₦airaland Forum

As part of activities marking his first year in office, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State in this interview reviews his activities in the last one year, stating among other things that revamping the state’s economy, refocusing on agriculture and establishment of the Lagos-Ogun Joint Commission are critical to the states development

Generally, what is your assessment of the state you were elected to govern?
Ogun State is largely agrarian. It has a large expanse of land and covered predominantly by tropical rainforest and has wooded savanna in the northwest. It’s about 16,000 square kilometres. By providence, Ogun State is the Gateway State. By geography, we are the state that is closest to the fifth largest economy on the continent. We share borders with three other states and a neighbouring country, Benin Republic. We have play host to the busiest highway in the country, which is Lagos- Ibadan Expressway.
We have the largest number of industries, so we are landlord to the largest industrial hubs in the country. This means that we have an increased level of economic and commercial activities, including cross-border migration. We are also home to a lot of people, particularly those that cannot find a home in Lagos. We are the expansion corridor to Lagos State. We have an ever increasing population for those that live and work in Ogun or those that live in Ogun and work in Lagos. All these and more make us very vulnerable and make our situation very peculiar.

Unemployment is a major issue confronting the country at the moment. How is your government tackling this menace?
There is an obvious nexus between economic development, unemployment, illiteracy and insecurity. And to this extent, we have launched a lot of initiatives to stimulate the local economy and empower our teeming youths. We set up the Ogun State Public Works Agency to ensure that we have an agency that is able to employ our teeming youths through direct labour as against awarding third party contracts.
The Public Works Agency has since commenced work on all our township roads across the state and employed quite a number of our youths. We have also embarked on the rehabilitation of 236 schools, with one school per ward, using direct labour and engaging our youths. We are giving out small loans to our traders as a means of empowering them.
We set up a job portal. The idea is to determine the number of underemployed and unemployed youths that we have in Ogun State. Within three weeks, that job portal recorded over 110,000 unemployed/underemployed people. We have appealed to businesses operating in the state to please post their job availabilities on the job portal, because it allows that. We are also considering passing a local content law in Ogun State that will stipulate that a certain minimum of companies’ staff must be Ogun State indigenes.
We are also setting up skills acquisition centres across the state. The first one is the tech hub in Kobape, Abeokuta. We have teeming youths that are very ICT-savvy. We can teach them; we can empower them through these centres. We also decided to partner with the Central Bank of Nigeria in the Anchor Borrowers Scheme. The scheme will off take produce from our agricpreneurs. As a state, from our job portal, we decided that we will advertise for those that want to be agricpreneurs and the responses have been very encouraging. To date, we have harvested 10,000 people from our job portal. We have allocated a hectare of land each to them and we gave them the documents attached to the lands.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has provided funding for us for land clearing. CBN will pay them stipends until the harvest. By this, we are turning these boys who are idle hands into agricpreneurs. We plan to engage another 30,000 over the next three months. Our plan is to ensure that over the next two years, we have 200,000 outgrowers in this scheme. We have found few anchors in the area of cassava and maize.

COVID-19 has thrown the global economy into chaos and a developing nation like Nigeria is expected to take serious hits, especially with regard to Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR). Are there any measures in place by your government to cope with post-COVID-19 period?
This is a futuristic government and we have plans well laid-out. Having anticipated the enormity of the economic challenges the prevailing circumstances portend, our government is confident that these measures will sufficiently address them. As a result of the recent global economic challenges resulting from COVID-19 pandemic and the crash in the prices of crude oil, we are taking the following measures to mitigate the imminent reduction in monthly FAAC allocations from the federation account: budget review in line with current realities, restructuring and refinancing of existing loan obligations and processing of new credit facilities to improve the State’s cash flow and take advantage of the more favourable interest rate regime in the country.
Our government has also banned nonessential travels by all civil servants and political appointees. We are creatively shoring up internally generated revenue, eliminating leakages and aggressive cost reduction, especially recurrent cost. Also, we are enhancing accountability and transparency and strengthening the Government Delivery Unit to ensure efficient and effective delivery of projects and policies. Furthermore, government have prioritised capital spending on critical sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, infrastructure, and other projects that will enhance the living standards of the citizenry. Indeed, there is no compromise on our commitment to deliver on our electoral promises as encapsulated in the Building Our Future Together Agenda, regardless of the prevailing economic circumstances.

