Oyetola, Ayade win Blueprint Newspaper’s Governor of the Year awards

A national daily, Blueprint Newspaper has honoured Governor of Osun State, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola and his Cross River State counterpart, Governor Ben Ayade, as its Governor of the Year 2020 and 2021 respectively.

Both governors were presented with their awards on Thursday at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

Oyetola’s award is coming barely a week after he received an award as Governor of the Year 2020 from the Champion Newspapers.

Nigerian Tribune checks revealed that Business Day Newspaper had also last February crowned Oyetola as its Governor of the Year.

Deputy Governor of Osun State, Mr Benedict Alabi, who represented Governor Oyetola was presented with the award by Estu Nupe, Dr Yahaya Abubakar, who incidentally was the Royal Father of Day on the occasion.

Speaking with newsmen shortly after receiving the award, Oyetola said the award was “in recognition of the firm and productive partnership between our administration and the good people of Osun.”

Dedicating the award to the people of the state, Governor Oyetola said the honour accorded him and his team “will further motivate us to serve our people better and build a truly prosperous state.”

The governor who assured the people that prudence with public fund would remain his guiding principle further told journalists that, under his leadership, the state was gradually becoming investors’ haven in the country.

“Our administration assumed office 30 months ago with a clear-cut, holistic developmental agenda targeted at the revitalisation of our economy and setting it on the sure footing of sustainable progress.

“Despite the constraints caused by the five months of post-election litigation during the first year and the six months lockdown during our second year, we have remained exceptionally focused on delivering value to our people.

“For instance, our quest for the transformation of our economy led us to the hosting of the Economic and Investment Summit shortly after assuming office. The event provided us with an opportunity to share our development agenda with the organised private sector and to enlist their support in our journey to redefining the socio-economic climate in the state.

“So far so good, the gains are trickling in with an increasing number of investors berthing in the state.

“Some of the most notable gains of this initiative are the Ultra-modern Aluminium Factory in Ede, the Osun Ethanol Bio-Refinery Factory located in Ayekale and the International Trade Centre/Industrial Hub and Inland Port at Dagbolu Dry Port where construction work is ongoing and which promises to significantly change the business narrative in Osun and adjoining states.

“We are also working hard towards ensuring less dependence on the federal allocation. The strategy we are deploying is to capitalise on our comparative advantage in the sectors of agriculture, tourism and mining. As such, we have begun vigorous reforms in these key sectors alongside others, with a view to repositioning them for optimal performance.

“In the health sector also, we are already implementing perhaps the most ambitious intervention ever done by any state government in the history of our country. The intervention programme involves a total rehabilitation of Primary Health Centres across all the 332 Wards in Osun – one per ward.

“We have equipped them adequately with drugs and all the requisite medical equipment to aid the provision of the best healthcare possible. We have also followed this with the rehabilitation of nine general hospitals, among other notable interventions in tertiary healthcare.

“Our modest progress in infrastructure development is also worth mentioning. Since assuming office, we have been able to construct over 300 kilometres of roads, alongside other rehabilitative interventions. Although within the limit of our income, this would really appear like squeezing water out of the rock, we are undeterred all the same.

“Prosecuting these projects under these dire economic situations has been made possible owing to our alternative funding strategy, underscored by our private sector partnerships and the values of probity, transparency, accountability, and financial prudence that have defined our administration.”

Meanwhile, the organisers of the event said that the Cross River State governor clinched the 2021 award in recognition of his giant strides in agro-industrialisation in his state.

The Blueprint 10th anniversary/Impact Series and Award is one of the series of awards won by Governor Ayade, who had earlier won the Vanguard, TELL, Leadership, Businessday, Authority and Champion newspapers awards in the past.

Ayade, the newspaper said, emerged after a highly competitive evaluation process conducted by its Board of Editors, who it said singled out the governor for “his relentless and remarkable efforts to create a sustainable economy through aggressive industrialisation with a view to decoupling the state from over-reliance on federation allocation, where it earns the second least allocation in the federation.”

“According to Blueprint Newspapers, the award became necessary to recognize Ayade’s “commitment and demonstration of political will in the development of the economy of Cross River State, through massive industrialization which has changed the narrative of the state from a civil service state to an agri-business hub despite limited resources.”

While extolling Ayade’s pragmatic and purposeful transformation in all segments of the state’s socio-economic lives which include industrialization, agriculture, physical infrastructure, education, healthcare and welfare, the organisers observed that Governor Ayade’s deep vision was responsible for the birthing of numerous completed and ongoing industries in the state, leading to the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs with consequential prosperity on the people.

“All these industries, when mainstreamed, are expected to not only turn around the economy of Cross River, wean the state off dependence on monthly federal allocation, but also set her on the path of financial independence,” the organisers said.

Presenting the Best Governor on Agro-Industrialisation award to Ayade, the Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan commended the governor for showing exemplary leadership and sincere commitment to transforming Cross River State.

In his response, Ayade, while thanking the organisers for the award, noted that “the import is that it is going to challenge me to do much more for my people and most interestingly, because we are bringing innovations into the industrial revolution, particularly in the agric subsection.

“I think Cross River will have a lot to show for this. Besides, the state has a vast landmass and I think that this award will challenge me to develop more of the landmass and bring food sufficiency to the country,” Ayade promised.

Governor Ayade added that the award “also goes to how APC was the right place and which is why it is already heralding a lot of good luck and a lot of awards; an indication that it is good luck all the way.

“I am barely two weeks in the party and I am getting recognition and I think that is great for me and I think that it is also a motivation that I should take advantage of this award and do more. It highlights the fact that we moved to APC to actually effect the change which is the symbol of our great party,” he enthused.

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