The tenure of Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who broke the second term jinx in 2015, will expire on May 29. In this piece, Joke Jacobs examines the achievements of the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration in the Pacesetter State.
Having mounted the saddle of the leadership of Oyo State in May 29, 2011, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the ebullient governor of the Pacesetter state declared in a speech before the massive crowd during his swearing-in-ceremony at Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan, that his administration will be committed to the restoration, transformation and the repositioning of Oyo State.
The indefatigable and visionary leader, Senator Ajimobi who clocked 69 years on December 16, 2018 was born into the renowned Ajimobi family in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. He had his elementary education at St. Patrick Primary School, Abebi and Ibadan City Primary School, Aperin, Ibadan. He graduated from Lagelu Grammar School, Ibadan, in flying colours. While in school, Ajimobi was very active in sport. He was the Games Prefect. In athletics, he was the second fastest student manning the first leg for relay race and number two in 100 metres and 200 metres races. Due to his all rounder image, he was nicknamed “archipelago”.
Ajimobi attended State University, Buffalo, New York, in the United States of America (USA) and the State University, Park Forest, Illinois, also in the USA.
He graduated with B.Sc (Honours) in Business Administration and Finance. He also obtained Master of Science in Operations Research And Marketing. As a result of his sound academic credentials and excellent performance at the New York Insurance Examination he was engaged as the first Nigerian certified underwriter by Equitable Life Assurance Corporation which is the second largest insurance company in America.
A technocrat and literary enthusiast Senator Ajimobi returned back to Nigeria in 1977 after his sojourn in the USA. He joined Management and Industrial Consulting firm as a Senior Consultant and later the Modular Group, where he worked briefly as the Finance and Administration Controller. Subsequently, he joined Nestle Foods Plc as the Operations Controller and later became the Marketing Controller.
Senator Ajimobi joined the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company as the Consumer Products Manager. He was deployed to Ibadan Business District as the Area Manager, to ensure the repositioning of the company’s activities. He was later posted on international assignment to Shell Marketing Company in Togo, where he served as the Chief Executive Officer in-charge of the entire West Africa sub-region. He returned to Nigeria in 1995 and was appointed as the Oil Sales Manager in 1996. In 1998, he was appointed to the board of the company as Executive Director (Marketing). On February 2001, he was appointed as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company. Governor Ajimobi voluntarily retired in 2003 from the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company after 26 years of meritorious service and joined politics. He became a senator of the Federal Republic on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD) and was elected Deputy Minority Leader.
He established the first and largest free vocational training institute in Oyo State. The institute offers training in computer engineering, computer operation, fashion designing, hairdressing, telephone engineering and tie and dye. The centre has turned out over 15, 000 students most of whom have gained employment in companies, while others are self-employed. The centre has been recognised and certified both as a partner and training outfit by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
Ajimobi was the governorship candidate of All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) in 2007. He lost the election, but never gave up his desire to serve the people of Oyo State. In 2011, he contested again on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). With the popular mandate of the people of Oyo State, he emerged victorious and was subsequently inaugurated as the governor.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who is aspiring to return to the Senate to represent Oyo South district in the Red Chamber in the forthcoming election, once declared at the beginning of his first term that “commitment to hardwork, patriotism, respect for due process, diligence, and general values would be needed at this point of our march towards the restoration of Oyo State”. He added that the agenda of his administration focuses on recreating the economy of Oyo State with a view to engendering the emergence of a new economy, empowering the people for a sustainable wealth creation and developing the capacities of all the economic agent. He said: “Our vision is to create a state in which citizens can achieve the best of their potentialities.”
Governor Ajimobi, an advocate of qualitative education, believes that every child must be adequately educated and that education is the best legacy that can be bequeathed to children. He believes no nation can hope to make any meaningful progress without sound and qualitative education. Quoting Martin Luther King, Ajimobi added: “If you want to keep a man in perpetual slavery, do not give him education.” He pledged that his administration would remain committed to education. His words: “As pace-setter state, the present administration under my leadership will leave no stone unturned in repositioning our educational system with global education standards. I am assuring all and sundry that the Oyo State government would not hesitate to earmark a staggering part of its financial resources to the development of education as the benefit of it would manifest in multiple folds in the future.”
