FROM CLEMENT ADEYI, OSOGBO
At a time when governments at all levels are trying to generate revenue to boost their econo­mies, create jobs and make life better for their indigenes, a potential revenue and employment opportunity generation outfit is wasting away in Osogbo, Osun State. It is the proposed Osun State Free Trade Zone.
If the project had materialised, it would have become a mega site where business tycoons and industrialists would showcase their various businesses. Obviously con­scious of the strategic prospects, govern­ment pursued the dream until it brought it to almost 80 per cent completion level after providing the initial necessary infra­structure such as land, good road network, electricity among others.
Buildings, office spaces, laboratories and different kinds of facilities have also been put in place. But while all appears set for the project to take-off, the dream crumbled as contractors and industrialists reportedly scuttled all the efforts. Overrun by grasses; snakes, reptiles and other dan­gerous animals have taken over the site.
As you approach the location, you are greeted with an array of modern buildings well laid out along access roads leading from one corner to the other within the sprawling premises. A signboard introduc­es you to the place: “Ministry of Agri­culture and Food Security, Soil and Food Laboratories, Osun Free Trade Zone.”
The desolation that has since become the second name of the zone betrays its long neglect. And there is just nobody to talk to in a place that was meant to be bubbling with business activities and hu­man traffic.
Some gigantic equipment lie rotting outside some submerged buildings. The multi-million naira facility does not have any gate, although its perimeter is fenced round, raising issue of security. This has given hoodlums free rein to pilfer valuable items from there. Some of the buildings, especially the uncompleted ones, may also have become dens of robbers and ritual­ists, while Fulani herdsmen have since taken advantage to graze their herds there.
One of these, a slim-built man, aged about 40 years, who speaks Yoruba flu­ently and simply introduced himself as Alhaji Zubairu, said he came from Sokoto State, to settle there (pointing at a tent at the back of one of the buildings). He said customers came to him in the farm to buy cows. Meat sellers, he enthused, also visit him at the farm to buy cows.
A large portion of the zone is being cultivated by farmers who grow corn and other crops. However, adjacent to the zone are two estates –Living Spring Estate and Amorit Estate, which raise hope that the dream of the zone could still come to pass someday. Mr. Bayo Oyewole, one of the residents, told Daily Sun that the estates are parts of the Free Trade Zone initiative.
The private owners of the estates, according to him, built them to attract patronage from workers and customers of the zone when it takes off fully. But sadly, the estates, too, are lying desolate since the zone has failed to translate to reality. It is only the Amorit Estate that is gradually being occupied.
The bottom line is that if the zone had succeeded, the entire area where it is lo­cated would have been a highly developed urban area in the state, especially because it is a stone throw to the government secretariat at Abere. Interestingly too, the zone, as well as the estates, would have become sources of employment opportuit is a stone throw to the government nities and revenue generation for the state. ­
A young seen at the place, remarked that though infrastructural development and people-oriented governance have been in the heart of Governor Rauf Areg­besola, the Free Trade Zone Company has not been lucky.
A member of the state House of As­sembly and Chairman of Committee on Lands and Environment, Hon Johnson Ojo, told Daily Sun that the state govern­ment did not abandon the project. Rather, he said, it was awaiting prospective busi­ness men and women to take advantage of the enabling environment provided for them by government to showcase their businesses for both private and public economic empowerment as is done all over the world. This, he stressed, was the essence of free trade zone initiative in any part of the world.
He explained that every free trade zone project in any part of the world requires government to provide adequate land and all the necessary infrastructure, especially electricity, road network, water etc that would facilitate robust business activities bordering on small scale businesses, tour­ism, sports, foods, telecommunication, hospitality among others and beckon on business men and women to take advan­tage of them: “This is exactly what the state government has done, but the busi­nessmen and women who are supposed to come and take advantage of the enabling environment have failed to show up. Even those who earlier indicated interest to establish one industry or the other and got government’s approval have not shown up. Government did not abandon the project. Rather, it’s still waiting for them to bring their businesses on board.”
He cited the case of an industrialist that got government’s approval to assemble a town service transport system vehicles fondly called Korope but who did not show up afterwards, even though some of the offices were built by him. He was optimistic that the free trade zone would soon take off. He spoke of about four for­eign investors that had indicated intention to start their own industries. A polo centre was also being planned.
While absolving government of blame for the appalling condition of the zone, Ojo said it was not mandatory for gov­ernment to first of all provide the entire infrastructure at a go because it was the nature of business brought on board by industrialists that would determine the quality and quantity of the infrastructure to be provided. According to him, the estates being built around the zone are government’s initiatives because they were crucial to any kind of business to be showcased.
However, the Director of Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Office of the Governor, Mr. Semiu Okanlawon, said before the projects could take off fully, there were certain contractual agreements that must be reached between government and the contractors handling the project.
According to him, the Oyinlola admin­istration that birthed the project committed a whopping amount of money to it, adding that there was a certain contractor that breached some terms of the contract by embezzling some money, leading to a seri­ous controversy which must be resolved before the project could continue.
While lamenting the financial crunch that has since hampered government’s determination to actualize several other projects, including the free trade zone, the government’s spokesman, expressed hope that as soon as government overcame the challenge, it would make the project one of its priorities.
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