Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi tells OLUFEMI ATOYEBI that teachers in the state are living better than he met them. He replies critics of his administration that compared with past regimes, he has performed better
Your administration has been criticised by some people for not living up to expectations in Oyo State, how would you react to this?
In the corporate world where I belonged for so long, we need not blow any trumpet to announce our achievements. Records are always there to do that. But what I realised is that in the political world, you must not only perform, you must also learn the trade of making people see what you have done.
Those that are in my cabinet would come to me and say that we should call the media and tell them what we have done, but I did not see any reason for that because I believed that the results are always there for the people to see. The Yoruba have a saying that you don’t advertise your achievements to the world to see, instead of doing that; you must cover it from the public.
That belief affected us in the beginning of this administration. Without being immodest, we have done the analysis of previous administrations’ performances, what we found out is that reasonably, we have performed better when you compare reasonable parameters. But even at that, some people do not see what we have done; rather, they project us in negative ways. I don’t like propaganda in my life. My style in life is that before you tell people what you have done, you must have something positive to show them. It’s a philosophy I imbibed a long time ago.
For instance, nothing seems to be happening concerning the state technical university that was to take off last year. What is happening?
When we came on board in 2011, we started with the establishment of a technical university in the state. We set up a committee which consisted of past vice-chancellors and renowned scholars. We even travelled to Texas State University in the United States. We reached an agreement with the authorities of the school and they sent two of their expatriates to us. They participated in the survey for the proposed institution. We acquired land and did the design of the university. To speed up the start up, we went to Lagelu Local Government where we decided that the old site of Ajoda New Town would be used as temporary site while the building of the permanent site continued. The temporary site had the infrastructure needed and it is big enough to accommodate what we projected.
A couple of months to the take off, the university authorities in the US called us and said that they were worried about the security situation in the country, especially with the kidnap of the Chibok girls and kidnapping of foreigners. They advised that we suspend the resumption date and other activities until they are comfortable with security situation in Nigeria. We had gone far on the project but because of the advice from the council, we had to hold on and restructure ourselves in order to put in place other arrangements.
We have since been talking to other universities in South Africa and the US to partner with us on the project, but they are worried about security situation in the country. They do not want to commit their human resources to the project because of the security situation in Nigeria. We have two options; to wait until the situation improves or we start afresh with another partner. The university project is still on but subject to the return of our partners when security situation improves in Nigeria.
Do you think your administration can complete its projects within the short period left?
If you consider the road projects for example, you will realise that the first thing we did was to ensure that all major inlets to the six zones; Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomoso, Oke-Ogun1, Oke-Ogun 2 and Ibarapa were restructured to dual carriage ways. You will see that this has never been done in the state before, especially in Oyo, Oke-Ogun1, Oke-Ogun 2 and Ibarapa. When we started the projects, we never prayed to defer them or leave them uncompleted. All the projects will be completed before our first tenure ends.
But for the cash crunch, we would have completed them a long time ago. Apart from the projects we have declared opened officially, we have completed the Onireke/Eleyele road, Aleshinloye road and Challenge axis in Ibadan. There is the second phase of the Challenge axis that connects Orita-Challenge. We have done a lot of work on that road and it will soon be completed.
The road in Oyo is 90 per cent completed. We would have completed the road in Ogbomoso but because the Federal Government did not do the Trunk A road, huge traffic of lorries was diverted to the portion we had completed. The road was spoilt immediately because it was not meant for such heavy vehicles. We have appealed to the people that we will have to restructure the road to accommodate heavy vehicles. The engineering works have been completed. So basically when you look at the eight major roads, it’s only Ibariba-Shaki road that we just started that cannot be completed. An average road of that nature will take 18 months.
A past administration in the state initiated the circular road project which many residents have praised for its potential benefits. However, they say you have abandoned the project. Why is that?
In the spirit of continuity, the circular road project was inherited by this administration and we were ready to do it. The idea is to construct a road that will go around Ibadan so that if you are passing through, you don’t have to enter the city. But that project will cost N55bn to execute. Considering the financial status of the state at the moment, especially when you consider the fact that we now have dwindling allocation from the federation account, we cannot afford to inject such a huge amount to the project. As it is, we have rested that idea now because of other pressing matters.
No governor has won elections twice in Oyo State. Going by this, your opponents say history doesn’t favour you. Are you already prepared to lose?
There is always a first time to everything. There has never been a Governor Ajimobi before me. I am the first and I will do two terms as a governor. It will then become history. The beauty of it is that the major contestants in the state now have been former governors (Adebayo Alao-Akala and Rashidi Ladoja) whom I defeated in 2011. I am still going to defeat them again. Apart from the fact that I have beaten them before, people will look at the track record of each of the contestants I am referring to.
What do you think you have done that gives you the edge over past governors like Ladoja and Alao-Akala that didn’t get second terms and other governorship candidates in the race now?
If you take a look at the fundamental features of governance, which are peace, security and safety, you can easily say which government is better. During their own tenures, we witnessed violence and Oyo State was projected as a violent state. If you compare this government with that of Alao-Akala and Ladoja, you can easily point out that there is peace today than then. If that is all we have achieved, it is enough for us. The foundation of any society is peace and security, which is what we have established. Nobody wants to go back to the days of old. When last did you hear of National Union of Road Transport Workers crisis in Oyo State?
People talk of stomach infrastructure but we have gone beyond that in the state. During the time of Alao-Akala and Ladoja, they removed traders from Elekuro and other places but they did not build shops for them. We are the first government to remove traders from the streets and provide about 4800 of them with new shops free. We are still building to accommodate more traders. Let anybody challenge me on this. Not only that we gave the traders new shops, we also gave them money to trade at no interest rate. That is a loan that is unlikely to be recovered. We spent close to N500m on that. If you are talking about taking care of people, we do it a lot. Every other month, we give free food to people from a food bank that cost the state close to N2bn. We have empowered many through training and distribution of tools and equipment and the state is better for it because there is development.
