By Olanrewaju Akojede
#TrackNigeria: The Ogun state governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Gboyega Isiaka on Tuesday said that his government would ensure gender balance in the composition of his executive if voted into power.
The former General Manager of Gateway Holdings made the pledge when he spoke durng his electoral campaign visit to Magboro community along Lagos/Ibadan expressway on Monday.
The erudite public servant is now seeking to become the sixth democratically elected governor of the gateway state after the incumbent, Chief Ibikunle Amosun.
Isiaka, a two-time governorship candidate, represented by his wife, Deaconess Oluwatoyin Isiaka, said that gender equality would give everyone a sense of belonging in governance.
He said that there should be more space for women in government, adding that equal representation would encourage more women to contribute their quota to national development.
“I have said it that we need gender equality in governance to fast track development. For me, it is going to be 50-50 ratio.
“Out of 10 in the cabinet, the sharing ratio will be, three will be for men, three for women, three for the youths and one for our elders.
“We have women who are standing to be counted and I believe that their valuable contributions will help the state move forward; I will not relent in consulting them.
“Over the past, we have seen women folks doing exceptionally well in governance, this is something we should build on for national development,” he said.
Isiaka said that part of his agenda would be providing enabling environment for businesses and investment to usher in economic prosperity for the state.
“We should also focus on creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive. These include provision of good access roads to local communities, water and rural electrification.
“We will also empower our women through soft loans and also train our youths through skill empowerment programmes.
“What we have at present is not palatable at all; we cannot sit idle and watch our youths engaging in menial jobs like commercial motorcycling (Okada).
“We need our youths to actively engage in the right businesses, not riding Okada all about. The youths are the future of this country, so they need to be put in the right businesses,” he said.
Isiaka said that Local Government (LG) should go back to its former status quo in order to bring the dividend of democracy to the grassroots.
“To engender the right developments at the grassroots, we must return to the status quo of the local government. We need those times when the local governments are the fulcrum of national development.
“The present government has stifled the local government to the extent that they cannot perform their constitutional duties of providing grassroots development again, we need to correct that.
“The constitution recognises the local governments as the third tier of governance, but we have since changed the nomenclature thereby reducing them to mere liaison offices for the state government,” he said. With reports by (NAN)
