Our Reporter
A leading governorship aspirant in Ondo State on the platform of All Progressive Congress, Chief Olayide Owolabi Adelami has unveiled a robust developmental plan for the people of the Sunshine State ahead of the July 2020 governorship primary election of the APC.
The ten points developmental plan of Adelami covers Security, Agriculture, Health, Local Government Autonomy, Education, Youth Development, Industrialization, Knowledge Driven Economy, Social Insurance Scheme and Empowerment of Women. The comprehensively robust plan undoubtedly holds the key to economic prosperity in Ondo State going forward. The agenda succinctly captured the strength as well as the needs of present and future generations in Ondo State.
Alongside the ten points plan of Chief Adelami is also his focus to bring about real development in Ondo State and to also redefine governance in the Sunshine State. He has also made it known that a vote for him represents vote for economic freedom as well as the beginning of a new era in Ondo State.
Number one on the agenda is preventive security. Adelami craves for a less expensive security framework that will not always go after criminals after crimes are already committed. The agenda plans to concentrate on preventive security rather than reactive security. According to Adelami, “Less resources will be spent if security breaches are prevented from happening rather than deploying the DSS, police, Civil defence and the military after a crime had been committed”.
The preventive security agenda plans to increase the crime preventive and intelligence gathering capacity of the security agencies. The agenda also plans to keep youths that are susceptible to crimes engaged in different economic ventures.
Agriculture is the second point on the agenda. Adelami described agriculture as one of the things that actually defined Ondo State in the days of western region because the division was then known for its agrarian capacities.
He described agriculture as a sector with endless employment opportunities for the youths and economic prosperity potentials for the state. He espoused the limitless benefits of mechanized agriculture thus :
“Ondo State used to be the cash cow of the western region because it concentrated on the production of cash crops and it was so rewarding then. Oil is depleting now and we have no other option than to go back to agriculture. But one good thing is that the land will always cooperate with the people.
Nothing could be more rewarding than agriculture because it has a long value chain”.
Adelami is therefore planning to return Ondo State to golden era of agricultural boom.
Third on the list of the economic plan of Adelami is the local government autonomy.
He did highlight this action plan as one that is capable of turning around the economic fortune of Ondo State.
He added that the plan is also capable of hating the issue of capital flight from the Sunshine State.
Adelami has this to say on the topical issue of local government autonomy : “I am one of the strong advocates of local government autonomy because of my background in the National Assembly. I don’t believe that the Local governments have no capacity to manage their funds. I don’t believe this reason is genuine enough. I believe in human capital development. It is my priority to allow the local government to take prominent position”.
Adelami’s plan is to simply issue a policy statement on local government autonomy and thereafter make the state government to assume more of supervisory responsibilities on the issue of local councils.
The agenda also involves ensuring that project pricing is equally well supervised.
Chief Adelami had posited that a lot is bound to happen at the local government areas if they are allowed to spend their monies by themselves. He also assured that the economic tempo at the local government would increase if funds are made to circulate in the state through the 18 local government areas.
He also has this to say on the issue of capital flight in Ondo State, “Issue of capital flights will be addressed because the local governments will use indigenous contractors and money is bound to circulate round the state through the local government areas”.
Health is the fourth on the list of Adelami’s plan for Ondo State. He lamented the present state of the health sector in Ondo State.
He plans to firstly ensure that only competent professionals are brought on board to man the health sector of Ondo State.
The second plan for the health sector is to determine the percentage of the people that actually have access to good heath care in the state.
According to Adelami, “My attention will be on affordable health care. The Mother and Child that was introduced by Governor Mimiko was very quality and free. It is suddenly no more free and the quality has really gone down. We will look into this and consider the possibility of reviving the Mother And Child Hospital”.
The health sector agenda according to Adelami also involves looking into the NHIS law and to get it domesticated.
It also involves ensuring that the informal sectors are captured in the Act.
