Youths from Iwoland, headquarters of Osun West Senatorial District, want the town to produce the next governor of the state.
The group, under the auspices of Concerned Iwoland Youths for Actualisation of Iwolookan Agenda 2018, in a statement jointly signed by its chairman and publicity secretary, Nurudeen Emiloju and Yusuff Ola-Gold Mutalub respectively after a rally on Sunday, said there were competent Iwo indigenes as technocrats and active members of all parties eminently qualified to govern the state.
According to them, any political party that fields a native of Iwoland as its candidate for the September 22 gubernatorial election of Osun State is guaranteed over 100, 000 votes from the town.
Alleging marginalisation of their town in the scheme of things, they said Iwo was the only federal constituency in Osun that had never produced governor, deputy governor; principal officer in both National and State Assemblies, minister or ambassador.
They also decried that their constituency was without any federal government presence—"no federal government school, agency or parastatals."
The statement partly read: "The marginalisation has continued to affect the socio-economic development of the constituency and her people. Even in terms of meaningful development in the state, Iwo is lagging behind. Our roads are bad, pipe-borne water has stopped running in Iwo for decades now and successive governments have done nothing to ameliorate the deplorable situation of things in Iwoland.
"We’ve been used and dumped for decades. We’re only relevant during elections and become moribund immediately after elections. Must this deliberate neglect continue? The entire Iwoland youths have come together to make one demand: The next governor of the state after Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola must come from Iwoland.
"Despite our influential roles in the emergence of every government since creation of Osun State in 1991, we’ve continued to play second fiddle in the political realms. We feel the time to lead has come. Neither persuasion nor negotiation will lure us this time around. We are mentally and physically prepared to achieve this onerous agenda.
"Our agitation is timely and appropriate. Our agitation is politically correct by convention of all political parties in the state and in fairness, equity and justice. Our political acumen of the headquarters of Osun West (Iwo) prior to the carving out of the state from Oyo State positioned Iwo as the bastion of progressive governance in the western region as acknowledged by many political analysts.
"Major groups in Iwoland have continued to launch their intentions that Iwolokan is not negotiable. We’re due for it in all considerations of working variables. They’ve sent powerful signals to the leading political parties in the state to respect convention or risk failure in the September 22 test of popularity.
"This press conference /rally on the gross marginalization in spite of Iwoland huge contributions and investments in the promotion of democracy in the state and Nigeria and its rich political base to deceptively regarded Iwo as second home by most of the politicians who are not indigenes of Iwo. This agitation is to let the political parties and the public know what is at stake if Iwo is not considered this time around.
"Any political party that fields Iwoland indigene as its candidate will be adopted as our party and all resources will be mobilised to make sure such party win come September. Enough is enough. Unless our voice is addressed, the unexpected in history may happen."
