Ayodele Samson Akande (FCA), the Ondo State Commissioner for Water Resources, Public Sanitation and Hygiene, stands out as an unusual politician. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He served as the Executive Chairman of Akoko North West Local Government, Ondo State. In this interview with Gbenga Aderanti, he talks about how he tackled initial challenges in his ministry.
How would you describe the Ministry of Water Resources, Public Sanitation, and Hygiene before you assumed office?
Just like every other young ministry, the Ministry of Water Resources, Public Sanitation and Hygiene is equally still facing some teething problems that are not limited to personnel and funding, but policy somersault from the federal level, as an essential ministry, our operations are somehow tied to the apron of the parent Federal Ministry by law.
The extant laws that established the Ondo State Ministry of Water Resources and its affiliate departments and agencies are overdue, as it needs total overhauling. I mean, through a holistic approach, and this is one of the major hindrances. Though the challenges are universal, not peculiar to Ondo State alone. Without prejudice, I must give kudos to my predecessors and all the management for their yeoman’s job in sustaining the ministry.
In Ondo State, water is more than a basic necessity. It is the lifeblood of communities, the foundation of public health, and a key driver of socio-economic development. To what extent has your ministry met the yearning of the people of the state regarding this?
Your assertions are correct, but it is more cumbersome when you inherit a ministry that is expected to function at full capacity under this grizzly economy. What I did when I assumed office as the Commissioner in charge was to go to the drawing board with my Administrative Secretary, (AS) of the Ministry of Water Resources; General Managers (GM) of the Ondo State Water Corporation (ODSWC); and Rural Water, Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA); and Project Coordinator of the Project Implementation Unit (PIU). I made consultations with some critical stakeholders and other top management staff to develop a working plan, and with that, we hit the ground running. Under my watch and the visionary leadership of Mr Governor, Dr Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, the Ministry of Water Resources, Public Sanitation and Hygiene has undertaken key reforms in line with ‘Our Ease’ Agenda aimed at expanding access to potable water, strengthening water infrastructure, and improving service delivery across urban and rural communities. These are already yielding fruitful results across the entire Local Government in the state.
One would have thought the management of sanitation would have been given to the Ministry of Health, but the governor, in his wisdom, decided to merge this with the Ministry of Water Resources. Why would you think Mr Governor did this?
Ab initio, even before this present government or before the establishment of the Ministry of Water Resources, the Public Sanitation and Hygiene has been an integral department within the water sector. The reason is that water is the most important critical element in public sanitation and hygiene, which is why it was not even merged with the Ministry of Environment. At the Ministry of Water Resources, Public Sanitation and Hygiene, we have professionals who deal with liquid waste, while the Ministry of Environment deals with solid waste.
What have been the challenges of combining water resources with hygiene?
Like I said earlier, our major challenges include scarcity of resources and the laws becoming obsolete, which made it difficult for us to really execute some of our mandates and penalise offenders regarding issues of open defecation, and also to fight poor and substandard pure and bottled water in commercial circulation across the state. The overlapping functions of our adjunct ministries, like the health and environment, created an avenue for criminal elements to hide under this to perpetrate their evils. But soon we will get our legislative backing to arrest and prosecute offenders regarding public water, vandalism, sanitation hygiene and related offences.
Open defecation and water-borne diseases have been a source of worry. To what extent has your ministry managed this?
Let me tell you, the Ondo State Ministry of Water Resources has a long-standing history of accomplishment on sustainability and maintenance of global standard public Sanitation and Hygiene. What I did when I assumed office was to build on that solid foundation through the continuation of all the structures of community and citizens’ engagement. We have undertaken key reforms aimed at expanding access to potable water, strengthening water infrastructure, and improving service delivery across urban and rural communities.
We have also continued to hold public enlightenment to increase awareness to eradicate water-borne disease, and we have increased the provision of more public solar-powered borehole homes across the nooks and crannies of the state.
In tackling some of these challenges, the government cannot do it alone. Have you considered partnering with private bodies and organisations? How receptive are they?
Yes this is one of our major yardstick and we have started to record positive response and success in our networking, collaborations and partnership which is not limited to accessing the long stagnated funds for the Owena Multipurpose Dam Reticulation and Renovation Projects funded through a counterpart funding with international donor agencies development partners ( AFD and AfDB), through the National Urban Water Sector Reform Project (NUWSRP) of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources (FMWR). The Ministry of Water Resources, Public Sanitation and Hygiene is one of the most complex government ministries with professionally-studied MDAs and decisions and policies are carefully packaged to have positive impacts on the people because water is life and producing safe water requires sophistication and a highly hygienic environment.
