Chief Dayo Adeneye, Ogun State Commissioner for Information & Strategy with his Principal, Gov. Amosun at a Public Event |
Commissioner for Information & Strategy, Ogun State—South West Nigeria. The
ex-Media baron cum On-Air Personality extra-ordinary has been in the saddle
with his colleagues, working tirelessly with their boss, His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (FCA, CON) in
his golden effort to make Ogun State a model state before 2019. Governor
Amosun who clocked 59 years on Wednesday January 25th, 2017 is one fastidous public servant who
never rest on his oars as he leads his team from one project/innovation to
another under his 5 Point Agenda initiative. And since Chief Adeneye took over as the Chief Spokesman of the state
sometimes in 2015, it has been work, work, work and hard work. Penultimate weekend,
the effervescent media guru turn
politician gave your Africa’s Number 1 Celebrity Encounter blog, Asabeafrika a 30 minutes interview
during a chanced encounter in Lagos. We asked him many things about Ogun State,
his principal and the ongoing projects and success recorded so far across the
state. He didn’t turn down any of our question as he replied all verbatim. He told us what makes his
Principal, Governor Amosun thick as
a political leader and a State Chief Executive
Officer. Enjoy the excerpts.
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His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (FCA, CON) Governor of Ogun State |
year, economically. As the Chief Spokesman of Ogun State, what do you see the New Year 2017 offering the populace
in terms of progress and development?
The Map of Ogun State |
Almighty be the glory for grace to see another year. That being said, agreeably
2016 was a tough year everywhere. Economically, it was a tough year across the
country, on the continent and across the world especially with mild recession
here and there. We hope that 2017 will be much better as we aim to re-bound,
recover and deliver the dividends of democracy by empowering our people,
creating employments and find other ways to help cushion the effect of this
recession. 2017 will definitely be a better year.
Chief Dayo Adeneye, Ogun State Commissioner for Information & Strategy |
initiated lofty urban renewal projects in the last 5 years but 2016 seemingly
slowed some of those projects down, especially the fly over bridges across the
state. What will be the fate of these projects in 2017?
times, we still managed to get quite a lot done in 2016. The first two quarters
of the year, you will recall that we were very, very, very busy. Yes, due to
the mild recession and paucity of funds which affected national economy
generally, there was a little bit of slow down on some capital projects in the
state. But in other areas, we are just as active as you can think of. In Ogun State, we cherish standard.
Remember that we have our 5 cardinal programs which are education, efficient
health care delivery, infrastructural development, Agricultural development
that leads to industrialization. So, these cardinal programs serve as the model
for us. For instance, in education, we launched a couple of our model schools
and also had summer camp in them. In 2016, Olabisi Onabanjo University was
adjudged as the best state owned university. The Ogun State Ministry ofHealth was recognized and won several awards
for some of our health initiatives namely ‘Gbomoro’
and ‘Araya’. That earned us the
attention of the Federal Ministry of Health providing the basis to scale it up.
The Commissioner, Chief Dayo Adeneye taking a look into a program of event with his Principal at a Public Outing |
The Federal Ministry of Health wanted to see what we were doing right in Ogun State so that they can syndicate
the idea in other states of the federation. So, I can say we didn’t fold our
arm and go to sleep, saying ‘oh, because there is a lull in the economy, we won’t
do anything’. We have been thinking outside the box. We have been looking for
ways to continue to grow our IGR, and we thank God because of the innovations
that this administration had put in place since 2011 like our
Ogun State hosts an Investors’ Forum from time to time |
Investors Forum
which is an avenue to encourage and invite investors from across the globe to
the economic potentials of Ogun State,
investors have so far kept pouring in. We are getting partners from Germany,France and other international corporations that want to partner
with us to help us to continue to develop Ogun
State and we look forward to more of that in 2017.
a straight competition with Lagos in terms of rapid industrialization. Despite
your humble IGR status, the state seems to have done well in terms of driving
investors in. What is the secret of this dynamism?
The Governor and The Strategy Commissioner during an outing |
think we are in competition with anybody; let me state that first and foremost.
