‘What Akeredolu should do in second term’

In this piece, Gboyega Amoboye highlights the challenges Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu should tackle in his second term.

 

THE purpose of this memo, Your Excellency, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is to congratulate you on your reelection for the second term as Ondo State governor. The memo is a response to a question, “who shall tell the governor”, asked by one of those who commented on my post on Facebook predicting your reelection. He said your laudable investment in cocoa farming needs an effective feedback mechanism for the desired result to be achieved but apparently wondered who will tell the governor. Commentators have acknowledged that the Arakunrin is a true ‘Awoist’ and like former Governor Adekunle Ajasin, a visionary and development-oriented governor. Well, this is not unexpected. He came holding the sceptre of Awo.The comment on Facebook which has attracted the reaction among others is that the governor would be reelected overwhelmingly in Ondo North and Ondo South, but 50:50 in Ondo Central because the PDP candidate, Eyitayo Jegede is a son of the soil. My prediction was based on evidence of ongoing investments in the production economy backed up with unprecedented infrastructural development. According to Economists, investment in production capitalism guarantees economic prosperity and employment as against commercial capitalism that kills self-reliance and reduces people to mere traders in what other countries have manufactured. Details are on my page on Facebook (Gboyega Amoboye).

As I was working on this memo, my heart nostalgically wandered to the past. I remembered the two almanacs that used to adorn my father’s sitting room in the ‘50s and ‘60s; perhaps you feel the same way too, as we might have grown up in the same community about the same period. One was that of the Action Group Cabinet of Awolowo in the Western Region and the other is that of the Ondo State Provincial Cocoa Produce, Cooperative and Marketing Society. Always sitting in the middle of the annual cooperative almanac was Chief Obafemi Awolowo with a caption, “Awolowo, Ore Agbe.” Usually, the next picture to his was that of Chief Samuel Ade Adeloye, the Aboluwodi of Owo and the life Chairman of the Cooperative and Marketing Society then. Hopefully, your Excellency may remember Adeloye as every farmer’s son of that era in Owo would. His magnificent house, one of such four wonders was No 1, Curwen Street, Ora, Owo. The other three apparently along the same stretch of road from Ehinogbe are of those of Chief Ladenegan, the Arajuwa of Owo, Chief Obasoto, and Chief Jombo, all big-time cocoa farmers and apparently friends with big dreams. But the story is not about Curwen St because the familiar name was once associated with my ‘Waka About’ days with the Lagos Weekend.

Back to business, Your Excellency; like a pensive historian, I was only lost in nostalgia.

The kernel of this letter is that while appreciating your dutiful effort at returning cocoa to the front burner of the economic drive, much more still needs to be done in the next four years to make your achievements indelible and irreversible. While none could rightly claim ignorance of your investment in cocoa regeneration,  feedbacks from people close to the grassroots have however indicated that more still needs to be done to return the state to its place of pride in that produce where Awolowo had excelled.  Awolowo had cocoa as the mainstay of the economy of Western Region, the profit of which was ploughed back into the legendry industrial and socio-economic development of the region. As a testimony, Cocoa House in Ibadan maintains even today its recognition as the first high-rise building in Africa. The question is, can cocoa still play such a vital role in Ondo State economy?

The consensus is that with Akeredolu in Government House and following your antecedent, it can be done. Jimoh Ahmed, an Akure-based businessman said: “Governor Akeredolu is doing well in the state. His resolve to take Ondo State away from a civil service state to an industrialized one is enough to earn him our vote.” He said the Ore Industrial Hub, the Bitumen factory and the egg powder factory at Emure Ile in Owo Local Government are a tip of the iceberg. Jimoh emphasized that the state Sea Port at Igbokoda is a fillip to boost the economy of the state as it would rake in more internally generated revenue. He said Governor Akeredolu is bringing back the seaport. It means more jobs for our youth, more development and the multiplier effect is that Ondo State will become another Eldorado. I say Amen.

Another commentator explained that no sacrifice would be too much to pay for the redemption of the economy through cocoa farming. He also expressed confidence in your ability to do this such that you would restore the pride of Ondo State to once again become the greatest cocoa producer in the country.

While congratulating your Excellency for a well-deserved victory, an agriculturist, Mr. Olatunji Amobonye called for action on the spur of the moment by embarking on massive rehabilitation of abandoned cocoa farms across the state. Towards this end, he said local government authorities should be mandated to rehabilitate rural farm roads in order to facilitate transportation of farm produce while incentives in cash and kind should be given to youths for active participation in agriculture.

An Abuja based journalist and pastor, Sunday Ephraim, hoped that the governor would continue on the part productive economy. He suggested the establishment of a refinery on a quasi-government basis with oil companies operating in the state. Contributing from Lagos, an educationist, Mrs. Olushola Mercy Fagbule, appealed to Your Excellency to see to the affairs of the youth and farmers this time around, “so that we aged ones will have rest of mind in future. Farming should be revisited in Ondo State for their cocoa, coffee and cotton production, as well as food crops instead of depending on the North for food supply.”

Another agriculturist, Mr. Adekagun Jaykay, said his experience here is that if one is not in politics or at the corridor of power to show where the roof is leaking in cocoa production, there is nothing one could do to get the attention of the government.  He, therefore, pleaded with Your Excellency to establish a feedback mechanism for your investment in cocoa farming to be very successful. He suggested a peer review mechanism with the Cross River government that is said to have allocated two hectares in her forest reserves to  many youths each, for cocoa plantation.

I wish Your Excellency God’s speed.

• Gboyega Amoboye, a journalist and media consultant writes from Lagos.