The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Oyo state

  • Ajimobi transforms community

    Ajimobi transforms community

    Iseyin gets dual-carriageway

    Traditional ruler, residents hail governor

    Joy is in the air in Iseyin, a town in the northern part of Oyo State. The traditional ruler, chiefs and residents have been celebrating the transformation of their community.

    Their most important road, Oyo-Okeho Road, which runs through the community, is being reconstructed and converted to a dual-carriageway by the Abiola Ajimobi administration.

    The work is progressing at a fast pace, triggering joy among the locals. They are particularly excited that the town, which is centrally located between Ibadan and Oke-Ogun as well as Ibarapa areas of the state, is witnessing a major developmental project for the first time in decades.

    A total of 6.53 kilometres of the road is being reconstructed and dualised, as many reckon that it will boost the economy of the area. The length of the town is covered by the road construction, starting from Ibadan-Oyo Junction and terminating at Oke-ho Junction at the outskirt of the town.

    The construction work, which commenced in November last year, is due for completion in May next year.

    The road was in total disrepair for decades. But the Oyo State government has taken a bold step to reconstruct and dualise the road.

    When The Nation visited the town, the traditional ruler, Aseyin of Iseyin, Oba Abdulganiy Salau, and his chiefs lauded Ajimobi for the project, saying it was gladdening that the town was remembered during his tenure.

    “We are not politicians. But this is a very laudable project. It is a project this entire town will not forget. It is clear that the road construction will greatly improve the economy of our people. We are happy; we are grateful to Governor Abiola Ajimobi and his team,” the monarch said.

    Oba Salau said that the entire town has no problems with the “little demolition” being carried out to achieve the widening of the road. He affirmed that all owners of the houses are happy, adding that they all appreciate the fact that it was a developmental project that would bring benefits to all residents. He emphasised that it was more gladdening that government had begun enumeration of those affected so that they could receive their compensation with ease.

    The Principal Resident Engineer, Ministry of Works and Transport, Mr. Razaq Olayiwola, who is supervising the project, explained that the construction would take a long time because it is a township road, necessitating relocation of utilities including telephone, electricity and water facilities already laid on the old road.

    He gave the data of the road as 26.3 meters wide with one meter by one meter reinforced concrete drainages on both sides.

    The Project Manager of the construction firm, Mr. Bradley Viglino described residents as “good and warm”, adding that they are helpful. He said they are helping and cooperating particularly during demolition. He said the road will last for a minimum of 20 years before any major reconstruction can be done on it.

    The Vice Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Iseyin, Mr Mutairu Akande, praised Ajimobi for the project. He said several previous administrations abandoned the road leaving motorists and commercial vehicles at the mercy of potholes.

    He said: “We are so happy with this governor because several previous administrations abandoned us. The new road will enable our vehicles to last longer. Bad roads force us to repair our vehicles too regularly. We just appeal to them to please complete it on time. We love this government. May God help them to complete it.”

    The Head of the Market Women at Bola Ige Shopping Complex, Mrs Muibideen Oladoyin, who spoke on behalf of market women also praised the state government for road construction.. She said: “Bad roads have been preventing suppliers from bringing their stock to Iseyin. It also prevents more customers to patronize us in spite of the fact that we produce very large quantity of yam, garri and aso-oke here.

    While thanking the government for the road, she hinted that residents were having it good under the Ajimobi administration as the governor’s wife was also assisting traders with funds to boost their business. This, she said, was in addition to the completion of the Orientation Camp of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) located in the town as well as citing of a satellite campus of a tertiary institution.

    The Chairman of Iseyin Local Government, Mr Saheed Yusuf, described the project as a welcome development.. “It is a step commended by every son and daughter of this town. It has been neglected for so long but this administration has paid attention to it, for the first time, dualizing the major road. We are aware of the multiplier effect on the economy of the town and the state as a whole.” He said.

    He disclosed that the council had already rehabilitated feeder roads that will serve as alternative routes for motorists while the construction lasts.

    According to him, the road was constructed in 1948 and has since been abandoned as it was never reconstructed.

    “This is a federal road. But Governor Ajimobi does not care about the owner. He only cares about the welfare of the people. He just wants things to change. We are solidly behind him.” Yusuf said.

     

  • Honour for Ajimobi’s wife

    Honour for Ajimobi’s wife

    Wife of Oyo State governor Mrs. Florence Ajimobi has been described as an exemplary and heroic personality who is committed to the welfare of women, children, the aged, widows and other less-privileged people. She is also said to have interest in touching people’s lives by giving them hope and reason to live.

