Little by little, Ogun State is soaring higher towards attainment of the second phase of the developmental agenda of the new administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun. It hasn’t been an easy cruising through, due to the limitation of the national and global economic challenges of the past four years. By and large, the state has remained afloat. In those turbulent times of the Covid-19 pandemic and its existential threat, every effort of government to reach the loft height of its objective of building a prosperous economy for the good of all had been punctuated by one crisis or the other. But the administration was never deterred. With courage, determination, and focused leadership, the state was able to wade through the vicissitudes of the time.
Without a doubt, much still needs to be done. And in any case, development is forever a work in progress. But it goes without saying that the Abiodun has raised the threshold of good governance.
To whom much is given, they say, much is expected”. Having overcome the past few months of distraction that followed the outcome of the last general elections, the Governor is now poised to deliver on its electoral promises. In this second term, there is a brighter hope on the horizon. With all the indices of the socio-economic development present in the state, one can say without any equivocation that the feat the administration has achieved is not by sudden flight. Rather, it is due to the forthright attitude of the man leading the charge, his dogged determination, and infinite forbearance even in the face of obvious distractions and other extraneous circumstances. All through human history, no development effort has ever recorded any reasonable level of success without some hiccups. It’s the ability to surmount those challenges and forge ahead with eagle eyes on the vision for a better tomorrow that leads to sustainable development.
All of these have been factored into Abiodun’s working document as encapsulated in the ISEYA mantra of his administration. This is not to take it for granted, however, that the journey of the next four years will be absolutely hitch-free. Certainly, not. There will be hiccups that may come from either the known or the unknown circumstances. First, it is important to note that those who have constituted themselves as a clog in the wheel of progress are not going to relax in their efforts to cause one form of distraction or the other. But they are not powerful enough to pull back the hands of the clock. Secondly, the nation’s economy still remains largely challenged by the new regime of subsidy removal and high food inflation. Like the past experience, Governor Abiodun has assured on several occasions that no effort would be spared to mitigate the negative impact of it on the citizenry and development effort of the administration.
While recently regaling his audience with the policy direction of his new administration in a recent media interview, he further reiterated his commitment to the sustenance of the trajectory of economic growth through aggressive pursuit of infrastructure development, implementation of an integrated transportation master plan as well as industrial investment and improvement in agricultural value chains, among others.
This is in line with his aspiration to make Ogun State an investment destination as the centre-piece of his policy thrust. During the interview, he made it abundantly clear that he would consolidate on the foundation of success the government had achieved in its efforts to lead the state to the Eldorado. To achieve this, he promised to harness to the fullest the advantage of the geographical location of the State, its proximity to Lagos as well as its land size to nurture his vision to transform the economy into a leading industrial hub in the West Africa subregion.
In his narrative of the journey of the last four years, he had this to say: “Ogun State, without doubt, has become an investment destination of choice. And being the only neighbour Lagos State has, we are what I would describe as New Jersey of Nigeria. What New Jersey is to New York is what Ogun State is to Lagos State. So, we represent the overflow of Lagos. Ogun State is 16,000 Square kilometres in size. We are about four times the size of Lagos State. That in itself represents our comparative advantage over other states.
“As an administration, when assumed office and looked at the combination of the geographical location, power, and land size, we said these should form our vision. That vision is the reason we focus on creating an enabling environment for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) because we believe it is fundamental to the economic growth of the state and the individual prosperity of our people.
“We are leveraging our geographical location, and access to natural gas that we have to now see how we can create a further enabling environment for people to work and live in Ogun State. We decided that it was extremely important in whatever we do to take advantage of its proximity to Lagos to enjoy its full potential”.
To ease the movement of people to and from Lagos and also stimulate the transport sector as a catalyst for industrial transformation, he disclosed that over 400 kilometres of highways had been constructed by the administration. Not surprisingly, a sizeable population of Ogun State residents now finds it convenient to work in Lagos, as it takes less than an hour to transit between the two states. “To date, in Ogun State, we have constructed over 400 kilometres of highways. We prioritise the highways that connect us with neighbouring states, particularly Lagos. Today, four years and a few months into our tenure, you can travel between Lagos and Ogun State in less than an hour. Before we assumed office, it would take you probably two or three hours or even more. So, more people are now coming to Ogun State to live, to work and to hold conferences, to play because we are easily accessible,” Governor Abiodun enthused.