He plans to create Ondo State Universal Health Agency that will oversee the execution of the health sector programmes.
Also included in the plans of Adelami for Ondo State is the emphasis on knowledge driven economy. He posited that the best economies in the world are driven by knowledge and as such, Adelami desires to replicate same in Ondo State. In his words, “Knowledge driven economy will be instituted in Ondo State even if we can’t achieve it in my four year term. But I will make sure I lay a good foundation for its actualization”.
Another focus of the action plan is on education. Adelami’s plan is to give emphasis to quality education in Ondo State. He also plans to look into the quality and number of teachers since it was learnt that not a single teacher has been employed in Ondo State in the last 11 years.
He described as unacceptable a situation where no teacher has been employed for a period of 11 years; yet teachers have been resigning while some have also been leaving the service by the reasons of death, retirements and one reason or the other.
Adelami said, “We are going to ensure that schools are adequately staffed and prominence will be given to supervision. We are going to revive and revitalize school inspectorate. The nooks and crannies of the state will be visited by the inspectors to make sure that the right thing is being done and the best education is being given”.
The manifesto of Adelami also has a robust plan for youth development. He described the youths as the framework of any development which is inclusive of Ondo State. He said, “Government of Ondo State is doing nothing about the youths even as they rotten away. The focus of this government is tarring of urban roads and not even the rural rural roads that have synergetic impacts on the economy”.
Adelami equally plan to make sure that youth empowerment will be given prominence. He intends to explore the three areas of ICT, Agro business, Skills Acquisition and Commerce to absorb as many of the jobless youths. He assured that almost all the youths would be absorbed except those that would not be interested by the time his policies are rolled out on the three areas.
The mission to industrialize Ondo State is also top on the ten points actions plans of Chief Olayide Owolabi Adelami. He plans to change the narrative of Ondo State being a civil service state to that of industrialized state. He is likewise determined to roll out policies
that will attract local and foreign investors to the Sunshine State.
In his words, “Resources of Ondo State will be brought to the fore while irresistible incentives will be designed to attract investors. Security of lives, funds and properties of investors will also be fully addressed. To further convince the investors, government may have an additional investment aside land, but it will not be more than 15%.
“Once the companies begins to make profit, government equity in the companies will be advertised for sale and preference will be given to Ondo State indigenes to buy out the equity. Ondo State may retain not more than 5% of the equity”.
The plan of Adelami on women empowerment is equally robust. He acknowledged the serious resentment already shown by women in their exclusion from government in Ondo State. According to him, “I am women centric and I have seen that women are very vulnerable when it comes to economic interplay in the society. The most vulnerable amongst the women are the widows. This explains why we have been providing interventions for widows since 2004 till date”.
He nonetheless plans to accommodate a good percentage of women in government and also empower them to the very best of his ability.
Chief Olayide Adelami has the plan to float a Social Insurance Scheme in Ondo State. He plans to make it a Special Purpose Vehicle that will pay stipend for premium health insurance. He intends to make a family of six be able to access health service under the scheme. He further added that what is to be paid as premium will in reality be a stipend when compared to what is spent in beer parlor or in canteen.
“We will need a lot of sensitization so as to capture people in the informal sector of the state. We will create Ondo State Universal Insurance Agency to supervise and monitor the execution of the programme”.
He likewise plans to stimulate economic activities in both the rural and urban areas by deploying the mechanism of local government councils. Adelami plans to ensure that staff of the local government are seriously engaged in construction, rehabilitation and mending works. In the words of Adelami, ” I will ensure that each local government will acquire road construction equipment and borehole drilling machines.
“There will be a lot of direct labor at the local government area in a bid to transform the rural areas. A lot of economic activities will be coming from the rural farmers. It will be a win-win situation for everybody. The farmers will be certain of increased regular income while the people in the towns will also have affordable food items. There is also a ready market in Lagos to sell the produced food items. It will be a win-win situation in the value chain”.
