Abiodun: Development for the forgotten ones

A major affliction that has hit the 36 states since the return to civil rule in 1999 is governance without vision.

While some, admittedly few and far between, have put in valiant efforts, it is a fact that in most cases, a significant portion of the states has rotted under ungoverned governors. The implication: what has been labelled development has been no more than the mere window dressing of the state capitals.

The rule seems to have been: site visible projects in the state capitals and one or two major cities that travelers will no doubt come in contact with, and then a second term of office is a done deal. But, then, even the development in the state capitals is circumscribed by location, meaning that the state capitals inevitably present two worlds: the new areas enjoying government patronage and the traditional slums still in full communion with degradation, poverty and want. In this connection, the point just cannot be ignored that Ogun, a state most contiguous to the country’s economic capital, Lagos, is happily presenting a new paradigm, one that promises to bring the ‘dividends of democracy’ to the forgotten neighbourhoods, the abandoned populations, hapless citizens who have been for ages no more than statistical incidentals in government agencies. For the first time in a life time, many ancient communities are seeing good roads, hospitals, schools and other facilities springing up before their very eyes, places that politicians only remembered during campaigns—places, let us remember, that have never mattered to government until now.

Through the direct labour agency, roads are now being cleared that were hitherto a nightmare to motorists, and this is being done simultaneously in all the local government areas of the state. For the first time since 1999, the point is being made, in practical terms, that development cannot be limited to major towns like Ijebu-Ode and Abeokuta; that every part of the state must feel government presence. A technology hub has been set up to rejig ICT across the state and enhance the ease of doing business, and two more to follow shortly.

Surely, Governor Dapo Abiodun’s identifification of 236 schools across the state, one per ward for complete rehabilitation, will address the monumental rot in Ogun public schools, and it is ennobling that after this exercise, a new set of schools will enjoy the same treatment. The long and short of this is that there will be no ward without government’s educational presence. And with the approval of the years 2016 and 2017 promotion of 10,000 teachers, resolution of the MAPOLY crisis and its re-accreditation, implementation of the recommendations of the visitation panel on the Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE) and the establishment of a Government Delivery Unit for Education, education in the state will begin to get back on track.

As in education, so in health: dilapidated hospitals are being given a facelift and more resident doctors employed to serve in the hitherto forgotten habitations. Primary health centres are being set up per ward so that people can enjoy health services without travelling miles away from home. At the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, the recruitment process for all categories and cadres of healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab scientists, radiographers, etc) has already commenced, as has the rehabilitation of the State Hospital Ilaro.

The government has already organised free medical outreach at Ilishan, Odeda and Ilaro, addressing polio, diabetes, malaria, eyes, malaria, typhoid and other issues. There is the anchor borrowers scheme with several hectares of land acquired and distributed to agropreneurs, a project for which N1.5 billion is being accessed from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The initial 2000 agro-preneurs  have been allocated 1ha of land each. It must be music to the ears of Ogun citizens that their governor wants to take advantage of land resources to build agriculture and provide food for people through a project that attracts a zero digit interest rate; one which has  a mechanism for tracking efficiency.

Again, about 120,000 citizens are already registered on the job portal created by the state government, the essence being to know who to employ when vacancies arise in government. And if there are companies interested in Ogun State, they will place their adverts on the job portal and applications can then be received through it.

It certainly not fortuitous that appropriate legislation and executive orders have been put in place to ensure accountability and prudence in the management of government resources, including the implementation of the medium term expenditure framework for budget preparation, establishment of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission for prudent financial management of state resources; efficient allocation of public expenditure, revenue and debt management; long-term economic stability of the state. Nor can the establishment of public Private Partnership (PPP) Office, implementation of staff biometrics and payroll audit and treasury management solution for single view and efficiency in treasury and payment processing and  the establishment of the Bureau of Public Procurement Council be less development-oriented.

The state is actively pursuing investment initiatives, and has already undertaken an amendment of the Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) / Ogun Invest Bill to actualise this objective. It has held a business roundtable with CEOs and business executives in the private sector and established the Ogun State Business Environment Council to improve and streamline the state’s internal processes towards achieving better scores in the ease of doing business ranking, as well as the Enterprise Development Agency (EDA) for capacity building and facilitation of financing access to support the MSMEs sector.

In this regard, the executive order for the Ogun State Economic Transformation Project Implementation Structures, as part of the requirements for the establishment of Project Steering Committee (PSC), Project Implementation Unit (PIU) for the $250m World Bank loan, is a step in the right direction. It has initiated a creative arts and entertainment hub in conjunction with Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility Limited (SANEF) to further deepen development at the grass roots.

The foregoing, though, should leave no one with the impression that Abiodun wants to abandon the state capital and the major towns. He has already commenced 50 units of housing development at Hilltop Estate Abeokuta, and there is the 200 low income, mass housing units project at Ibara Abeokuta. In any case, if the etablishment of the Ogun Sports Commission is geared towards youth development, issues of social welfare are encapsulated in the empowerment of 1000 Widows by the wife of the Governor, launching of ‘Okowo Dapo’ loan programme with 2000 initial beneficiaries of N10,000 each.

There is of course the overarching issue of security, where the procurement of 100 pick-up patrol vehicles, 200 motor bikes for the state law enforcement agencies, sourcing of Helicopter from the Presidency for aerial surveillance and the amendment of the Security Trust Fund (STF) Law and the inauguration of the STF Board are all expected to enhance governance objectives. Not a few Nigerians would hope that the informal sector enumeration and resident registration, centralisation and automation of the administration and management of key revenue toll points, will drive revenue, along with the commencement of the energy sector reforms. For a government that has in just three months given the Ijebu Ode Stadium a facelift and established the Ogun State Public Works Agency, Ogun State Waste Management Agency and Government Delivery Unit for Infrastructure, the best is certainly yet to come.