Adelabu: why I’m the best man for Oyo top job

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Chief Bayo Adelabu, has said his background in public finance management, experience at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), youthfulness and energy put him in good stead for the state’s top job.

He urged the electorate to give him the mandate to govern the state in the March 2 election.

Adelabu told reporters yesterday in Ibadan, the state capital, that his qualities and achievements set him apart from the others jostling for Agodi Government House.

The APC candidate bagged a First-Class degree in Accounting from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife and joined PriceWaterhouse, an international chartered accountants and management consultants firm, from where he worked with other firms before joining the CBN.

According to him, public finance management is the most critical qualification for anyone aspiring to govern a state because the key responsibility of the office involves making good use of state resources to improve the lots of the masses while ensuring accountability.

Adelabu said he is contesting principally to use agriculture to drive prosperity through the sector’s value chain, as laid out in his Seven-Point Prosperity Agenda for Oyo State residents.

The APC candidate said Governor Abiola Ajimobi has made his job easier as the incoming governor with what he called unprecedented level of development witnessed in the state in the last eight years.

He said: “If there is anything we can say we have comparative advantage over others, it is agriculture. So, we can’t treat it with levity. In fact, our industrialisation, which we are envisioning for the state, will be agro-allied-based. So, agriculture is going to be the focus of our government and a lot of jobs will be created through the agricultural value chain.”