By Dapo Ipoola

The phrase like father, like son is an ancient proverb meaning that a son shares similar characteristics, behaviors, or is destined for a similar path as his father, or  a son may inherit physical or personality traits from his father. It could imply that a son would follow in his father’s footsteps, either professionally or in life’s choices.

Succinctly, it was in the word of Charles F. Kettering who said that, “Every father should remember that one day, his son will follow his example, not his advice.” Kettering must have had MHR Olamijuwonlo Alao-Akala and his father in mind when he crafted the above. Late Adebayo Alao-Akala was the Oyo State former Deputy, and Governor. He was a retired police officer with refined and enviable character who rose through the ranks in the Police profession to many positions with dignity and untainted name. 

Olamijuwonlo Alao-Akala is the son of former Oyo State Governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, and he is member of the House of Representatives, representing Ogbomosho North/South/Orire Federal constituency, Chairman, House Committee on Youth in Parliament. Though not a political neophyte, MHR Olamijuwonlo was appointed as the Ogbomosho North Local Government Caretaker Chairman. Just of recent, the Erudite Growth and Advancement Foundation, ERGAF-AFRICA, a legislative government Innovation and Policy Laboratory established as a think-tank to promote legislative governance and accountability named him as the Best Performing House of Representatives member in Oyo State.

Driven by impassioned love to make life better for his people, he organized an acquisition and empowerment program for women and youth on enterprise and sustainable agricultural trades, solar panel installation, tool usage, electrical kits, grinding machines, and start-up capital; drilled boreholes at Beulah, Alaguntan, Ipetuo, Saja, Oniya, Adekambi, and several other places across the constituency; facilitated business training through Border Communities Development Agency and Aston Crest Concepts; enrolled thousands of students for JAMB and WAEC; distributed thousands of bags of rice and fertilizers to needy constituents; partnered with Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria to organize agricultural training program, focusing on fish and poultry farming, with the provision of cash grant and poultry feeds, fingerlings, feeders for the participants; donated millions of naira under the Ojuoloore Business Support Fund to the Ogbomosho artisans association; organized human capital development program like ICT training for the acquisition of practical tech skills in conjunction with the National Board for Technology Incubation and Centreview Business Concept, where students, women, and young people were provided)trained in valuable skills, with participants receiving laptops certificates of participation and cash gifts; constructed six blocks of classrooms in Ikoyi Grammar School in Orire Local Government, with another two blocks of classrooms at Oolo; presented golf training kits to Ogbomosho Golf Club, game management equipment, linesmen, corner flags, referee jersey, whistles, cards, durable goalpost nets; facilitated medical outreach where hundreds of his constituents were treated of several life-threatening ailments.

As part of his legislative duty, he has moved the motion of urgent public importance on the critical need to rehabilitate the Caretaker/Seminary road in Ogbomosho; moved a motion calling for the Better Service in the production of National Identity Number; led the debate on the bill for an Act to establish the Nigerian Surrogacy Commission, and other related matters- a bill seeking to establish the Nigerian Surrogacy Act and a Commission for the regulation, monitoring and supervision of surrogacy arrangement in Nigeria.

Today, the Ogbomosho North/South/ Orire Federal constituency under the exhaustive representation of MHR Olamijuwonlo is gaining the attention of the federal government in terms projects and infrastructure. His representation has changed the ugly narratives of under-representation, compared to the previous ones. Just as the late former Governor Alao-Akala exuded vibrant governance that placed Oyo State on a reckoning pedestal, so also is MHR Olamijuwonlo.

 In this family, one may be forced to ennuciate that the foremost hallmark of Alao-Akala’s family is unadulterated love for the masses, mostly especially the have-nots. And the scion (Olamijuwonlo) of late Alao-Akala has stepped into his father’s shoes with his unending espouse to those living in the sloughs of despond. ΩΩ