Category: Opinion

It was a raining Monday morning, and I was stocked in the notorious Lagos traffic. Right ahead in the downpour were two traffic officials, one a LASTMA officer who was wearing a branded raincoat and rain boots, while his police counterpart was going about the discongestion of traffic, exposed to the element in his police uniform and black shoe.

At independence on October 1, 1960, Nigeria was ranked as one of 15 most viable and potentially prosperous nations on earth within the next 20 years. It ranked higher than Malaysia, Singapore, India and slightly above even China. But today, whereas those other nations have gone ahead to realize their potentials and striving to achieve more, Nigeria has remained prostate with majority of its people living on less than two (2) Dollars per day, unemployment rate as one of the highest in the world, infrastructure decay and sitting amongst 20 poorest nations on earth.

Not a few eyebrows were raised in Nigeria and beyond when on November 23, 2005, the erstwhile Inspector General of Police; Tafa Balogun, was sentenced to a meager six months’ imprisonment for diverting funds that amounted to billions of naira meant for officers and the entire rank and file of the Nigerian Police Force.

In delivering his judgment, Justice Binta Nyako also ordered the forfeiture of Tafa’s assets totaling One Hundred and fifty million US Dollars ($150m) including money stashed in banks, foreign and domestic, diverse shares in blue chip companies, home and abroad and properties totaling 14 in all. Last year was the turn of Police Pension Fund to hit news, when Alhaji Atiku Abubakar Kigo, Former Permanent Secretary, Police Pension Fund confessed to the looting of 32 Billion from the fund.

Another scandal has broken out that seems to dwarf both Tafa and kigo’s house of shame, with the revelation that over One Hundred and Thirty Five billion Naira (N 135,00b) received between 2010-2013 by M.D., Abubakar for reformation of the Nigeria Police Force,  has been diverted and siphoned. Despite the institutional and contemporary security challenges like terrorism that the police now have to grapple with, and the unassailable low level of morale of its officers saddled with the unenviable task of combating crimes.

The fact today is that our Policemen and women are compelled to pay for their uniforms, boots and shoes. Senior officers pay for their mandatory training which oftentimes is outdated with syllabus unchanged for the past 30 years, and pay for the fuel to move their vehicles around. In states where the executive governor is not financially buoyant or charitable towards the police, it is common to see Mopol Squadrons hiring commercial buses because they lack serviceable trucks to move their men to one duty or the other. The mounted troops and K9 branches of the police is non existence on street patrols, while the much needed forensic laboratories have become a mirage.

While relations of Department of State Security officers who were ambushed by cult members in Nassarawa state got 10million naira each, dependents of the police officers involved in the same ambush went home with one million naira only.

However, this uncharitable state of affairs is not peculiar to the Nigeria Police.

Just as it had been noted elsewhere. The problems of the Nigerian Police are symptoms deep rooted in societal maladies. The rot in the Nigerian police is only a reflection of the Nigerian society. It is a manifestation of our inverted national culture of corruption and lawlessness. Corruption has eaten so deep into the national psyche. It has corroded our national will, distorted our collective sense of fairness and perverted our value system. It undermines equity and merit, entrench inefficiency and mediocrity. The resultant effect is a policing institution, one of the worst globally, in terms of domestic performance and attitude towards its own people.

‘Just as children subconsciously behave like their parents, the people unwittingly behave like their leaders. It is the greed, fraud and lawlessness of the power elite that pervaded and perverted every segment of the Nigerian society.’

And the miserable situation continues.

With the latest scandal breaking out on over One Hundred and forty billion Naira Police funds mismanaged by the current IG, Mohammed Abubakar, the Police outfit has again mirrored the decadence and widespread rot in the polity with most of the officers wondering why allocations to state Police commands and Mopol squadrons had to be reduced by seventy five percent (75%) when such monies have so far been collected. Most of these senior Police officers who are ready to ask questions, have expressed lack of confidence in the Senate Committee on Police Affairs to unravel the theft and misuse of the N140billion  since the Committee and indeed, the entire Committee of the whole upper chamber has demonstrated more than enough of its own bug of this malaise.

We should cry out today for an encompassing investigation into this alleged fraud  as one of the critics of this government who often times have given kudos and knocks as the situation demands. If indeed government provided the sum of One Hundred and Thirty Five billion Naira to enhance the activities of the Nigeria Police Force, and there is absolute nothing to show for it, somebody must pay for this evil against the state and people of Nigeria. If the police are well equipped, people like our aviation minister will spend less consideration on bullet and armored proof vehicles.

