Subject yourselves to health scrutiny, group tells Ajimobi, Ladoja, Akala
A socio-cultural organization, Oyo Patriotic Front, has called on the three leading candidates for the April 11 governorship election in the state to submit themselves to health scrutiny so as to determine their fitness for the rigours of the office they are aspiring to occupy.
Specifically, the organization challenged Senator Abiola Ajimobi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Rashidi Ladoja of Accord and Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala of Labour Party to submit themselves to a consortium of medical experts before the election.
The organization, in a statement issued in Ibadan on Monday by its Chairman, Chief Jare Adepoju, said that the consortium should be made up of consultant cardiologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and ophthalmologists among others from the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
According to the organization, this has become necessary in view of the daunting challenges required by the office of the governor in the successful running of the affairs of the state.
It said that this ought to be a constitutional provision that would guard against the emergence of political office holders with debilitating health challenges that might hinder the effective and efficient performance of their responsibilities.
For instance, the organization said it had it on good authority that Ajimobi is a workaholic who stays till late in the night on daily basis without showing any visible sign of stress, but insisted that this was not an indication of a clean bill of health.
It, therefore, said that the governor should also undergo medical examination to determine his state of health having functioned in the office of the governor with its attendant tasking responsibilities for almost four years.
The organization also said it heard from a source close to Ladoja that the Accord candidate was diagnosed with a terminal ailment a couple of years back and recently went on a trip to the United Kingdom in pursuit of this health challenge, a situation which the group said might make it difficult for him to perform optimally in office.
It said that the state could not afford to have a governor who would junket abroad on a weekly basis for the management of his health challenge, at the expense of the discharge of his duties, stressing that this might also eat deep into the resources of the state.
For Alao-Akala, the organization said that at the risk of concluding that he is medically unfit, the former governor’s physical appearance at campaign grounds suggests that he is battling with serious ailments as exemplified by his ever swollen legs.
Besides, the group also observed that the Labour Party candidate appeared to have difficulty in breathing throughout a live governorship debate organized by a private radio station in Ibadan recently.
“Information available to us also indicates that Alao-Akala oftentimes sits inside his vehicle to campaign owing to his inability to withstand the rigours of standing on the rostrum for hours.
“This is a patriotic call by concerned citizens of Oyo State and should not be misconstrued as an attempt to rubbish any of the candidates or diminish their status, having ruled the state before.
“The social and economic challenges confronting the country at present require leaders with physical and mental capabilities and Oyo State cannot afford to lag behind in the quest to bring development and put the economy on a sound footing.
“We are, therefore, proposing the setting up of an independent consortium of medical experts from UCH who will be joined by the personal physicians of the governorship candidates to carry out a comprehensive medical examination on them,’’ the organization said.