You recently increased the hazard allowance of health workers in Ogun State and also offered them life insurance. But there are still critical issues begging for attention in the health sector. What have you done in the last one-year and how do you intend to address all remaining challenges?
We are taking a holistic approach to fix that sector. From Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels, we are recruiting doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists, and all other categories and cadres of healthcare professionals. We have started with the renovation and equipping of 236 primary health care centres across all the 236 wards in the State. We are remodeling all the secondary ones and we have given facelift to the Genral Hospitals in Ilaro and Ijaiye, Abeokuta. We have provided state-of-the-art facilities and brought in experts across medical disciplines. We are determined to make the health sector attractive to both residents and non-residents in a way that will provide solutions to health issues and attract investors to the sector and the State. Government is not taking training and continuous professional development of its healthcare workers for granted. Our vision is to make Ogun the health tourist destination of choice, that will attract all and sundry, including investors. We are working across the board and we will also equip and staff these facilities adequately to ensure that the public is given the best service. We are doing periodic outreaches and like I said earlier, we have restored OOUTH back to its lost glory as a centre of excellence in training of medical officers, research and treatment of all manners of ailments. We are also providing free healthcare for children under age 5 and all nursing mothers, just as our aged are treated free in all government hospitals.

Apart from venturing into rehabilitation of public primary schools across the 236 wards of the state, what other steps have you taken to revamp the state’s education sector?
I have no illusion as to the position of education and the enormous challenges in the sector. As an Omo Teacher, I know education is the best legacy that can be given to the leaders of tomorrow. At my inauguration as Governor, I declared a state of emergency on the sector with a firm pledge of ensuring that the pride we used to have in education will be completely restored. So far, we have walked our talks by increasing budgetary allocation to 20% this year, and we will continue to do that on yearly basis till the United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) benchmark is achieved.
We are implementing the Universal Basic Education Act, as well as ensuring free education for all children in Primary and Junior Secondary Schools. The welfare of teachers is being given utmost priority in order to ensure that best brains are attracted and retrained in the system. Our Government approved and implemented career elongation of degree holders in Public Primary Schools for teachers who had been stagnated on Grade level 14 for years. We promoted 10,000 teachers whose elevation had been delayed since 2016, employed 1, 500 Basic School Teachers and the Teaching Service Commission has also advertised to recruit about a thousand others. We facilitated the release of 2014-2017 UBE Matching grant to the tune ofN10 billion, which translates into 952 Education Projects. These Projects have two special features including Yellow roof and terrazzo floor in our public primary and secondary schools. We donated free teaching aids. We keep expanding the capacity of our teachers. We sponsored ANCOPSS representatives to leadership training in Dubai to enhance their performance and service delivery on the job.
We also reinstated Oluwole Olusanjo Majekodunmi, the Deputy Director in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology who was sacked by the previous administration. Also the former Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, (NUT), Ogun State Chapter, Dare Ilekoya who was compulsorily retired was also re-instated. This special act was displayed to show the government’s resolve in addressing all sorts of injustice.
Procurement and Installation of Education Management Information System (EMIS) Equipment and gadgets to aid data collection, collation and analysis in the Headquarters and all the 20 LGEAs. in line with the technology-driven education mantra of the present administration, and to fast track processing and management of data and other educational information. We have hosted Ogun SUBEB Website www.ogunsubeb.com.