There is the need to establish the details of the proposal that necessitated the 135Billion budget, what defines the philosophy of the word ‘Reform’ in the police. Was the police ‘oga at the top’ the originator and did he actually get the monies? Was it a slush fund as being brandied by many commentators to fund the governorship aspiration in Ekiti of a certain minister?

I have many friends in the police force that I am proud to be associated with. They are gentlemen, incorruptible, patriots and hard working officers. But these men over the decades have not only been deprived the basic equipment needed to be effective, but traumatized with the mismanagement of scare funds. They are not allowed to unionize like their contemporaries in some western nation-states.

They are denied a voice, but the voice of the Nigerian people is the voice of God, and we demand a honest and transparent probe.

We cannot afford to be stupid on purpose when it concerns our collective security.

Gambo, writes from Lagos.

When Fela Anikulapo released his elpee, Upside Down in the mid-1970s, little did he know he was foretelling the lot of Nigeria in the 21st century. This is a country that has moved from degradation to degradation, such that but for God, we might have all perished! Here is a country blessed with the proverbial milk and honey, but like the Somalian proverb, “there is water everywhere, but everybody goes about thirsty”. Good thanks to bad leadership.

Nigeria’s case aptly illustrates the story of the Prodigal Son, who in wantonness destroyed all before realising the agony of loose living. The question everyone has been asking is, “would Paradise be regained?” Yes and No. The United Arab Emirates is an illustration of a Prodigal Nation that suddenly woke up from slumber. The leadership suddenly arose to foresee perdition staring the country blessed with the Black Gold, like Nigeria, but which was badly raped by political jobbers who paraded themselves as politicians and leaders.

Today, many rush to Dubai for shopping, rest, medical checkup and sundry reasons, little do they realise it took a visionary leader to awake that nation to creativity and accountability. Today, not a few people and groups are also exploring how dignity could be restored to Nigeria, a country heavily devastated by corrupt leadership, where avarice and kleptocracy have replaced democracy. One of the concerned groups is the Nigerian League of Democrats (NLD).

Led by Otunba Omoniyi Adebanjo, the group is not only idealistic, it is bent on restoring the nation to the path of rectitude by serving as a pressure group to mobilise support for credible office seekers across the land. The group in recent outings emphasized its platform was opened to politicians who are not only credible, but abhor violence or do-or-die politics. Such leaders, it claimed, its teeming members across the land would support.

But beyond just canvassing for votes, the NLD shocked not just a few when it announced in Abuja recently that it supports power shift to the North in 2015. This stand, many observers see as patriotic and in fact, a symbol of their neutrality. Many claimed that Nigeria may for the first time be breeding young leaders who are capable of charting the path to equity, justice and governance.

Already, the group claimed to have started appraising about 10 political gladiators from the North to the end that the most credible would be supported by the alliance when the time comes. The appraisal, sources claimed, is rigorous and may eventually pave the way for good leadership, if the project succeeds.

One of the things making the NLD’s popularity to grow leaps and bounds is its ability and propensity to articulate political positions based on deep thinking and argumentation. For example, when it canvasses power shift to the North by 2015, it gave certain criteria for whoever aspires to the nation’s presidency. “These are the qualities that must stand out the man who will be Nigerian president in 2015. Any Northern politician who possesses these sterling qualities and performs excellently well in the NLD’s Credibility Rating: Change, Competence, Compassion, Courage, Credibility and Commitment.

Nothing has made the relevance of the NLD more apt than the absence of people of Chief Gani Fawehinmi in the present political calculus. Worse still, is the directionless administration in the country, that is more confused and seemingly castrated from doing anything creative or good.

Never in the history of this country is a government that runs beserk when it ought to be at the top of development and a so-called government that failed by design to carry out free and fair election in a small state as Anambra.

Nigeria is the only nation that would hold religious-related security challenge with kid-gloves just because the leadership is barren of ideas and bereft of any creative way of the crisis.

One of the key factors the NLD has continued to emphasize is the insincerity of the weird Peoples’ Democratic Party which is dominated by political jobbers and liabilities.

To prove that the PDP is aversed to change, the NLD sighted the case of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola who was flushed out of office has National Secretary by a whiff of court pronouncement a day after a high court ruling. The same party that was justice-conscious to bundle Oyinlola out of office refused to restore the same person to his office after a superior court threw out the earlier ruling.

