Mr Adegbenga Opatimehin, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate for the Ogun State House of Assembly, has adduced unfulfilled electoral promises as reasons for electoral apathy in Nigeria.
Opatimehin, who is seeking to represent Obafemi Owode Constituency, made this assertion during a ward meeting with party members and electorate at Magboro Community in Lagos.
According to him, most promises made by politician at the pre-election stage do end after the post-election with no attention given to the pressing needs of the electorate.
“It is crystal clear that politicians do not fulfill their pre-election promises which has greatly affected their disposition towards coming out during elections.
“It has been the narratives of the politicians and we need to put an end to this if we want credible elections. When we engage the electorate, we seek for their votes through promises.
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“After the election, we should not abandon those promises made to the electorate; they should be the bond between us and the electorate because they are taking us for our words.
“For us in ADC, we are trying to make sure that promises are kept, it should be sacrosanct. That was the basis of our engagement with them,’’ Opatimehin said.
He said that promises made especially to the rural communities should be taken seriously, adding that attention was often focused on development of urban areas at the expense of the rural communities.
“Judging from what we have in the past, most of the politicians do go to the rural areas to campaign for votes, but after that they will neglect those communities.
“It is not good enough that our rural communities suffer neglect and undeveloped and to make the matter worse, those communities are feeding us because they produce the agricultural products.
“We need to support the rural areas with agricultural implements, give them free education and also support the women with skill acquisitions.
“Just like ADC has promised, we will turn some abandoned housing projects in the rural communities to Technical Schools where they will be trained as artisans,’’ Opatimehin said.
