I will be Oyo’s first two-term governor –Ajimobi

Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi tellsOLUFEMI ATOYEBIthat teachers in
the state are living better than he met them. He replies critics of
his administration that compared with past regimes, he has performed
better
Your administration has been criticised by some people for not living
up to expectations in Oyo State, how would you react to this?
In the corporate world where I belonged for so long, we need not blow
any trumpet to announce our achievements. Records are always there to
do that. But what I realised is that in the political world, you must
not only perform, you must also learn the trade of making people see
what you have done. Those that are in my cabinet would come to me and
say that we should call the media and tell them what we have done, but
I did not see any reason for that because I believed that the results
are always there for the people to see. The Yoruba have a saying that
you don't advertise your achievements to the world to see, instead of
doing that; you must cover it from the public.
That belief affected us in the beginning of this administration.
Without being immodest, we have done the analysis of previous
administrations' performances, what we found out is that reasonably,
we have performed better when you compare reasonable parameters. But
even at that, some people do not see what we have done; rather, they
project us in negative ways. I don't like propaganda in my life. My
style in life is that before you tell people what you have done, you
must have something positive to show them. It's a philosophy I imbibed
a long time ago.
For instance, nothing seems to be happening concerning the state
technical university that was to take off last year. What is
happening?
When we came on board in 2011, we started with the establishment of a
technical university in the state. We set up a committee which
consisted of past vice-chancellors and renowned scholars. We even
travelled to Texas State University in the United States. We reached
an agreement with the authorities of the school and they sent two of
their expatriates to us. They participated in the survey for the
proposed institution. We acquired land and did the design of the
university. To speed up the start up, we went to Lagelu Local
Government where we decided that the old site of Ajoda New Town would
be used as temporary site while the building of the permanent site
continued. The temporary site had the infrastructure needed and it is
big enough to accommodate what we projected.
A couple of months to the take off, the university authorities in the
US called us and said that they were worried about the security
situation in the country, especially with the kidnap of the Chibok
girls and kidnapping of foreigners. They advised that we suspend the
resumption date and other activities until they are comfortable with
security situation in Nigeria. We had gone far on the project but
because of the advice from the council, we had to hold on and
restructure ourselves in order to put in place other arrangements.
We have since been talking to other universities in South Africa and
the US to partner with us on the project, but they are worried about
security situation in the country. They do not want to commit their
human resources to the project because of the security situation in
Nigeria. We have two options; to wait until the situation improves or
we start afresh with another partner. The university project is still
on but subject to the return of our partners when security situation
improves in Nigeria.
Do you think your administration can complete its projects within the
short period left?
If you consider the road projects for example, you will realise that
the first thing we did was to ensure that all major inlets to the six
zones; Ibadan, Oyo, Ogbomoso, Oke-Ogun1, Oke-Ogun 2 and Ibarapa were
restructured to dual carriage ways. You will see that this has never
been done in the state before, especially in Oyo, Oke-Ogun1, Oke-Ogun
2 and Ibarapa. When we started the projects, we never prayed to defer
them or leave them uncompleted. All the projects will be completed
before our first tenure ends.
But for the cash crunch, we would have completed them a long time ago.
Apart from the projects we have declared opened officially, we have
completed the Onireke/Eleyele road, Aleshinloye road and Challenge
axis in Ibadan. There is the second phase of the Challenge axis that
connects Orita-Challenge. We have done a lot of work on that road and
it will soon be completed.
The road in Oyo is 90 per cent completed. We would have completed the
road in Ogbomoso but because the Federal Government did not do the
Trunk A road, huge traffic of lorries was diverted to the portion we
had completed. The road was spoilt immediately because it was not
meant for such heavy vehicles. We have appealed to the people that we
will have to restructure the road to accommodate heavy vehicles. The
engineering works have been completed. So basically when you look at
the eight major roads, it's only Ibariba-Shaki road that we just
started that cannot be completed. An average road of that nature will
take 18 months.
A past administration in the state initiated the circular road project
which many residents have praised for its potential benefits. However,
they say you have abandoned the project. Why is that?
