Interview with The Executive Governor of Ogun State Senator Ibikunle Amosun FCA.


How well are you combining all the various infrastructure development projects embarked upon by your administration with what is now known in the South west geo- political zone as politics a of Stomach Infrastructure?

I will continue to maintain my position that it will be an insult on our people to reduce governance to the distribution of kerosene and rice. It is an insult that will undermine the memory of the great leaders that our state has produced. While I agree that Governance is about the people but it cannot be reduced to that level. 
The problem is that over the years, governments have failed and poverty has escalated. Holistic solutions that are needed to address the issue of unemployment have been neglected or ignored. The issue of unemployment is widespread and that makes poverty to escalate in the land. The unemployed in Ogun State will be close to 500,000 because of the presence of many higher institutions in the state and that is very bad for us. 
We have to go back to the basics and address those issues that brought us to this sorry pass. We should start creating wealth for the people. It is not about giving them fish but teaching them how to fish and create the enabling environment for them to be productive. The poverty level is too high and it won't be tackled by distributing rice. I give rice too. Yes, I give rice to people during festive periods and I have been doing that long before I started playing partisan politics. It is not to be giving rice to secure votes during elections. That is bad. That is fraudulent. That is an insult to our people. 
But the fact remains that the unemployment rate is too high. That is what we need to address as government.
When we came in, we said we wanted to employ 10,000 people for civil service jobs but close to 70,000 people applied. In fact, at a point we had to stop allowing people to apply because it was simply overwhelming. Recently, we announced that we would recruit 2000 environmental marshals and over 50,000 people including doctorate degree holders applied. That is dangerous for us as a nation. We are giving too much stress to our youths. The government must put in place a holistic approach to address the issue of poverty.

What lessons did you learn from the Ekiti elections?

I disagree that the good people of Ekiti voted the way they did because some people gave them rice. The people of Ekiti are very educated. There must be some other things that happened that people are yet to know and appreciate. We have some lessons we have picked from Ekiti episode which we have reflected.

What are you then doing to address the issue of poverty and unemployment?

In Ogun state, what i am doing is to provide the enabling environment through solid infrastructure that will serve as catalyst for industrialisation. We are doing this by working on our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). I inherited an IGR of N730m in 2011 and with the help of God and the support of the good people of Ogun State, we are now on average of N5.2bn per month.  We attained this level without inconveniencing our people. We have to think out of the box to generate money. This is why we have been able to do so many things to improve the welfare of our people. We realise we need to attract investors to Ogun state.  I am happy to say there are 58 new companies now in Ogun state and more are still coming. We go out of our way to invite the companies to come to Ogun State. Ogun State is now an industrial hub. We have the largest industrial base inNigeria presently. Interestingly, as these companies come in, they employ our people, build their capacity and in turn increased our GDP. Again, we have many youth empowerment programmes aimed at creating entrepreneurs out of our youths. Our Ministries of Commerce and Industry, Women Affairs and Social Development, Community Development and Co-operatives, Agriculture, Vocational Education Board as well as The Uplift Foundation run by my Wife have many entrepreneurial development programmes aimed at making youths self employed and becoming employers of labour.

What is the contribution of the Agriculture sector to the efforts to rebuild the economy of Ogun State?

