My encounter with Senator Monsura Sunmonu representing Oyo Central constituency, Oyo

One of the problems that I have noticed in many, if not all the States in Nigeria is that some of our leaders are too far away from their grassroots. Most of them do not consider the fact that they were brought into the limelight by these people and that the bulk of their votes came from their different locales! They often erroneously believe that getting close to their grassroots is demeaning. Well, I want to assume that they are oblivious of the fact that getting close to the grassroots will create mutual understanding as communication gap will be bridged.

To buttress my points, how many of our elected senators or even house of representative members operates an open-door policy in which the communities they govern have direct access to them? How many leaders give out their mobile numbers to the public for direct communication? In this information and communication age, how many of our powerful Senators are on the Facebook or other social media platforms with that is easily accessible for citizens to pass information across? If President Muhammadu Buhari could find Facebook useful in sharing information with Nigerians, why our leaders still hiding in the comfort of their offices?

Apart from house meetings and swearing in, many Nigerian leaders are not visible, hence, many common man like me do not have access to them throughout the four years spend in the office. This is not good. I am propelled to challenge all our Leaders this way as a result of my recent encounter with SENATOR MONSURAT JUMOKE ADUKE SUNMONU (a great woman, mother, communicator, beautiful, and great leader), representing Oyo Central constituency, Oyo. I had heard a lot of good reports about her right from her days as the house leader, Oyo State House of Assembly... Since then, my impression about her changed. I now know that if our Leader can be closer to their grassroots, there will be less tension in our country.

I chatted with Senator Monsurat Sunmonu on Facebook. I was amazed when she replied my message and I have had several chats with her due to her friendly ways of interacting with people. I feel that this is how our leaders should behave and own up to their responsibilities to us, the electorates; we want leaders that we can interact with so that we can have prompt and adequate solutions to our problems. I therefore say kudos to Senator Monsurat Sunmonu for setting a good example for others to follow. She should keep up the good work she has started in Oyo State. Indeed, if Senator Monsurat Sunmonu continues this way, she will see that nobody will have anything against her throughout her tenure. Our political leaders should please learn from this. They should stop their known habit of hiding from us until election time. Our leaders should be visible and available.



LATEEF FATAI ARISEKOLA (08062207481)

Temidire Tanfeani Area, Akinyele, Ibadan