Yes, our neighbors are important to us. Lagos
remains a commercial capital of Nigeria
but Ogun state with over 500
industries established and over 111 situated in the state in the last five
years, and most of them have invested between two hundred million dollars to two
billion dollars. So, that is a lot of investment that is a lot of money.
Those industries that are situated in Ogun
State employ our people, they pay taxes. So, they add value to our employment
generation scheme and wealth creation as well. We are not competing with any
state, we continue to think up ways to increase economic development and
generate employment for our citizens. Because of some of these structures for
instance, we invested massively on security. Nobody will come anywhere without
assurance, I am sure you yourself, you won’t want to visit any particular
location whether it is Abeokuta or Sagamu, where you feel unsafe. So, we
have invested massively in security. Our government re-jigged the security
apparatus and the security architecture of Ogun
state in 2011 when we came in. So, we pride ourselves in being a very secured
state. We also have the human resources, what we call ‘the people’s power’ to
work and power these industries. So, in a nutshell,we have the human resources
these companies need. We have the available lands. All these factors have
positioned Ogun in a very good
position to attract all these investors.
Ogun is 40 Years Plus… |
appear that Ogun got it right in the townships and urban areas. But in recent
times, there have been series of kidnap activities in the water bed areas like
the recent Nigeria-Turkish International School kidnap saga at River-View
estate, Isheri and other nefarious activities by kidnappers and criminals in
the outskirts of the state. Is there any security plan to halt all these?
Chief Dayo Adeneye explaining a point to His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (FCA, CON) |
said earlier, security is something we don’t take lightly. But you will agree
with me that security strategies are like war strategies, you enjoy the result
with a great deal of secrecy. For security reasons we cannot tell you that ‘this and this is what we have in place’.
It is not everything about security that you can divulge to the public but I
can sincerely tell you that our security agencies from the Police to the Army,
the Civil Defense Corps down to the DSS, are all up to the task and they are
situated in various parts of the state to maintain peace, law and order. Also,
late last year we passed the land grabbers/kidnapping and cultism law. So,
anybody who comes to Ogun state now
with the intention of committing crime be it kidnapping, armed robbery or participating
in any unlawful activity will have themselves to blame. If you come into Ogun state now and you want to conduct
business, if you are peaceful and law abiding, you have nothing to fear.
The Ogun State Commissioner for Information & Strategy, Chief Dayo Adeneye in his Office |
Those
are the things that have endeared Ogun
State to visitors. I mean, as a state, we have the highest record of visitors’
patronage every month. I mean, which other state do you know in Nigeria that takes in two to three
million visitors every month? Within that Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway axis you know the number of churches we have there and each of
those churches takes in a million to two million people every month. So, we
receive two to three million visitors and we have to cater for them. Your
security regime must be tight to be able to do that and if they don’t feel
secured, they won’t come. So, believe me, our security agencies are up to the
task.
of Ogun state. Attractive places like
the Olumo Rock keeps drawing
investment on tourism on a yearly basis how have you been able to upgrade your
tourism potential in other areas?
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a state of many firsts. Like my governor will say‘we are Ogun State’and we have what we call ‘the Ogun Standard’.
Look, many giants of nation building come from Ogun state. Former Presidents, elder statesmen, the first professor
of medicine, the first noble laureate, the first woman to drive a car or own a
car in Africa, the list is endless. From the biggest musicians you can name, is
it Fela Anikulapo Kuti?OrYusuf Olatunji or Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, they are numerous. When you talk
about the theater industry, names like that of the late Baba Hubert Ogunde. So, Ogun State is so rich especially in
terms of our culture and our heritage. We were the first state to have access
to western education; we were the first to have a semblance of what is called
political government under the Egba
Confederation of those days. We have that pedigree, we have that heritage, and
it is nothing new to what we are doing now.
