By Banji Ayoola
Strings of monumental achievements in all sectors of Ondo state’s economy including industrial and statewide infrastructural development, with the ongoing novel Port Ondo, Bitumen and Araromi Seaside to Ibeju Lekki, Lagos legacy projects, among several others just within three and half years, are what the state Government believes as enough reasons to return Governor Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, SAN for a second term in the forthcoming October 10 election. In this exclusive interview with The Radiance, government reeled out a long list containing among others, the construction of over 400 kilometres of roads, the Ondo Linyi in Ore industrial hub, having six industries with several factories, which, already, are producing and employing many youths from the state. In fact, it declared that apart from the administration of the revered late Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin in the Second Republic, which established many industries that are now moribund due to neglect by successive administrations, no administration, whether military or civilian, has ever made such trans-formative changes in the state’s economy. The Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief Olugbenga Ale, who explained these reasons on behalf of Government, also debunks the allegations making the rounds that the governor sidelined party leaders and people of the state in favour of his relatives and in laws in the award of contracts. He spoke with Banji Ayoola.
Congratulations that the governor has recovered from COVID-19 infection.
We thank God for that.
Do you have anything to say to the people who were anxious while he was away in self isolation?
When somebody says he has tested positive, the normal protocol is to go into self isolation. It’s not strange; it’s not ordinary, and the day he tested positive, the doctors who attended to him, gave him the drugs and told him that in four or five days, they would come back and do a follow up test. In any case when he was in self isolation, he told the whole world that he was asymptomatic. He was not down physically; just that the test showed that he was positive. So he was still able to conduct the activities of his office. Nothing stopped. So, I never knew why people were anxious; but we thank God that he has fully recovered, and he is back at his table.
How has it been handling your hectic duties all along?
We thank God for the grace of life; and we thank Him that somehow He had prepared me for this job. You know yourself a little about my background. I have been in this service; I served here for 35 years, the greater percentage of which was done at the level of government. And when I say government, I mean at cabinet level. With those experiences garnered and by God’s grace, the training I had, all these prepared me for this job.
The job itself has been made easier by the number of lieutenants, SSAs, SAs that are assisting us here. All these SSAs I can use for any job. We can give them responsibilities. We give them assignments and many of them are very qualified in their own rights. So with all these, they have made the job easier. And I can also use anybody within the civil service. My background knowledge of the civil service let me know that if an assignment comes, I know who to call, I know where to face; I know what to look for, and by the grace of God, there is the good health that God has granted me. All these have been assisting me in this job.
Could you share your experience of working closely with Governor Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu?
It’s been a very rewarding experience working with him. It’s been very smooth working with him. If you are far from the governor, if you are not close, you may misread him. He’s a man who knows his onions; he’s a man who has empathy for the people, both the people of the state and those of us who are working with him. He understands the job. And mind you, this is not his first time in government. He has been in government in the past as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state. With this background, he knows how to relate to us. He is highly intellectual, very urbane. He is a great thinker, very deep thinker. So when you are talking with him, it’s very easy for him to understand; you don’t have to labour so much for you to convince him on any issue. And in any case, if there is anything he doesn’t believe, he may not take it; but when there is a superior argument, he’s always ready to give in.
What are his specific contributions to the development of Ondo State; what are those things he has done differently from his predecessors?
We thank God for the knowledge He has given him. In everything he does, we have seen the Hand of God. When we came into office, it is no more news that we inherited a lot of debts. If the public is not aware of any, they are aware of the seven months’ salaries owed. And if a previous government owed as much as seven months’ salaries, you can imagine what it would owe on ongoing projects and other commitments. Because of this, taking off was very rough. But somehow, God gave him the spirit to think that we have to do things differently; there must be a paradigm shift from how we had been operating especially in contract administration and award system.
Before, when you awarded a contract, you gave mobilisation of 30 or 50 percent, depending on who is on the seat saddle. But there was even no money to start with. So he had to call that we had to have a paradigm shift. We now had to be calling the contractors in. “Now we have job for you, we can only give you if you can go and mobilise funds and start the job on your own; and you must have done over 30 percent of the job before you can ask for any payment.” As if all the contractors were already waiting for such instructions, many of them showed interest; and that is what you are seeing today. It has its own advantage. The advantage is that no contractor would ever come and do a shoddy job because they know that these jobs they are doing have not been paid for.
You would have seen the quality of roads constructed in this state. The quality, the drainage, the artwork, asphalt overlay, everything, the totality of the job on the roads. None of all those who have been criticising Akeredolu has criticised him for the quality of the jobs. None of them has said “this job is not good.” None of them has said he has not done good jobs. He has done a lot in the area of infrastructure. Many people think that he would not be able to perform in that area; but even our cynics now believe that he has done enough. We have done over 400 kilometres of roads in about three years. Even those who were here for eight years never achieved that. You can be sure, that is a monumental achievement.