Many Nigerians have made a case for the diversification of the nation’s economy from over-dependence on oil. What is your administration doing towards restoring agriculture as mainstay of your state’s economy?
We have never depended on oil in Ogun State. We are industrial, entrepreneurial and agrarian people. We have always believed that it is agriculture that will bail us out because it is not in every part of the world that you have crude oil. If we look into the records of what is going on, a good number of countries in the world are thriving on agriculture.
Agriculture is everything. Either in the cloth that we wear, the food we eat or the furniture for our houses. Food, clothing and shelter are the basic essentials of life. For us, we are taking multi-sectoral approach to agric development. Luckily for us in Ogun State, we are inheritors of a great legacy in agriculture. We never really depended on oil revenue as a state. We have nine farm settlements established by the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, which spread across the state. We have started opening up those farm settlements to make them available for young people who are showing interest in agriculture and residents who need assistance in opening land so that they can be part of the industrial linkage in growing crop and for food security.
We also have, in the roadmap for agriculture, to work with the private sector in bringing infrastructure back to the farm settlements. We are emplacing agriculture infrastructure, processors there. We are taking this opportunity to launch ourselves back. In the past, before we started reliance on oil, our economy thrived on on tree crops such as cocoa and cashew. Before COVID-19, we have been having partnership proposals from Europe and everywhere in the world, for us to be able to grow vegetable to satisfy our nutritional demand in every part of the world. We can actually go into massive production of tree crops, vegetables and spices. We can grow vegetable all year around. There are some parts of the world that they only have two or three months to grow crops and they eat throughout the year. So, the dynamics favour us. We only need to build the capacity and support private sector and improve on the business environment, in adherence to national and international quality specifications and standard.
Our Anchor Borrower Scheme targets 40,000 farmers. We are partnering with the Central Bank that has made us a model in the South-West. We are working hard to maintain our reputation too. For instance, Nigeria is the highest producer of cassava in the world with about more than 53 million tonnes annually. Out of the 53 million tonnes, one tenth comes from Ogun State.
The state is home to about four biggest buyers of cassava, small and medium scale processors for cassava. Ogun State also has the largest figure. This explains the reason I opened the window of opportunity for 27,000 young people who opted for cassava planting. Last week, in the first batch of intervention in growing cassava, 3,500 people were given the biggest input that any other institution has given to cassava farmers. 60 bundles of stem; 12 litres of insecticides; four bags of fertilisers and N270,000 each, so that they can grow cassava because there are ready-made off-takers. We are using the cassava crop to provide raw materials for the industries, job for young people and food security. I don’t think there is anywhere in Africa that 27,000 cassava farmers have been so empowered.

In the last one year of your government, not much seemed to have been heard about sports development? Or have you done something significant?
We are committed to a wholesome development of that sector. Our administration’s resolve to involve the private sector in the development of sports in the State through a Sport Trust Fund is without reservation. We understand the economic potentials of that sector. We have a blueprint to where we intend to divide the Ministry of Youth and Sports into two, to accommodate the creation of Ogun State Sports Commission. To underscore the importance of sports, we found out that sports has not been able to achieve its potential because of these amalgamatio. So, we will now have the Ogun State Sports Commission and I am proud to say that the Chairman of Value Jet, Mr. Kunle Soname, is going to be the Chairman of the Commission. Soname who runs a Clube Desportivo Feirense in Portugal is also the owner of Remo Stars FC and soccer betting company, BetNaija. Sports potential for job creation is enormous and we have budding talents to develop. It will take our youths off the streets and make them potential millionaires like their counterparts across the world.
And in Sports, we have produced great athletes. People like Mathematical Segun Odegbami, the late Muda Lawal, Dupe Oshikoya, Falilat Ogunkoya to mention but a few.

You promised to revisit and resuscitate the abandoned Olokola deep seaport project. But one year has gone by and nothing concrete seems to be happening. Can you give an insight into what’s going on?
We promised when we were campaigning that we would rejig the Olokola Free Trade Zone (OKFZ) in Ode Omi in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area and make it one of the economic hubs in the country. The plan is being given life now, despite the tough times we are in. The deep sea port is in our budget this year and we are giving it a special priority attention, because of its strategic importance in jobs and income creation for the teeming unemployed youths as well as boosting the revenue base of the state and socioeconomic life of the indigenes, residents and visitors.
The Olokola Deep Seaport project, we are clear in our minds, will very soon become a multipurpose deep seaport complex and free trade zone, as well as an exporting processing zone. We are taking ownership of the African Development Bank involvement and the pre-feasibility study of the project. It is not just building the port alone that matters, a lot of things need to be put in place to make the port efficient.
We are looking at the transport link out of the port. We will connect the seaport to the hinterland and think through other infrastructural need so that we don’t have the type of experience in Apapa. The dry port could be about 20 kilometres from the deep seaport so that importers can transfer and store the goods there so that people don’t come and crowd the port. We are thinking through the whole gamut of logistics support for it to be efficient and we understand the private sector and government must also be there to support it. If there is no policy and proper transportation management, there will be a big challenge and we have a PPP law in Ogun State and the Ogun Invest Bill has also been signed into law to make Olokola port a reality.

