TODAY, to the glory of Almighty God, the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun (MFR, CON) is 65, and precisely six years in workplace because the fifth democratically elected Governor. The street has been tough however grace has made the distinction, so let the drums launch nice rhythms and let the music play on in reward of, the God of all creation the One who day by day hundreds us with advantages. In all ramifications, Dapo Abiodun’s story exemplifies that of the proverbial man folks mentioned couldn’t construct a hut, however who has now constructed an enormous edifice. A baby of future born in 1960 when Nigeria obtained independence, and particularly on Might 29, a day now put aside to mark freedom from navy rule and signpost freedom and liberty, Dapo Abiodun is a change agent whose story is intertwined with Nigeria and Ogun State’s future.
He was elected in 2019, however that wasn’t the primary time he had aspired to occupy the Oke Mosan Governor’s Workplace. In 2002, he and Chief Gbenga Daniel contested for the governorship ticket. He got here second however 17 years later, the divinely appointed hour, which we all know by no means ever fails, arrived. And now trying again on the final six years, there’s a lot to be glad about. The Gateway State, Nigeria’s industrial capital, is now Nigeria’s funding vacation spot of alternative because the Iperu-born prince day by day attracts enterprise from all over the world, making the state an enormous development website. Instructively, a chief political group just like the Southern Governors Discussion board additionally discovered him worthy to steer it, and he has been talking for it and the zone. He’s additionally arguably one of many staunchest defenders of President Bola Tinubu’s insurance policies, pointing to Nigeria’s freedom from IMF debt peonage. He’s extraordinarily obsessed with his mission and imaginative and prescient, and the way forward for Ogun State.
As Prince Abiodun turns 65, the land is basking within the transformations which have taken place. Ogun folks, because the world noticed throughout the Opening Ceremony of the continuing Nationwide Sports activities Competition, can maintain up their heads in delight, figuring out that they’ve in Oke Mosan a person who actually cares, and who day by day makes the state a enterprise haven. As students of management have been eager to level out, nice leaders lead by instance, set clear imaginative and prescient and course, talk successfully, foster a optimistic tradition, make knowledgeable selections, allow others to develop, embrace change and innovation, and display emotional intelligence. Absolutely persuaded that management is downside fixing, Dapo Abiodun has targeted on social transformation in Ogun State. He acknowledges that world change brokers, together with South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, who promoted racial reconciliation and nationwide unity and addressed poverty, inequality, and social injustice, and China’s Deng Xiaoping, who launched market-oriented financial reforms, opening up the nation to international funding and commerce, didn’t obtain landmarks attending to demented opposition figures.
He appears as much as folks like Franklin D. Roosevelt who, whereas confronted with the Nice Melancholy, applied the New Deal protecting social safety, unemployment insurance coverage, and Japan’s Shinzo Abe, who achieved girls’s empowerment and labour market reforms; not forgetting, above all, our personal Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who led an academic and healthcare revolution, promoted financial development via investments in infrastructure, agriculture, and business, and championed social justice. He’s strictly targeted on the folks’s mandate. In spite of everything, as John C. Maxwell says, “Management is just not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It’s about one life influencing one other.”
The Ogun State helmsman didn’t win the 2021 Greatest State Governor with the Most Improved State in Safety Infrastructure (Enterprise Day Newspaper), 2020 Greatest Governor in Agriculture (Nigerian Agriculture Awards), 2022 Greatest Governor in Infrastructure within the South-West (Nigeria Union of Journalists), the 2022 Forbes Award because the Better of Africa Governor in Industrial Revolution, or the 2023 Greatest Governor in Housing Supply (Nigerian Housing Award) toying with the Ogun folks’s mandate. He priotitises important pondering and self-discovery, and is a compassionate chief who epitomizes the Greek thinker Socrates’ submission that “He who needs to function a pacesetter should, initially, perceive the souls of his followers.”