When you go into the area of industrialisation, we did a critical analysis of the moribund industries we had in the state. If you look at Oluwa Glass, it’s gone; Ifon Ceramics is gone. When we looked at all these things, we knew that to say you want to revive them would be a difficult task. That is why he had to think out of the box, moved outside the state to woo investors; and the story is a very palatable one today. If you have been to Ondo Linyi in Ore industrial hub, you would have seen a number of factories we have there: cassava to ethanol, vehicle assembly plant, medium density fiber, high density fiber, six industries, not in the pipeline, that have started production and employing the youths of this state. If you get to that place, you would think you are at the market place; you would see the sea of heads that are working in Ondo Linyi.
Tell me, since the time of Baba Ajasin, who established those industries I referred to earlier on, no other governor, I repeat, no other governor, has recorded such achievements. We have had many military governors and many civilian governors. No one, we cannot point to any industry in this state that they sited; but within three and a half years, Akeredolu has established many industries.
If you go to Education, when he got here, he said that he would not criticise anybody for embarking on mega schools, but that would not be his style, because he believes that mega schools would not go round; that even many of the mega schools that were already in place then were under utilised because they did not have enough students. And many of the schools in the rural areas in other cities had become dilapidated. He took it on his own that Education should be the bedrock of development. Because of this, we did a lot; he has done a lot in renovation of primary schools. As a follow up to that now, he wants to look at the personnel, the teachers because you have to complement those physical structures with good teachers. You have seen that the process of employment is on now, even if it is being criticised by cynics who would never see anything good in anything the government does.
If you go to the area of Health, he has done his best. When we came on board, we only had Mother and Child Hospital in Akure and Ondo. We have expanded this now to all the three senatorial districts. We now have Mother and Child Hospital in Owo and Okitipupa. And look at what we have done in creating a Teaching Hospital. Up to the time we came on board, Ondo State remained the only state in the South West without a teaching hospital. We have established it. We have one in Ondo. We also have one in Akure here.
I don’t know if you have visited the place. You need to visit to see the kind of infrastructural development that is taking place in the teaching hospital. It is not just infrastructural development; very up to date medical equipment are being installed. Outside the state, the governor made personal visits to America to bring in many hospital equipment, both consumables and equipment. We bought about 40 ft container. About 26 of them were shared to all the hospitals in the state. That is to tell you he cares about his people.
Even in human capital development, the civil service, because we believe that the quality of service you have would depend on the kind of civil service you have. Many civil servants are being trained. They are being given their welfare. Look at the area of salary. As at today, we have paid our salaries up to date. We have paid up to June. Today is 9th July. We have paid up to date. Out of the seven months salaries we inherited, Mr. Governor has paid six; and he has even made a promise to the workers in the state that he would pay the last one before he finishes his first term, even if he has to go and borrow. He has made that commitment to them.
So, generally speaking, the administration of Akeredolu is people-centred. Despite the criticisms that we have from our party men that he is not giving them the welfare, he has tried his best.
If I must tell you, when the first set of contracts were awarded by SUBEB, many of our party members were given consideration. Even all the 203 wards in the state were given consideration, all in the attempt to make sure that the welfare of the people is addressed.
There is a funny thing that has been going on. People say that Akeredolu has been giving contracts to the Igbos. I laugh. The problem we have with our people is that, I am sorry if I have to say it: some of us are lazy. Many of us don’t have business acumen, business attributes. Many of those who got these contracts sold them. And you know, these Igbo guys who have this money bought these contracts from them. When people now see them on sites, they say we give contracts to Igbos. We didn’t give them contracts, not even to one of them.
We have even asked the chairman of SUBEB to print out all those who benefitted from these awards. There are one or two Igbos who had been having business relationship with Ondo state government ever before Aketi came on board. There is one who is called NAO. He had been having business relationship with Agagu, with Mimiko. It is that one that extended to this administration. So, I don’t know how people would be criticising us for giving contracts to Igbos. We are not. We still give priority attention to the people of the state. Even the road contracts that we are awarding, not one road contract has been awarded to an Igbo contractor. If there is one, let those who know, mention the road and show the proof. So, to say that Akeredolu does not have the welfare of people at heart is over the bar, is not right.
Now, what turns round the economy of the state is the amount of money we pump into the economy every month through salary payment. When we pay salary, everybody benefits because it has its own spiral effect on everybody. The market woman would have her own share; the barber, tailor would each have their own share just because the civil servants are paid.
Apart from that, we have done a lot in micro credit, giving loans to the people, to the market women. These are things that can have direct impact on the people. This idea of Aketi not sharing money is alien to us. If people had been doing it in the past, that is not his own style. That has been the area where he has been having issues with some leaders of the party.