Your state has a lot of tourism potentials which have not been fully tapped. What will you do differently to develop the tourism sector, especially as touching on new tourism sites?
Ogun has at least 100 tourists’ sites – Olumo Rock, Bilikisu Osugbo shrine, Lisabi sacred forest, the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, National Museum, Tongeji Island, Osururu Water Spring, Oyan Dam, Omo Forest Reserve, Sugbo Eredo, Ijamido to mention only a few. We are committed to developing all sectors of the economy and support all enterprises that have positive impact on the economy, and it’s no brainer to say that tourism is an important pillar.
Ogun State owns interesting artifacts and historic sites, the numerous and long-lasting tourist centres and businesses across the State have continued to contribute immensely to the economy of our State, and since the inception of this administration, structures have been put in place to support tourist activities. We have rechristened the Drum Festival to incorporate Afro music and the festivals and every town’s cultural festivals shall be celebrated with fanfare to attract the requisite recognition and global acclaim. We will go into other hitherto untapped sectors like health tourism, as our hospital and trado-medical facilities are being expanded, We will do sports tourism, cult and religious tourism, science and cultural tourism or eco-tourism as it is called by some people and social tourism in a manner that we will earn foreign exchange, foster social integration, preserve monuments and cultural heritage as well as ensure visibility for our State in the global space. The blueprint is there and in no time, the end will justify the means.

But una depend on gas

Cos if not oil, then it is gas

All the IGRs generated from all the companies and industries in the state should sustain the state to an extent.

can ogun state survive for two months without allocation from the federal government? . The only state am sure that can do it is lagos state.
modified

Nigeria should forget oil and look elsewhere..

The oil only benefited few elites class, mostly politicians and their families..

But if oil drop they would borrow to pay salary

Southwest has always being progressive minded, since the time of Awolowo..

Yes you have,but still it is much much less than how the SE hopelessly depends on Niger-Delta oil.

Abeg tell us another story

Aregbesola once said the same thing.

if this people can still be saying this while collecting monthly allocations from oil proceeds,i wonder the kind of history revision they will embark on when oil is no more.
some of them will swear that they never received one kobo from oil.

Ogun stage isn't like the shoe south yeast doing attache by force for ss oil

Kingseex1:
can ogun state survive for two months without allocation from the federal government? . The only states that can do it is lagos state and maybe anambra.

Sorry to say... Anambla can't survive...... Don't let us deceive our self... If anambla can't, then trust me, ogun state can

dominique:
All the IGRs generated from all the companies and industries in the state should sustain the state to an extent.

Yes, if they don't loot it.
We have vision less leaders in Nigeria

mrvitalis:
But if oil drop they would borrow to pay salary

the people can make mouth.
if you see their debt profile,you go weak.
all waiting to be paid from monthly allocations.

Groundnut oil or red oil. Maybe they live without God's oxygen also..



Meanwhile can someone help bring this sad news to Nairaland?

https://www.lindaikejisblog.com/2020/5/family-discovers-that-their-son-whos-been-missing-for-5-years-after-he-went-out-to-buy-suya-was-in-jail-after-a-random-police-raid-2.html

overall90:
the people can make mouth.
if you see their debt profile,you go weak.
all waiting to be paid from monthly allocations.

Same governor borrowed 15 billion to pay salaries ooh in his first month in office

Nnamdipapakanu:
Sorry to say... Anambla can't survive...... Don't let us deceive our self... If anambla can't, then trust me, ogun state can

u are very correct, i just verified through little research. Let me modify my post

mrvitalis:
Same governor borrowed 15 billion to pay salaries ooh in his first month in office

Keep shut and face your abia state

Sammy07:
Keep shut and face your abia state

I'm imo ...but ABA is better than any city in ogun ...if u safe bring pics area view let's compare

overall90:
the people can make mouth.
if you see their debt profile,you go weak.
all waiting to be paid from monthly allocations.

