Photo credit: Thisdaylive
Ogun state of Nigeria has lost many opportunities due to inappropriate governance.
Of course, I’m not exempting myself!
Nicknamed the Gateway state because of its tangent location to the commercial capital, its access to the rest 9f the country and its status as a border state, it can feed the whole country and neighboring countries.
Let’s look at the administrations of three successive governors of the state: Gbenga Daniel, Ibikunle Amosun and the incumbent, Dapo Abiodun.
Gbenga Daniel knew what he wanted to do as he already had a template to rule the state.
He made use of a lot of eggheads within the state and even beyond. As a professional, he is familiar with the business world.
He started off with many fantastic projects including the agricultural estates, the computerization scheme, linking of rural roads to urban areas and the return of mission schools to the missions.
With the commissioning of agricultural estates, he succeeded in uniting youths by training them at the historic Ojeda Farm Settlement and establishing farm estates for them in various parts of the state.
During training, they were given stipends and fed with taxpayers’ money. After the training, each of them was allocated two hectares of land and two hundred birds. They were also housed and given credit facilities.
Unsurprisingly, traders from Lagos State were going to buy eggs and other farm products from the farm estates.
His return of missionary schools was a relief to the government treasury in terms of paying salaries to teachers.
However, during his term, thuggery was institutionalized. Who can ever forget the deadly battle of cults?
Alsop, he was only prepared to listen to praise singers. For instance, a traditional ruler, the Alake of Egbaland was almost dethroned for criticizing the governor.
Then came Ibikunle Amosun. He is also a professional.
He devised a program called “Urban Renewal,” where he demolished historic buildings to make way for bridges and roads.
While prosecuting the project, he built bridges, even to nowhere. Some were left uncompleted. Meanwhile, the people were fascinated as if he were the best after sliced bread. The very thought of having bridges in the state was pleasant news to them. The Amosun administration even constructed an air-conditioned footbridge. Miscreants ended up using the space as an abode.
Instead of pumping money to schools, he went on to establish 26 model schools at the cost of 27 billion naira. The schools could not get students because they were unaffordable to their parents.
Meanwhile, he reversed the policy of his predecessor by taking over mission schools.
Although governance should be a continuum, he failed to continue with his predecessor’s agricultural estates program.
Among his misdeeds was the Free Trade Zone initiated by his predecessor which has put the Nigerian state in a deadlock. I read somewhere that he said he made a mistake. As an accountant, a chartered one for that matter, was due diligence done in this matter? What’s the use of the plethora of special advisers, special assistants, and commissioners?
I learned the incumbent is the least performing of the three. However, according to sources, he has started work on Sango bridge.
Well, that may be the story of Nigeria!