If you look critically, you would see that the man on the streets wants Aketi because he is attending to their welfare. The roads we are constructing are giving a turn around to the economy of the state. The houses on many streets that had bad roads in the past, that have now been constructed, have appreciated in value. Those selling by the roadsides are now having greater sales. These are the real effects of our activities on the economy of the state.
If some people are complaining that Aketi is not giving them money to share to their followers, that is unfortunate. Somebody has resigned from the government. He is not complaining that Akure roads are not tarred; he is not complaining that schools in Akure are not renovated. He is saying that Aketi is not giving him money to give to his followers. Is he not, let me just leave that description.
But the man on the streets knows who his friend is. He knows who his enemy is; and they know that Aketi is their friend. Aketi has been doing his utmost to turn around the fortunes of the state. He needs to do more because there are still some critical projects which should have been on but have not seen the light of the day. Let’s talk of Port Ondo which we want to establish in the South. Let’s talk of our bitumen project. These are at very advanced stages which should not be truncated.
Aketi should be returned so that if we can have Port Ondo, as the governor would say: ti oju o ba ti eyin igbeti, oju o le ti Eko. (One who has a strong and reliable economic venture to fall back on at the end of the day never runs into shame.) That Port Ondo would be our own eyin igbeti. It is what would give a total turn around to the economy of the state. All the boys you see on the streets would migrate to the south and begin to work. The value of life would improve.
Then, when we talk of the bitumen project, this is a project that has always been there. The only attempt made at giving value to the bitumen project was made by the late Dr Olusegun Agagu. But he didn’t achieve much. We have gone far now. We have got investors. They are already on site. All we need to do is to allow Aketi to continue this project and make sure that this thing sees the light of the day.
I would also like to quote my governor too. Everybody is not like Aketi who would not want to abandon any project. Since he has come on board, he has not abandoned any project. All the ones he can do he has been doing.
Look at the roads we are constructing from Araromi Seaside here to Ibeju Lekki in Lagos. That’s a road that would give us easy access to Lagos rather than travelling for hours. From Araromi to that place would take you about 40 minutes.
These are things that you cannot take from Aketi. All areas in the state have been developed, the northern, central and southern senatorial districts. If you go to the North, most of what people have been saying, you can find in the South. Look at Oke alabojuto . That is a place, which for years had been taking lives. At my early part of service, I was working in Ikare. There was hardly any week we would not record one death. But this oke alabojuto has now been brought down.
Ikare, for years had been suffering from lack of roads. We are now constructing a dual carriage way within Ikare township. It’s not a promise. I am telling you what is taking place. We have even started asphalting some aspects of them. You also know this hill close to Oka that has always been a death trap for trailers, for human beings. We did that within our first three months in office. We solved that problem.
The whole of Akoko had been having problems with bad roads. Though the road from Owo to Ikare is a federal road, we have always been working on it. As at the last time the Kabiyesis came to give endorsement to the governor here, one of the selling points of the Olubaka was that he thanked the governor for that road. That road is now passable. This is because we have done a lot of work there. We are not waiting for the Federal Government to come and do it. There was a time in this state when we had any federal road that was bad, that somebody would place signboards on the road that “This road belongs to the Federal Government.” What does that mean? Is it the Federal Government that would come and ply the road? It would be plied by the people of the state.
Currently, if you go to Akure – Ondo road, you would see what we are doing at the market along the road. We are doing a lot fixing bad portions of the Ondo – Akure road because the road had been cut into two. These are the things we are doing all over the state.
If you come to the Central, you can see Akure yourself that it has been turned around. Idanre had only one road that entered into that place. We have been able to construct a new road on virgin land to Idanre from Ijoka road. This is because it was a promise made by the governor to the people of Idanre that if he became the governor, he would give them an additional road. He has fulfilled that promise.
If you look at Oda road from the Central Bank quarters there to Oda road, these are physical projects that you can examine. The governor believes that Akure is the capital city of Ondo state and it should really be given that status by giving it what befits a state capital.
With all these, we believe that Aketi deserves a second term because he has fulfilled his promise to the people of the state. And I pray that the people should look at this. They should forget about sentiments. They should forget about what politicians are saying. Politicians who know they cannot do half of what Aketi is doing are making noise. Many of them don’t even have the credentials. It’s unfortunate that even those we have been harbouring for the past three and a half years, who we have been managing, say they want to be governor, when they cannot even rule their own homes. When they were chairmen of local governments, they didn’t do anything.
Like the governor would say, the people would soon speak because it is not these noisemakers that would elect the governor. It is the people and the people know their friends; and they know that Aketi is their friend.
With these strings of achievements you have reeled out, what do you think accounts for the hostility and criticisms of some people against the governor?
