Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, recently clocked one year in office. In this interview with journalists to commemorate the anniversary, the governor highlights his development strategies so far with assurance to residents on provision of new capital project for improvement of their living conditions. ADEWUMI ADEMIJU reports
Unlike in previous administrations, you seem to avoid taking political decisions and this can be buttressed with two examples. On selection of commissioners, you gave the assignment to people to carry out despite being the executive governor, and also in the just concluded local government primary election, you instructed that nobody should come to you because you don’t want imposition. Why are you doing this?
I am a product of a system; I ran on the platform of a political party and when I went to canvass for votes during the primary election, I made certain promises to them based on the feedbacks we got from party members. There were complaints then that the party was not involved in a lot of things and I told them that I will return the party back to the leaders. I made that promise to them and I don’t think it will be right for me to assume the position of governorship and renege on that promise.
I believe in the supremacy of the party; I believe that the party knows everybody because we gave them certain parameters to follow in fairness. There are certain conditions I gave to the committee when I inaugurated it; that they must be competent, compassionate, they must be people that can run with the vision, understanding the pillars of the administration. So, they have certain benchmarks and the reason I did that was because I want commissioners who are in constant touch with their localities.
As a leader, it is good to think global, but it is better to act local because we are products of this environment. So, at the end of the day, they submitted their recommendations to me, they recommended three names because the committee went round the state for eight weeks collating CVs, interviewing people. And don’t forget that the committee was headed by a retired Permanent Secretary, Baba Akosile, and we had the likes of a former deputy governor, Princess Adelabu on that committee.
Members of that committee are experienced people and I don’t believe that a leader is someone who knows everything, a leader is someone who can put together smarter tips to guard him taking a decision. So, I believe strongly in their ability and capacity to do that. It is not that I shy away from it, I just wanted to test another approach to doing things, I don’t believe that being the governor of the state confers monopoly of knowledge on me. I don’t believe in it.
But at the end of the day, it was my decision because out the three names sent, I still have to pick one. I must confess that the day we did swearing in for them, you will realise that people took ownership of it. So, all the commissioners are representatives of their local governments, so their loyalty is going to be to the people. I don’t want commissioners who are loyal to me, I want commissioners who are loyal to the people of Ekiti State because government is about the people, it is not about an individual.
For the chairmanship primaries; as the Leader of the party, I don’t think I should have a favourite candidate and the chairmanship position belongs to the local government because that is the closest level of government to the people. I don’t want local government chairmen who will be loyal to me as governor of Ekiti State. I have sat on this seat for close to one year and I have realised that if you are on the seat and you are not compassionate, you don’t love the people, you can use that seat to destroy lives.
So, I wanted chairmen of local governments allegiance will be to their people and not to me. If I sit down here and appoint chair- men for the local governments and LCDAs, their loyalty will be to me, not to the people and that will not be good for our people. So, that is the reason I have decided to democratize the choice of political appointments.
And so far, so good, I think it resonates well with the people because the party’s leadership also consulted with traditional rulers, opinion molders in the state and local government before they came up with that. I can assure that I didn’t get involved in any of them and I am okay with that. I am not here to build structure for myself, the structure must be built to serve the people of Ekiti State because the state is larger than the governor.
Some people are of the view that you have done well, while others are of the opinion that you have bought the opposition, which according to the them, explains why Ekiti is running like a one-party state. What’s your reaction to that?
I believe that the best assessment of any government is by the people and if it is coming from journalists, that tells me that it is a position that one has to take seriously. As a government, we have a contract with the people of Ekiti state and we promised ourselves that we will work. We made certain promises to them, and in the past few months, we have ensured that those promises are kept. Even if those promises come with a cost, it requires self-discipline, a lot of concentration, a lot of consultation and a lot of what I will call a stable and compassionate policy from the government.
It also requires a lot of tactics and strategies and we have tried as much as possible to ensure that we are truthful to Ekiti people. We believe that trust is very key to governance. So, the first mark I set for myself is that I need to earn the trust of Ekiti people because if I am going to take them on a journey of four years, they must trust me to the point that they will follow me to that expected end and we have tried to do that. So, if this is the feedback, well, I give God all the glory but I also know that it is too early in the day for us to rest on our oars.
So, the reward of hard work is more work. With respect to buying of opposition, it is not correct. What we have done is to ensure that we are running an inclusive government, and we are communicating with the opposition. Election stopped the day I was sworn-in as governor of Ekiti State. I don’t see myself as governor of All Progressives Congress (APC). I am the governor of everybody in Ekiti State and I relate with all of them as Ekiti indigenes.
