•OGUN PDP Guber Candidate
Hon. Ladi Adebutu is one of the candidates running for governorship in Ogun State. He is the PDP governorship candidate. A few days back, City People asked him what he will do differently if given the chance to be Governor.
He smiled and said he has a lot in stock for the people of Ogun State.
“Many people already know me and what I can do. Spending my personal resources, I have touched more lives of the Ogun people than many Governors have done in the recent past. I have lost count of the number of transformers that I have given out in the last 10 years. I have just been giving out transformers to communities that need them. You were with me at the radio programme, you just heard many of the callers from various communities have been asking me to please donate to them transformers.”
“For years have been touching lives of many, especially the rural dwellers. But to specifically answer your question, let me say what I will do differently if I come into government.”
“First and foremost, you must have a Covenant with the people. You must be human as possible. When you lose that Covenant with the people, Humanity disappears in you. Often time, our leadership behaves as if they are not in tune with the people. They behave as if they are disconnected from the people they govern.”
That is so discouraging. That is is what is happening in Ogun State.”
“But there have been some changes now in attitude because the election is getting close. At the beginning of this government, some personalities treated the people of Ogun State as if people had leprosy. You want to administer a set of people and they are not allowed to have access to you. You refused to live amongst them. You refused to live in the state. You refused to live in Abeokuta. You refused to govern from Abeokuta. You refused to fix their roads. You prefer to go about in Helicopters. You won’t even touch them with your hands, under the guise that you are being Covid-19 complaint.”
“And you don’t show empathy for them at all.”
“The 1st rule to serve is you must share Humanity with the people. And give hope for a better future for them.”
“I know how to appeal to my people. I live in their midst. I go to the same market with them.”
“Once these are not there, it will lead to a bridge between the leadership and the people they govern.”
“Put pointedly, some personalities in the present government of Ogun State are not treating people well. They have dissociated themselves from the people they are governing.”
“As a leader, there must be Humanity, Equality and the creation of hope and confidence for the future of the people. I understand the pains of my people and as a leader, I can’t be separated from my people as they will not find it strange to see me in the community or around the marketplace.”
“Secondly, the government is going to be the government of Inclusion, where everybody will be included. People will not be forced to pay their Taxes. If I lead by example and I pay my taxes, it will not be difficult for people to pay their taxes. When I pay my taxes, you can imagine how people will turn out. There was a particular time people were paying taxes religiously, and willingly, and the people of Ogun State were contributing to the institutions of the state, but nobody does that anymore. Our Healthcare system has been down because the present government has made people tired and fed up with the leadership status of the state. I will lead a government that will share Humanity with my people.”
“I have friends that I can tell to invest in the state and this will make it easy to call on other foreign investors to come to the state. With this, there is already business participation of people which the investors who can operate it for 30 years and transfer it back to Ogun State. This will make others come and settle to trade and invest in Ogun State. All these won’t make me borrow to build roads, airports, seaports and other infrastructure that our state is currently lacking.
We are going to have the best roads and airports in Nigeria. We are going to have the best roads leading to the East and West of the state, even roads leading to the Benin Republic which will improve and help out a business in Ogun State.”
“We don’t have East-West roads. The only one that looks like it is that road running from Papa Lanto road. And it has been bad for so long. There is nothing wrong with Ogun State building a road like that that will link all those towns and link East and West, all the way from the Benin Republic, all the way down. Do you know the value of that road? It will increase Commerce, will take Ogun West all the way to Ogun East and Lagos State.”
“It can be done. It’s pure common sense. It can’t be tolled. It will link our Airport to the Seaport and international border. Whenever these kinds of roads go through, new towns develop. Let somebody build those roads.
To achieve all these things, there must be a good and accommodating environment for investors and this will lead to the building of the best airports and international borders.
During his last radio interview at the radio station, many people were begging him to provide transformers to the communities. Why is this so?
“Hmmm! Transformers. I have stopped counting the number of transformers I have donated to the people of Ogun State, I discovered that in Ogun State there are two major needs of people that must be taken care of, Electricity and Good Roads. In Ogun East, the roads are somewhat better, while there are no roads in Ogun West. The roads don’t exist at all.”
In Ogun East again, the electricity is manageable because of the population and power concentration can carry the loads.
Going to central and Ogun West, there are many populations and power concentrations cannot carry the loads. Ado Odo-Ota is the most industrialised town in Ogun State and this is where the most VAT are generated but they have no good roads and less electricity, so the demands for electricity in some places in the West are unbelievable that a thousand transformer can’t even solve the problem of electricity in those places.
How does he intend to solve the issue of electricity in Ogun State?
What we must do is to bring private enterprise into this. We must do all it takes to encourage them to come and help us in solving the problem. There is nothing wrong with having a state grid, so the state can involve private companies. Our problems in Ogun State have reached the ones that happened to Ghana and it was solved. The problem can also be solved by taxing those companies to build roads, schools, and hospitals.
It seems he is conversant with different places in Ogun State…
“I’m a native and I have lived here for more than 30 years. I know nowhere else because I have always been in this state. I’m 60 years old and I have lived here for 30 years, 7-8 years in abroad to study. I have lived in Lagos for some years. Most of my years have been spent here in Ogun State.”
Is he promising the rural areas a secure and better life?
Yes! I’m part of them. I am a member and indigene of the State. I have no other life when I was in Lagos, the breeze is different. I always miss my people whenever I am away from them. There is fresh air and space that nature has given us. There is SERVICOM here. We want people to leave Lagos and its stress to come and get fresh air in Ogun State. Ogun State is a stress-free state.”
Can he tell us about the “Itura De” promise?
“Unfortunately, given all these problems in Ogun State, we are in a pressure cooker. With the good fortunes of Baba Bisi Onabanjo, I’m yet to find people that will criticise him to have failed to run Ogun State well. Ogun State had SDP Akirogun Osoba, a renowned journalist. The roads he made are still there because he believed in quality. We once had Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and he did great in his administration. They all did well because they allowed grassroot participation. Senator Ibikunle Amosun also tried his best on Infrastructure but with a difference and this was the root of what we are now. Right now, we are in a pressure cooker situation. The present government has not done well. Their emergence in Ogun State was like an accident and up till now, don’t know what to do with power. The confirmation came when the governor himself came out to say he is a Baby Governor. With all these experiences, I have realised it’s high time my people are delivered from those that don’t know how to drive to a safe and comfortable destination, because currently in Ogun State, there are unpaid pensions, unpaid salaries, lack of human empathy, loss of hope, total disconnection with the people and other unfulfilled promises. Imagine, the doctors are even about to go on strike. What a backward in our state.
What is his opinion about the recent exchange between the Governor and Senator Amosun a few days ago?
“Everybody is frustrated and it has been a great headache because how can a state with so many potentials be failing woefully? The destruction of a successful state has made everybody sick and tired of the state. This is why some of us can’t control our anger. We are really pained. This is going to be an interesting election to know where the electorate will support and vote for. People are feeling the pain and the Governor himself knows that people are feeling the pain. I know this is not possible to give what you don’t have.”
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