Debt profile doesn't mean infrastructures ain't going on.

To be able to do infrastructures, you'll have to borrow.
You can't rely on tax.

Or you think your governors ain't borrowing money in the east?
We read news about 4weeks ago when Dave pleaded with Fg or so, to approve his loan.
I can't remember very well, but he collected loan

mrvitalis:
I'm imo ...but ABA is better than any city in ogun ...if u safe bring pics area view let's compare

Lol, it's not by area view
We all know building Storey buildings in east is due to land size and cost of land.

If you're sure abia is better, list 20 industries in abia or IMO.

Yep they have not been dependent on Oil in Ogun, but of course, oil and gas from the East lol.....dependent on renting of properties to the people of the East/Middle Belt, dependent on them using their airports and seaports from Near Lagos State, etc....

Sammy07:
Lol, it's not by area view
We all know building Storey buildings in east is due to land size and cost of land.

If you're sure abia is better, list 20 industries in abia or IMO.

20 industry in ABA ? Are u really for real ? There are over 10,000 factories in ABA ...baba u need to travel ooh

mrvitalis:
20 industry in ABA ? Are u really for real ? There are over 10,000 factories in ABA ...baba u need to travel ooh

Jesus over 10,000.

Chimo, bia, lie small small nah.
I didn't graduate from IPOB bureau of statistics, In University of IPOB.


Or you meant 2 by 2 shops?

Sammy07:
Debt profile doesn't mean infrastructures ain't going on.

To be able to do infrastructures, you'll have to borrow.
You can't rely on tax.

borrowing means you don't have money.
paint it any how you like

Bulk of your Federal allocations is gotten from oil.

overall90:
borrowing means you don't have money.
paint it any how you like

Lol, so US don't have money
Russia don't have money
Israel don't have money
UAE don't have money
Canada don't have money
South Africa don't have money.

Lol, how do you think banks generate some of her revenue?

What do you think brought about
IMF, World bank, AFDB, Paris club, Nigeria agricultural bank Etc

mrvitalis:
I'm imo ...but ABA is better than any city in ogun ...if u safe bring pics area view let's compare

My friend will you shut up. Which Aba? that extremely dirty town that ought to be burnt to the ground.

How many places do you even know in Ogun State that you are talking sef. I have been to Aba twice before.

themomentng:
As part of activities marking his first year in office, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State in this interview reviews his activities in the last one year, stating among other things that revamping the state’s economy, refocusing on agriculture and establishment of the Lagos-Ogun Joint Commission are critical to the states development

Generally, what is your assessment of the state you were elected to govern?
Ogun State is largely agrarian. It has a large expanse of land and covered predominantly by tropical rainforest and has wooded savanna in the northwest. It’s about 16,000 square kilometres. By providence, Ogun State is the Gateway State. By geography, we are the state that is closest to the fifth largest economy on the continent. We share borders with three other states and a neighbouring country, Benin Republic. We have play host to the busiest highway in the country, which is Lagos- Ibadan Expressway.
We have the largest number of industries, so we are landlord to the largest industrial hubs in the country. This means that we have an increased level of economic and commercial activities, including cross-border migration. We are also home to a lot of people, particularly those that cannot find a home in Lagos. We are the expansion corridor to Lagos State. We have an ever increasing population for those that live and work in Ogun or those that live in Ogun and work in Lagos. All these and more make us very vulnerable and make our situation very peculiar.