In the spirit of continuity, the circular road project was inherited
by this administration and we were ready to do it. The idea is to
construct a road that will go around Ibadan so that if you are passing
through, you don't have to enter the city. But that project will cost
N55bn to execute. Considering the financial status of the state at the
moment, especially when you consider the fact that we now have
dwindling allocation from the federation account, we cannot afford to
inject such a huge amount to the project. As it is, we have rested
that idea now because of other pressing matters.
No governor has won elections twice in Oyo State. Going by this, your
opponents say history doesn't favour you. Are you already prepared to
lose?
There is always a first time to everything. There has never been a
Governor Ajimobi before me. I am the first and I will do two terms as
a governor. It will then become history. The beauty of it is that the
major contestants in the state now have been former governors (Adebayo
Alao-Akala and Rashidi Ladoja) whom I defeated in 2011. I am still
going to defeat them again. Apart from the fact that I have beaten
them before, people will look at the track record of each of the
contestants I am referring to.
What do you think you have done that gives you the edge over past
governors like Ladoja and Alao-Akala that didn't get second terms and
other governorship candidates in the race now?
If you take a look at the fundamental features of governance, which
are peace, security and safety, you can easily say which government is
better. During their own tenures, we witnessed violence and Oyo State
was projected as a violent state. If you compare this government with
that of Alao-Akala and Ladoja, you can easily point out that there is
peace today than then. If that is all we have achieved, it is enough
for us. The foundation of any society is peace and security, which is
what we have established. Nobody wants to go back to the days of old.
When last did you hear of National Union of Road Transport Workers
crisis in Oyo State?
People talk of stomach infrastructure but we have gone beyond that in
the state. During the time of Alao-Akala and Ladoja, they removed
traders from Elekuro and other places but they did not build shops for
them. We are the first government to remove traders from the streets
and provide about 4800 of them with new shops free. We are still
building to accommodate more traders. Let anybody challenge me on
this. Not only that we gave the traders new shops, we also gave them
money to trade at no interest rate. That is a loan that is unlikely to
be recovered. We spent close to N500m on that. If you are talking
about taking care of people, we do it a lot. Every other month, we
give free food to people from a food bank that cost the state close to
N2bn. We have empowered many through training and distribution of
tools and equipment and the state is better for it because there is
development.
Some people say the state of the economy of Oyo State since you became
the governor has been worse. Why this?
The Federal Bureau of Statistics said investment flow to Nigeria grew
by about 200 per cent but in Oyo State, it grew by 697 per cent with
eight big companies being established. We did not fabricate this fact;
the bureau came out with its finding. Those companies are either first
in Nigeria or biggest in Africa. We have a soya bean manufacturing
company which is the biggest in West Africa, we have a farm where more
than 100,000 day-old chicks are hatched daily, we also have the
largest bakery in Africa here in Ibadan. Oyo State is also home to the
largest edible oil factory in Nigeria. The newly opened Shoprite (on
Ring Road) in Ibadan is the largest in Africa. All these have a
multiplying effect because jobs are being created.
Despite these claims, your opponents say you have failed in the
education sector.
Fortunately, that is an area where we have put in our best. We engaged
5,300 teaching and non-teaching staff for our schools at a go. The
beauty of it is that we did not sit in Ibadan to employ these staff.
We ensured that the staff were employed from their council areas. This
is because we realised that the old system was breaking homes.
Teachers were posted away from their families. Can you imagine a man
staying in a house for three months without seeing his wife? Women are
better because they can manage but not all men will manage. We are now
keeping the family together.
Our schools are getting better now because we are rehabilitating them.
When you compare what this administration has done with that of the
past governments, I honestly think we have done better and I am not
basing my submission on propaganda or fabrication.
This is the only government that has increased pensioners' pay by 42
per cent. The pension problem we are still having is because past
governments paid lip service to pension issue. A sum of N6bn pension
fund was stolen by the previous government. But when we came, I paid
N2.4bn at once to pensioners. We lifted the bars on teachers'
promotion so they can now get to grade level 14. Our teachers are now
one of the highest paid teachers in the South-West and they are paid
before other civil servants are paid. I have talked about the state
technical university that is set to take off as soon as security
situation improves in the country.
