In defence of Dapo Abiodun projects

It is amazing but not shocking that Governor Dapo Abiodun, boardroom guru, and business mogul, has been taking the business of social engineering seriously. Particularly in the last couple of days, the Gateway State has been in the news for positive things, with the critics of the governor habitually motivated by sheer partisanship completely shell-shocked amid their accustomed mischief.

 Only recently, shortly after reinventing diplomacy and obtaining the Federal Government’s permission, the governor flagged off the reconstruction of the 70-kilometer Abeokuta-Ifo-Ota-Lagos Expressway, with a pledge to complete it in 18 months. The road had been neglected for over two decades, and Abiodun’s previous requests for approval to reconstruct it had been sternly rebuffed. But he would not take no for an answer. And so work has now begun in earnest on the second busiest road in Nigeria, the road, which connects Abeokuta and its hinterlands to Lagos State and links Ilaro in Ogun West to Sagamu in Ogun East through the Sagamu-Interchange-Papalanto-Ilaro road. On the Ota side, it connects the Sango-Atan-Owode-Idi-Iroko road, leading to border towns and the Benin Republic.

 The road, as the people’s governor himself recognises too well, “serves as a critical artery for numerous industrial hubs in Ota, including the Lafarge Cement Factory, Ile-Ise Awo, various schools, and higher institutions. The communities along this corridor are densely populated, and the road’s strategic location has a significant impact on trade and economic activities.” As a transport union chief, Taofeek Sokoya (Danku) noted, “Currently, we take about five hours to get to Ota from Ita Osin. When this road is completed, it will only take 45 minutes.”

 Beyond roads, the airport city in the Remo axis of the state, easily Nigeria’s biggest and the most strategic, is nearing completion. Also, you cannot blame the Nigeria Customs Service for heightening work on its N73bn Zonal Office and Training School at the Gateway Agro-Cargo International Airport. The airport lies within the airport city, together with an export processing zone. In another development, the Nigerian Navy, buoyed by the ongoing massive construction works in Ogun State, moved in quickly to obtain 100 hectares of land for its proposed dockyard, a facility for which the governor cancelled any payment because of the national security imperatives.

 On the agriculture side, the Abiodun government is simply in a class of its own. Governor Abiodun recently flagged off the harvest of the 200-hectare rice farm at Magboro in Obafemi Owode LGA of the state. In just three months, the farm cluster yielded 1,400 tonnes of rice. Projected to bring in N1bn in revenue every three months, the project will now be scaled up to guarantee revenue in the region of N10bn-N25billion.

 The critics even spun a false narrative on this laudable project, claiming that it is actually the initiative of a certain Alhaji Bello Zabarmawa from Kebbi State. PM News ran this fake news without the slightest prick of conscience. Yet, contrary to that piece of junk journalism, the much-publicised rice harvest by Governor Abiodun is real, and the government’s combine harvester was on duty. When the Governor called, the said individual and his colleagues from Kebbi were extremely excited to see the harvester, saying that they had never seen one before, let alone used it for rice harvest. The World Bank-assisted project meant to ensure the increased participation of the private sector in the economic development of Gateway State is the brainchild of the Ogun State Economic Transformation Project. Alhaji Bello and 199 other farmers were sensitised and aggregated into ten groups that constituted the rice cluster, and the government supported them with 65 per cent of the cost of land preparation or mechanisation, while they contributed the rest.

 Somehow, under junk journalism, Alhaji Bello, who farmed just one hectare of rice, became “the owner” of this 200-hectare project, and the 199 other farmers in the cluster, comprising Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba farmers, were completely left out! The government, which provided the land, segmented the farmers into one-hectare lots, and provided pesticides, grants, and loans, was pilloried for lying about the project!

 Of course, the critics aren’t ignorant. They know that what the government often does in enhancing agribusiness is to provide a clement environment for public-private partnerships, as in the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who set up farm settlements and provided the farmers with the needed tools, including residences. It is to bring the issue up to date, what Kebbi and Ogun states have done. Yet the naysayers managed to come up with a fake story, making a single individual the “real owner” of a public-private partnership project involving 200 individuals, for which the Abiodun Government provided 65 per cent funding, not to mention technical support. Character assassins can’t help themselves, can they?

If Governor Abiodun’s farm clusters are anything but “audio,” Go to the Ikenne zone and see if you do not find the following cassava clusters: Ibukunoluwa Farmers Cooperatives I & II (Akaka), Evergreen Farmers (Ibafo), Bethel Agro Allied Farmers Cms (Lukosi), Mosimi Farmers Association (Moro), and Ona Ara Farmers Association (Ikenne), while there are rice clusters in Ayiwere/Ogboloko and Magboro. In Ijebu zone, go to Idekan Apoje, Omu, Asejere, Ojowo, and Ijebu Igbo and see if you do not find the More Agro Group 1-7, N-Power Cooperative Group 1-5, Agbegbemi-Yewo Farmers Cooperatives, Agberapo Cassava Farmers Group 6, Game Changers, and the Agbe-Parapo Farmers Association. 1-5 clusters, with the last one being a maize cluster. In the Ilaro zone, you have the Ijomo Vegetable Group 3&5, Ijomo Farmers Group 1 & 4, Vegetable and Fruit Grower Association 1–3, Irewolede Cluster I Maize, Araromi Group 1, Ife Cluster Maize I & II, Ore-Ofe Cluster I & II Omoluabi Farmers Clusters, and they are located in Awin/Odanpopo/Ijomo (tomato), Ijomo (groundnut), Ayetoro (horticulture), together with the maize clusters in Eggua, Imeko, Ayetoro, Igbogila, and Iwoye Ketu.

If the critics are already mad with rage over the rice harvest, what will they do when the harvesting of cocoa, groundnut, and cassava begins? Jump into a lagoon, arguing with the waves. They go haywire any time they hear good things about Ogun State, intent on discrediting any action of the government. But what they succeed in doing is merely advertising their hollowness. In any case, if you are a worker in Ogun State, you can take Governor Abiodun’s promise during a recent meeting with the leadership of organised labour to the bank. Lauding the workers for being instrumental to the rapid economic growth in the state, Abiodun said Ogun State would not take second place in implementing the new minimum wage. His strategy: “I have told my team that we should roll up our sleeves: we should work as hard as we can without putting undue pressure on our people. We should be creative, more efficient, block loopholes, and increase our revenue so that we can afford to pay the new minimum wage comfortably.”

 In Ogun, it is one good news after another. And the best is yet to come as the governor mobilises the populace to take Ogun to the next level. As the Indian writer, Rohini Nikolani puts it: “We cannot be mere consumers of good governance, we must be participants; we must be co-creators.”

Akinmade is the Special Adviser on Media and Strategy to Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State.