Dear Editor,
I enclose the following in the hope that your readership may be appraised of an ugly issue which has crept in to the local campaigning here in Dublin 15. I believe that your readers once made aware of these spurious promises, will be interested in voicing their concerns to all candidates that the time has passed in Irish Politics when the electorate will tolerate any suggestions of ‘favours for votes’ by any and all Political Parties.
Therefore I hope that you will publish my letter in the hope of generating :
1. Clarity from the Fine Gael leadership on the Passports promise issue.
2. Opposition among the Electorate to this type of False Promise Campaigning.
Open Letter to Fine Gael
Dear Fine Gael,
I am writing to you in relation to what I believe is a very disturbing development that has raised its ugly head. Namely, false promises by Political Parties and their representatives.
This you may state is the nature of politics and therefore to be expected. Well I can understand aspirational entreaties to the electorate but when I hear Fine Gaels Representative, Mr. Adeola Ogunsina promise a gathering of African immigrants that if ‘you vote for me and Fine Gael we will get passports and status for immigrants within 6 months’, I realised that this was an untoward political statement. The statement in question was made at a public function in Blanchardstown on Monday 4th May.
I challenged this assertion at the same function, but was derided by Fine Gael, for not knowing what I was talking about when it came to Irish politics. I was subsequently approached by many present, who were surprised that I queried what had been stated and told me that they and friends had been made this promise on many occasions by Mr. Adeola and his fellow Fine
Gael T.D.
I was taken aback by this as I thought Mr. Adeola may have just misspoken on this occasion, however when I was continually approached by others throughout the evening with similar accounts I knew that this was too serious to ignore.
The reason I take this so seriously is that the target audience being courted by this Fine Gael [policy] are the vulnerable of Irish society and to hold out such blatantly false promises, does more to undermine the integration of our society and can lead to many new immigrants becoming disillusioned with Irish society and further alienating them from participating fully in our communities, after all Elected Representatives both at Local and National level are supposed to as an example to others on whose behalf they act.
I have been reluctant to raise the issue of Immigrant Status throughout my campaign, as I believe that the issue is a National Policy issue. To raise it in the misleading manner Fine Gael are doing presently, is worrying and I urge the Fine Gael leadership to clarify if this,
‘Official Status in 6 months if you vote Fine Gael’ and ‘a Passport’ is actually Fine Gael Policy and if so why have they not outlined this in any of their policy documents and or manifestos.
If it is not official Fine Gael policy then why are they allowing their candidates to make these spurious claims publicly?
The current climate in Irish society will not be served by such representatives who play on the fears of the electorate. It is now a time for honesty and integrity to be at the forefront in Irish Politics.
I await your positive response on the matters raised,
Ignatius (Iggy) Okafor
Email: info@iggyokafor.com
http://iggyokafor.com/
http://iggyokafor.blogspot.com/
Tel: 087 2992102
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