I have mentioned part of these in my discussion with you now. I said they are talking of stomach infrastructure. The very vocal ones are within the party. The criticisms are mainly are from the party. Even the opposition people are not saying much. They are not criticising that much. I have Faboyede, who is the chairman of PDP on tape where he praised the governor for his achievements. It is the people within the party who are saying that Aketi is not giving them money. And I told you that Aketi has done his best. They are only saying that it is not enough.
Many of our people have been given patronage through contracts; many party leaders up to the ward level. But many of them could not do the jobs. They sold them. And you know that would reduce the profit. These are the issues. But he has promised them that “we have worked now; we would continue to do our best; we would improve on this area of welfare when we come back.” They should please give us the support and let the good governance here continue.
One thing that is a very strong selling point for Aketi is this issue of integrity. He is the man who would say I would do this, and he would do it. You can give that to him. They have not been able to criticise him on that. If you say Aketi, I want this item, as little as it is, if he knows that it is not meant for you, he would say no; and once he says no, that is no. If he asks you to come and construct road and he knows that this road is good, once he says yes, in another three months, you can be sure that the contractor would move to site.
We just have to continue to appeal to the people to see reason. Let us think of altruism rather than selfishness. Let’s think of the people rather than our individual selves alone. And I want to appeal to our APC members that when you are in government, it is better than when you are in opposition. They should allow Aketi to continue and begin to fight within the party, within government. They should not throw away this opportunity to return APC to government again; because if they make a mistake of giving the ticket to another person, I am afraid, APC might be voted out.
I am appealing that we should return Aketi and let APC continue for another four years. That would make eight years. That would give us a leverage to be able to continue again for another eight years by the time the rotation we are following here would go to another area, perhaps the south. The last governor came from the Central. We are now in the North. Naturally, it should go to the South. We expect those contesting from the South to give Aketi the support and let him finish his eight years so that by the time it is their turn, it would be easy for them, rather than do anything that would make them lose. We should not squander the opportunities that we have now. It is better for us to work together and retain APC in government, and keep PDP that is our major opposition outside. Let them remain in opposition. That is the best for us as a government.
If Akeredolu is returned as the governor, what should the people of the state expect because people have been saying generally that when governors come in for their second term, they don’t usually attend to the people’s welfare, but their own personal interests?
Like I told you, Aketi is a man with a very high pedigree. He’s a man of character. He’s a man of his words. He’s a man who would not play politics with the welfare of the people of the state. He’s a man who would always do what he says. All these projects that I have mentioned, particularly Port Ondo, he would see to fruition. We have gone far. We are only waiting for the proposal to be presented to the Federal Executive Council. Once it is approved, then we are able to go. And the leverage which the governor has with the presidency should not be taken for granted.
Like I said, this issue of bitumen, these are legacy projects, legacy developments which, when we have our second term, would put smiles on the people of the state. It would improve their welfare.
Government’s major problem now is youth unemployment; and we are solving that with Ondo Lyin. We would be solving it more at a greater percentage when we are able to start Port Ondo. When you say a port, you know what it means? Virtually everything in this world would be taking place there, everything, from manual jobs to sophisticated jobs, to whatever you can mention. Even if it is just drivers who would be driving cars from the port, even if you need a personal driver, you would not be able to get, because everybody would be busy.
So, it is in the interest of the people of the state to return Aketi for a second term so that all these projects would continue. Many people are still saying now they have not got roads. He has assured them that they would get because he would continue to work on roads for the next four years. He would not say that we have done enough. The areas that are not yet covered would have their own turn.
Who is Olugbenga Ale?
You are asking me a very subjective question. Olugbenga Ale is a man of humble beginning. He is a man who has seen it all in the civil service of the state. He is a man who believes in the welfare of his people. He is a man who believes that people should be assisted. He is a man who believes that whatever he can do for any fellow human being, he should do it without looking back. He is somebody who would always be loyal to his principal. There is no how I would be on this seat and I would not continue to be loyal to my principal and the people of the state because Aketi himself is serving the people. By my training, I believe that I was prepared for this job and I have contributed my quota to the development of Ondo state, both when I was in the civil service and even since I got this appointment as Chief of Staff to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN.
Do you have any further comments?
It is to appeal once again to the people of the state. Election is very critical. One stupid person was saying that they rigged election in favour of somebody. My brother, this is no time for rigging. This is a time when the votes of the people count. So, I want to appeal to the people of the state to come and vote for Aketi. We need their votes to continue. We need their votes for the infrastructural development in the state to continue; for the good work in the Health sector to continue; and for the good work in the Education sector to continue. We appeal to the civil servants especially in the civil service, to give Aketi the support so that their salaries and welfare shall continue to remain as priority to government. Thank you.