Unemployment is a major issue confronting the country at the moment. How is your government tackling this menace?
There is an obvious nexus between economic development, unemployment, illiteracy and insecurity. And to this extent, we have launched a lot of initiatives to stimulate the local economy and empower our teeming youths. We set up the Ogun State Public Works Agency to ensure that we have an agency that is able to employ our teeming youths through direct labour as against awarding third party contracts.
The Public Works Agency has since commenced work on all our township roads across the state and employed quite a number of our youths. We have also embarked on the rehabilitation of 236 schools, with one school per ward, using direct labour and engaging our youths. We are giving out small loans to our traders as a means of empowering them.
We set up a job portal. The idea is to determine the number of underemployed and unemployed youths that we have in Ogun State. Within three weeks, that job portal recorded over 110,000 unemployed/underemployed people. We have appealed to businesses operating in the state to please post their job availabilities on the job portal, because it allows that. We are also considering passing a local content law in Ogun State that will stipulate that a certain minimum of companies’ staff must be Ogun State indigenes.
We are also setting up skills acquisition centres across the state. The first one is the tech hub in Kobape, Abeokuta. We have teeming youths that are very ICT-savvy. We can teach them; we can empower them through these centres. We also decided to partner with the Central Bank of Nigeria in the Anchor Borrowers Scheme. The scheme will off take produce from our agricpreneurs. As a state, from our job portal, we decided that we will advertise for those that want to be agricpreneurs and the responses have been very encouraging. To date, we have harvested 10,000 people from our job portal. We have allocated a hectare of land each to them and we gave them the documents attached to the lands.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has provided funding for us for land clearing. CBN will pay them stipends until the harvest. By this, we are turning these boys who are idle hands into agricpreneurs. We plan to engage another 30,000 over the next three months. Our plan is to ensure that over the next two years, we have 200,000 outgrowers in this scheme. We have found few anchors in the area of cassava and maize.

COVID-19 has thrown the global economy into chaos and a developing nation like Nigeria is expected to take serious hits, especially with regard to Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR). Are there any measures in place by your government to cope with post-COVID-19 period?
This is a futuristic government and we have plans well laid-out. Having anticipated the enormity of the economic challenges the prevailing circumstances portend, our government is confident that these measures will sufficiently address them. As a result of the recent global economic challenges resulting from COVID-19 pandemic and the crash in the prices of crude oil, we are taking the following measures to mitigate the imminent reduction in monthly FAAC allocations from the federation account: budget review in line with current realities, restructuring and refinancing of existing loan obligations and processing of new credit facilities to improve the State’s cash flow and take advantage of the more favourable interest rate regime in the country.
Our government has also banned nonessential travels by all civil servants and political appointees. We are creatively shoring up internally generated revenue, eliminating leakages and aggressive cost reduction, especially recurrent cost. Also, we are enhancing accountability and transparency and strengthening the Government Delivery Unit to ensure efficient and effective delivery of projects and policies. Furthermore, government have prioritised capital spending on critical sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, infrastructure, and other projects that will enhance the living standards of the citizenry. Indeed, there is no compromise on our commitment to deliver on our electoral promises as encapsulated in the Building Our Future Together Agenda, regardless of the prevailing economic circumstances.

You recently increased the hazard allowance of health workers in Ogun State and also offered them life insurance. But there are still critical issues begging for attention in the health sector. What have you done in the last one-year and how do you intend to address all remaining challenges?
We are taking a holistic approach to fix that sector. From Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels, we are recruiting doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory scientists, and all other categories and cadres of healthcare professionals. We have started with the renovation and equipping of 236 primary health care centres across all the 236 wards in the State. We are remodeling all the secondary ones and we have given facelift to the Genral Hospitals in Ilaro and Ijaiye, Abeokuta. We have provided state-of-the-art facilities and brought in experts across medical disciplines. We are determined to make the health sector attractive to both residents and non-residents in a way that will provide solutions to health issues and attract investors to the sector and the State. Government is not taking training and continuous professional development of its healthcare workers for granted. Our vision is to make Ogun the health tourist destination of choice, that will attract all and sundry, including investors. We are working across the board and we will also equip and staff these facilities adequately to ensure that the public is given the best service. We are doing periodic outreaches and like I said earlier, we have restored OOUTH back to its lost glory as a centre of excellence in training of medical officers, research and treatment of all manners of ailments. We are also providing free healthcare for children under age 5 and all nursing mothers, just as our aged are treated free in all government hospitals.