What are the specific things your ministry is doing with them?
Despite the uphill task faced by various levels of government, which is not peculiar to Ondo State, to access grants and donors from developmental partners and international agencies due to the global standards and procedural limitations,we have continued our engagement with local and international partners through all medium and platforms by cross-pollinating our own ideas of project conceptualisation, implementation, personnel development and scientific advancements with theirs.
Ondo State government and all its MDAs have maintained a high standard of reputation that helped in accelerating access to such reserved funds. And that is what we are leveraging on that resulted in the mothers of all groundbreaking events that was held by our ministry on Tuesday, 9th December 2025 and was officially flagged off by Mr Governor, and currently the largest water sector investment in the entire South West.
While we have not rested on our oars, our ministry has also been contemplating further seeking other available partnerships to equally expand the frontiers of our operational mandates to beat the SDG Open Defecation Free, ODF and other challenges relating to public sanitation and hygiene in due course.
A while ago, you received some decampees into your party, though you were not physically present to receive them. Since then, politicians from other parties have continued to come into your party. What does this portend?
Thank you for that very important question. Yes, our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, is lucky to have our very Lucky Governor, Dr Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, the Executive Governor, as the unarguably and incontrovertibly the apex leader of our party. His leadership has made the party attractive from top to bottom to all the decampees you see trooping into APC. Looking at the calibre of decampees from Akoko North West LG, who recently dumped their various parties for the APC, that includes the former state leaders of SDP, the 2024 deputy governors candidates, senatorial leaders, and even House of Representatives and Assemblies flag bearers, are all testimonies to the fact that our party, the APC is firmly rooted and solid at the grassroots level.
There is this phrase that you have to be mean to be a politician. You seem not to belong to this class. How have you been coping in politics?
You are correct about the public perception of my person. I’m a mature-minded progressive democrat driven by ideology, not what I want to ‘ chop’ or in politics as a vendetta. I’m proud to tell you that I’m a professional in politics, still cordially maintaining my second address in my professional sector. As a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria(FCA) there is a level of dignity expected from me as a frontline auditor in Nigeria, and I should be a moral compass wherever I find myself. That’s why people of my calibre see politics from a very broader perspective, just as a means to impact humanity and as a clarion call to render services to the community.
Do you sometimes regret joining politics for one reason or another? If yes, what are those reasons?
It is human for me to feel such atimes when I see the level of betrayal, back biting, political animosity, persecution, character assassination and other wars of attrition against fellow politicians. One would naturally feel demoralized as someone coming from the corporate sector with an untainted reputation now ruffling feathers and mingling with some vagabonds, men of questionable characters, highly intolerant and unintelligent sets. I was attracted to join politics in order to add my quota towards the development of my people because through politics, I have been giving back to my community in the form of various empowerment, youth development, poverty alleviation programs, and scholarship sponsors.
Are you likely to contest an elective position in the near future? Which of the offices are you likely to take a shot at?
For now, my answer is a capital NO, because I’m a highly focused person and in the history of Ondo State, I’m the only Executive Chairman with the most torturous, ambitious trajectory that took me almost two decades to achieve.
I was lured by both the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the articulate Labour Party (LP), but I resisted their overtures but stood consistently with the Progressives, right from Alliance for Democracy (AD), to the Action Congress (AC) to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and finally to the All Progressives Congress (APC), that’s why I called myself APC Aborigine. In fact when I concluded my tenure as the Executive Chairman of ANWLG, amongst my colleagues I was the only one who immediately went ahead to hold my thanksgiving ceremony at my church with my people at home, while some of my co- Chairmen were still contemplating of lobbying to return to Council before the demise of our former Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu of a blessed memory, and I was officially received and given a civic reception by my colleagues from the corporate world, as the ICAN body sent representatives to welcome me back to duty and this was a highly emotive moment for me.
This little explanation reflects on my person, and you will see that this present political office is a privilege with higher demand and expectations, and I need to deliver on the governor’s mandate to the best of my ability with absolute loyalty.
Since you assumed office, what changes have you made as a commissioner?
I came into the office with high hopes and was highly intentional to succeed and impact on the water sector.
