How Dapo Abiodun Stimulates Prosperity through Creativity

When the leadership of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) concluded on the choice of Ogun State as the venue of their maiden week, and as well picked the Governor of the Gateway State, Dapo Abiodun as the Patron of the Institute, little did they know that their resolutions were the best in content and in context. The President of the Institute, Dr. Ike Neliaku, while delivering his speech at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto- Abeokuta, Ogun State, had informed the audience that one of the reasons behind the choice of Ogun State for the event was being the State of many firsts, ranging from civilization to education, politics, commerce and industry and many more, aside the fact that the Governor of the State in the last five years have provided exemplary leadership that directly touched the lives of his people.

He eloquently eulogised Abiodun for turning around the fortunes of the state through different initiatives, adding that the Institute over the past two weeks has been promoting the remarkable achievements of Abiodun-led administration in the State on their websites, which Neliaku described as a way of putting Ogun State on the global map.

In truth and indeed, Abiodun, through genuine intention and clear vison to lead his people to the desired heights, as envisaged by the founding fathers of the State adopted distinct style of governance, in total departure from the old order of deception and political chicanery of the past administration, which regrettably impoverished the people and put the State in reverse gear of development until Abiodun came into the saddle in 2019.

Unarguably, Abiodun must have stumbled and carefully pondered on the inspiring postulation of the 35th American President, J.F. Kennedy, who submitted that: “Those who refused to participate in the politics of their environment end up being governed by their inferiors”, hence his unrelenting and consistent efforts towards the gubernatorial seat, amid suffocating and hostile political atmosphere.

This was coincidentally corroborated by one of the participants at the event on Tuesday, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the Director General of National Orientation Agency, who represented the Minister of Information and National Orientation. Issa-Onilu, one-time National Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) recounted how at different occasions he had travelled with Abiodun from Lagos to Abuja during the governorship struggle in 2019.

“As Publicity Secretary of APC at the time, I have had the reasons to travel with His Excellency severally to Abuja during the 2019 governorship election, and each time we travelled, he kept on saying when I get there; when I get there; I told myself, does this man understands what it takes to be a Governor. Today, I am very happy that the man has performed exceptionally well, he did not disappoint us”.

Such testimonies abound about the Prince of Iperu-Remo, the man who has tremendously brought a deep knowledge of financial management and coordination of the private sector to bear in the administration of the State, as he has constantly described himself as the Chief Marketer of the State.

In the first instance, one will wonder how a Chief Executive of a State suddenly became a Chief Marketer and of which product in particular? “Ogun State is the Gateway to Nigeria’s prosperity, the industrial capital of Nigeria, and the educational capital of this nation. On assumption of office and in appreciation of our competitive and comparative advantages, we were very clear about our vision, which is to provide good and qualitative governance whilst creating an enabling environment for public private

partnership, which is fundamental to economic growth and individual prosperity of our residents.

“We realised this can only be achieved through our “Building our future” together mantra and our ISEYA development pillar where I stands for Infrastructure, S for Social Welfare and Wellbeing, E for Education and Human Development, Y for Youth Empowerment and A for Agriculture and Food Security; we have achieved significant milestones, covering substantial grounds across the state.

“We have prioritized the provision of the required infrastructure, by implementing our multimodal infrastructure policy in appreciation of the importance of the need to facilitate people to live, work and play in Ogun state with ease and utmost comfort. Some of you either came by road or rail and I am sure your experience was nothing but pleasant. That is possible because we deliberately closed our eyes on whether a road is a federal road or state owned.

“To date, we have constructed over 500 km of roads. Very soon, you will be coming here by air, this week, our airport will be approved for non-scheduled flights, meaning that Chatererd flights can file their flight plans and land at our gateway international airport and in another 2 weeks or less we will receive formal approval for scheduled commercial flights. “I was sharing at the breakfast with private sector CEOs earlier that we will soon be establishing the Kajola dry container Port.

I will not miss an opportunity to share with you that in the last 5 years, we have been very deliberate and intentional about strengthening law enforcement and provision of security by supporting our law enforcement architecture with funding, logistics and technology, which has today earned us the safest state in Nigeria, as there cannot be socio economic development in the atmosphere of insecurity.

“We will continue to be proactive in implementing policies and initiatives to increase the ranking of Ogun State in the ease of doing business index, we remain the industrial capital of Nigeria with over 6000 industries and the investors destination of choice, the state with the most improved IGR, being no 3 heading to no 2, and the fastest growing economy in Nigeria.

“In the last 5 years, we have built over 4000 affordable homes and still building as we target 10,000 homes by 2027, we have rebuilt over 1000 schools and over 100 PHCs. Our commitment to energy transition and cushioning the effects of the petrol subsidy removal is clearly evident. We were the first state in Nigeria to deploy compressed natural gas (CNG) fueled buses, which has resulted in reduced transport fares. “We are prioritizing ICT & digital economy and have Olaniyi Ajibola, SSA on Strategic Communications to

Governor Dapo Abiodun writes from Abeokuta.