DECISION 2003

am honored and delighted to be here amongst friends, family and fellow Nigerians this evening. I also give thanks and honor to God for sparing our lives and making it possible for us to attend this occasion. Your turnout at this occasion in spite of other commitments is a clear demonstration of your commitment to the welfare; progress and well being of our people back home. This week, we received the unfortunate news of the murder of the attorney general of the Federal republic of Nigeria, Chief Bola Ige, at his residence. This is a loss that could not be qualified and a further confirmation that our generation needs to be more involved if there is going to be hope for future generations. Please join me in observing a moment of silence for Chief Bola Ige. May his soul rest in peace.

As I stand here before you this evening to solicit for your support, I will not feel fulfilled in my bid if I fail to recognize and mention that your tireless and infinite sacrifices has made it possible for me to be here today.

I offer my appreciation to the New York members of the Friends of Fadairo for Ogun State Governor 2003, under the Chairmanship of Alhaji Omolaja Yusuf, and to the planning committee made up of Mr. Samuel Ajayi, Ms. Osa Obasuyi, Mrs. Funmilayo Makinde, and Alhaji Adedayo Bello. I will continue by thanking the entire membership of Egbe Afenifere, New York, who have stood by me and are all here tonight with their families. I say thank you. I hope and pray that by the grace of God, we will continue to enjoy the affection we all share. To other countless foot soldiers that have never wavered in their support for this campaign, I also say thank you. Before I go on, please allow me to introduce and at the same time express my appreciation to the national committee members, who are also here tonight with us, of the Friends of Fadairo for the 2003 Ogun State Governorship - Chief Aderemi Odediran (Florida – National Chairman), Mr. Owolabi Adetu (Florida – Co-Chair), Alhaji Adekola Oladipo (North Carolina – National Press Secretary), Mr. Adebayo Abioro (Los Angeles – National Public Relations Coordinator), Mr. Akintunde Osisanya (Chicago – National Chief Advisor to the campaign), and Alhaji Omolaja Yusuf (New York – Chairman, New York Committee). Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to please join me in a special round of applause for these gentlemen for the superb job they are doing. I could not have wished for a better team of tireless coordinators.

I remember when we started this journey about two years ago; we never thought we could come this far this quickly. As a matter of fact over the past few months whether we are in California or Atlanta or Detroit, there is a resounding question that people often asked which is, when is New York going to have its fund raiser for Dr. Fadairo? I always answer that nothing happens before its time and tonight here we come New York. This is going to be the beginning in New York and we hope to have a couple more in the New Year. I am therefore appealing to you tonight to let us rise up to the occasion and put the past behind us and let us move forward. We should invest more in what could benefit us all rather than look for faults in ourselves. All of us humans have our shortcomings.

It is often said that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at the time of challenge and controversy. We are here together this evening, bound by our faith in the almighty God and each other, with genuine respect and love for our country. While we share similar aspirations, we equally have our share of differences. We are not a perfect people, yet our people are calling to us to perform a perfect mission: mission to feed the hungry; to cloth the naked; to house the homeless; to provide jobs for the jobless; to educate out illiterates; and to provide accessible and affordable health care for the young and the old.

My rights and privilege to stand here before you has been won, by the blood of our fallen heroes, especially those who paid the supreme price during the inglorious reign of Sani Abacha and other despots before him. They have given their all so that those of us remaining and indeed generations of Yoruba yet unborn can hold our heads high and be proud to be called Omo Oduduwa. May their souls rest in peace.

Tonight, I come before you to ask for your support in my desire to run for the office of the Governorship of Ogun State. My desire to be a Gubernatorial Candidate for the 2003 election in Ogun State was not borne out of selfish desire. It is in response to the calling to service by our people in Ogun State. I also see it as a unique opportunity for our generation to negotiate a new understanding with our people back home, an understanding based on a shared desire to fulfill social and economic goals.

Allow me to be bold to say that our generation has not failed. No generation can choose the age or circumstances in which it is born, but through prudent leadership it can choose to make the age in which it is born, an age of enlightenment, an age of jobs, peace, justice and prosperity. I refuse to let hopelessness and despair dictates our future. Together, we must turn despair into opportunity. I ask for your support to achieve this goal.

Robert H. Goddard once said, “it is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow”. The future is what faces us not the past. The challenges facing Ogun State is daunting but with prudent leadership, and with our resources, I am confident that we can get the job done. My commitment to these causes is non-negotiable.

After more than four decades of independence, our nation is still divided, among those who have electricity and those who do not have, those who running have water and those who not do have, those who have access to transportation and those who do not, those who have housing and those who do not, and so on. The general state of our people is one of underdevelopment and decay. To all sons and daughters of Yorubaland in Diaspora, I say, our people need you now more than ever before. Let us build a future together for our people. We need to forgive each other and realize that what bound us together is more than what separates us.

I am fundamentally an optimist, whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. However, one thing I can say with some degree of certainty is that part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, and one’s feet moving forward. During the darkest days of the military regimes in our country, there were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lay defeat and death. I refuse to kowtow to the forces of oppression or keep complaining forever without doing anything to contribute positively to the forces of change. I have decided to contribute my quota by running for the governorship of Ogun State and in all honesty, I challenge every one of you to join hands with me in the long walk to freedom for our people.

Let us lead by example. While I believe that it is not our part to finish the task, yet we are not free to desist from it. We must train our children to follow in our footsteps and complete the mission. The mission will be for us in Yorubaland to continue with our unfinished business of self-sustained advancements, which we started in the 1960s but which were stifled by an assortment of successive rogue military governments.

The years I have spent here in the United States has taught me a great deal about managing resources judiciously and planning ahead for the future. We have to create wealth for our people by engaging in policies that would create jobs for our graduates, develop our industrial base and more importantly, position ourselves to be competitive in today’s global economy. I am open to suggestions and willing to explore new heights. I had always attempted to remain open to new ideas, not to reject a position because it was new or different.

My candidacy is about lifting our people out of poverty into prosperity. The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo once said, “we believe in the equality of all men, and in liberty of the individual. I believe that every citizen, however humble and lowly his station in life, has a right to demand from his government the creation of those conditions which enable him progressively to enjoy, according to civilized standards, the basic necessities of life as well as reasonable comfort and a measure of luxury. In other words, every citizen, regardless of his birth or religion, should be free and reasonably contended.”

My goal is to create an economically viable state where safety and security issues are properly addressed, where the economy is grown, where the children are well educated in the use of technology from the primary school to the university level, where the government, in collaboration with the business community, will invest considerably in Information Technology (IT) in order to make technology serve business, and to create opportunity in the global village where all citizens of Ogun State will have a stake.

I ask you, to support me on the freedom journey for our people. Analysis of our current situation should be based on what we can do as opposed to what have we done. Nothing good comes without taking risk and making concessions. Let us start our renewal in Yorubaland by creating a model out of Ogun State. I am a strong believer in protecting the corporate interest of our people. I believe that time for change is now. The time for prudent leadership with vision is now. The time for a leader who would manage our resources judiciously and plan ahead for the future is now. Again, I am asking for your support to help me achieve these goals for our people. I dare to say that if humanity cannot move us, our self-interests in the survival of Yorubaland should compel us.

Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause – united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future – and determined that this land (Yorubaland) we love shall lead all of us and the generations of Yoruba yet unborn into new frontiers of peace and prosperity.

Once again, for God who spared me, for friends who loved and cared for me, and for my family, who understood and supported me wholeheartedly, I am eternally grateful. I salute you all and you my deepest appreciation.

Thank you and God bless all of us (amen).