Within my short stay as Commissioner, the management and staff of the Ministry under my watch and by private observation are now more cooperative, friendly and united, and these have catalysed a lot of prosperity in governance, accelerated and qualitative service deliveries, and positively impacted the water sector.
One of my landmark achievements is the Owena Multipurpose Dam Reticulation Project, which has been abandoned for almost two decades, but by the magnanimity of Mr Governor, has gotten a fresh breath into it.
We will not rest until water flows again in Akure and across every community in our beloved state. This marks the rebirth of Renewed Hope in the Ondo State Water Sector, as we lay the foundation for the future, where no child will drink unsafe water, where every household will have access to clean, running water, and where Ondo State will once again be a model of excellence in public utility management. The Rehabilitation of a moribund 60,000 cubic metre capacity dam, Water Treatment Plant, Construction of Transmission Pipelines from the Headwork to Akure, the State capital; Construction of Reservoirs in the city of Akure; Expansion of Reticulation Networks, are designed to address long-standing gaps in water supply.
You were the Executive Chairman of the Akoko North-West Local Government Area of the state. What particular lesson would you say your experience as chairman prepared you for your present job as a commissioner?
Yes, that experience was like an orientation to a much bigger and tedious assignment. Serving as the Executive Chairman of an LG is a public service environment, but an Honourable Commissioner is a civil service atmosphere where you are more under heavy bombardment from various stakeholders.
The duty of a Commissioner, like that of the water sector, is not a tea party but demands full responsibility. For me, I can say equivocally that during my regime as LG Council Chairman, the LG. experienced a level of tranquillity, unity and development.
Like the complexities of Akoko North West LG with over 24 Obas, with various interests, no allying cultural affinity and socio-political interest. But the complexities of the water Ministry is divergent and in torrential that requires intellectual and competent deployments.
Remember, I came into politics with experience and exposure garnered over the years as a globally respected Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) expert, auditor and corporate player with the highest reputation. These formed the basis with which I am approaching my administration at the ministry with a bottom-to-top mantra. Like I did as the Executive Chairman of ANWLG, is to first let everybody at the Ministry see me as a very dedicated, dutiful, determined and disciplined person. I believe in genuine conversation and engagement to drive home my points. As a leader, I believe so much in the theory of servant leadership and collective responsibility. I try to boost the morale of the staff regardless of their class, office or gender without discrimination. I don’t apportion blame, I take responsibility for all the infractions, mistakes and shortcomings of my subordinates and staff. But I make sure we share successful results. I never for once allowed a file to spend more than one day on my table because I know such a singular act of negligence can lead to what is referred to as a bureaucratic bottleneck in governance and administration.
How tough is the job of commissioner in Ondo?
It is very tough at this time that the state is under a governor who is passionate about making life more meaningful to our people. So serving in the cabinet of Mr Governor, who is not only a talk and do governor but a man who walk-work-his-talk to certainty. That’s why you can see from the coinage of ‘OUR EASE’ Agenda, an Initiative of Gov. Aiyedatiwa to transform Ondo State. So by extension, every Commissioner must know their onion and work in tandem towards the actualisation of ‘Our Ease Agenda’. This governor is unusual; in fact, I call him a phenomenon. He’s the best governor any Commissioner can be privileged to serve
.He is passionate and impatient with anything that can cause stagnation or backwardness.
Is your job as a commissioner different from that of a Council Chairman?
The two offices are not comparable, and the major differences between the duties and mandate of a Council Chairman and that of a Commissioner are beyond the mere operating environment. The core mandate areas and exclusive constitutional provisions made these offices different, as well as their scopes of operations.
While the LG Chairman relates to Public Servants, the Commissioners relate to civil servants and beyond. But the experience I gathered from both my past corporate engagement of over three decades and that of the Council all prepared me for the demands of my present office as a Commissioner.
It is said that all work and no play is bad for man. How do you spend your free periods?
Apart from working in the vineyard as an Elder in the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), I’m also the Baba-Ijo of my Parish at Okeagbe-Akoko. I’m an avid golfer, and it is the only way that I socialise in my free periods, though I still take time to read and study different subjects apart from my core career. I take delight in reflection on politics and socio-economic issues through discourse with other people from diverse professions. I’m a member of a few clubs, like Akure Recreational Club, Ikeja Golf Club, Ibori Golf Club, CrossCreek Golf Club, Ilado-Akure and Mountain Club, Okeagbe-Akoko, as well as my alma mater, Omuo Oke High School, Omuo Ekiti.
