Why Dapo Abiodun Should Be Given Another Chance To Rule Ogun State By Femi Oyewale
To know the good from the bad, study a man or woman’s history of actions, not their record of intentions.
Suzy Kassem
Arguably, the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun deserves another term in governance. His strategic intentional act about transforming Ogun state amidst scarce revenue is worthy of honour.
Objectively, Governor Abiodun is a responsive and responsible first-class citizen of Ogun State. Despite the political and bureaucratic tentacles, entanglement, and traps surrounding him, he has been able to wriggle his way out in advancing the course of governance in the state.
Of a truth, many naysayers will not agree with the fact that he merited a second chance because, but the truth remains that for continuity, performance, and advancement, you can’t change a winning team. No leader is perfect and no leader can meet the needs of the citizens fully, but a performing governor needs more time to actualize his visionary agenda without politicking…
One thing you can’t take away from Dapo Abiodun is the fact that he is a responsive governor. For instance, the condition of St. Kizito’s High School, a secondary school in Iwopin, Ogun Waterside, Ogun State this year shook the internet. A video capturing this condition showed a classroom of students writing their promotion exams on the bare floor. The goal of the video was to shame Governor Abiodun as he prepares for the 2023 gubernatorial election, and turn the heart of the Ogun State people against him,
However, Governor Abiodun rose to the occasion and not in the manner anticipated by his detractors. Rather than point accusing fingers at his predecessor, which is what many other governors have done when faced with the same situation, Abiodun immediately sent furniture over to St. Kizito’s High School. Moreover, Abiodun’s constructive response came less than 12 hours after the video started making rounds, showing that he cares more about the students than about holding up the reputation they had attempted to ruin.
Moreover, even neutral onlookers have noted that although Abiodun could not have known about such a situation in his state, it is already quite amazing that he responded quickly and without submitting an excuse or counter-accusation.
With this achievement, Governor Abiodun continues to hold his position as one of the country’s more responsive, progressive, and visionary governors.
Also, from the rebuilding of the Abeokuta-Sagamu interchange road to the Epe-Ijebu Ode Expressway, and the different infrastructural development, including improvement in Education and quality Health-care, Governor Abiodun’s strategic intentions about transforming Ogun state into an industrial capital of the continent, particularly with the new Ogun state Agro-Cargo Airport which is dubbed to be the first truly International Cargo Airport in Nigeria and the fastest constructed airport in the continent. Cannot be contested.
Amidst distractions and limitations, He has been firing on all cylinders, ensuring that the ISEYA mantra comes to reality. From road infrastructure to housing, health, education, agriculture, and the digital sector, evidence abounds of policies and plans executed to change the development narrative and take the state to enviable heights. As described by Governor Dapo Abiodun himself, the projects executed by his administration “have the inputs and are informed by the needs of the people as expressed by them at different engagement fora.” This, he avers, “is because we anchor our Building our Future Together Agenda on inclusiveness, equity, fairness, transparency, accountability, justice, and obedience to the rule of law.”
No less a personality than the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), attested to this vision when he inaugurated projects in the state, including the Ijebu-Ode-Epe road, a strategic arterial road that links the Lekki/Epe corridor of Lagos State to the eastern corridor of Ogun State at Ijebu-Ode, provides a ready alternative to the Lagos/Ibadan expressway for those going to Lekki and adjoining areas and provides a fillip for socio-economic activities in the South-East and South-South zones of Nigeria through the linkage of the road to Sagamu-Benin Expressway for easier access by motorists to Lagos, Nigeria’s largest economy. The president inaugurated the 42km Sagamu Interchange-Abeokuta Road, the main arterial road that leads to the state capital and which comes with a dual carriageway with streetlights, median and other road furniture vastly redesigned and reconstructed to address the daily challenges being experienced by commuters.
The president lauded the Gateway City Gate, an architectural masterpiece made of composite materials towering to a height of 27m and warmly welcoming visitors to the state, and the two Housing Estates for low, medium, and high-income earners at Kobape and Oke-Mosan. Kobape has 300 units of one, two, and three-bedroom flats described as a “Smart City” where people can live, work and play, complete with solar streetlights, a sewage system, a primary health centre, drainage, water, electricity, tarred road, and a police post. And his verdict is quite instructive and ennobling: ‘‘When state governments deliver impactful projects, in consultations with stakeholders, as we have witnessed in Ogun State, the trajectory of our national development will be enhanced.” This verdict becomes extremely hard to contest when the series of fiscal and policy reforms initiated by the Abiodun administration, including the reinvigoration of the Security Trust Fund; establishment of the Public-Private Partnership Office; the Ogun Digital Economy Infrastructure Projects, and the Ogun State Land Revenue and Management Systems are considered together with the business reforms that have ensured that Ogun State is in now Nigeria’s top investment destination.