All this has been complemented by a transportation master plan focusing on an inherent connection between roads and rail, on the one hand, and air transport on the other hand. That is the vision that has culminated in the building of a world-class International Agro-Cargo Airport located somewhere in Ikenne Local Government between Ilishan and Iperu. Although the state government had secured the licence for the airport in 2006, it was the present administration that finally resolved the impasse arising from the contention about the choice of the location between his two predecessors. Though capital intensive, the Airport was built in a recording-breaking short period of two years, making it the fastest to be constructed ever in the history of this country. It recorded the first historic flight landing sometime last year. According to projections, all things being equal, it will commence full commercial operation before the end of this year.
“One exciting thing about it is the unique features that give it a competitive edge over others. Apart from the dual advantage of its access to two major highways-Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Sagamu-Benin Expressway, it is also co-located in the special Agro-Processing zone. The idea behind the initiative is to create an enabler for easy evacuation of fresh agro-produce”.
As the Governor already hinted, some investors had already indicated interest in setting up vegetable farms in the special agro-processing zone and airlifting fresh vegetables on a daily basis.
“Similarly, when finally completed, the ongoing industrial zone will create between 30,000 and 50,000 new jobs with multiplier effects on the state economy and the country at large. As a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the state government and private companies, the industrial zone has already been chosen as an economic hub with partnerships in different parts of the sub-region, Ivory Coast, Garbon, Togo, Benin Republic, and so on.
“Therefore, the importance of the airport to the overall turnaround of the fortune of the state’s economy cannot be over-emphasized. According to statistics, Ogun State currently houses over 5,000 industries. Today, the state has the largest cement factories in Nigeria, producing the highest tons of cement. These include Lafarge, Dangote as well as others that are just springing up.
“Other than cement factories, the state is also the home of industrial giants like Nestle, Cadbury, Unilever, May & Baker, International Breweries, Olams, Flour Mills, and a host of others.
“By the time the Cargo Airport commences full commercial operation, manufacturers will no longer need to go to the already congested ports in Lagos any more to export their containers when the airport commences full commercial operation”, said the Governor.
That is the vision that drives the commitment of the Abiodun administration to build a world-class airport with the best standard facilities. At present, the Airport has the longest runway in Nigeria. It has the best-constructed terminals and apron in Nigeria. Precisely, the apron is 84,000 Square meters which is four or five times larger than the largest Cargo Airport in Nigeria.
Governor Abiodun, in his brief outline of the vision of his new administration, stated thus: “We must find a way of allowing our manufacturers who are exporting to be able to export their containers efficiently. We would be constructing our dry port and when the port is constructed which would be in Kajola, it means that, if you are shipping goods from anywhere in the world to Ogun State, you don’t need to go to Lagos anymore. You will ship in your goods and you will see “FOB Kajola Dry Port”.
“The whole idea of co-locating the Airport in a special Agro-Processing zone is that all the entire value chains of agro-produce would be occurring in the zone where raw materials are coming from in different plantations that we have in Ogun State, be it cassava, cashew, oil palm, rubber, cotton, and so many others.
“Our Apron is 84,000 Square meters which is four or five times larger than the largest Cargo Airport in Nigeria. These cargo-based companies have now decided that, once the Airport is ready they will now be flying their cargoes that are destined for Nigeria to that Airport.
“Today, we have received unsolicited offers from those who are serious about taking over the Airport on concession. We are talking to them. We are still excited about the level of interest that we have seen. That’s why we built this Airport to a world-class standard.
“We must find a way of allowing our manufacturers who will be exporting to export their containers efficiently. We would be constructing our dry port and when the port is constructed it would be in Kajola. It means that, if you are shipping goods from anywhere in the world to Ogun State, you don’t need to them to Lagos anymore. You will ship in your goods and you will see FOB Kajola Dry Port.
“There will be no need for inefficiencies that are associated with trucks going in and out of Lagos ports and the congestion itself that has been associated with that in the past is no more. These are some of the things that reforms, policies, programmes that this administration has implemented to support the over 5,000 industries that have come to make Ogun State their home. By so doing, we would be fully implementing our vision which is to create an enabling environment for more people to come here to live, work, to play which in turn translates into individual prosperity of our people,” the governor stressed.
●Ogbonnikan writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State
