22nd July, 2011
Hon. Jumoke Okoya-Thomas defied the heavy downpour of last sunday to honour her constituents, who have been her pillar of support since the inception of her political career.
This was done at an elaborate ceremony held at the Marina Motor Park, Lagos Island, Lagos, southwest Nigeria.
The federal lawmaker used the occasion to donate poverty alleviation materials worth millions of naira to the FSP Skill Acquisition Centre, Adeniji Adele, Lagos, in appreciation of the people’s unflinching support for her in the last National Assembly polls.
Items she donated include 10 tricycles, complete hairdressing equipment, welding equipment, carpentry tools, barbing tools, industrial sewing machines, weaving/embroidery machines, mechanical, electrical, joinery and vulcanizing tools.
She said the gesture is to assist unemployed youths in the area, who will be enrolled at the skill acquisition centre, to learn something and be able to fend for themselves and their families in the future.
“Actually, I had to do this especially from the way I saw my people work assiduously to ensured that I returned to the National Assembly. It was a unanimous decision. They all came together, rallied round me and ensured that not only myself, but the entire party, ACN, won elections.
“So, I had to call them together not just to celebrate, but to empower them, which is why am giving out these poverty alleviation items to them.
“I believe that it is better to empower them than to dole out tokens that they can easily spend without achieving anything tangible with it. They say ‘teach people how to fish rather than giving them fish’ all the time because if you don’t teach them, they won’t know how to fish. And that is exactly what am doing here today,” she said.
She further said:”I have done quite a lot of programmes in this constituency on health, electricity and on education. I spend quite a lot of money in educating our children because we want them to turn out well.
“Right now you can see that I’m holding two books. One on English language and the other on Mathematics. Of recent, our students have been failing NECO and WAEC exams.
“Therefore, I believe these books will make it easier for them in their next exams which is why I have bought them and put them in schools so the students can tap into the knowledge they will provide,” she noted.
Speaking on what the people should expect from her, she said: “It is exactly what I have been doing and I can only get better. In terms of legislature, that is what am trying to tell the people here, what is expected of a legislator across the world not just Nigeria.
“We are going to ensure that we make jobs available because the people are too dependent on us. This is why I have decided that it is better to train the people and get them empowered so that the pressure on us will be reduced,” she said.