Chief Dayo Adeneye at Work… |
prominent issue for discuss. Most of the roads in the urban areas are solid and
okay. But the outskirts like Sango-Ota, Alagbole and other border towns
seems to be begging for attention. What is your government going to do to
achieve a holistic success in road network across Ogun in 2017?
all have seen what is going on in Aiyetoro,
in Sagamu and Ijebu-Ode and the question is ‘please,
when are you going to help us pay attention to the border towns like Alagbole,
Akute and Sango-Ota?’ You will see that already, when you talk about Sango-Ota, Ojodu towards that channel, you will see that work started in
earnest sometimes back. But however, because of where we found ourselves in
terms of funds as a result of general economic lull things slowed down. But
thank God, we have been getting some positive response and positive reach-out
from some financial institutions that want to partner with us to help us
continue our projects. So, by the special grace of God, we are certain of
maximum achievements in those areas soon. Look, there is none of our projects
you will inspect at least, you will see 60 to 70% completion which shows great
determination to complete. As a matter of fact, early last year, the minister
of transportation, Honorable Rotimi
Amaechi paid a visit to the state, he actually came twice to confirm projects
done by the State on behalf of the Federal Government and as at when he left,
they were able to verify over a hundred billion naira of investment that the
state has incurred on behalf of the Federal Government.
Ogun State is a Standard State |
So, that tells you that
we have done fantastically well in terms of infrastructure especially road
network. That being said, we pray that things will pick up and they are
beginning to pick up, and that will enable us to finish well. Once those
bridges are in place you will see the beauty of our vision. Like when you talk
about Sango- Ojodu road, there are
about five bridges being constructed in that axis alone, the least being at
about 60% completion. So, most of them are between 60 to 70-75% complete. Once
we complete those bridges, the roads will just take a matter of months. What we
demand from our people are prayers that this same administration that started
it, that God will enable us to find the wherewithal, the funds, the willing
partners and the grace to be able to complete those projects. By the special
grace of God, we will finish the project and attack our rural roads. We know we
have done well in the urban cities which of course we have to achieve. Any
investor worth his salt, the first place they want to come to is your capital
city and when they come into your capital city and they see that it is nothing
to write home about in terms of urban aesthetics and good road technology they
will go because first impression counts. Any moment from now, you will begin to
see a lot of work and a lot of activities. We are going to be doing over a
hundred rural roads because those rural roads create access for farmers to be
able to move goods and products from the farms to the various markets and the
cities as well. So, we pray that God will help us to increase our capacity in
terms of finance so that we can achieve our objectives.
Senator Ibikunle Amosun is probably the most powerful and influential
politician in Yoruba land at the moment. In fact, some sections of the media
tagged him as one of the most influential Governors in Nigeria after the likes
of Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State. How do you react to this
perception?
Senator Ibikunle Amosun….The Standard Governor of Ogun State |
just tell you that the man is very fastidious. Look, he has a vision of where
he wants to take Ogun State to, and
from 2011 he has shown that in terms of the delivery of the 5 cardinal programs
that I mentioned earlier. And he would continue to tell you if you ever ask;
that that is his main area of concentration. It is to develop Ogun State and to bring Ogun State to the forefront in the
comity of states across Nigeria. He
wants Ogun not to just be the
industrial hub of Nigeria but of West
Africa. He wants our products and our foods to be exported, not just put
security for Ogun state but for Ogun to be developed. He wants Ogun to be the next Dubai. He wants any of our cities in Abeokuta, Ijebu-Ode or Sagamu to be just like any city you
find in Europe. He remains committed
to that and because he has gotten that right, yes, his name has been mentioned
in places outside the state which is a plus for us. It is a plus for Ogun State helping to attract the right
people in terms of our partners and investors to Ogun State.
His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun with Justice Dahiru Musdapha (Rtd) |
your principal added a Year and even
though it was a low key event people
still talked about it. A lot of people
see Senator Ibikunle Amosun as one workaholic of a man who does not rest on his
oars, a man always wearing his long cap for long projects. But as a close
worker how would you define your boss?
