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| Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun |
The new Governor of Ogun State, Dapo Abiodun, has dispelled rumours that he was bitter about the emergence of Architect Lekan Adegbite, the candidate of his immediate predecessor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, as the ministerial nominee from the state, saying that whoever emerged as the ministerial nominee would not diminish his plans to deliver quality service to the people of the state.
He also warned that serving as a commissioner in his government will not be a jamboree, because every appointee will be made to sign a performance bond to meet a set target within a stipulated period, failing which he or she will be kicked out.
He asked indigenes of the state who are used to the lousy style of some governors to prepare their minds for a huge disappointment if they expect him to adopt same, because it had never been his style to be loud, much less make a show of any action he has to take.
He was reacting to a question as to why he was yet to be seen on the television and other media platforms like some of his counterparts, ordering the demolition of structures or taking some other rascally actions to give the impression that they are working.
“If I am not making a noise, it is because it is never in my nature to do so. I will rather do what I want to do without necessarily making a noise about it,” he said.
He recalled that in the build-up to the 2019 elections, he came under pressure from many concerned people who felt that he had yielded the media space completely to his rivals. He said that when the pressure became intense, he decided to honour an invitation extended to him by a popular television station to appear for an interview, but it turned out to be one of the most embarrassing moments of his life.
He said for reasons he could not fathom, his interlocutor became so aggressive and sentimental such that he came away with the impression that the interviewer was doing someone’s bidding.
He said: “I had never been so embarrassed. I only stopped short of asking the interviewer, ‘Did someone pay you to do this to me?’ There and then, I decided that we would do the rest of our campaign quietly. And as God would have it, we came out victorious.”
He was quick to add, however, that his position should not be construed to mean that he considers talking to the media as noisemaking, saying that he sees the media as partners in progress.
“If I had not been talking to the media or granting media interviews before now, it is probably because I was media shy,” he said, vowing that all that would change now that he is in the saddle as the governor of Ogun State, because he will have to continuously reach out to the people that elected him as their governor.
The governor had started the media interaction by rolling out his plans for the state in such areas as education, health, agriculture, security, infrastructural development and job creation, which he said were all aimed at making life easier for the people of the state.
On education, for instance, he said the state government had resolved to build one standard primary school in each of the 216 wards in the state as the first step in the effort to rescue the sector from decay. The state government, he said, is planning to build farm settlements around the state, equipped with extension services as the first step in his administration’s effort to turn the state into the nation’s food basket.
The governor said there were plans to revive the dilapidated government-owned hospitals around the state towards making efficient health care services available to the people. Already, he said, a panel had been raised by his government to look into the conditions of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) and make the necessary recommendations for its revival.
He said there were plans to rebuild many of the state’s strategic roads, including the Atan-Agbara Road and others at the state’s borders with Lagos. He noted that apart from the jobs that these would generate for the hordes of unemployed youths in the state, there are other deliberate plans aimed at job creation.
Asked how he intended to generate funds for the numerous programmes he had outlined, Governor Abiodun said the plank for funding would be private/public partnership (PPP). This option he believes would not be difficult to explore, given his background as a businessman with lots of goodwill in the private business sector.