Some people say the state of the economy of Oyo State since you became the governor has been worse. Why this?
The Federal Bureau of Statistics said investment flow to Nigeria grew by about 200 per cent but in Oyo State, it grew by 697 per cent with eight big companies being established. We did not fabricate this fact; the bureau came out with its finding. Those companies are either first in Nigeria or biggest in Africa. We have a soya bean manufacturing company which is the biggest in West Africa, we have a farm where more than 100,000 day-old chicks are hatched daily, we also have the largest bakery in Africa here in Ibadan. Oyo State is also home to the largest edible oil factory in Nigeria. The newly opened Shoprite (on Ring Road) in Ibadan is the largest in Africa. All these have a multiplying effect because jobs are being created.
Despite these claims, your opponents say you have failed in the education sector.
Fortunately, that is an area where we have put in our best. We engaged 5,300 teaching and non-teaching staff for our schools at a go. The beauty of it is that we did not sit in Ibadan to employ these staff. We ensured that the staff were employed from their council areas. This is because we realised that the old system was breaking homes. Teachers were posted away from their families. Can you imagine a man staying in a house for three months without seeing his wife? Women are better because they can manage but not all men will manage. We are now keeping the family together.
Our schools are getting better now because we are rehabilitating them. When you compare what this administration has done with that of the past governments, I honestly think we have done better and I am not basing my submission on propaganda or fabrication.
This is the only government that has increased pensioners’ pay by 42 per cent. The pension problem we are still having is because past governments paid lip service to pension issue. A sum of N6bn pension fund was stolen by the previous government. But when we came, I paid N2.4bn at once to pensioners. We lifted the bars on teachers’ promotion so they can now get to grade level 14. Our teachers are now one of the highest paid teachers in the South-West and they are paid before other civil servants are paid. I have talked about the state technical university that is set to take off as soon as security situation improves in the country.
What is the wage bill of the state now?
The wage bill is linked to performance. With good incentive and motivation, coupled with training, workers will give their best on the job. What this administration met as the wage bill was N2.9bn but within the last four years, it has grown to around N5bn.
Some people said that we promised to double their minimum wage but I explained to them that minimum wage means that no worker will get below N18,000. Senior teachers that were earning N60,000 are now earning around N140,000. In terms of welfare of the civil servants, physical and social infrastructure, we have done better than what we met.
In March 2014, corpses were discovered in a forest at Soka area of Ibadan. The place was described as a den of kidnappers. Some people have linked this to your tenure?
The opposition has feasted on this non – issue for so long a time. The truth of the matter is that the Soka forest existed before this administration. On my visit there, a woman told me that she had been there for years. You see, the opposition in Oyo State feasts on lies. Even when their claim is an affront on logic, they still roll in the mire of their lies. The greatest culprit is the Accord Party and its leadership that thrive on misleading the people by stuffing their minds with concocted lies. Are you aware that during the Soka issue, a mad man was lynched along Ring Road because he was found with what they said were human tongues? When those so-called tongues were taken for forensic analysis, they were discovered to be sausages! The question to ask is: who arranged this? Will the blood of the murdered mad man not be on the heads of these evil people? It is the same situation we found ourselves in many of the projects we have done. We built a flyover, they went and destroyed the bars to claim that it is sub-standard. The truth of the matter is Soka was neglected by governments before us. This gave birth to its being used as a crime spot. Go there now and you will see its transformation during our tenure. We have taken over the control of the area and right now, this administration has turned the site to a school facility that will be completed soon.
Apart from the state-owned housing units you met, people say your administration has not done enough to tackle housing situation in the state.
This is another area where we have engaged rare initiative to tackle. With the help of technical partners, we have improved on housing situation in the state. The structure we are using is private/public driven. We have established two new Government Reservation Areas in Jericho while the old GRA’s are now being rehabilitated. Instead of selling the houses to influential people, what we have done was to make sure that every government land is developed by developers for the good of the people.
One of the contestants in the governorship race said your administration has failed to develop agriculture in the state. Is this not the case?
The largest employer of labour in the world is agriculture. Perhaps it will be wise if people get their facts right instead of maligning others. We should tackle issues based on facts on ground.
We started with the concept of the three legs of agriculture; the input, infrastructure and the human capital. We brought in hybrid cocoa seedling which increased our output by over 60 per cent.
In the fish industry, production has improved by over 50 per cent. Compared to the less than 100 tractors we had before we came, this government bought 480 tractors for the farming population. We also added mega storage facilities with 10,000 metric tons capacity to the services rendered to the farmers. We also recruited more than 7,000 youths that are being trained by the international Institute for Tropical Agriculture. We now have nine farm settlements that are going to be developed by international investors.
What is the effect of these on the state’s economy and food production?
If you take 7,000 youths away from the streets with prospect of a career in agriculture, this will definitely have a positive effect on the state. Apart from improving on the food basket, local farmers are better now in terms of income generation. Contrary to what the opposition is saying, we are closer to the farmers at the grassroots than any administration can claim.
In Oke-Ogun area, residents have complained about the activities of illegal miners. Is the state not thinking of earning through such mineral resources in the area?
The Federal Government owns all the mineral resources. But this administration has approached the Federal Government to seek approval to take part in mining activities. We were in Australia with the Federal Government delegates where we signed an agreement with a mining company there. We have also tried to get involved better by monitoring the locations. We have already registered a company in partnership with the Australian company and talking to the Federal Government so that we can control our own mining. We are carrying out a test to see if the coal we have in the state is in commercial quantity.
BY OLUFEMI ATOYEBI