So, politics have stopped, we are in the realm of governance and governance tells me that I have to be responsible to both my party members and people who didn’t even vote for me. There are a lot of Ekiti people who don’t even belong to any political party, I am also responsible to them. So, before I assumed office, I visited every leader in the state across political divide because I believe strongly that I need all of them, I need to learn from them, I also need to take feedback from them and we had useful discussions with leaders of my party, those that are non-political and those that belong to the opposition.
And every time I go to them, I take note of whatever they tell me. And when I have issues; because I have established that relationship, I can call them and ask for advice and all of them have been advising me. So, that may be responsible for the feedback you are getting, I have not bought anybody, all the supports have been unconditional and none of them has asked me for any favour and that is the truth.
In maximizing the natural potentials of Ekiti, some people are of the opinion that the state has not really utilized the endowment of Igbemo Rice to boost its revenue the way Ogun State using Ofada Rice. What do you have to say about that?
That is a correct assertion and it is not also correct. Our strategy in the agricultural sector is to see agriculture as a business itself. We want to put in place strategies and tactics that will allow players in that sector to also create wealth and be prosperous. So, we are transiting from subsistence farming to agribusiness. And because we are shifting focus from what used to be, it is going to take a lot of communication and a lot of consultation with all the sectors in the agriculture value chain.
It is not only in Igbimo Rice we are going to do this; we will do this across the value chain of grains, tree crops and root crops. The most important thing in agriculture is fairness; it has to do with the mechanics of the agriculture itself, the quality of seedlings, availability of good input and tractorisation, land development. So, you need to identify the challenges first. The challenges we have faced in agriculture is that we have left the players in the sector to themselves.
There is absence of extended service, government doesn’t see agriculture as business, so the players in that sector don’t believe that they can create wealth. So, they are abandoning that sector. We are bringing young people back into the sector because the farming population is aged and these are people that are used to the old ways of doing things.
With your style of governance, what should Ekiti people expect in the next three years?
We campaigned on the mantra of continuity and shared prosperity. Continuity of the programmes and policies of my predecessor in office, which we have articulately adhered to in respect to the completion of some of the projects that he couldn’t complete, while he was here. Also, you will recall that before he left office, we launched the Ekiti State 30-year development plan from 2020 to 2050 and our manifesto is an upshoot of the development plan.
The last budget was termed ‘Budget of Strong Beginning’ and we named it that, so we can put in place a very strong foundation for the prosperity of our people and now that the foundation has been laid, the budget of 2024 is to put the building blocks gradually to dispense prosperity for our people. So, what Ekiti people should expect in the next three years is a faithful implementation of our six pillars in accordance with the Ekiti State Development Plan and in accordance with the 2024 budget.
Ekiti people should expect new capital projects, improvement in the living conditions of the people. Those in the formal sector should expect government support for the formal sector and same for private sector and they should look forward to the establishment of industries in the state. Also, we are going to put a lot of emphasis on clean environment to ensure that we clean our environment. We will put emphasis on art, culture and tourism and also, we will attack unemployment and insecurity in the state.
How do you intend to tackle indiscriminate dumping of refuse and blocking of waterways in the state?
Let me start from your last question on illegal structures on the waterways. Immediately we were sworn in, I told myself that we will reduce the impact of flood in Ekiti State. I called the government agency concerned to let me know those critical areas in Ado-Ekiti that are prone to flooding and as early as November, we started dredging, we couldn’t get to everywhere before the rain set in but and as at that time, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency has not even released the forecast for the year. I did not know that Ekiti would be flagged red but we just did that as my responsibility to my people.
If we have not taken that proactive step, it would have been worse than this. Like you said, there was a place we dredged along EKSU road very close to Ayemi Garage, we dredged it on a Monday and I went to inspect the road eight days later, what I saw was a quantum of refuse that water brought, the place was blocked. So, there is a connection between flooding and refuse disposal. For us to enforce this, we have a responsibility. Government must also make available refuse disposal bins for our people. I cannot ask you not to dump refuse on the street or in front of your houses if I don’t provide that.
It is the responsibility of state and local governments. We have been interrogating this close to a year. Recently, I had a meeting with government agencies and all their LCDAs in Ado. They have one week to come back to me on their resolution and we have agreed on what we are going to do. If there is one area that I am not happy with, it is the indiscriminate dumping of refuse in Ado. But I keep asking myself, if I don’t like it, are there alternatives for these people? If we provide alternatives and they don’t comply, we can then act, so government will do its own very soon.
