Ogun IPAC Chairman, Arabambi Speaks On Gateway At 45, Hails Gov Abiodun for Multisectorial Development

On this extremely historic and very momentous occasion , I  Comrade Abayomi Oluwafemi Arabambi with all sense of  pride in my Ogun State citizenship and the honour done to me by this Government to deliver an address on this very important occasion.

 First , it is meet to recognise the heavy contributions of our great Leaders in the past whose sweat and wisdom have been proudly responsible for the level of growth and resonating development we are today in Ogun State.

 Yes , we are not yet where we ought to be , but from all the available indicators we are fast moving forward towards the level we are not at this point aware that we should be but by sheer divine intervention of God Almighty , leaders who are prepared to take the State to where far beyond where we desire to be but much more further to where we should be.

 In both the Civilian and Military Leaders this State has been luckily granted their extremely superb Administrative Leadership numbered the first elected civilian Governor from the political school of the Yoruba political Legend , Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the equally very intimidating person of Chief Victor Olabisi Onabanjo.

 He pioneered a Government that was seen and highly regarded and widely acknowledged as a Governor of "firsts" in every sector of Governance that included free Education , building of new schools as a way to ensure that no student or pupil will track more than 3 kilometers to get to his or her school , even in the remotest part of the rural areas of Ogun State.

 He pioneered , the establishment of small scale industries across the State. Built very standard 5 star hotels , built roads that after over 40 years are still much motorable in comfort till today.

Chief Olabisi Onabanjo was in truth a successfully successful Governor of Governors. He went ahead to found today's Olabisi Onabanjo University , Ago Iwoye with all the best and most efficient staff across the University.

I am constrained to stop trying to bring governance under the brilliant Chief Olabisi Onabanjo to life here right now. Most of us remember his Leadership with discipline , fair play , loyalty and justice.

 It was a great Government for all in the political divide.

Thereafter entered the Millatary through Oladipo Diya , Sasaeiyan , Olakitan , and a host of other Military Governors who contributed very immensely to the growth and development of Ogun State .

Despite being from the Military , all of the Millatary Governors will keep being remembered by the State.

 Here at this point , the very erudite and highly visible , very popular and extremely respected  Chief Olusegun Osoba came in as the elected civilian Governor , so much adored for his grade one political value .

He played the role of Mr Governor so effectively and very efficiently. He also left his impossible to obliterate legacies across the Senatorial Zones with an evenness that can't be faulted by the most bitter opposition. He was the Governor with the People and for the people who shared every of the people's worries and anxieties , striving at all times to deliver the best he could as benefits of democracy to the people.

I can still remember his delivered roads that linked the Senatorial Zones and roads that linked Ogun State with the neighbouring States.

Chief Segun Osoba governed with the fear of God. He never tried to play God as a Governor.

 He also left his legacies that remain the pride of Ogun State.

After Chief Segun Osoba came the darling Politician of immense stature , the irrepressible OGD . He it was who brought computer administration and governance to Ogun State .

 OGD , short for Otunba Gbenga Daniel ruled for two terms back to back , the first to achieve that without a hitch.

 How to write about the capacity and the commitment of OGD is challenging and will remain very challenging to the historians . He brought Ogun State out of digital administration into the computer driven governance. All and every of his aides were compulsorily computer literate.

 OGD signed up with all communities all they desired from his Administration as commitment . He was the Governor that popularised the village square meetings where all and any kind of questions were welcome from the public.

Every Community was encouraged to monitor the delivery on the initially agreed projects for their Communities , of course with this open and honest interactive Governance , achieving a second term was a piece of cake despite coming from a minority geographical division in the State. The first ever to achieve a complete second term without a hitch.

I remember that the way OGD won his first term election in spite of the then political monopoly of AD in Ogun State won a name for the then Ogun State Chairman of PDP , Late Ojo from the Ayetoro axis , he was given the name "OJO TOTAL" for winning all the offices at stake in the election. 26/26 in the House of Assembly , all the nine seats in the House of Representatives were won by OGD's party PDP at 9/9 , the three seats of Senators were also won by OGD'S party , PDP at 3/3 . Finally the seats of both The deputy Governor and the Governor were also won to make the harvest 40/40 and that earned the PDP Chairman of that era the respect by the name "Ojo Total" .

 Thus by the aura of OGD politically turned a predominantly AD State into a PDP State , it remained so under OGD until the emergence of ACN to APC .

 I won't want to engage myself in the various services unheard of in the State introduced by the extremely capable OGD and his team of very professionally professional aides .