    She received these commendations while receiving the Role Model Hallmark Award of the Cathedral of Faithful, Maryland Lagos during the 18th National Feast of Nobles when it celebrated the irrevocable call of God Honorary Awards Ceremony 2013. Its theme was ‘Heroes by His Grace.’

    In her keynote address, Mrs. Eugenia Abu of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Lagos who presented the award to Mrs Ajimobi said: “In a society where role models are fast disappearing, it is a thing of joy to see a church that is determined to continuously celebrate Nigerians like Mrs. Ajimobi who have distinguished themselves from the ordinary and shown the way for others to follow. These are Nigerians who have become leaders of men and followers with integrity who have elevated themselves through hard work, discipline and charity.”

    The General Overseer of the church, Pastor Israel Ibironke explained that the Feast of Nobles which started in 1996, is specially set aside to honour individuals who have given back to the society from the immeasurable opportunities the society had offered them.

    He added that when Jesus Christ picked his disciples, they were ordinary people, but when they feasted with the Master, they became noble men who performed extra-ordinary feats and were dignified. That informed our decision to recognise Mrs. Ajimobi and other heroes and heroines.

  • The Governor as public intellectual

    The Governor as public intellectual

    In states with a history of display of intellect by their leadership, there is the tendency to dismiss the current leadership of Oyo State’s new-found romance with display of the cerebrum as a non-issue. In Oyo, renowned for its acronym as a Pacesetter but which had, over the years, lost both the pace and the setting potentials, as intangible as it may sound that its governor arrests national and international audiences with impeccable intellectual delivery, this is a major celebration for the people of Oyo State.

    In the recent past, Oyo State suffered terribly in the estimation of the world as one administered by a leadership that was everything but deep. Every anti-intellectual story that filtered from the state to the world then stuck as emerging from a familiar terrain. When miscreants of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, (NURTW) reported to have permanent chalets inside the Government House, had their villainy and spillage of blood abetted by the state, this cohered with the perception of Oyo State as a state run by everything but intellectual leadership.

    But Oyo had not always been like that. For a state once run by geniuses like Bola Ige and Omololu Olunloyo to have relapsed that irretrievably became a song on the lips of dirge-crooners. Many analysts bemoaned the fate of Oyo, once administered by Ige, poet and literary icon and Olunloyo, mathematical genius and wizard of polemics, falling into the hands of such a vacant-minded leadership.

    Doubtless, this nostalgia to reconnect with a deep-minded past recommended the election of Abiola Ajimobi at the April, 2011 polls. Engaging polemicist and a man who can answer to a description of French author, Voltaire as one unusual brain homed in a human skull, his rich credentials as Managing Director of a multinational oil corporation persuaded the electorate that his could not be a replay of the vacuity of Oyo’s recent past.

    Having set on an even keel the construction of 199 roads, about 20 fallen bridges in the state, mobile health to the nooks and crannies of the state, treating almost half a million people in the process, Ajimobi, On September 20, 2011 set the ball rolling. His unspoken intention, no doubt, was to rebrand Oyo State as the intellectual capital of South West Nigeria that it had always been. Sitting on the same seat where Obafemi Awolowo sat to proffer those intellectual responses to the post-colony of Nigeria, it would be uncharitable of Ajimobi not to rekindle the flame of an intellectual incubator which Oyo had always been.

    So to Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Ajimobi moored the intellectual boat. The hall was filled to the brim. Could anything good come out of Nazareth, the audience seemed to be asking. From an Oyo State said to be possessed of a leadership that valued necklace and bleaching cream? Decked in the academic hood and gown of a Guest Lecturer, the Oyo Governor went on an academic journey that struck his audience as unique and scintillating. Speaking to the topic, Challenge of Progress In The Midst Of Plenty, Ajimobi pleasantly shocked the institution’s Vice Chancellor, himself a foremost scholar on federalism, Eghosa Osaghae, who listened as the governor cited his journal articles of yore with astonishing rapidity.

    Then Ajimobi went into the nitty-gritty of the topic, dissecting it as a cheetah would an impala. He dissected the concept of crisis, submitting that it is at the core of the Nigerian nation and that it is impossible to take a shuttle into the Nigerian past without giving an ample space to its conflictual background. Indeed, while summarizing the Nigerian situation, Ajimobi said that the country’s post-independence situation was a long drawn-out decay or decline, whose empirical features are political instability, a low level of national cohesion and economic crisis, stating that all these indices, as far as Nigeria was concerned, are mutually reinforcing.