According to the NLD, the PDP stands for autocracy and not democracy. “The PDP is a group of political hypocrites and gladiators”, a release alerted the nation recently. It was in this wise that the NLD is appealing that progressives of like minds should bury their differences and come together to wrestle power for the PDP in 2015. The group insisted that progressive elements such as Atiku Abubakar, Mohammadu Buhari, Aliyu Babangida, Ribadu, Tambuwal, Sule Lamido and so on should come together and bail Nigeria out of scavengers’ daily milking of the nation to its grave.

The most annoying joke to the group as it is with many right-thinking Nigerians is the pipe dream of President Goodluck Jonathan to contest for office in 2015. According to the group, it is obvious that President Jonathan has failed to bring dividends of democracy on the table of Nigerians and the better option opened to them (victims) is to vote both Jonathan and his party, the PDP out of relevance.

The group pointed attention to the ethnic cleansing in federal ministries such as Aviation and Education where only people from the same tribes as the ministers have the chance of survival in a federating unit.

This minute, hope falters in the hearts of natives in the districts where the city dream never reaches, nationwide. This minute, people in Lagos are not smiling. People in Cross River, Taraba, Plateau, Benue, and Ogun state, to mention a few, are hardly as cheery as they ought to be, still.

Where they live, their fates remain irritable constants like specks of dirt…and death; still. They are still ordinary playthings caught in the familiar vortex of inharmonious processes that comforts and swells the ranks of the city dwellers, even as the odds make forgettable constituencies of them who pass as “village dwellers.”

If our governors could go visiting, they could get to travel and experience the worst of roads where like the dead, foul dirt and dust still leap from the earth, to discolour and shut tight, the natives’ doors; particularly along the mud tracts where forgettable veterans retire to make the best of a saddening situation.

For all the beauty of Governor Fashola’s megacity project, In Lagos, it’s still a terrible life some natives live. Particularly in Ipaja-Ayobo, Agbado Kollington, Dalemo, Akera, Ijaye-Jankara. You need only travel the cratered paths and bypasses of Abule-Egba, Ahmadiyya, Meiran, Ipaja and Ajasa-Command.

There is stress and madness on the road linking Ayobo with Itele, the roads in Iju-Ishaga, Akute, Ojodu and Ajegunle, just before Ogun state. Trust me; there is hardly anything excellent about these Lagos areas.

And yet around the corner, at the point where the Lagos ghetto meshes with Ogun state palpitates the most hideous kind of filth, still. There is ugliness in Lafenwa, Aiyetoro, Olugbode, and every other community along Itele road.

Life remains an everlasting eyesore in Owode-Ota, Owode-Ijako, Agoro, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ijoko, Oju Ore, Ilo-Awela and Oke Aro. At Joju, Temidire and environ, mucky pools still stagnate in devastating craters on bypasses because these hotspots are allegedly inconsequential?

In Ogun State, it’s still the same old story, same old misery…same old filth. There is devastation in Alade, Elekunmefa, Imise, Onihale, Singer, Ijako to mention a few. Nobody knows if Governor Ibikunle Amosu will rise above the incompetency of his predecessor and thus facilitate electricity for the people of Lafenwa, Olugbode, Itele and Old Ota road and better the lives of people in his state.

And the world obviously sees the poverty and squalor in Sankwala. For all its gift of tourism and splendour, the mountain village playing host to the Obudu Mountain Resort (OMR) in Obanliku Local Government Area of Cross River State, still gravitates in a mélange of poverty and splendour.

In Gembu, the stars are still a backdrop for the human condition. Guess his Excellency in Taraba state has learnt to glance without flinching at the straggle of human settlement with scarcely a streetlight to illumine the pale ghost of his domain popularly known as the Mambilla Plateau. Wonder if he is unaware of the squalor in Gembu; perhaps he simply chose to ignore the tourist tract where poverty and bliss spit at each other, like cats; every day.

Squalid scenery elongate beyond the forgotten streets of Lagos, past the capital city, bypasses and transit townships of Ogun; they are drawn out beyond the tourist tracts of Sankwala, in Cross  River and the Mambilla Plateau, in Taraba to mention a few.