 OGD was a Governor in consultation with the people.

I remember , OGROMA and very many Ogun State deliberately created arms and agencies that made his two terms a joy and very unique.

 And ladies and gentlemen , after the above entered Senator Ibikunle Amosun as the gateway State Governor .

He is another two terms of eight years Governor. He started so much very well but along the line he became obsessed with trying to obliterate OGD legacies. He turned blind eyes to the very many good steps laid down by OGD.

 Until today the impression of the people is that he was the Governor of Egba , precisely Abeokuta. His very rigid hurry to make a name for himself as a Governor led to very many mistakes that are not exactly advantageous for his Administration.

On assumption , it became apparent that Amosun came into Government with a hidden agenda for vengeance.At the beginning he deceptively coined the phrase " gbogbo e la ma se ": meaning that we shall do all.

 However , his policies stated to grow pains in the people. He started to destroy structures in all the Zones without adequate compensation and without consultation for the intended projects he was demolishing structures for. Very unfortunately , all the noisily launched projects remained abandoned except in Abeokuta where he tried much more but invariably very unsuccessfully to complete the projects.

 Amosun brought into Ogun State , the legacy of a mono - sector development and delibrately murdered all other sectors like education,health and human capital development

As much as he would like to see the various over head covered bridges as some good innovation , it is in fact seen by very many people as wasted unnecessary investment.

As obviously as he appeared to be a determined mono - sector Governor , he finally convinced all that he was also a mono - Local Govt Governor , Abeokuta Governor.

Take the model schools as examples , how could a responsible Government spend the Commonwealth so wastefully without any visible achievements.

For eight years , Amosun was gallivanting all over the State with a very long motorcade that cost the people too much money .And in all of these visits , he would only drive through the visited towns showing off.

 Take for instance ,if he had consulted the people of Ijebu Igbo , would the people have asked him for an unnecessary and hardly useful over - head bridge that he rendered a large percentage of shop selling retailers unemployed and the demolished buildings largely not compensated for as the projects for his eight years still stands uncompleted.

Yes , he probably could be seen to have done far much better in Abeokuta , his Government was an unmitigated disaster in other 19 Local Governments in the State. Amosun's Government was the best example of how not to Govern.

Amosun was a law unto himself , much more so in his second term. He became a Dictator.

No one is considered to have an opinion worth listening to by the political Alpha and Omega of APC and its one - man ruling Government.

 Hereafter enters the Governor  PDA who is so much repositioning and reorganising the disorganised System of extremely fine governance that has become a culture and tradition in Ogun State before the rampaging and destructive administration of Ibikunle Amosun.

However , PDA being who he is , an astute political strategist firmly in control of his thought process and political perceptions in respect of what to do , how and when , politically gallantly rendered all the ugly and bad Critics impotent , irrelevant and disoriented by his calculated steps as he unfolded the ingenuity and competence in him as an Administrator. The politically political Prince Dapo Abiodun suddenly after a couple of months threw most of his Critics into active political inconveniences.

The bad and the ugly Critics suddenly began to cluelessly give different interpretations to things as easy and clear as " honesty" in the process of trying to criticise the Government in their usual destructive manner and on very untenable premises. In the process they started to subject simple analysis to all kinds of silly complexities and sorts of bogus reading

 In the almost two years administration of Prince Dapo Abiodun it is so much apparent that a lot have been put into repositioning of Governance in Ogun State.

Beyond and far away to the dictatorial tendencies chosen by Amosun , this present Government has done a lot of hard work to turn governance around into the usual and customary good , efficient and very effective that has been in vogue in the gateway State.

 Let us take a very quick look at the record of performance of the Prince Dapo Abiodun led Government.

 On a sector by sector review it is noteworthy that the era of mono- sector development of Amosun has been rejected by this Administration.

 Education : 

(1) induction of Principals , Vice Principals  ......... Prince Dapo Abiodun at the last count has inducted 132 Principals, 122 Vice Principals and 4 Zonal Secretaries to fill the deficit his Administration met on ground.

(2) Promotion:  the release of approval for promotion letters that approved the backlog of promotion for 2016 /2017 was immediately issued by the Teaching Service Commission (Tescom) and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB). In all , a total of over 10,000 teaching and non teaching staff were promoted.

(3) Schools rehabilitation was quickly embarked upon . In the first phase of its rehabilitation plan of schools across all the wards in the State , 95 public secondary schools were renovated . These are no shoddy projects , as the renovated structures can be seen in the different schools. The projects conform to the Universal Basic Education Commission , UBECS recommended standard.