    He went into the post-independence Nigerian situation, especially during the First Republic where crises among the political class tore the republic apart. Thereafter, he went comparative on African experience of crises and expatiating on the interwoven nature of crises in Africa. “What makes conflict or a conflicting situation at the core of today’s globalized world’s concern” he began, “is its tendency to leave its border, making an internal conflict to burst out of its seams, and refusing to be confined within the borders of a single country… A good example of this could be found in the recent conflict situation that sprung up in Liberia in the 1990s. This Liberian crisis sowed the seeds of conflicts that eventually spread to countries like Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire and Guinea.” The audience was enthused.

    And he drew the crises situation home, to the Oyo State example. At this stage, the university audience could not hide its delight at the depth of his analysis. Encouraged by the enraptured silence of the audience, Ajimobi went on: “You will recall the periodic violent skirmishes that our state was renowned for under this regime. Blood was shed at will as if in appeasement of some blood-sucking deities. Politicians became indistinguishable from thugs and motor-park kingpins. Inside this vortex was the state government which was said to be in cahoots with the motor-park kingpins. The very sad episode of the death of a notorious NURTW kingpin, who, with the support of the state godfather, took over our State Assembly in 2006, is still very fresh in our memory. .. Indeed, an NURTW thug moved the motion for the impeachment of the then state governor, hitting the gavel on the table in a manner reminiscent of how it is done in a sane legislative House. And rather than pronouncing the governor, who was the target of his patrons, he “the Speaker is hereby impeached”. The rest, as they say, is history.”

    By the time the governor finished delivering the lecture, the audience gave him a standing ovation.

    No doubt due to the news of his intellectual intervention, Ajimobi was again invited to deliver a keynote address at the Town Hall meeting held at the Dusable Museum of the African-American history, Chicago, United States. “The Need for True Federalism in Nigeria: The Oyo State Example” was the topic he had to do justice to.

    Ajimobi first went into the history of the contiguous territories of Nigeria’s 350 ethnic groups and the constitutional history of Nigeria, from Clifford, Macpherson to the current effort at constitutional amendments. He itemized the four phases of the attempt at federalism in Nigeria which he named to be, one, under colonial rule when Nigerian nationalists struggled for the enthronement of a federal system as an integral part of the political independence agenda; the post-independence era when the political class debated the political architecture bequeathed by the departing colonial power; the third being under military rule when Nigerians rose against elements of military unitary system that ran contrary to their federalist expectations and final phase which began immediately the present democratic dispensation started in 1999.

    The governor then went into the anti-federal nature of the Nigerian federal practice. “Extant laws that are anti-federal include the Land Use Act; the Laws on Petroleum and Gas that give these resources to the federal government; the Federal Inland Revenue Act of 2007 which empowers the Federal Inland Revenue Service to collect revenue for the three tiers of government, the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation to Local Government Act of 2005, which compels states to set up joint local government account committees and empowers the federal government to deduct from funds allocated to States money they failed to pay to local governments in the previous year.”

    He also went experiential in his governance of Oyo State. “From my experience as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 2003 – 2007 and governor of Oyo State since last year, I make bold to say that there are too many responsibilities and resources at the federal level to allow for efficiency. The federal government has become so big that it is theoretically and practically impossible to guarantee efficiency… There is no way, given the capacity of the bureaucracy at the federal level, that efficiency can be guaranteed in the deployment of resources in this circumstance.”

    By the time he ended the address, he had succeeded in drawing the attention of the foreign audience to the wonky federal practice in Nigeria, especially through his conclusion that, “For me, the federal government should be limited to setting policies – after consultations with the states – on areas like road, agriculture, sports, etc. while the states are granted the powers and resources to manage these responsibilities that affect the lives of our people at the grassroots.”

    It was apparent now that Ajimobi’s renown as a public intellectual had reached a crescendo. This must have informed the London Chamber of Commerce and Industries’ (LCCI) invitation to him to address it on the business potentials in Oyo State. Held at the…., the governor, speaking through a power-point presentation, took his audience on a shuttle into the historical greatness of his state, the stasis it relapsed into and the promise it holds for investors. As usual, at the end of the presentation, the audience, which comprised white investors and friends of Nigeria, gave him a resounding applause for his mastery of the turf and his exhibition of high mental acuity.

