Our challenges are daunting, not insurmountable, says Ajimobi

Abiola Ajimobi

Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi rolled out the drums in celebration of his first year in office on May 29.  In this interview with journalists in his Ibadan office, he highlights his administration’s attitude to ensuring a new lease of life for the people of the Pacesetter State. Group Political Editor Bolade Omonijo was there.

Against the backdrop of a tough electioneering process, how do you feel celebrating your first year in office as governor of Oyo State?

 I do tell people that the battle for the April, 2011 elections in Oyo State was like that of the biblical David and Goliath. In terms of physical size, I was not in any way near my co-contenders. In terms of money, I was not anywhere near their accumulated war chest. 

But then my most prized possessions were the people of Oyo State and the Almighty God who had promised to bring our government and party to power so as to rescue them from their forced labour. So ultimately, it was not me but those two unassailable factors that made our being here today possible. While they relied on their ability, their money and power of coercion, we relied on the majesty of God and the immeasurable love of our people to become the occupant of Agodi Government House.

To answer the question, the last one year has not been a bed of roses. We knew that, on the surface, our state was bedeviled by crises of great proportion – that we had a leadership that had taken flight, that infrastructure had broken down, that people no longer believed in the ability of government to intervene dispassionately in their situation, that there was an immeasurable slide in the accountable disposition that governments all over the world are known by, when we dwell on comparatives in Oyo State.

Did you get the cooperation of your predecessor during the transition?

Our fear was further worsened when, as governor-elect, the then incumbent shut all doors against our transition committee from accessing the state of affairs so as to enable us prepare a pre-government blueprint of our administration. We did not envisage the level of rot that we eventually met when we assumed office. 

Virtually everything had broken down. Yes, infrastructure had gone to the dogs, as Oyo State roads acquired the renown of collapsing six months after they were constructed. But we did not envisage the level of degradation that had befallen our state. In terms of finance, we were confronted with a last-minute looting of billions of our resources. The Government quarters – 240 in all – had all been sold to cronies, except about 18. The proceeds from the sale of the quarters were hurriedly shared to some private concerns a few days to hand-over. But even the seemingly intangible – the office where we were supposed to operate from – had virtually collapsed. On the first day of my visit to the office that I was supposed to sit in and administer the state, what we saw shocked us. The rug was threadbare, cobwebs hung on the book shelf and we saw snails and rats by the Secretary’s office. These were clear signals to me and my team that we had a lot of work to do. And in all facets of administration of Oyo State, we were to confront a replica of the rot in the office of governor that we saw. So our first six months was spent facing the challenges of the degradation and trying to bring up Oyo State from its Ground Zero level.   

You have been criticized for bringing into your cabinet members of opposition parties. What is the philosophy behind it?

I have worked round the whole place, especially in the oil industry. I have met diverse people. I am not totalitarian in my view of government and governance. I believe that I don’t have a greater share in this government than the man in Action Alliance party for instance. I am just fortunate to be administering the state at this particular time. So why should I act like a totalitarian? Yes, they were in opposing parties but they were not in an opposing state! It is still the same Oyo State. So immediately we came on board, I called all of them, nominate your people into our government but I gave a caveat: it must be your best brains. My philosophy is, if I can make use of the best brains of Oyo State people and infuse them into my administration, who takes the ultimate glory? Is it not God, through me? So why should I not throw the door open to those who can help us develop our state via their deposit of human capital? 

Being a private sector person, how has your experience impacted on Oyo State in terms of private sector participation?

Indeed, it has been yielding dividends. Because funds available to government are limited, no government in the developing world can go it alone. Look at the 108-km road that we are about constructing, could Oyo have done that alone from our paucity of allocation? Look at the 150 room five star hotel that we just turned the sod last week, could a government bear the brunt alone? No. PPP arrangement is the next phase of governance now and as a private sector person, I understand the nuances and contours of it and I am implementing it in Oyo State. 

What is your view on the security situation in the country, especially the Boko Haram menace?