The affected state governors are probably unmoved to affect heart-felt responses to the malaise. Perhaps they are making spirited gestures, even as you read, to extend citizenry-centred governance cum democratic dividends to the disillusioned natives of the forgotten parts; perhaps they just don’t know how to go about it.

Ignorance is not an excuse for denying the citizenry good governance and their fundamental human rights. It shall no longer be tenable to hoodwink the citizenry by platitudinous avowal to abolish poverty and foster general prosperity; time has revealed what section of the citizenry such benefits are meant for.

It shall no longer be “politically expedient” to neglect a class of the governed just because, by will or circumstance, they inhabit parts of state the ruling class would rather not lose sleep over; except at the time of election or re-election.

It is no longer acceptable for our governors, Mr. President and other serving public officers to feign ignorance of bad roads, total absence of electricity and various other infrastructural lack and eyesores bedeviling Nigeria’s decrepit suburbs – just because the latter do not fall within the parts of state they consider “metro.”

The state of Nigeria’s suburbs leaves too much to be desired. No governor, president or local government chairman should evade or ignore so great a horror on so vast a scale. Leadership need not be an ignorance of or perversion of the will and rights of the people.

Nor should any leader or public administrator assume haughtily that he is doing anything extraordinary if perchance he is applauded for providing requisite social infrastructure for the survival and smooth running of the society; this is because such functions are basically the statutory duties of his office and for which we pay, by tax; and for which he is being handsomely rewarded too.

Let every serving public officer be wary of those who would influence them to mistake squalor for paradise and bestiality as the essence of greatness, as long as it constitutes no bother to their lives. Let them be wary of sycophants, lobbyists, party thugs, columnists of note et al – for these lots among so many others, embody evils of all shades and conduct and from which they ought to keep the greatest distance.

Let them not be intoxicated by the barrage of mostly undeserved commendations and encomiums. Let them not be fooled by hastily composed, currency-activated eulogies ceaselessly heaped upon them by individuals and groups desperate enough to consider them “great” and thus dressing them in over-sized cloaks.

Greatness should be earned. There is nothing as unreal and neurotic in concept as unearned greatness as it makes a wretch of the leader who seeks it. To substantiate it is in fact, impossible, thus the Nigerian leader caught in the web of such deceitfulness, dwells on highfaluting, indefinable sound-bites of altruism and collectivism. To give a semi-plausible form to his nameless vanity and anchor it on reality – to support his own self-deception and deceive his victims; the citizenry.

Such deception does not last very long. There is no short-cut to greatness. Let leaders we have now improve our lives now. December is too far away for electricity or a semblance of it to arrive in Itele, Olugbode and Lafenwa town in Ogun state.

It is taking forever for government presence to be felt in Owode-Ijako, Atan and Ado Odo in Ogun state. It is taking forever for the megacity bliss to extend to Ayobo, Ahmadiyya, Abule Egba, Meiran, Ijaiye-Ojokoro, Ekoro, Ajegunle and other forgotten areas of Lagos.

The good life remains far-fetched in Sankwala, Cross River state; Gembu and the Mambilla Plateau in Taraba. It gets worse in other parts of the nation. One cannot make the words too strong; last dispensation, our dreams asphyxiated in the hands of leadership we hoped would improve our lives. This dispensation, let leadership we have endeavour to improve our lives. Right now.

The aphorism, ‘health is wealth’, has a universal appeal. From the perspective of a nation, the general well-being of the citizenry as expressed in the living standard is a veritable indicator of its political and socio-economic prosperity.

It is in this light that an effective and dynamic approach by any nation towards boosting its healthcare delivery system through ensuring that both the curative and preventive pharmaceutical products remain standardized and unadulterated is indeed a sine-qua-non for a sustainable and progressive economic growth. This perhaps explains why the Jonathan administration is working tirelessly to ensure that Nigerians have access to an internationally comparable healthcare delivery system. Unknown to many Nigerians, the nation’s healthcare delivery system is being regularly accorded maximum attention in an attempt to guarantee good and enduring healthcare delivery services for all.

Strategic to the attainment of this national healthcare goal is the Paul Bortwev Orhii-led National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The agency, under the revered technocrat, has since surpassed the general expectation of Nigerians with its ultra-modern laboratory in Agulu, Anambra State strategically positioned to offer internationally standardised services. It is also intensifying efforts aimed at enabling indigenous pharmaceutical firms attain the World Health Organization’s (WHO) set pre-qualification guidelines for drug production in line with international practices. Nigerians can be rest assured that locally produced pharmaceutical products will eventually compete favourably with those of their counterparts abroad.