Apart from venturing into rehabilitation of public primary schools across the 236 wards of the state, what other steps have you taken to revamp the state’s education sector?
I have no illusion as to the position of education and the enormous challenges in the sector. As an Omo Teacher, I know education is the best legacy that can be given to the leaders of tomorrow. At my inauguration as Governor, I declared a state of emergency on the sector with a firm pledge of ensuring that the pride we used to have in education will be completely restored. So far, we have walked our talks by increasing budgetary allocation to 20% this year, and we will continue to do that on yearly basis till the United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) benchmark is achieved.
We are implementing the Universal Basic Education Act, as well as ensuring free education for all children in Primary and Junior Secondary Schools. The welfare of teachers is being given utmost priority in order to ensure that best brains are attracted and retrained in the system. Our Government approved and implemented career elongation of degree holders in Public Primary Schools for teachers who had been stagnated on Grade level 14 for years. We promoted 10,000 teachers whose elevation had been delayed since 2016, employed 1, 500 Basic School Teachers and the Teaching Service Commission has also advertised to recruit about a thousand others. We facilitated the release of 2014-2017 UBE Matching grant to the tune ofN10 billion, which translates into 952 Education Projects. These Projects have two special features including Yellow roof and terrazzo floor in our public primary and secondary schools. We donated free teaching aids. We keep expanding the capacity of our teachers. We sponsored ANCOPSS representatives to leadership training in Dubai to enhance their performance and service delivery on the job.
We also reinstated Oluwole Olusanjo Majekodunmi, the Deputy Director in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology who was sacked by the previous administration. Also the former Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, (NUT), Ogun State Chapter, Dare Ilekoya who was compulsorily retired was also re-instated. This special act was displayed to show the government’s resolve in addressing all sorts of injustice.
Procurement and Installation of Education Management Information System (EMIS) Equipment and gadgets to aid data collection, collation and analysis in the Headquarters and all the 20 LGEAs. in line with the technology-driven education mantra of the present administration, and to fast track processing and management of data and other educational information. We have hosted Ogun SUBEB Website www.ogunsubeb.com.

Many Nigerians have made a case for the diversification of the nation’s economy from over-dependence on oil. What is your administration doing towards restoring agriculture as mainstay of your state’s economy?
We have never depended on oil in Ogun State. We are industrial, entrepreneurial and agrarian people. We have always believed that it is agriculture that will bail us out because it is not in every part of the world that you have crude oil. If we look into the records of what is going on, a good number of countries in the world are thriving on agriculture.
Agriculture is everything. Either in the cloth that we wear, the food we eat or the furniture for our houses. Food, clothing and shelter are the basic essentials of life. For us, we are taking multi-sectoral approach to agric development. Luckily for us in Ogun State, we are inheritors of a great legacy in agriculture. We never really depended on oil revenue as a state. We have nine farm settlements established by the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, which spread across the state. We have started opening up those farm settlements to make them available for young people who are showing interest in agriculture and residents who need assistance in opening land so that they can be part of the industrial linkage in growing crop and for food security.
We also have, in the roadmap for agriculture, to work with the private sector in bringing infrastructure back to the farm settlements. We are emplacing agriculture infrastructure, processors there. We are taking this opportunity to launch ourselves back. In the past, before we started reliance on oil, our economy thrived on on tree crops such as cocoa and cashew. Before COVID-19, we have been having partnership proposals from Europe and everywhere in the world, for us to be able to grow vegetable to satisfy our nutritional demand in every part of the world. We can actually go into massive production of tree crops, vegetables and spices. We can grow vegetable all year around. There are some parts of the world that they only have two or three months to grow crops and they eat throughout the year. So, the dynamics favour us. We only need to build the capacity and support private sector and improve on the business environment, in adherence to national and international quality specifications and standard.
Our Anchor Borrower Scheme targets 40,000 farmers. We are partnering with the Central Bank that has made us a model in the South-West. We are working hard to maintain our reputation too. For instance, Nigeria is the highest producer of cassava in the world with about more than 53 million tonnes annually. Out of the 53 million tonnes, one tenth comes from Ogun State.
The state is home to about four biggest buyers of cassava, small and medium scale processors for cassava. Ogun State also has the largest figure. This explains the reason I opened the window of opportunity for 27,000 young people who opted for cassava planting. Last week, in the first batch of intervention in growing cassava, 3,500 people were given the biggest input that any other institution has given to cassava farmers. 60 bundles of stem; 12 litres of insecticides; four bags of fertilisers and N270,000 each, so that they can grow cassava because there are ready-made off-takers. We are using the cassava crop to provide raw materials for the industries, job for young people and food security. I don’t think there is anywhere in Africa that 27,000 cassava farmers have been so empowered.

