This post aims to unpack Dr. Olumuyiwa Daramola’s claim that he has never abandoned his hometown of Ode Aye. Despite his assertions, evidence suggests a lack of genuine connection to the community he seeks to represent.
Dr. Daramola Olumuyiwa is an abroad politician who does not know anything about his hometown, Ode Aye. He was not born in Ode Aye. He didn’t grow up in Ode Aye. He has no childhood friends in Ode Aye and no memories in Ode Aye because he was born and brought up in Ilorin, Kwara State, in the North Central of Nigeria.
Dr. Olumuyiwa speaks Ilorin Yoruba and can’t speak Ikale fluently. Nobody knows his wife or any member of his family or household in Ode Aye. He didn’t show up to associate or identify with Ode Aye, his father’s hometown, until after the expiration of the tenure of his father as minister who never had any legacy in Ode Aye even as a state minister for Niger Delta Affairs.
Olumuyiwa should tell us or mention his father’s legacy in his hometown, Ode Aye, before we ask for his legacy in Ikale land as a former minister.
The late Akinfosile influenced the construction of Akinfosile Road, which links up with the Lagos-Ore Express Road. He also brought NITEL to Okitipupa, among other contributions as a minister.
Agagu influenced the establishment of the Omotosho power plant during his tenure as minister. So, what did Professor Daramola Claudius, the father of Olumuyiwa, do for his hometown or any part of Ikale as a sitting minister?
Who are Daramola’s household members in Ode Aye? Where is his family house located in Ode Aye? We want to know. As a matter of fact, his father had no house in Ode Aye until the NDDC built a duplex for him in the Zion area of Ode Aye when he was planning to seek reappointment under the late Buhari.
Dr. Olumuyiwa’s first appearance in Aye was to lay the foundation for his political ambition. We are surprised to see him parade himself as a man who never abandoned his home. Which home, if I may ask? He is an abroad person who works and resides abroad. He didn’t attend school in Ode Aye from primary to secondary, and he has no background rooted in Ode Aye culture and, by extension, Ikale. He only returns home for political activities, after which he goes back following his failed mission.
Although his father is an Ode Aye indigene, he left Ode Aye at a tender age and never returned home nor associated with the people of Ode Aye, even when he became minister. Many citizens of Ode Aye didn’t even know his father until he became minister and claimed during Senate screening that he is from Aye. Even when he became minister, it was imperative for him to come home because every politics is local; he is known for staying in Abuja or in an Okitipupa hotel to engage in our local politics from a hotel, as he never showed up at any ward meeting under the APC until he finished his tenure as minister. Oripinye Titi write from ODE AYE