    Two days after, Ajimobi was at the prestigious Chatham House. Asked to discuss, extempore, the topic, “Review and Reform: Key Elements and Implications of Nigeria’s Constitution Review Process,’’ again, he received a standing ovation of his deep understanding of the issues under reference. By the time, the second day, the governor arrived at the University of Oxford to talk on “Federalism and the Imperatives of Political Restructuring for the Development of Nigeria,” the audience had been convinced that in its midst was an emerging public intellectual who, at lecture podia, theoretically dissects knotty issues, while at home, in his Oyo State enclave, he brings solutions to a people who still have nostalgia for a state that was a complete package of a performer and one they could be proud of his élan.

    Adedayo is Special Adviser (Media) to Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State.

     

  • ‘Local councils should have guided autonomy’

    ‘Local councils should have guided autonomy’

    The Chairman of Ido Local Government in Oyo state, Professor Joseph Olowofela has canvassed for “guided autonomy” for the 774 local governments in the country.
    He explained that instead of full autonomy which could lead to abuse, guided autonomy would ginger growth at grassroots level.
    The Commissioner for Local Governments and Chieftaincy Matters in the state, Hon. Peter Odetomi also lent his support to the call for guided autonomy for councils to fast-track development.
    Olowofela, a Professor of Geo-Physics and former Head, Physics Department, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, was the guest speaker at the 2012 press week lecture series of the Oyo State Correspondents chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) held at Lafia Hotel, Ibadan.
     Professor Olowofela who also called for the creation of additional councils in the state, argued that the existing 33 councils in the state   were grossly insufficient in driving development at the grassroots.
    He stated that having more local governments would give the needed impetus to improve on infrastructure, provision of social amenities which would in turn lead to accelerated growth at local levels.
    The guest speaker who delved into the topic:” Community Involvement in Grass-root Politics” , encouraged market women, members of the academia, artisans , students , trade and professional bodies  to participate actively in grass-root politics to be able to effect the needed change.
     Professor Olowofela, while answering questions after his lecture, recalled the role of Mrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti between 1900 and 1978 as a foremost women leader.
    He said: “Ransome Kuti’s political activism led to her being regarded as “the Mother of Africa”; she was a very powerful force advocating for the Nigerian woman’s right to vote”.
     Speaking further on the need for additional councils in the state, the council chairman argued that some councils were too big to be evenly administered , saying  that “the more, the merrier”.
    In his goodwill message,the Oyo state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters , Hon Peter Odetomi  maintained that the meagre resources being allocated to the councils in the state were not enough to take care of the needs of respective council areas, stressing that, new councils being advocated would only end up becoming burdens on the governance, especially overhead costs of the personnel and other career officers.
    He criticised the administration of the Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala led administration for poor quality road construction throughout the 33 local government areas in the state.
    “The quality of road construction and materials used on the roads are far different from what we have in the past government. We don’t want to go to jail that is why we have been prudent and careful with what we do. We want to give the best to our people. That is why we have taken time to access everything before embarking on any project,” he said.

  • A lift for Oyo communities

    •Sunday Adepoju and others

    Things are looking up in different parts of Oyo State. In Saki West Local Government Area, the chairman, Hon Dapo Popoola gave out jobs tools to residents.

    In Eruwa, Ibarapa East Local Government Area, Hon. Sunday Sunday Adepoju, a lawmaker of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), also handed out work tools to the people. In Oyo South Senatorial District, Senator Olufemi Lanlehin inaugurated over 10 automated boreholes to ease the perrenial water challenges in the area.

    Changes hardly come without sacrifices . The people’s representatives elected to positions of authority had made tremendous effort to demonstrate good governance to the people at the grassroots.

    Hon. Popoola, the House of Representatives member representing Ibarapa East /Ido federal constituency, Hon. Adepoju  and  Senator Lanlehin representing Oyo South Senatorial District have lifted the spirits of their people. It was  a time to render an account of their stewardship in the last one year.

     The people beamed with a smile, as they savoured the  new lease of life .
    “It has never been so good in the history of the state,” Alfa Muideen Kola, a farmer in Saki West told this reporter during  the distribution of working tools to beneficiaries.

     A few months after the donation of seven solar-powered boreholes to the communities, Lanlehin extended the gesture to six more communities.