Not surprisingly, Ajimobi’s achievement in the area of education has made Oyo State an enviable one. He has rehabilitated thousands of dilapidated primary and secondary schools, provided furniture for the primary and secondary schools and trained thousands of teachers.
There was also massive equipping of science and home economics laboratories in the schools, renovation of technical colleges, as well as building of new skill acquisition centres in each of the senatorial zones. New model secondary schools are being built in the state. The construction is almost at the completion stage.
During the 27th convocation ceremony of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, in December 2, 2011, he said his administration was prepared to confront the challenges in the education sector. His words: “Our ultimate ambition is to make the state a model in education which would be emulated by others in terms of the quality of personnel engaged in the academic activities at all level.” This process began through putting people of exemplary academic and moral standards at the helm of affairs at the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) for primary schools and Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) for secondary schools and the governing councils of higher institutions of learning. Under the leadership of Senator Ajimobi, the sum of N396 million was paid to enroll senior secondary students for the West African School Certificate Examination (WASCE) in 2013. The sum of N443.4 million was paid for the exam throughout the state that year. Regular procurement of science and technical laptops were given to Zonal and Local Inspectors of Education. Bursary and scholarship awards were presented to indigenes of the state. The unrelenting efforts of the Ajimobi administration in education has yielded fruits in 2017, as the state recorded the best result in West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASCE). Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Toye Arulogun, said the improvement in the West Africa School Certificate Examination is as a result of government’s renewed commitment and efforts in improving in WASCE, as well as the National Examination Council (NECO). He claimed the state also came second in the 2016 NECO examination. Mr. Arulogun said the improved performance did not come as a surprise. He reiterates that the state government introduced several polices to re-engineer the education sector for improved performance at both the internal and external examinations, so as to reclaim Oyo State as the Pacesetter state. Automatic promotion in schools has been been canceled, while the government School Board, WASCE Boot Camp, Extra Mural classes, staff review for optimisation of workforce that is set up by the government are already yielding fruitful results.
As part of the Ajimobi-led administration’s determination to transform the education sector, the state government did not relent its effort in complementing the existing higher institutions. A technical university was established with the seed grant of N250 million. The university is a national and global institution that will not only be sound academically but also fully grounded in entrepreneurial practice based on fundamental theories and commitment to international best practices. The overriding focus of the technical university is to provide conducive training and learning environment that will produce quality students who are technically and socially grounded in their courses of study. One of the achievements recorded by Ajimobi administration in the field of education is the organisation of an Educational Summit, to address the challenges facing the sector. The areas of focus for the summit included Special Needs Education, Technical and Vocational Education, Information Communication Technology in Education, review of Education Policies, Adult Education, Capacity Building, and Funding for the Educational Sector, Private Sector Partnerships, Education Support Partner, Infrastructure Development, Building of Model Schools, and Tertiary Education among others. At the summit, governor reiterated: “There is more important contribution the citizens can make to Oyo State and Nigeria’s future that a determined and long-term commitment to one of the greatest challenges the citizen face as a people today that is educating the children very well. I remember with nostalgic the excellent state of education in the 1960s in the Western Region and I sincerely believe that the ethics that have driven me till this moment took its root from the educational foundation that I was nurtured on.”
In its resolve to put in a place a conducive learning environment, improved and adequate physical facilities, as well as quality and well-motivated teachers, Governor Ajimobi inaugurated the Education Trust Fund (ETF). The ETF is saddled with the responsibility of mobilising resources to complement government efforts in its drive to address the decadence in the sector. The agency is headed by a former Minister of Industry, Chief (Mrs.) Onikepo Akande.
The Ajimobi administration’s commitment to bettering the lives of the people is achieved by providing quality healthcare, which is the watchword of his government. This is proven through the donation of eye glases to people. Over 5,000 people have been treated for various ailments under the Oyo State Free Health Scheme. In the area of the governance reforms, Governor Ajimobi has launched the state strategic health development plan which is developed in conjunction with development partners like the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Bank, the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the Federal Government. Through the governance reform, the administration has launched a health insurance initiative, to ensure that all citizens are able to enroll in various health insurance programmes. Among these are the national health scheme and the medium development goal programmes. The Oyo State community based health insurance programme and formal sector health insurance plans for government employees and the private sector. To support the Oyo State citizens in the rural areas who may not be able to afford the insurance premiums, a public health trust fund is available which members of the public, charitable organisations and religious bodies can donate to increase the pool of available funds. As part of Governor Ajimobi’s plan to transform the health sector, there was personnel training, renovation of hospitals, provision of basic medical equipment and the recruitment of medical personal into various departments of the hospitals, to support the free health programme, essential drugs worth millions of naira were purchased and distributed to the hospitals. In partnership with malaria action programme for states and the United States Agency for International Development, millions of insecticide treated nets were distributed to families.
