distracting to the Honourable Minister Adebayo Shittu in performing his duties effectively.

Fijabi said this during a media interaction with South West Group of Online Publisher (SWEGOP) on Tuesday as he addressed questions about his rift with the Honourable Minister Shittu.

When asked if the rift was as a result of his intentions to also run for Governorship in Oyo State in 2019; he emphatically said that though he is fit to run for the Governorship of the state, he has however not made such intentions known to anyone because he needs to concentrate on his duty to make good his promises to the people he represents.

“If I want to be a governor, I am fit to be but I have not sat with anyone to discuss such intentions.

“However, the Honourable Minister of Communication Abduraheem Adebayo Shittu has said he wants to be a Governor barely two years into his appointment as a minister.

“In my own opinion, this has distracted him from delivering his duty effectively as a Minister and as a member of Oyo state that should making good use of his position for State.”

“We are not even 2 years in this current administration and already someone is saying he wants to be a Governor, Fijabi noted.

“The problem with our democracy is that so many politicians and public office holders are too concerned about campaigning for the next elections without focusing at the task of the office they occupy now, he added.

Fijabi also noted that it is possible to make Oyo the hub of communication if all its key stakeholders can work together.

“Oyo state has been lucky to have three senators and a minister so if we want Oyo to be the hub of communication we can achieve it,”he added

 When asked about his opinion on the newly appointed Local Government Caretaker Chairmen, he said Governor Ajimobi as only acted in accordance with the law to put on hold conducting elections into the local government.

“Elections have not held because most of the local governments have court cases that are pending in court, hence elections cannot hold until the cases are settled in court.

“A lot of people think the government is slow but that is what transparency entails,

“Democracy requires that processes are duely followed hence nothing can be done except the law sanctions permits it ,” Fijabi reiterated.

He however noted that it is not his duty to nominate whomever emerged as Chairman of his local government  but to support whomever has been appointed as the Caretake Chairman of his local government without reservations.

Concerning the issue of loyalty in the party, he emphasized that he is not reserved to say he is loyal to Senator Abiola Ajimobi because he is his leader and Governor.

"Respect should be given to whom it is due and Governor Ajimobi being the leader of the party and Governor deserves to be respected by every member of the party regardless of their position in the country, Fijabi noted.

Fijabi also noted that he does not recognise the presence of factions in APC in Oyo state, hence he cannot be in support of supposed faction .

As touching the issue of scuffling on the floor of the house, he revealed that currently the house of representative has included in its code of conduct that no one has privilege to move close to the maze otherwise such honourable will be suspended for six months.

He also noted that due to the proximity of house of representative members to the people they receive a lot of criticism from the people.

Hence he encouraged members of the public to make constructive criticism so that their pleas can be heard effectively.