And to consolidate this achievement, the agency, in collaboration with the Nigerian Bank of Industry, has initiated a multi-million naira Pharmaceutical Development Fund, to make available a minimally low interest capital lifeline to indigenous pharmaceutical companies. A highly capitalized pharmaceutical industry will be a boon to a successful healthcare delivery system. It must also be noted that recently the federal government launched the Save One Million Lives Programme to boost the realization of the United Nation’s global strategy to save multi-million lives by 2015. The responsibility for enhancing the safety and quality of life-saving pharmaceutical commodities approved for the programme in Nigeria falls on NAFDAC. Also, mention must be made of the introduction of isolated international drug markets to be localised in the nation’s six geo-political zones otherwise known as Mega Drug Distribution Centres under the watchful eyes of seasoned officials of the agency to be complemented by State Drug Distribution Centres. This is meant to neutralize the negative impact and presence of ubiquitous drug sales outlets thereby discouraging the sale and distribution of falsified and counterfeited pharmaceutical products.

Complementary to a robust national healthcare delivery system is regulation and control. In this direction therefore, the NAFDAC chief executive has brought to bear his wealth of legal experience. This has translated in the series of victory recorded in the courts against counterfeiters of pharmaceutical products. More importantly, the agency’s enabling law, Decree No 15 of 1993 (as amended ), that is NAFDAC ACT Cap N1 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004, is currently being reworked to further empower it for more services.

On food safety, sanitization and regulation, the following two initiatives tell the story of a proactive agency: the introduction of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan for food safety in Nigeria; and, the convening of intellectual interactions between NAFDAC and Millennium Development Agencies [MDAs], professional organisations, tertiary institutions as well as the National Universities Commission. The fallout of this robust intellectual engagement was the inauguration of National Food Safety Committee, a focal point of food safety in Nigeria.

One other enduring legacy of the agency is that the activities of fast food companies nationwide are being intensely monitored and coordinated, thereby compelling them to comply with good hygienic practices to forestall outbreak of food borne diseases or ailments. This current drive has led to the closure of sub-standard fast food industries and quick service restaurants. Also, bakeries are being strictly supervised nationwide by dynamic and strategically seasoned NAFDAC’s operatives to prevent bakers from using the much detested internationally adjudged deadly flour/dough enhancer, Potassium Bromate. Its Vitamin A food fortification programme has been generally adjudged a success.

Apart from maximally promoting food security while imploring stakeholders in the food sector to adopt high quality cassava flour in the production of bread and other bakery products, NAFDAC has equally made a success of its salt iodization programme, aimed at eliminating iodine deficiency disorders in the country. And to foster safe application of agro-chemicals in the country, befitting guidelines and standard operating procedures have been introduced, and are being subjected to regular review to ensure its compliance with modern practices. Equally, risk assessment and field trials culture for fertilizers has been imbibed by the agency as part of measures to enhance effective and efficient control cum management of agro-chemicals nationwide.

There is no doubt that modern trend in water provision and consumption has brought about proliferation of water packaging plants/firms nationwide, a development that has subsequently placed on the agency’s, the onus of guaranteeing via dynamic and efficient regulation, suitable manpower training provision, laboratory analyses, advisory inspection and consultative meetings. About or over 10,000 pure water products have so far been registered by the agency. The result of these efforts is availability of safe drinkable water across the country; and the benefit to the nation is prevention of the outbreak of various water borne diseases- cholera, typhoid, diarrhoea etc.

The agency’s latest innovation is the E-Clearance Portal, which makes possible on-line clearance of goods at the nation’s ports. It has established web presence where information on activities of the agency could be easily accessed. On the other hand, a corporate portal which allows in-house information sharing as well as a laboratory information management system to support quality laboratory procedure and data processes, has been put in place including its automated product administration and monitoring solution which is a web portal that is internet-enabled to provide electronic platform for the management of the registration process/E-registration and a data base to capture information on the agency’s regulated products.

