•Omoba ADESANYA, OKITIPUPA LG Boss
As the countdown to the Governorship election in Ondo State begins in earnest, with the various parties and aspirants quietly working underground, strategising and soothing frayed political nerves, with a view to occupying the number one seat in the well endowed Sunshine State. With these underground political activities in Ondo State, many political theories are being propounded by stakeholders and analysts as to where the pendulum would swing. One of such political prediction came from the immediate past Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) in Ondo State and now a serving Chairman of Okitipupa Local Government, Omoba Abayomi Adesanya. In an exclusive interview with Contributing Editor, Adeleke Olagbami, in Adesanya’s office, on political development and happenings in Ondo State the Council Chairman was emphatic that come 2020, the current Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has no competitor for the exalted office in the coming election based on his commendable performance and rating across Ondo State and even beyond. Excerpts.
While you served your party as the Publicity Secretary towards the last Governorship election in 2016, more especially after the APC’s primary election, which produced Governor Akeredolu, your party was engulfed in a crisis of disaffection by other aspirants who felt aggrieved. What is the State of Ondo APC today?
Yes, we had what I would describe as a momentary crisis. I described it as momentary because the so-called crisis was just for a moment as we went into the election and emerged victoriously. We truly thank God for that victory, which today is resulting in the unprecedented development going on all across Ondo State through the strides of our Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
We as a party are united. We are one big family today. Yes, there may be some murmurings, here and there, that is normal. Even within a family, there will be some murmurings over one thing or the other not to talk of a political party where some people are simply out all the time to consider and fight for their selfish political gains without thinking of the overall interest of the people. But, I can tell you confidently, today Ondo APC is one big family, united for a common purpose which is the development of our dear State that our hardworking Governor is perfectly and confidently steering the affairs and the ship of development in the right direction for the benefit of Ondo State today and Ondo State of the future.
You claimed that Ondo APC is one united family. Are you not aware of some APC members who are antagonising Governor Akeredolu of recent?
I can confidently tell you that the APC in Ondo State is one united family. Whatever murmurings that may be in the party as at now are from attention seekers and it is not enough to shake the developmental goals that the Governor is focussed on achieving for the state to place Ondo State ahead of her peers. The Governor is fully in charge as the leader of the party in the State. If you know Arakunrin, you would understand and know he is a democrat and a lawyer, who knows the working tenets of democracy and the rule of law giving everyone his/her due respect and voice at all times. Ondo State has never had it this good with the unprecedented developmental projects and infrastructural developments going on in all corners of the state. Take a look around Ondo State, massive road construction had been witnessed under Akeredolu even in places where people never imagined a road could be, roads had been constructed. Go to Akure, Akoko or go to Ore where a flyover is being constructed over the Benin-Ore-Sagamu highway. Apart from the road construction, the health sector is being touched with beneficial health policies and various health facilities being improved upon than what the governor met and ongoing constructions and upgrading of the hospitals in all the senatorial districts; even the blind could see the unprecedented industrial developments going on in Ondo State with many industrialists both local and foreign scrambling to come and set up industries in the state because of the friendly industrial climate that had been put in place since the present government came.
Before now, businessmen and real industrialists didn’t see Ondo State as an industrial haven despite the abundant natural and human resources that our State is blessed with. All that has changed now. Industrial concerns had sprung up here. Many industries had been set up, producing various items for the Ondo and Nigerian markets and giving employment opportunities to thousands and thousands of Ondo State indigenes. This is not a mere story. Go to the Ore axis and take a look at the massive industrial complex of the Chinese businessmen, who are taking advantage of the new industrial and business-friendly atmosphere created by our governor. Many others are constructing and many more are coming in to sign workable MOUs with our State to further create jobs for the teeming youths of our State. Ondo State had never had it this good in the area of industrial development.
Governorship election is fast approaching and political gladiators are closing ranks with a view to unseating Governor Akeredolu.