There are two and the half dump sites in Ado, I was told that government has not given compensation to the land owner, so, they didn’t allow them to use it but the two other sites are paid off. So, those are the issues, I agree with you, you are right but those that are constructing illegally on waterways, we are going to take tougher actions next year. We will, but we will engage with them but if there are buildings that have to go, they will definitely go. So, the Commissioner for Physical Planning has been going round and they are marking these buildings. We cannot afford lives to be put at risk because of the behaviour of few.
I told the Commissioner for Investment and Environment to sit down with the market women for the cleaning of the market. We will roll out a comprehensive action plan in respect to waste management and flood control very soon but I agree with you, it is an area of challenge for me and we will tackle it, that is why we are here. But in doing this too, you have to be compassionate, we don’t want to inflict unnecessary pains on the people because the people are already stressed to a point.
What are you doing on subvented institutions in the state in terms of workers’ welfare, infrastructure, learning and others?
We came on board in the heart of the arrears that are not being paid, we had arrears of subventions that have not been paid and I think we have reduced it to just one month now. We have not also failed in releasing their subventions every month. We have constituted their governing council, people with men of timbre and calibre that can actually bring new lives to those Institutions. But my position on this has been certain and constant, the money is called subvention, it should not replace the ability of the Institution themselves to generate independent funding for itself.
There is no way government will carry 100 per cent the load of the university. There are state universities in the South-West that they don’t collect subvention from the government, Ekiti State University is the most subvented university in the zone, go and cross check. Kwara State Univer- sity doesn’t take money from the government, Lagos State University takes less than what Ekiti State University is taking. And I do ask: What are they doing? How have they been running the place?
It seems that we are used to government subventions. So, it has made them to relax. We will continue to subvent but the university when it comes to policy, they will claim autonomy but financially, they will come to government. I have told them, we will continue to support them, there’s no problem about that but they have to look inward. Between the three Institutions in the state, we spend close to a billion naira every month, that’s N12 billion a year and that will go a long way to do a lot of things for our people.
You are at high pace in community engagement but the traditional way of meeting Ekiti people at every last day of the month tagged Meet Your Governor has not been forthcoming. You have not also visited media houses on media talk/ programmes. How will you react to that?
With due respect to the Chief Press Secretary, we had this conversation for a long time and I told him that if we are cooking something and it’s not done, what am I going to tell people. I don’t want to appear for the sake of appearing, now that we have stories to tell, we will tell it. For the past one year, I have been working so, I can’t become governor in October and in November, and you expect me to go to the media, what will I tell Nigerians? It is either I lie to them and I am not good at lying and I don’t want to start lying now because I am a governor.
Now, you can confidently go anywhere and tell the people that we have done many things, that’s number one. Number two, I am not a conformist, I don’t do things because others are doing it, I do things based on convictions. I told you thar we are running an orchestrating government. All these don’t come cheap, so the money I will use for such, if I put it in Okeyimi Maternity Centre, its’s going to add value to my people. I am not here to promote myself, but if there are strong reasons for me to appear on any platform, I will do that.
What are you doing to address the challenges facing Ekiti Amotekun for it to function like their counterparts in other states?
Well, I share your concern with Amotekun. I too have the same concern but we need to do more with Amotekun and what I tried to do is that I take decisions based on facts. I try to take emotions out of any decision I take. When I came on board, I tried to look at it because Amotekun was under me when I was the Secretary to the State Government (SSG). Since I became the governor, I commissioned a team to look at Amotekun and I discovered that we need to change the tactics with them.
We need to employ more people, we need to train them, we need to provide resources for them, but you know, we also need to provide a clear direction for them. And when I was convinced that a new leadership is needed, I brought in the current commander who just retired from the army, he has been leading the fight against Boko Haram in the northern states and I brought him on board. Since he came on board, he has changed the face of Amotekun in the state. Presently, he is going round the state to even ascertain the status of the corps. He has not completed that.
Once that is done, we are going to sit down with the local governments, but definitely we need to recruit more people, we need to provide working tools for them. This government believes in the Amotekun philosophy and we also believe that if properly identified with the current leadership, our Amotekun will bite more.
So, we are working in that line but I must commend the new commandant, he has brought a lot of discipline and a lot direction into the corps and part of what we are doing is just to change the leadership now and I am just waiting for him to come with his reports because Amotekun is a joint concern for both the state and the local governments.