Drug counterfeiting has unquantifiable deleterious effects. This explains why the Dr Orhii-led NAFDAC management team has held on tightly to the horns of the proverbial bull to arrest the rampage it could cause. The agency took the entire world by surprise when it co-opted the deployment of cutting edge technologies into combating pharmaceutical product counterfeiting, a heroic, historic and dynamic move that has earned Nigeria global recognition. Truscan technology, Black Eye and Radio Frequency Identification Systems and the Mobile Authentication Service have given Nigeria the global innovativeness signature in the drive to combat drug counterfeiting and adulteration. The rest of the world has since queued up to learn from our experience. Not to be forgotten is the engagement of the global pharma health fund mini-lab test kits.

While the Black Eye has the ability to screen multiple drug samples simultaneously, the Radio Frequency Identification System possesses the capacity to trace and track regulated medicines and foods as well as avert forgery of sensitive documents. The Truscan is a hand held device which utilizes Roman Spectroscopy to detect counterfeit pharmaceutical products while the Mobile Authentication Service uses the Global System of Mo

The title of a report in the November 2, edition of The Economist reads: Many of Africa’s fastest-growing economies have not relied on oil or mining. It listed six countries in the continent as being in the enviable club of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

The publication listed, among others, prudence and ingenuity in public finance management, leading to higher revenues and enabling climate for private investment, leading to local and foreign investments.

“Progress,” according to the story, “was not restricted to economic policy. The six countries in the IMF study are far better governed than they were in the mid-1990s. Based on indicators compiled by the World Bank, they are less corrupt, have better bureaucrats, enjoy more stable politics and are better regulated than their African peers.” (Emphasis supplied)

Although these countries, the leading financial medium concludes, still have a lot to do, they are on the right track.

The above is simply apt for the appraisal of Ogun State, Nigeria, which, last Wednesday in Lagos, was adjudged the fastest growing economy and first choice for industrialists and entrepreneurs among the 36 states in Nigeria by the Management and Board of Editors of the nation’s leading business newspaper, Business Day, at its States Competitiveness and Good Governance Awards ceremony.

According to the Editor of the paper, Phil Isakpa, Ogun won the prestigious award “because it has the highest number of businesses establishing in its domain and that the government has made the environment more attractive to investors. Ogun also has the highest positive number of Gross Domestic Product in the last one year, the number of bank branches has increased more than that of other states in the last three years and its financial inclusion, particularly the embrace of cashless economy and use of Automated Teller Machine by residents had increased tremendously.”

It is no longer news that before the advent of the administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Ogun State was in a state of siege. Residents could not sleep with their two eyes closed. Freedom of speech suffered steadily. Banks were closing shops every now and then as insecurity became the insignia of the state. The climate was that of fear. Readers should only visit the libraries of Nigerian newspapers to refresh their memories of what became the story of Ogun, a state that was once a haven of peace and tranquillity.

Of course, under such a climate of anxiety, businesses would close shops and move to other states; investors would avoid the state like plague; economy would plummet; unemployment would rise; crime and social vices would become the norm; development would be in abeyance; and life would become a restriction.

That was the public perception of Ogun State before the inauguration of the current government in May, 2011. Matters were exacerbated by the fact that for about two years before May 29, 2011, there was effectively no government in Ogun, as one vital arm of government was completely paralyzed while the other eclipsed by fear.

It was a daunting challenge for any new administration. To the glory of God, insecurity has been fought to a standstill. Or when last did you hear of banks in Ogun closing business because of insecurity? That has become a thing of the past. The climate of fear has been removed as residents now move freely and enjoy their inalienable right of free speech. Some unions who agitate for Amosun to clear all the arrears of salaries his government inherited in one fell swoop rather than piecemeal and politicians who incite landlords with illegal structures, indeed, now understand the meaning of freedom. But freedom and responsibility, we must note in passing, are two sides of a coin…

During the inauguration of another multi-billion naira investment, Wempco Steel Mills Co. Ltd, Ibafo, on April 18, President Goodluck Jonathan said, “I congratulate the Governor, the Government and people of Ogun State on another landmark achievement in this great state. I thank you for sustaining a conducive and business friendly environment that promotes economic activities in the state. I look forward to coming again in the very near future.”

Among the multi-billion naira investments in Ogun in the last 30 months are May and Baker Nigeria Plc, Idiroko Road, Ota; Lafarge Cement Wapco Nigeria Plc, Ewekoro II (Lakatabu); Dangote Cement Factory, Ibese; Metal Recycling Industries Limited, Ogijo and African Foundries Limited, Ogijo. All these are providing employment for thousands of Ogun indigenes. But the success of the Amosun administration is even more patent in the over 45,000 jobs created through direct and indirect employment. Through partnership with institutions like the Bank of Industry, thousands of youths have been taken off the streets and many SMEs established, hence the natural drastic fall in crime rate in the state. The Uplifting Project of the Wife of Governor, Olufunso Amosun, has been of tremendous help in this regard, as hundreds more are provided free training on handicrafts and empowered with start-off kits.