How prepared is your party to retain the seat?
I had tried to enumerate some developmental strides of Governor Akeredolu meant to bring a New Dawn into our State. These strides are uncountable and are visible for all to see in all sectors and spread all across the senatorial districts. No senatorial district had been excluded from these developmental agenda of Governor Akeredolu. Go to the Central senatorial district, the giant strides of Governor Akeredolu are visible everywhere. Go to the Northern senatorial district, you cannot miss Governor Akeredolu’s new dawn’s touch. And, if you come down to the Southern senatorial district, we have never had it so good. What I am saying, in essence, is that Governor Akeredolu is working and touching the lives of our people everywhere with the projects being implemented, here and there. And those projects will speak volume in his second term bid. He will remain unbeatable by any other aspirant.
And, if I may add this, the civil servants in Ondo State will never waver in giving massive votes to Governor Akeredolu. Remember before he came into office, civil servants in Ondo State were being owed as many as 7 to 8 months salaries. When Aketi came, he promised never to owe workers their due salaries and allowances and he had continued to live up to that promise. Not only that, he ensured that the backlog of salaries were offset and today, Ondo State civil servants are the better for it because Governor Akeredolu is a man of his words and he had continued to live up to that. Without mincing words, I can tell you, with all that Governor Akeredolu had done, he is on course for a second term in office and I truly don’t see anyone in Ondo State now, who is capable of unseating him from office based on what he had done and is still doing to better a lot of the people. I know Ondo State people would never vote for anyone or any party who would take them back to the days of unpaid salaries and infrastructural deficiency that we had witnessed before Akeredolu. You have listed some achievements of Governor Akeredolu, what are doing to complement the efforts of your Governor now that you are a serving Local Government Chairman?
My mission here as a Local Government Chairman is to replicate the efforts of Governor Akeredolu at the grassroots. I always tell every appointee of government to always ensure that he/she makes it his/her mission to go to the grassroots and propagate and replicate Governor Akeredolu’s efforts at the grassroots.
And since I came on board as chairman, I had been working hard to replicate the efforts of our Governor at the grassroots through various projects and policies that would make life meaningful to our people in Okitipupa. When we onboard, we began by sensitising our people on the environment and the need to keep the environment clean through regular sanitation exercise. That effort had paid off greatly. We also embarked on another sensitisation mission to let our people understand the need to pay their taxes and levies to the government so that the government could have the needed revenue to finance projects in various sectors. Our efforts had also seen us embark on operation zero potholes on roads in Okitipupa Local government, which is an effort personally driven by me to ensure that roads within Okitipupa are motorable and devoid of potholes. We are also very much active in creating a secure environment for our people in Okitipupa and ensure a crime-free society. And, we are doing this in liaison with all security apparatus at our disposal in Okitipupa, including the military because Okitipupa has a military base.
To further ensure a secure environment, the local government had continued to make sure the highways leading to Okitipupa are free of thick vegetation and forests on the two sides of the highways so that motorists can continue to have a clear view of the road ahead. One major factor that we had impeding our work in the local government had been the lack of facilities and tools which included lack of serviceable vehicles to power and ensure smooth workings of the local government. Most of our vehicles when we came had broken down and are in various stages of disrepair.
To the extent that I had been using my own personal car to function as a local government chairman. And to ensure we have a pool of working vehicles as a local government, we had embarked on resuscitating those hitherto unserviceable vehicles. Since the local government at present does not have the resources to buy brand new utility vehicles, we had decided to repair and make those vehicles work by engaging competent auto engineers to bring those vehicles back to life and the results are evident. Our local government is also complementing the efforts of the state in the areas of health to help meet the health needs of our people. And to also make us succeed in our service to the people, the local government under me has a sort of elders advisory committee in place which we constantly tap for knowledge in service delivery. We are doing a lot, and I can tell you we are meeting the needs of our people in various ways and they are happy with what we are doing so far at the grassroots.
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