Oyo deserves two ministerial slots – South West PDP top achievers

As the President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, moves forward in invigorating the machinery of the Federal Government and positioning the Peoples Democratic Party to triumph in the 2015 elections, foremost achievers of the party from the South West have advised the President to use the opportunity of his cabinet reshuffle to right the wrongs in the cabinet composition and give Oyo State its exact position in the Federal Executive Council in consonance with the best democratic principles.
Pointedly, the high fliers stated that Jonathan should as a matter of right give the additional ministerial slot for the South West to Oyo State to recompense for its best performance in the 2011 general election and improve the fortunes of the party in the state and the region in general.
The stakeholders, made up of immediate past local government chairmen in the state that delivered the best results for the party in the entire South West, under the leadership of the then Governor of Oyo State, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala, said they were satisfied with the achievements recorded so far by the President and that all he required to consolidate on his achievements and take the country to the next level was to retool with appropriate acknowledgment of the ingredients and people needed for optimum service delivery for the nation and PDP.
The chairmen, in a statement issued in Ibadan and signed by their Chairman and Secretary, Alhaji Omilabu Teslim Gandhi and Kehinde Olaosebikan, stated that Jonathan had done so well in stabilizing the operations of government by allowing all the ministers that took off with him to have stayed for over two years in government, an accomplishment which they said was unprecedented.
“Now that the President had seen the need to re-jig the cabinet for better performance,” the PDP critical stakeholders maintained that it was time for “the President to make the composition of the cabinet in a way that would reflect the contributions and potency of the confederating units.”
The chairmen submitted that Oyo State, with the best results in all ramifications in the last general election, deserved the additional regional ministerial slot for the South West for fairness and equity and to engender better performance by the state and all other states in the region.
They added: “Without any sentiment whatsoever, Oyo State deserves the additional ministerial slot. In terms of size, it is the largest. Both historical and geographical considerations favor it. And most importantly, performance, which is the main consideration in democracy, puts Oyo far ahead of others.
“ At the Presidential polls that brought in the present Federal Government, Oyo State had 484, 758 votes; Ogun, 309,177 votes; Ondo, 387, 376 votes; Ekiti, 135, 009 votes and Osun 188, 409 votes.
“In both the State and National Assemblies, it is only Oyo State that has a good number of representatives. Oyo State is the only state in the region that has a Senator. The state also has Five members in the House of Representatives against zero scored by all the other states. It equally has 13 members in the State House of Assembly. Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states have none.”
In the cabinet being reshuffled, Ogun State has two full ministers, Ondo a full minister, Ekiti a full minister, Osun virtually a full minister while Oyo, with her size and brightest contributions to the success of the party, has just a minister of state.