Ogun could not have been known all over the country today as one huge construction site with only gravels, irons and earth-moving equipment in place. Thousands of jobs are equally generated through the construction work. The Olokola Free Trade Zone is receiving attention and the state is expected to reap maximum benefits from its rich deposits of bitumen, kaolin, limestone, phosphate, granite stone, gypsum, bauxite, feldspar, among others.

The government is waging war against illegal taxes and fees while harmonisation of company taxes has been substantially achieved, with companies already enjoying the benefits.

From a paltry N700 million monthly Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) it inherited, the Amosun-led administration has raised the IGR of Ogun to a record figure of N4billion per month. This is done essentially by plugging the loop-hopes in the old system, automating revenue collection processes, encouraging residents to pay their tax as prescribed by law and removing bottlenecks in the interface of the public with government officials.

The administration has zero tolerance for corruption. For instance, officials recently indicted have faced the full wrath of the law. The fact that Amosun is a chartered accountant and highly experienced auditor has equally ensured that processes in government are less prone to corruption; workers are motivated through regular payment of salaries and provision of work-friendly environment.

The first international investors’ forum organised by the administration, where rebates and discounts were announced for genuine entrepreneurs, has opened a floodgate of requests for investment in the state: 37 new industries (not SMEs) have already established their businesses in Ogun, 14 are at various stages of building their factories while 32, according to the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Otunba Bimbo Ashiru, have got approval for land allocation.

These new firms will generate another round of thousands of direct and indirect employment in the state.

The on-going investment in agriculture, roads, ultra-modern markets, power, water, transport (contract for a light rail has been signed), education, etc, can only ensure one thing – Ogun state remains investors’ destination of choice.

•Soyombo, writes from Abeokuta.

Some say he is obsessed. Others claim he is over-ambitious. While a fragment say the reconstruction of Benin City, for Adams Oshiomhole is a gargantuan project that would fail and as such, dismissed it outrightly when he assumed office as governor.

In 1827 days, we all seem to have lost memory of where we are coming from; we forget in a hurry, the stench that pervaded Ring Road and the dilapidation and complete collapse therein.

The modernization of Benin City proved taxing, no doubt to Oshiomhole himself. But with a goal-getter in Clem Agba, as environment commissioner, polishing and adding fillip to the Oshiomhole prose of a modern city, and , an Osarodion Ogie, the Works Commissioner sharpening the argument to assemble the scattered fragments of the city, Oshiomhole and his team, past and present, worked unconscionably long hours, both into the night, either in Exco meetings or project inspection so that an accurate job according to specification was carried out.

If the work and task of the modern city was often hard, it was always great fun too; the convivial and stimulating times spent knocking heads together, the long distance trekking, and the sweating it out in the name of inspection.

In all these, Oshiomhole can be said to be fortunate to have an Omo N Oba N Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo, His Royal Majesty, Oba Erediauwa, the Oba of Benin as his supporter who gave his royal blessing especially during the turbulent opposition in the House of Assembly coupled with an intolerant opposition party in the state in the midst of scarce resources. The Oba gave his all…surrendered his palace for “demolition”, if it posed a threat to the Oshiomhole dream of a modern ancient city.

We seem to loose sight of the ring road nightmare, the Airport road nigh impossibility, the Uselu-Ugbowo-Lagos road quagmire, and the Five-junction chaos, the superiority of flood that defied ordinary solution, among other hydra-headed challenges that confronted Benin city and starred it on its face at the time; all these intimidated the ancient city and defeated it.

It was in a bid to conquer these monsters that a single project such as the Benin City Storm Water Masterplan would demand over N30 billion before yielding to solution. This project, added with road construction, and beautification is the fulcrum of the Oshiomhole modern ancient city narrative.

On erosion control, the Government secured a N25 billion bond from the capital market to adequately tackle the erosion problem in a modern way. Known as the Benin City Storm Water Masterplan, the project is divided into phases and the first Phase, which is estimated to gulp over N30 billion has been launched.

