By Dayo Johnson, Akure The African Peoples Movement (APM) candidate for Ondo Central Senatorial District, Sunday Falae, has said his ambition to represent the district in the Senate is driven by a desire to provide effective representation and bring governance closer to the grassroots. Speaking with journalists in Akure, Falae said legislative representation should go beyond lawmaking to ensuring elected officials remain accessible and responsive to the needs of their constituents. “My mission in the Senate is to bring governance closer to the grassroots,” he said.
Falae pledged to establish constituency offices in each of the local government areas within Ondo Central if elected, saying the offices would provide residents with direct access to legislative intervention. “There will be an office in every local government, staffed by a lawyer. If constituents have challenges requiring intervention, they will have somewhere to go,” he said.
The senatorial candidate said his two decades of living in the United States exposed him to a responsive legislative system where elected representatives maintain close contact with the people, adding that he hopes to replicate such a model. “What I want to do differently is bring that representation to the grassroots level. What drives me is the people,” he said.
Falae added that he has invested in youth empowerment and community development across Ondo Central for years without holding public office or benefiting from government contracts. “The money I make in Lagos is what I have been spending to empower people. It has gotten to a point that I want to do more, and I believe representation will help a lot,” he said.
On the issue of power rotation in the state, Falae expressed support for Ondo Central producing the next governor after the tenure of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa. He argued that while the Northern and Southern senatorial districts have produced governors, Ondo Central, which includes Akure, the state capital, has yet to produce an elected governor since the state’s creation. “We don’t have anybody speaking for Akure.
The North has produced governors several times, the South is producing the current governor, but Akure has waited for almost 50 years without producing one,” he said. Describing the situation as political marginalisation of the state capital, Falae said it was time for Ondo Central to produce the st…
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