In the last one year of your government, not much seemed to have been heard about sports development? Or have you done something significant?
We are committed to a wholesome development of that sector. Our administration’s resolve to involve the private sector in the development of sports in the State through a Sport Trust Fund is without reservation. We understand the economic potentials of that sector. We have a blueprint to where we intend to divide the Ministry of Youth and Sports into two, to accommodate the creation of Ogun State Sports Commission. To underscore the importance of sports, we found out that sports has not been able to achieve its potential because of these amalgamatio. So, we will now have the Ogun State Sports Commission and I am proud to say that the Chairman of Value Jet, Mr. Kunle Soname, is going to be the Chairman of the Commission. Soname who runs a Clube Desportivo Feirense in Portugal is also the owner of Remo Stars FC and soccer betting company, BetNaija. Sports potential for job creation is enormous and we have budding talents to develop. It will take our youths off the streets and make them potential millionaires like their counterparts across the world.
And in Sports, we have produced great athletes. People like Mathematical Segun Odegbami, the late Muda Lawal, Dupe Oshikoya, Falilat Ogunkoya to mention but a few.

You promised to revisit and resuscitate the abandoned Olokola deep seaport project. But one year has gone by and nothing concrete seems to be happening. Can you give an insight into what’s going on?
We promised when we were campaigning that we would rejig the Olokola Free Trade Zone (OKFZ) in Ode Omi in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area and make it one of the economic hubs in the country. The plan is being given life now, despite the tough times we are in. The deep sea port is in our budget this year and we are giving it a special priority attention, because of its strategic importance in jobs and income creation for the teeming unemployed youths as well as boosting the revenue base of the state and socioeconomic life of the indigenes, residents and visitors.
The Olokola Deep Seaport project, we are clear in our minds, will very soon become a multipurpose deep seaport complex and free trade zone, as well as an exporting processing zone. We are taking ownership of the African Development Bank involvement and the pre-feasibility study of the project. It is not just building the port alone that matters, a lot of things need to be put in place to make the port efficient.
We are looking at the transport link out of the port. We will connect the seaport to the hinterland and think through other infrastructural need so that we don’t have the type of experience in Apapa. The dry port could be about 20 kilometres from the deep seaport so that importers can transfer and store the goods there so that people don’t come and crowd the port. We are thinking through the whole gamut of logistics support for it to be efficient and we understand the private sector and government must also be there to support it. If there is no policy and proper transportation management, there will be a big challenge and we have a PPP law in Ogun State and the Ogun Invest Bill has also been signed into law to make Olokola port a reality.

Your state has a lot of tourism potentials which have not been fully tapped. What will you do differently to develop the tourism sector, especially as touching on new tourism sites?
Ogun has at least 100 tourists’ sites – Olumo Rock, Bilikisu Osugbo shrine, Lisabi sacred forest, the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, National Museum, Tongeji Island, Osururu Water Spring, Oyan Dam, Omo Forest Reserve, Sugbo Eredo, Ijamido to mention only a few. We are committed to developing all sectors of the economy and support all enterprises that have positive impact on the economy, and it’s no brainer to say that tourism is an important pillar.
Ogun State owns interesting artifacts and historic sites, the numerous and long-lasting tourist centres and businesses across the State have continued to contribute immensely to the economy of our State, and since the inception of this administration, structures have been put in place to support tourist activities. We have rechristened the Drum Festival to incorporate Afro music and the festivals and every town’s cultural festivals shall be celebrated with fanfare to attract the requisite recognition and global acclaim. We will go into other hitherto untapped sectors like health tourism, as our hospital and trado-medical facilities are being expanded, We will do sports tourism, cult and religious tourism, science and cultural tourism or eco-tourism as it is called by some people and social tourism in a manner that we will earn foreign exchange, foster social integration, preserve monuments and cultural heritage as well as ensure visibility for our State in the global space. The blueprint is there and in no time, the end will justify the means.

But yoruba has no oil

Only the "our oyel money" miscreants depend on Oil money.