What is the wage bill of the state now?
The wage bill is linked to performance. With good incentive and
motivation, coupled with training, workers will give their best on the
job. What this administration met as the wage bill was N2.9bn but
within the last four years, it has grown to around N5bn.
Some people said that we promised to double their minimum wage but I
explained to them that minimum wage means that no worker will get
below N18,000. Senior teachers that were earning N60,000 are now
earning around N140,000. In terms of welfare of the civil servants,
physical and social infrastructure, we have done better than what we
met.
In March 2014, corpses were discovered in a forest at Soka area of
Ibadan. The place was described as a den of kidnappers. Some people
have linked this to your tenure?
The opposition has feasted on this non – issue for so long a time. The
truth of the matter is that the Soka forest existed before this
administration. On my visit there, a woman told me that she had been
there for years. You see, the opposition in Oyo State feasts on lies.
Even when their claim is an affront on logic, they still roll in the
mire of their lies. The greatest culprit is the Accord Party and its
leadership that thrive on misleading the people by stuffing their
minds with concocted lies. Are you aware that during the Soka issue, a
mad man was lynched along Ring Road because he was found with what
they said were human tongues? When those so-called tongues were taken
for forensic analysis, they were discovered to be sausages! The
question to ask is: who arranged this? Will the blood of the murdered
mad man not be on the heads of these evil people? It is the same
situation we found ourselves in many of the projects we have done. We
built a flyover, they went and destroyed the bars to claim that it is
sub-standard. The truth of the matter is Soka was neglected by
governments before us. This gave birth to its being used as a crime
spot. Go there now and you will see its transformation during our
tenure. We have taken over the control of the area and right now, this
administration has turned the site to a school facility that will be
completed soon.
Apart from the state-owned housing units you met, people say your
administration has not done enough to tackle housing situation in the
state.
This is another area where we have engaged rare initiative to tackle.
With the help of technical partners, we have improved on housing
situation in the state. The structure we are using is private/public
driven. We have established two new Government Reservation Areas in
Jericho while the old GRA's are now being rehabilitated. Instead of
selling the houses to influential people, what we have done was to
make sure that every government land is developed by developers for
the good of the people.
One of the contestants in the governorship race said your
administration has failed to develop agriculture in the state. Is this
not the case?
The largest employer of labour in the world is agriculture. Perhaps it
will be wise if people get their facts right instead of maligning
others. We should tackle issues based on facts on ground.
We started with the concept of the three legs of agriculture; the
input, infrastructure and the human capital. We brought in hybrid
cocoa seedling which increased our output by over 60 per cent.
In the fish industry, production has improved by over 50 per cent.
Compared to the less than 100 tractors we had before we came, this
government bought 480 tractors for the farming population. We also
added mega storage facilities with 10,000 metric tons capacity to the
services rendered to the farmers. We also recruited more than 7,000
youths that are being trained by the international Institute for
Tropical Agriculture. We now have nine farm settlements that are going
to be developed by international investors.
What is the effect of these on the state's economy and food production?
If you take 7,000 youths away from the streets with prospect of a
career in agriculture, this will definitely have a positive effect on
the state. Apart from improving on the food basket, local farmers are
better now in terms of income generation. Contrary to what the
opposition is saying, we are closer to the farmers at the grassroots
than any administration can claim.
In Oke-Ogun area, residents have complained about the activities of
illegal miners. Is the state not thinking of earning through such
mineral resources in the area?
The Federal Government owns all the mineral resources. But this
administration has approached the Federal Government to seek approval
to take part in mining activities. We were in Australia with the
Federal Government delegates where we signed an agreement with a
mining company there. We have also tried to get involved better by
monitoring the locations. We have already registered a company in
partnership with the Australian company and talking to the Federal
Government so that we can control our own mining. We are carrying out
a test to see if the coal we have in the state is in commercial
quantity.
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