To reduce death being recorded from road traffic accidents, home accidents, disasters, childbirths and other types of emergencies, ambulances and tricycle ambulances were provided by the Senator Ajimobi-led government.
Millions of children have been immunised against poliomyelitis, measles and other diseases, as a demonstration of the administration’s commitment to the welfare of children in the state.
Governor Ajimobi remarked: “Free health service for children and the aged is one of the six-point agenda of this administration. We are set to make immunisation services the right of every child, not a privilege. All the children must be fully immunised and protected from various preventable diseases, such as poliomyelitis, measles, yellow fever, whooping cough, tuberculosis, hepatitis and tetanus.”
To upgrade health facilities, the Ajimobi administration held a N50 million health endowment fund raising. The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Azeez Adeduntan, said the fund is utilised for the establishment of a cardiovascular centre, to provide up-to-date routine and emergency care in a bid to reduce sudden deaths. He added that the fund will also be used for the upgrade of the general hospitals and healthcare centres. A renowned professor of medicine, Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe, was appointed as the head of the board of trustees for the health endowment fund.
In a bid to curtail unemployment, Senator Ajimobi set up a youth empowerment scheme tagged the Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State (YES – O). Under this scheme, thousands of unemployed youths were trained and deployed in the area of environmental sanitation and beautification, sensitization and enforcement of traffic rules, provision of support in emergency situations, maintenance of public infrastructure and farming. The second prong of the youth empowerment scheme involves the training of the youth in cognitive and entrepreneurial skill. They are given opportunities in government’s micro-credit scheme as entrepreneurs. To eradicate poverty and improvement of the well-being of the citizens, through its restoration, transformation and repositioning agenda, thousands of tricycles called ‘Keke Ajumose’ were bought and launched by the state governor. Senator Abiola Ajimobi affirmed during the launching of the tricycles: “The tricycles would generate employment for the teeming unemployed, citizens for whom eking out a living has become a herculean task. This will act as a veritable platform for socio-economic transformation.”
In order to ease transportation problem for workers, luxurious buses were bought by the state government to convey them from various destinations to work and back.
The Ajimobi administration also constructed a bridge on the Mokola-Roundabout, along Sango-Mokola-Dugbe road, to restore, reposition and transform the state’s transportation system to higher efficiency and effectiveness. The bridge is expected to make driving within the axis smoother and stressfree for the residents. The Restoration Bridge, which is located along Secretariat-Bodija road, was also constructed. Another bridge was also constructed in Molete.
The dualisation of Idi-Ape-Akobo-Odogbo Barracks Junction’s road is ongoing. Also ongoing are the Ibadan inter-change, the Challenge-New Garage-interchange road and Onireke. The Jericho-Eleyele-Dugbe roads, as well as entry roads to Oyo-Iseyin and Ogbomosho town have been completed. From Ijokodo to Apete area, there are bridge works. This also applies to Ikoyi Express Junction, Taki Palace and Ogbomosho Grammar School, where new roads are constructed. There is massive construction of roads, bridges and road repairs across the nooks and crannies of the state.
To reduce carnage and enhance safe driving culture on the roads, the Oyo State Government has re-designed the traffic light at challenge roundabout, the M.K.O. Abiola Junction, Premier Hotel, Oremeji Junction, Oyo Road, Sango-Polytechnic Junction and several others. Senator Ajimobi has restored peace and order in the state by inaugurating the state joint security task force codenamed ‘Operation Burst’. The joint security taskforce is expected to curb banditry, violence, arson, brigandage and destruction of property being carried out by criminals.
The governor Ajimobi said: “We have fortified Operation Burst with officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Navy, Special and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), to renew the people’s confidence in the capacity and capability of the outfit.”