 (4) Levy cancellation : when Governor Abiodun took over office , his Government met a needless, oppressive and a wicked burden to parents called PTA levy to the tune of #3 , 700 regularly paid for many years under the immediate past Government by students in public schools. The  Government of PDA ordered the immediate cancellation of this obnoxious levy. The pupils and students currently under the present Government have free access to all items usually paid for under Amosun's Government.

(4) Another needless abandonment the current Government got saddled with was the mission to abandon the Tai Solarin College of Education which PDA Government has since restored back to its former glorious days . The school has since held its first combined convocation ceremony.

All of the foregoing are challenges the PDA led Government overcome in the first few months in office  , a situation Amosun's immediate past Government grew for no verifiable justification.

 (6) HEALTH : 

Rehabilitation ... like PDA did in public schools in all wards of the State , PDA did ensure that 236 primary health centers and 2 general hospitals were rehabilitated to increase access to health facilities especially as the State battled Covid - 19 pandemic. Since the PHCs are the closest and most easily accessible to the people. 

(7) EQUIPING  THE HOSPITALS ; 

The PDA led Government in filling the deficit in medical equipments saw to the delivery of needed medical to two State Hospitals including the State Hospital in Ijaiye Abeokuta. Over #300m have been transparently spent on equipping hospitals across the 3 Senatorial Zones including the new fleet of ambulances.

 (8) IMMUNISATION: 

Over 1 , 258 , 844 children were at this critical time vaccinated against polio being a 33% increase over the total recorded number for the previous year under Amosun.

 Under Health , many more projects were engaged in and fully completed , among which were (a) Medical Staff Recruitment . (b) Medical outreach : a medical outreach was so quickly flagged off offering free medical examination including free eye glasses , immunisation and BP checks to try to fill the yawning gap left by the immediate past Government.

3RD,BEST FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY INDEX STATE IN NIGERIA : A DESERVED CONGRATULATIONS TO OGUN STATE GOVERNMENT LED BY PDA.

Financial prudence and management are the determinant factors here.Though  the ill willers and intellectual frauds pretending to make public comments had continually and unceasingly write to deride the financial policies and the capabilities of the Government of PDA as incompetent are now shamed.

 Thereafter , check the following lists of subsequent fine steps of PDA Government: (1) 300% hazard allowance increment for a way to compensate the health workers (2)Under Environment , flood and erosion control (3) Ease of doing business . World Bank OGSTEP facility . (4) Ogun State Transformation Project (5) One - stop shops for investors in the State. (6) Investment : the PDA Government met with many potential foreign investors and signed agreements on all of these on power , health , security , agriculture , Education and infrastructure.

Also consider the further giant steps the PDA Government took for the advantage of the people : (1) Women Empowerment and Social Welfare. (2) Nigeria for women project (3) Okowo Dapo Loan program.  (4) Child Development . (5) Standardized Remedial Program for in motherless babies Homes (6): Human rehabilitation services , this has recorded the evacuation of 312 destitute , beggars , vagrant lunatic from the streets and over 297 of these have been re united with their respective states .

 Other areas the Dapo Abiodun led Government did wonders include ; (I) online platforms where unemployed persons or business owners seeking career advancement register their profiles towards getting results.

(9) Re - instatement of sacked labour union leaders.

(10) Mass recruitment .

(11) Agriculture and Youth empowerment .

 (12) Anchor Borrowers . 

(13) Rice Intervention 

(14) Agro Industrial Processing Zone

 (15) Fish Farming improvement program across the State.

 (16) FADAMA GRADUATE YOUTHS SCHEME.

 Honestly , if one is not constrained by space and time , the PDA led Government is a very great improvement on what he met on ground.

 In the totality of the acquired exposure and experience to which this State has gone through , it is obvious that the immediate past Government of Amosun was a great factor that stunted the growth and development of Ogun State through self willed attempts at playing God by Ibikunle Amosun but it is also worth the mentioning that no Government can succeed as depicted by the confidence and trust ever - showered love and genuine respect still reserved for OGD is a direct result of consistent consultation and friendliness with the people as typified by the never - forgotten village square meetings where the people can ask questions on everything about Government is the key that keeps his people's admiration for OGD demonstrated capacity of " promise made , problem kept " which is also the Mantra upon which the PDA Administration must be seen to be operating

Finally , ladies and gentlemen my point in rounding up is to emphasize on the need of every Government to be loyal and honest with the people in high grade sincerity. Happy Anniversary to the people and state of Ogun and God bless.