•Otunba GBENGA DANIEL Reveals The Many Mistakes Of His Successor
For me, it was not a difficult decision to swing my support to Gov. Dapo Abiodun, despite temporary partisan differences with him at a most critical time in the evolution of our political development. Most people may not remember that our new Governor and I operated from the same political party and he supported me in 2003 elections. So these may just be a typical ‘one good turn deserves another’ scenario. Congrats once again Your Excellency. Since opportunities like this are very rare, where our royalties are seated, please permit me to raise a few points which may guide Gov. Dapo Abiodun, in moving our great State forward, especially since it has become clear to most people that the immediate past Governor (Amosun) did not read our comprehensive Hand over notes in 2011. There is no doubt that his inability to read those notes have slowed down the economic growth and development of our dear state in the last 8 years. Our immediate past Governor constructed visible roads and bridges at exorbitant cost.
1, therefore, think that in the interest of Good Governance, it might be, inevitable to look into some of these anomalies). Regrettably, but even more regrettable is the fact that some of the bridges are misplaced priorities as there are no traffic to justify some of those dual carriage bridges and there may not be in the foreseeable future. 1 have seen a planned housing estate complete with road networks and Street lights without a ‘single house and 1 have also seen a pedestrian bridge fully air-conditioned, in a place where there is no human traffic and 1 have also seen so-called Mega Schools costing the State some whopping N26b, but most of them inhabitable and in the wrong locations.
The list is endless. If that same amount were utilised in doing internal roads and new roads even in the same locations, the economic impact would have been enormous in those locations. Enough for now.
Your Excellency. I was excited when 1 heard during the past week that you may have declared an Educational Emergency in our state. Nothing could be more apt. But in moving forward, and in order that issues are placed in their proper perspectives, permit me to bring to focus what we did in the educational sector and the road map already developed for future development. With a population of over 65,000 still operating at the premises of Ago Iwoye Secondary School, our State University in 2003 was not in an impressive state to put it mildly. Having in mind the intention of the founding fathers of the state, to building a multi-campus university for the benefit of all the various sections of the state we did the following;
Established the Tai Solarin Univ of Education, the first in Nigeria and the second in Africa, which the former Governor wanted to proscribe without any plausible reason. We thank Kabiyesi Awujale, who at a stage, offered that he would mobilize our people to own and fund the University in perpetuity rather that allow that great institution to be scrapped.
We established the College of Agricultural Sciences in Aiyetoro, Ogun West, a potential Agricultural-based University in the future whenever the State could afford it.
We established the College of Engineering, in Ibogun, Ogun Central, a potential University of Technology in the future whenever the state can afford it.
As far as Universities are concerned, we touched all the 3 Senatorial districts in the state.
On Polytechnics, we did the same: Abraham Adesanya Polytechnic in Ijebu Igbo, Adegbenro ICT Polytechnic in Itori, Egbaland, ‘The Ayodeji Otegbola ICT polytechnic in Igbesa in Yewaland and also the Kensington Adebutu ICT Polytechnic in Sapade in Remoland. All these were established from the scratch although some of them have been renamed by the outgoing governor again for reasons yet unclear. So, in this sector, we not only touched all the 3 Senatorial districts, we also touched all the 4 zones and thereby activating the dreams of our Founding fathers. Followtng that template, if the former Governor desired to establish another University in Egbaland, he would simply have upgraded the College of Engineering which we established in Ibogun to a full fledged University of Technology in Egbaland and even upgrade the College of Agricultural Sciences in Aiyetoro to another University seamlessly or The Ayo Otegbola ICT Polytechnic in Igbesa as may be desired.
Your Excellency, it is clearly not too late to revisit these issues. I will be most delighted if the opportunity arises to represent those developmental agenda with necessary explanatory notes as it would appear not a lot has happened beyond the roads and the bridges since we left.
Industrialisation and the The 3 Free Trade Zones; Apart from the Flowergate Industrial Estate, which we established at the Sagamu Interchange, where Armed Robbers used to waylay motorists to rob, we thank God it is clearly the fastest growing Industrial Estate in Nigeria with the likes of Nestle and The International Breweries probably the biggest Brewery in the world, our administration secured the 3 different Licences for 3 Free Trade Zones in each of the 3 Senatorial Districts: The Ogun Guangdong Free Trade in Ogun West is up and running, but the Access Road is of immediate priority. The Kajola Transportation Free Trade Zones is at the heart of Egbaland within Ifo Local Government. The overall plan is to locate the Final Railway terminal from Iddo in Lagos to Kajola. This will open the entire zone to -a massive industrialisation and massive warehousing complexes, which clearly will create a new generation of Entrepreneurs for local landowners and grow the real estate. This is worth looking at, Your Excellency.
The story of the third Free Trade Zone, The Olokola Free Trade zone with 3 major projects some of which might have been lost is quite familiar to you as a major player in the Oil and Gas Industry. That our people are quite disappointed at the sloppy manner in which the last administration handled this life-changing project, especially the loss of the Dangote Refinery, the biggest single refinery in the world to our neighbour with a potential of employing most of our hitherto jobless youths to say the lest is painful. Whereas it is too late to reverse the location of Dangote Refinery, The Deep Sea Port.
Project, The Fertiliser project and, of course, the OKLNG Project, (again the biggest of its kind in the world) can still be pursued with vigour in collaboration with the Federal Government and the Private sector. Please note that before we left, we already had an approval to proceed with the Port from the Nigerian Ports Authority. It was in anticipation of the take-off of these projects that encouraged us to establish the Gateway Industrial & Petrochemical Institute known as GIPI in Oni, within Ogun Waterside LG.