Our agriculture policy is maturing now. I can say that we have about 3000 youths who are in the agriculture sector. We are partnering with the Bank of Industries to provide finance for our young graduates to encourage and attract them to Agriculture. We have graduate agricultural scheme in all the three senatorial districts. We give them land and money and implements and they are encouraged to employ some people to assist them. We have 16, 409.26 square kilometers of land, 80 percent of which is arable.So, we know that if we strategise properly we can have comparative advantage in agricultural production
Lagos State even requested for one thousand hectares of land to cultivate rice in Eggua and we too have allocated 10,000 hectares for the cultivation of rice in the same area. There is a healthy competition going on in Eggua now. Our people will be employed and the local economy of that area is being positively affected. We also have cassava farm in Ibiade and we are about to start planting on a 20 hectares cashew farm in Afon. Our Green House technology farm in Kotopo is already producing pepper and tomato that are already being sold in the market. Our intervention in the areas of poultry, fishery and piggery are also yielding fruits.
We have rice mills ready and I must mention too that the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina is assisting the state in the area of rice and cassava.
Today in cassava production we are number one in Nigeria. Cassava is one reason why some companies are coming into Ogun State Our goal is to feed Lagos, house Lagos, move Lagos and possibly, clothe Lagos.
We are working on housing too. Already, we have four housing estates that are about 80 percent completed. They include the Orange Valley, Plainfields, both in Oke Mosan in Abeokuta, AAK Degun MITROS Estate, Laderin and OPIC Estate, Agbara. There are two others in Makun and Isheri that are about to begin. In Nigeria, everybody struggles to buy land, build houses and get Certificate of Occupancy but do they do that in UK or USA? No, it is not like that. There are houses for all categories of people and status. Our own situation is pathetic as there exist a huge housing deficit as government has failed in the area of housing and there cannot be a vacuum. People can’t stay under the sun; they must get land and build for themselves. Government seems to have surrendered. And it is a shame. People now build anyhow even without planning.
 
The on-going Sango-Ojodu Road is causing inconveniences to the residents. When do you hope to complete the construction?

We have to make the Sango-Ojodu-Abiodun road a six-lane road because we plan for a light rail system that will pass through that area. Initially it was to be a 4-lane road but we have to re-plan and re-design it. It was to cost N40bn then and now will cost about  N70bn.  We do not have the money. So, we are constructing it in phases but we will construct it over a period of three and a half years. It is a huge investment but we will install toll gates on it to enable us pay for the cost of the road construction and effective maintenance of the road over the years.
 
The demolition of structures for road construction work is a bold effort. How have you handled the fallout and payment of compensation?

The role of government is to be fair and just. In our urban renewal drive, we have reasons to demolish some structures to give way for the roads we are to build. In the first of such roads that we completed, the Ibara - Sokori-Totoro road, five structures that have to do with me personally and members of my family were affected. Three belonging to former President Olusegun Obasanjo were affected. But today Baba prays for me because we didn’t demolish the structures and leave the work undone. Several kilometres of road and bridges are being built across the state to raise the infrastructure profile of our state and attract investors. 
When we started, a lot of people were unhappy with us calling us several names. Even some party people said it will affect our party negatively as we are not likely to have fund for the construction of the roads.f But today, they have seen the reason why those structures must give way to the roads. They have seen the work that is going on and people appreciate it.

We give compensation to home owners whose properties were affected irrespective of whether you have the necessary documents. This is Ogun State and we recognise that we cannot subject our people to the conditions attached to such exercise inother places.  So, we have to pay compensation. What we do in some instance is to build completely new houses for some very old very vulnerable people whose homes were demolished. 
The abuse by some people over these tough decisions doesn’t have impact on me. I usually plead with our people that you cannot make an omelette without breaking the egg. I take inspiration from the fact that Pa Obafemi Awolowo was thoroughly abused when he commenced the construction of the 25-storey Cocoa House building in Ibadan. Women took to the streets to protest. Today, that building defines the entire landscape of the whole of  South-west zone, even including Lagos. One should not be deterred by criticism if you are sure of what you are doing and you are acting sincerely, for altruistic reasons.
 
There are accusations by the opposition that the cost of your road construction is too high and that you are borrowing heavily to fund the construction work.
All the roads we are constructing are of world standard and the cost is the lowest in Nigeria. I challenge anyone to investigate this claim and prove me wrong. We deliver high quality at low cost to the people of Ogun State. Our Ogun Standard roads come with six lane minimum, there are eight to ten lane boulevard. There are drains on both sides, walkways, median, street lights, green areas and bus stops. Those who cannot comprehend the financial management strategy that is helping us to handle all these completed and on-going gigantic projects are the ones shouting about phantom N300 billion loans. Our debt profile hovers between N37bn and N40bn because we pay back regularly and I want to challenge those who cry about N300bn loan to provide the names of the banks where they have helped us to secure such loans.

SIA