     The communities where the borehole projects were recently commissioned for public use include: Iberekodo in Igbo-Ora (Ibarapa Central Local Government), Ido township (Ido Local Government), Adabeji-Moor Plantation (Ibadan South West Local Government), Felele (Ibadan South East Local Government), Orita-Aperin (Ibadan South East Local Government) and Oje (Ibadan North East Local Government ).

     Lanlehin, accompanied by a mammoth crowd made up of chieftains and members of the ACN as well as other supporters, assured the residents of each community where the projects were located of better things to come as long as they kept faith with the government of his party at all levels.

    He said: “Provision of ultra-modern boreholes in your various communities is just a token of what we plan to offer in fulfilment of our campaign promises. All we require from you is maximum cooperation and peaceful co-existence to enable us provide more good governance and dividends of democracy to all and sundry.”

    The Oluaso of Iberekodo community in Igbo-Ora, Oba Jamiu Adedamola Badmus, led other traditional, religious and community leaders to inaugurate the borehole in his domain. The monarch was full of appreciation to the lawmaker who he described as a rare breed politician.

    Similarly, the Onido of Ido, Chief Tajudeen Akinola Agura, could not hide his happiness over the borehole cited in his community.
    He demonstrated this by conferring the chieftaincy title of Otunba Onido of Idoland on Senator Lanlehin, complete with a staff of office presented to the lawmaker at the occasion.

    Alhaji Muibi Yusuff, led the people of his community to welcome Lanlehin and his entourage at the borehole site in Felele community.

    Party chieftains such as Mr. Arowolo and Ademola Adegoke were also on hand to convey the goodwill message of the residents to the Senator who they urged to move ahead to empower the youths in his selfless service to humanity.
    At Oje market, venue of another borehole project commissioning, the Gbonka Olubadan, High Chief Delesolu saluted Lanlehin’s courage, noting that he was always willing to assist his people without discrimination.
    He, however, urged the benefiting communities to make good use of the boreholes.

    While acknowledging cheers from the crowd at Aperin where he had launched one of the six projects, Senator Lanlehin hinted that the general public would always be carried along in his activities as a representative of the people.

    At Saki town, hundreds of rural dwellers as well as members of the ACN trooped out in joyous mood to witness the distribution of N7.2million worth of working tools for artisans, and traders includinghairdressers, barbers, fashion-designers and tailors, among others.

     The ACN leader in the Oke-Ogun area of the state, a former National Chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Chief Michael Adeniyi Koleoso and the paramount ruler, the Okere of Saki, Oba Kilani Olatoyese Olarinre II and the state Deputy Governor, Chief Moses Alake, led hundreds of the people of the ancient community to the two-storey Town Hall, venue of the event.

  • Council chief bags award

    Hon. Lapade(right) receiving the award from Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola

    The Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, Hon. Idris Lapade, has been honoured with the best information technology development chairman of the year.

    The award was conferred on him at the 8th edition of Nigerian Telecom awards held in Victoria Island, Lagos, last week.
    The honour went to some selected state governments, local governments, corporate bodies and individuals across the thirty three states of federation who have contributed to the development of the information technology in the country.

    Lapade was the only chairman nominated for the award in Oyo State out of the 33 chairmen in the state. He was given the award as a result of his contributions to the development of ICT in the local government.

    Before presentation, the chairman of the occasion and the former Minister of Information, Dr Haliru Mohammed Bello, praised the involvement of the state governors, local government administration and the other stakeholders who see the use of information technology as the only means to move the nation forward.

    He commended Lapade for recognising the role of the Information technology in nation building and stressed that government parastatals have a key role to play in the development of information technology.

    While reacting to the award, Lapade said he felt honoured and excited for receiving such international award on behalf of the local government and the entire people of the state.

    He stressed the need for people to be encouraged to use the modern way of communicating rather than living in the past. According to him, this was why he encouraged some workers in the council to use information communication as the means of getting across to one another .

    He said: ‘First and for all, I give glory to Almighty God and I dedicate this award of merit to my governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi for encouraging people to update themselves with the latest gadget in town especially the civil servants. Every aspect of our operations in the local government was invlvolves the use of information technology and use of the modern gadget to improve the workforce.

    “In Ibadan North Local Government, we have organised seminars, workshops, and different training programmes for our workers for them to know the importance of the information technology in this jet age and that has prompted us to have internet facility atthe local government secretariat”.