Gov. Amosun, Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Ex-Speaker Dimeji Bankole and Chief Alani Bankole |
Ibikunle Amosun
that most people do not know is a family man to the core. He is very dutiful,
that we know; he is a hard worker. He barely sleeps as far as we know. He walks
great distances and he works longer hours. But beside that, he is a very
compassionate human being. He is a very funny individual. Most people don’t get
to see the funny side of him. But even in Exco ( Executive Coucil Meetings)
when he sees that we are looking tired, he might just say something witty and
we will break out into laughter session, making us feel a bit relaxed. He is a
good leader. A good leader knows when to ease off tension and be tough. He is
one person that leads by example. He doesn’t say ‘you, one, two, three, go and
do it’. He says ‘Let’s go and do it’.
Whether it is 12am orit is 1am, whether we are going to take a look at a bridge
in Sagamu or we are going to look at
one bad road in Lafenwa or we are
going to Aiyetoro to inspect an
infrastructure or we are going to a school where something just happened, he
leads. He is always at the forefront. It is ‘follow
me, let’s go’. And when you have
a leader like that, you can’t help but buy into his vision and follow it
through. I will rather follow a leader that says ‘do as i do’ not ‘do as I
say’. And that is very, very important aspect of his leadership trait.
kept in Ogun after his reign? Like Chief Alani Bankole said recently during his
75th birthday that Senator Amosun is the Governor who brought peace
and development to Ogun State?
Governor Ibikunle Amosun (FCA, CON) with Chief Alani Saurau Bankole |
government is a continuum and there is no human being that is indispensable. His
Excellency will always say he wants to leave a system driven government behind.
He runs a system driven environment where it is not just an individual that
matters but a system of governance in place. Look at what transpired in America recently, if we can imbibe that,
I don’t think Ogun State has anything
to worry about. I think most of the things he has put in place, the structures,
the system of government and all that will stand the test of time. I think it
will be tough for the next individual that comes in, to just come and up root
anything. Of course, the citizens themselves, now that they have tasted the
good side of development, are not just going to go to sleep and let allow any individual
in whatever form, maybe governor or whatever to rob them of what they have
gotten used to. That being said, I think we will be okay in Ogun State. Senator Amosun is living behind a dynamic system that will be too
sophisticated for anyone without his pedigree to undo.
Gov. Amosun, Speaker Yakubu Dogara & Chief Alani Bankole |
the government in 2017?
lot scheduled to happen in 2017. Just like I said, we are not saying because of
dwindling revenues or because there is a recession and we are just going to go
to sleep and surrender. There is so much lined up for this year like I said, we
are going to start with our rural roads, and we are going to go back to our
projects, roads, streets, the bridges and many more. It is going to be a very
busy year. We are going to further
upscale our health care delivery and launch more of our model schools. We have
15 so far, we are going to do even more by the special grace of God. That being
said, we are concerned about our youth. There is a lot of unemployment and
underemployment, especially among our youths. And from recent statistics, the
youth constitute about 60 to 70% of our population meaning we must pay special
attention to them, and this administration has done that through its
commitments to education. We are one of the few states that spend close to 30%
of our annual budget on education. In this wish we are going to be having our
youth summit in the next couple of weeks called the “Ogun Youth Summit” where we are going to gather our youths and we
are going to talk with them, we are going to call in mentors, entrepreneurs and
people who have succeeded in business, People who can talk to them and give
them guidance as to how to think outside the box and finding a way for
themselves giving the tough situation that we have found ourselves not just as
a state but as a country. That will also avail us the opportunity to also
listen to our youth, to engage them and let us also listen to what they want.
If a Mark
Zukerberg can leave America
and come to Nigeria, just because of
this same youth, to take a look at what they are doing for themselves in Yaba there, it behooves us as a
government to also get them together and hear from them. Let us know what they
are thinking, where they are going, because it is their turn. We are going to
hand over the baton of governance someday soon to them but we must empower them
and put them in the right place so that they can conveniently take off and run
this country when we are getting to our old age. So, we are going to have our
youth summit and that we hope will set the phase for the betterment of our youth
(The Youth Summit took place last weekend)
Deputy Speaker Lasun, Governor Amosun and Speaker Yakubu Dogara |