Rekindled hopes in Ogun

WITH rekindled hope in the horizon, Ogun State has taken its pride among the comity of states driven by passion for a focused and qualitative governance. Yesterday is gone. The event of today determines the fortunes (or otherwise) of the future. With high expectations, the current administration of Prince Dapo Abiodun is leaving no stone unturned to make good its promise.  Taking cognizance of the essence of both the civil and public servants as central players in the smooth running of the day-to-day business of governance, Abiodun has begun to live up to expectations with his electoral promises. In keeping faith, three days after his assumption of office, his first major preoccupation was to have a heart-to-heart talk with the workforce, to hear where the shoe pinches them. Ranging from poor conditions of service, illegal deductions, outstanding leave bonuses, late payment in salaries and wages, to failure to address the Higher National Diploma (HND) certificates and Bachelor degrees dichotomy, the governor didn’t betray emotion, but empathised with the workers for their endurance over the past eight years.

While addressing hundreds of the workers, including local government staffers drawn from across the 20 councils of the state, at the Arcade Ground located at Okemosan, governor’s office, Abeokuta, on Monday, June 3, 2019, he said: “I understand your plight, but I am assuring you that my first priority is to ensure the prompt payment of your salaries and wages before the last working day of every month. Whether the federal allocation comes on time or not, it is the responsibility of our administration to pay as and when due.” True to type, the governor has paid both the May and June salaries. Not left out, he has also defrayed parts of the backlogs of the pensions the immediate past administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun owed the retirees. To a great extent, he has kept hopes alive to the responsibility of redeeming his avowed pledges.

Another foray is the education sector. According to the late sage and former Western Nigeria Premier, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, “the children of the poor you failed to train will never let your children have peace.” In a bid to restore the lost glory of the state that has produced great icons and pioneers, such as Chief Alexander Akintola Sapara-Williams (the first Nigerian lawyer), Hon Justice Olumuyiwa Jibowu (the first Nigerian Judge to sit on the Supreme Court bench), Sir Adetokunbo Ademola (the first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria), Chief Obafemi Awolowo (the first Nigerian lawyer to head a Regional Government), Chief Simeon Adebo (pioneer Permanent Secretary, Head of Civil Service and Permanent Representative of Nigeria at the United Nations), Prof Wole Soyinka (Black Africa’s first Nobel Laureate), Chief Adeoye Lambo (a one-time Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organisation), Dr Tai Solarin ((foremost educationist), Prof Anthony Asiwaju (renowned Historian) and many others, Abiodun pledged the commitment of the administration to embark on a complete overhaul of the educational system.

During a recent “Thanksgiving Service” to mark his electoral victory held at SS Peters Church (Anglican Communion), Ake, Abeokuta, Abiodun averred, “I said in my inaugural speech that we will declare an emergency on education. We have the largest number of tertiary and primary education in this country. We are, as I described in my speech, “what Boston is to the United States”  However, the  results of our students on both internal and external examinations have been on a decline. We have to do something about it. Our approach is not going to be half hazard. We have the benefit of the best of Ogun State brains where we put together our education committee. Our education sector was headed by one Professor Osho. You may know her. Their report has been submitted and I have been going through it and we are going to have an education submit and we will have an education master plan. So, our approach is not going to be half hazard. Be rest-assured that beyond having a befitting primary school in each ward as I promised, we are indeed going to have an education master plan that will allow us to plan exactly how we are going to deal with this trend we have seen in the last few years and make sure Ogun State restore back its glory as the number one state in terms of education in this country”.

Besides, he promised to take a holistic look at all the Model Colleges spread across the State with a view to converting some of them to vocational and technical training institutions. The protracted crisis that rocked the state-owned institution, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), which culminated  into industrial strike action, with no end in sight, became a source of worry. Without mincing words, the current administration took a far-reaching decision in respect of proffering lasting solutions to the impasse in order to ensure that the resources of the state are evenly distributed and judiciously appropriated. That informed the setting up of a committee on the issue. The committee headed by Professor Segun Awonusi is still sitting and is yet to conclude on its assignment.  The committee was set up, in view of what was inherited on the status of the two institutions, to ascertain the current operational status of the institutions; identify issues and challenges related to the establishment and operations of the two institutions; determine the viability and sustainability of the institutions on a long-term basis; and identify any other issue(s) related to the objectives of the assignment; and make recommendations for the consideration of the government.

While commenting over the setting up of the visitation panel to look into the crisis rocking the institution, Special Adviser (SA) Information, Alhaja Modele Sarafa-Yusuf, in a statement recently, noted, thus, “But for the avoidance of doubt, the following clarification on the action taken so far on Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH) and Ogun State Polytechnic Ipokia needs to be made: “This government inherited a protracted crisis at the MAPOLY over its status that had been changed to MAUSTECH by the last administration. Even MAUSTECH which was so established has nothing on ground over a year after its creation. There were no facilities to accommodate its upgrade to a degree-awarding institution. The last administration neither appointed a Governing Council to oversee its effective take-off nor put in place requisite academic and non-academic structures to run or administer the institution.

There is also no record that efforts were made to source for students for the institution. In truth, MAUSTECH, from what we inherited from the last administration, only exists in name. But all this while, academic activities had stalled at MAPOLY. The staff and students were in limbo as the law establishing it had been reviewed to pave the way for the emergence of MAUSTECH. Therefore, for the recent directive of the government that academic activities be returned to MAPOLY to be effective, the law establishing it  has to be re-enforced”.

Similar step was replicated at the state-owned Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE), Omu-Ijebu, to resolve a six-year-old lingering crisis. In its stead, the government set up a visitation panel headed by Prof Kamarudeen Balogun to proffer lasting solutions to the face-off. “Health is wealth”, as it is commonly said, the government has placed premium on the sector. Two weeks after his assumption of office, Abiodun made a surprise visit to the state-owned Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu-Remo, where he decried the deplorable dilapidated structures and obsolete teaching equipment of the 33-year-old institution.

To salvage the dwindling fortune of the teaching hospital, the governor inaugurated an administrative panel chaired by Dr Yemi Onabowale, Chief Medical Director (CMD), Reddington Hospital, Lagos, and charged it with the task of repositioning it to a world class medical facility. It is charged to review third party arrangements and determine their level of compliance, identify the challenges associated with the institution and come up with solutions that would move the institution forward. It terms of reference, include the assessment of the current operations of the hospital, in line with expectations as a teaching/tertiary institution, determining the state of facilities of the various units, departments, and determine quick wins and palliative actions to stem further deterioration of the institution and its facilities.  However, the governor believes in creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive that could lead to economic prosperity of the state.  “If the state prospers, the people prosper. We will take the issue security very serious and this is where we are going to require the support of all and sundry.  We can’t say we want to say that we want to increase the ranking of Ogun state in the global list of doing business index, if there are kidnapping, abduction, armed robbery, cultism and other forms of violent crimes all over the place.  So, we need to have a peaceful and secured state and we are deeply committed to that,” said the governor.

• Ogbonnikan is media consultant to the Ogun State governor.