The first phase involves the construction of a Distilling basin of 120ft x l2Oft of massive drainage which takes all the floods from secondary drains into the primary drain which then flows into the Ogba River.

The distilling basin will take a massive 20,000 metre tonnes of excavation, requiring 18,200 metric tonnes of cement and 20,000 pounds of boulder and it will have a 2.5m x 2.5m doubled culverts stretching for about 1km. Connecting the Distilling Basin, which will be self-cleaning and desilting is a trapezated drain which is 45ft wide at the top, l2ft wide at the bottom and almost 7m deep. It will run round parts of the state and will be completely covered by the road in densely-populated areas.

It will take care of the flood problem in Teachers’ House, Uwelu axis, Akugbe road, Otete Street, lgbinaduwa, Adolor College road, Obakpolor, Textile Mill road, Oro Street, lheya, lvbiye Street and Lane, 3rd Cemetery and the Five junction area and adjoining streets, in the process taking care of about a quarter of the flood in the capital city. All the roads which will be constructed or rehabilitated in the storm water project will come with walkways, street lights and drains.

Recognizing the simple fact that the main problem of the road is flood related, the state government has undertaken a massive drainage project for all the contructed road as well. The drainage from Adolor junction to the Traditional Grounds area is being re-established and reconstructed. A brand new underground drainage line has been laid and completed from the Traditional Grounds area to the moat at Eghosa Grammar School area.

Furthermore, reinforced concrete box culverts are being constructed at the Five junction area as part of a complex network of drains in that area to take the flood waters away from the area to a receptacle again at Eghosa Grammar School moat. Finally, to ease congestion and enhance the beautification of the city at the Five junction area, a roundabout project has been awarded to Messrs RCC to enable our people enjoy the full benefits of the road. These facts speaks for themselves on a visit to the various project sites.

The second leg of this discourse, is the beautification project. My first distinctive memory of Ring Road is of the traffic; the chaos and nightmare that characterized ring road now known as Oba Ovonramwen square. Today, it is probably the widest, roundest most beautiful of roundabouts in Nigeria.

Inside the roundabout is the National Museum, the most awesome water fountain in Nigeria, the military cenotaph in honor of the unknown soldiers, and a beautiful park and garden. Just around there is the symbol of one of the world’s most revered royalty, the palace of the Omo N Oba N Edo, the state House of Assembly complex, Central Bank of Nigeria, among other new generation banks.

This spot was highly mystified due to inability of successive governments to do anything about it all these years. It was the place with no bedtime, and, therefore, no time for waking…..in the similitude of the pre-Raji Fashola Lagos Oshodi. Like Ojuelegba, near Surulere in Lagos, it used to be one bedlam of confusion; I mean Oba Ovonramwen Square. It was characterized by filth and almost everything indecent under the earth- road side traders, rough-shod motorists, pickpockets, rapists, street urchins, the homeless and other wayward characters were always there with different missions.

Oshiomhole confronted the monster with requisite planning. He restored sanity to the place. Today, we have a new-look Ring Road to the bemusement of objective critics; making those who swore never to have anything to do with it eat their words. Now, most people transiting through or having to transact business on the Square, either in the day time or at night, have refreshing stories to tell.

All the roads leading into it, have been illuminated: Airport road, Sapele road, Sokponba road, Akpakpava road, Mission road, Forestry road and Oba Market road from where crowds surges in seamless motion with no one looking at the other with suspicion at night anymore. There is, even now, a musical water fountain right inside the Square.

“This is impossible”, Oshiomhole’s worst critics hollered on top of their voices when they were told of the plan to dualise Airport road. “Who told you it’s impossible? It is possible”, Oshiomhole would fire back. Soon after, the story changed to one of “ the most priced road contract per kilometre the world over” just as the unrepentant critics deliberately failed to recognize the complements of side drains, walkways, street lights, beautification and maintenance embedded in the project.

In all of these mouth-watering achievements, the good people of Edo state and residents of Benin city must be commended for aiding the government with their tacit support. Oshiomhole would never have succeeded in achieving this feat if the ordinary people withdrew their active participation.

The first lesson of course is that most people want good life and the majority will always stay behind a government that delivers the better life they seek. This public approval, therefore, provides the moral courage the leader needs to execute his plans. Without courage, of course, the evil and corrupt institutions that have held our state bound in poverty and chaos cannot be fell.

• Maiyaki, writes from Benin City