I align myself with the recent comment of the Inspector General of Police when he paid a courtesy call on our state. We as government and administrators of this country must make sure that there is adequate provision of job to the teeming unemployed youths who roam the streets. I get really frightened at convocation ceremonies when we throw thousands of our children into unemployment market. That was the challenge we took up at inauguration. We decided to employ 20,000 of our youths whom we fanned out into traffic management, signage and advertisement, schools, agric extension officers, etc. We have to engage our youths and that is what we are doing in Oyo State. I subscribe to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the understanding of our security challenges and finding lasting solution to them. If the government provides an environment that is conducive for people to take care of their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter, we would have reduced the army of potential criminals and willing tools for barons of violence. As a nation, we have to do this and this is the baseline of our approach to addressing the security challenges in Oyo State. As for the challenge of Boko Haram, we have to collectively address the questions that the emergence and activities of the group have raised about our nation. My own conviction is the neglect of our social and economic management over the decades created this army of young people who are now willing or unconscious tools in the hands of religious and/or political extremists.

What will you say, in concrete terms, you have been able to achieve as governor in the last one year?

In the area that you can call the intangible aspect of governance, I will say my administration’s greatest achievement of the last one year has been making Oyo State peaceful again. You will recall that, by the time we were coming into office, we inherited the typecast of our state being perceived in all parts of the world as a place where unprovoked and unwarranted violence takes place, almost every other day. If it was not politicians shedding their factional blood today, it would be motor park miscreants fighting for legitimacy and spatial hegemony. You will particularly recall the most audacious one when a factional leader of the state NURTW called Eleweomo was brutally murdered in a supremacy battle and some politicians within the same PDP were alleged to have had a hand in the murder by the past state government. It was so bad that it was alleged that one of the factional leaders of the touts was sleeping in the Government House and state machinery was being deployed to stoke the violence in the state. When we came on board, we looked dispassionately at this crisis and concluded that the only missing gap was a dispassionate leadership. Even though it was alleged that one of the factional leaders of the NURTW worked for us, we decided that whether you were Auxiliary or Genuine, whether you were Tokyo or Osaka, the government of Oyo State would not abet or fan schism in the NURTW. We also showed the world that we would not spare any mastermind of violence, no matter how highly placed they may be. Our mantra of rule of law and justice is our governmental abiding principle. 

What have you done to give the state a facelift?

In the area of infrastructure, our roads had totally collapsed. In the very few instances where government built roads for the people, they were built according to the low standards of the people in government. So we knew we had to set standard in infrastructural excellence. One of the first things I did as governor was to instill the can-do spirit in my people. I told them, ‘eh, you guys, you can move the world!’ How old were the people we shout their names today when they shook the world? Check out the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. How old was he when he did all those firsts? He wasn’t even in possession of the kind of technology available to us today. He did not have the ipad to ascertain, for instance, what component of asphalt makes a good road or where the best engineers who could build the first skyscraper in Nigeria existed. But we have all those. If I needed to do something, I could search on my laptop where the best practices of such a project exist in the whole world and I would get it in a jiffy. So I told my people that they could move the world. For a start, I told the caretaker chairmen of our 33 local governments that I would remove anyone of them who constructed a shoddy road. Because, look, let me tell you, the quality of a road can be seen in its drainage. The practice we met was the construction of state and local government roads with blocks and asphalt as thin as paper. I told them that, that aberration will not be condoned by our government. I also told them that if anyone of them constructs a road that is substandard, not only will the fellow be removed, he will be made to pay the state back. And, most fundamentally, we found out that poor quality roads are caused by the heavy graft and kick-backs that are demanded from contractors. The contractors in turn take it out in shoddy construction of roads since their profits had been spread thin by the massive graft that is demanded from the contractors. 

And, what about the roads?

In the area of road construction, our government has constructed and is constructing a total of 199 roads at the moment. To me, this is not where I dreamt to be but we thank God that in spite of our several take-off limitations, these are the fruits we have at the moment. 

In the same vein, we are also re-constructing from the scratch seven major bridges which collapsed because of decades of neglect in Oyo State. We have also advertised them for all to see. They are being done with billions of our people’s money. The most instructive thing about these bridges is that they are world-class. You can go and see them by yourselves. 

We are also constructing the Mokola fly-over, or if you like, the overhead bridge. That road– I mean the Dugbe – Ojoo road, is one of the busiest in the South-West. It leads to the North and leads you to the eastern part of the country if you come out at the Ring Road. As busy as it is, it had almost become a traffic nuisance to commuters. Coupled with an emerging business district that is sprouting there, it was only a matter of time before that road bursts at its seams. So immediately we came on board, we asked for tender for the construction of a fly-over there. Don’t forget, the David Jemibewon military administration of the state was the last to construct a fly-over in Oyo State in 1978 and no civilian government has done any.