Earlier than him there was no Gateway Worldwide Airport and the Olokola Free Commerce Zone was lifeless. However the music has modified. With over 1,200 kilometers of street unfold throughout the state, Dapo Abiodun has proven that he means enterprise. Go to the Abeokuta-Sagamu Expressway; Obantoko Street (Fajol-American Junction-Unity Property-Gbonagun); Idi-Aba-Elite-Oke Lantoro; Ikoritameje-Adenrele (Olose Titun Vespa); Panseke-Adigbe; Metropolis Gate Monument Improvement Flyover Bridge, Kuto; Arepo street, Somorin-Kemta-Idi Aba; Olusegun Osoba-Toyin Agbado, Yakoyo Bridge to Mr. Biggs part alongside Akute; Owode-Siun.There are additionally the Oru-Awa-Ilaporu-Ibadan expressway; Molipa-Asafa Isale-Ayegu-Ojofa; Asafa Oke-Fusigboye-Ojofa Road; Oba Erinwole street, Sagamu; Awujale street, Ejinrin-Idowa-Awa-Ibefun-Itoikin; Ijebu Ode-Epe-Sagamu-Benin Interchange Flyover Bridge; Esure-Ijebu Mushin street; Ogbagba Road, Ijebu Ode; Molusi Faculty street, Ijebu Igbo; Ilishan Market street; Iperu Roundabout-Ode; and the Sagamu Junction-Iperu Roundabout. Go to Ibooro-Imasayi-Igan Okoto-Ayetoro street (Part 1) in Yewa North, Ikola-Navy-Osi Ikola; Raypower; Joju, Sango; Ilashe-Koko-Alari; Oke Ola, Imeko; Tollgate-Singer GRA, Ota; Ilaro-Iwoye (Part 1); Iwoye-Owode Yewa Secondary College street, (Phase2); Owode Yewa Secondary College-Owode Yewa Junction street (Part 3), and see wonders. However right here’s the large story: there’s much more to come back.
There is no such thing as a house to speak in regards to the N50 million Ijebu Improvement Initiative for Poverty Discount (Eriwe) launched to develop the fish subsector and the empowerment of over 40,000 agripreneurs in cassava cultivation, or the distribution of bikes to extension brokers to succeed in farmers in distant areas; the 20,000-hectare rice farmland in Yewa; the Ogun State Educating Expertise Acquisition Channel (Ogun TREACH) that introduced on board 5000 interns, with 1000 transitioned to everlasting academics; the over N3.5 billion disbursed via EDUCASH to help college students and their dad and mom, with 150, 000 college students benefitting the total accreditation secured for the primary time in 45 years and the improve of the Ogun State Faculties of Nursing and Midwifery to collegiate standing; the inaugurated Sexual Remedy and Assaults Referral Centre in Olabisi Onabanjo College Educating Hospital (OOUTH); the Household Planning Centre on the State Hospital, Ijebu-Ode; or the Ogun Free Surgical Intervention Programme that has benefited greater than 2000 folks since its launch.
Hear Governor Abiodun, talking when officers of the International Funding Community (FIN), a United Kingdom-based funding scout that drives International Direct Funding (FDI) for Africa and different creating economies, gave Ogun State a large thumbs-up for the FDI attracted to date: “Now we have constructed the best-equipped airport in Nigeria, and this airport is centrally situated. Now we have adopted a multimodal transport system that includes air, street, sea, and rail traces. We’re extending a rail line that stopped at Agbado to Ogun State.” The funding portfolios are many: the April 2022 $400m funding by a international agency, Come up Built-in Industrial Platform, on the event of Olokola Free Commerce Zone and Remo Agro Processing Zone; the over $500 funding by a metal conglomerate, African Industries Group; the Canadian Authorities’s pledged funding within the agricultural and technological sectors of the Ogun financial system in Might 2023 and the July 2024 South Africa-Nigeria Enterprise Chamber’s pledged aggressive funding drive for Ogun State; the $500 million funding by the Japanese Worldwide Cooperation Company (JICA) to boost energy infrastructure in Ogun State; the $300 million funding by the Chinese language firm, Interior Galaxy Metal Firm Ltd, to ascertain a brand new metal plant for the manufacturing of specialized metal merchandise in Ogun State; the October 2024 institution of a $5 million battery recycling plant by a British firm; the funding by Codix Bio Pharmaceutical Firm, a pharmaceutical outfit that focuses on the manufacturing of remedy kits for the therapy of diabetes, hypertension and heart-related illnesses; the $400 million scorching rolled coiled metal manufacturing facility in Ewekoro; the Particular Agro-Cargo Processing Zone created by President Tinubu to serve the airport as a Free Commerce Zone (FTZ), situated very near airport, and many others.
Posterity will always remember Prince Abiodun: he has written his identify in historical past and it’ll outlive him. The silent achiever and peace and battle decision advocate who has led Ogun State on the trail of peace for the final six years and contributed to inter and intraparty stability deserves plaudits. Might the Almighty God continues to bless and maintain him within the years to come back. Glad Birthday to the Folks’s Governor.
Akinmade is Particular Adviser, Data and Technique to Ogun State Authorities.