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Ondo Election Debate: Matters Arising
By Olushola Omogbehin
As I wrote in a July 2024 piece on this column that the November 16th election in Ondo State “is certainly an interesting season in the Sunshine State”, we have indeed witnessed many episodes of those interesting moments in the last few days ranging from the exodus of what can best be described as “Iroko group” from the Peoples Democratic Party to the ruling All Progressive Congress in August to the September defection of some key members of the ruling All Progressive Congress to Peoples Democratic Party in Odigbo Local Government of the State. Another interesting but less attractive moment as we approach the election was the debate of 3rd November between the two top contenders in the election organized by Channels Television in Akure.
As political debate is gradually becoming one of the stages of assessing the quality of a candidate to higher political office in Nigeria (though not a constitutional requirement), it is also one of the ways electorate gets to know the plan of every candidate for election so as to know who truly deserves his votes. As a lead debater in my secondary school and during my NYSC inter platoon debate, debate then used to be an avenue for a debater to sell his programmes to his audience through convincing analysis and copious demonstration of the mastery of those programmes. I don’t know if this has changed overtimes because the just concluded political debate between the incumbent Governor Orimisan Lucky Aiyedatiwa and Mr Agboola Ajayi was devoid of passion and adequate preparation for the job by the candidates. Throughout the debate, the two candidates abundantly showed that they have no clear cut plan to develop the state. What do I mean?
Despite the abundant natural resources that Ondo State is endowed with, it is sad that it is currently one of the most poorly industrialized states in the country. In the era of the late Adekunle Ajasin as the first Executive Governor of the state between 1979 and 1983, many industries like Oluwa Glass, Okitipupa Oil Palm Plc, Araromi Rubber Estate Ltd and others were the pride of the state and by extension, Nigeria. But since the sites of these industries have been overtaken by weeds, lizards, rodents and others, the once industrial state has been largely known as “civil service state” as it depends primarily on monthly allocation from the Federation Account. The expectation of the good people of the state in every election cycle therefore, is to elect a leader that will bring the state back to the era of industrialization that it truly belongs.
In the debate, while Governor Aiyedatiwa promised to clear more land to engage a sizeable population of young ones in cocoa planting and also ensure the functioning of cocoa processing factories, Agboola Ajayi unequivocally said he would continue to export our cocoa. In this age and time couple with the challenge of unemployment in Nigeria, there shouldn’t be any governor that should think less of production. With the magnitude of money that goes to each state, every governor should make it a priority to developing the natural endowment of his state. As an oil producing state with 13% derivation, Ondo State has the potential of a viable cocoa processing industry politics apart. It is a complete leadership failure to depend solely on importation of our cocoa before something good can come out of it. So, whoever emerges as a governor should think in the direction of establishing a viable Cocoa industry in the state.
I particularly have issue with Agboola Ajayi’s penchant for the exportation of our raw materials instead of locally processing them. It is pure leadership wickedness, evil political trend, ideological deficit, lack of orientation and others that will not allow governors to think beyond what goes into their pocket? Also, the allegation that Ifon Ceramic Industry is as good as dead and the absence of any functioning tractor were not counter by Aiyedatiwa. He did not even give us any proof that the industry still exists but rather to ask rhetorically that “how can the state government be doing farming?” Under the late Dr Olusegun Agagu, the state had a farm where maize and other crops were planted. Besides, if the duty of the state is to provide enabling environment for investors as the governor puts, none of the candidates mention their plan in this direction. How then can we trust them with that seat in Alagbaka?
As Agboola Ajayi rightly puts that unemployment is the greatest insecurity in the state, this means that an era of industrial revolution in Ondo State will also help to overcome insecurity within the state because young people will be gainfully employed. This is another benefit of industrialization that ondo state should look into.
By way of asking, why is it difficult for Aiyedatiwa to tell his audience how much he gets per month as security vote? Is he hiding anything or simply saying we don’t deserve to know? According to a figure obtained by BusinessDay’s report of June 27, 2021, Ondo State’s security vote stood at ₦600M monthly and ₦7.2 billion annually. If this is what he still gets, he should be free to disclose it and if it has increased in Tinubu administration. After all, governance is not run in secrecy and as Agboola Ajayi rightly put, it is a public document that should always be before the public. I am sure the governor would have further gained public confidence if he had announced his security vote during the debate. Calling the ₦1.2 billion security vote allegation by Agboola Ajayi “a lie from the pit of hell”, was definitely not an answer to that allegation.
Alleged to have neglected Ilaje Local government and the entire riverine area due of the current sorry state of the area vis-a-vis social services, it is a faux pas for Aiyedatiwa to have said during the debate that state government cannot develop the area alone because of the terrain. In the same terrain, the late Governor Agagu constructed many roads such as the ₦1.13 billion Irele-Igbobini Road, Igbokoda Araromi Alape Road, Ayetoro Road, the ₦632 million Igbotu-Igbekebo Road Projects among others that opened up the hitherto neglected riverine area of the state and brought many communities together. Agagu’s legacy should be built on (even more because the state now earns more) by anybody that emerges as a governor without excuse because the region cannot only be good for their resources to develop other regions. Besides, if there is need to collaborate with the federal government for the execution of any project, whose duty it is if not the governor? The state earns so much money now apart from IGR than to give excuse for none performance.
Another area of concern in the debate is our primary and secondary schools. Governor Aiyedatiwa said he recruited 2000 teachers for primary and secondary schools (even if the authenticity of this has been questioned by many informed opinions across the state), provision of shuttle buses, paying for WAEC, renovation of schools and more. Considering Ondo State as one of the most educated states in the country, these projects are pedantic to bringing back the declining educational glory of the state. The purchase of 10, 20 or so number of busses only for Akure, Ondo or probably one or two other towns which a local government can handle should not be seen as a serious project for a state government. He should rather concentrate himself (if he has the political will) to giving free education at primary and secondary levels and revamping the moribund community schools across the state through massive infrastructure in the event of his electoral victory (should nature wishes it).
Come to think of it, did he say during the debate that the state government paid for WAEC or subsidized it? Anyway, from my research, it was only subsidized but beyond that, what stops the state government from implementing free education? Currently, a student in public secondary school in Ondo State pays an average of ₦5, 900 per term. When you multiply this by the three terms in a year, you will get about ₦17,700 per year. Now, with the landmark policy reversal of the administration of the Late Arakunrin Akeredolu that returned missionary primary and secondary schools to their original owner and couple with the fact that educational system has been largely taken over by private sector, the state government under whoever emerges should be able to successfully implement free education at both primary and secondary schools so as to encourage education at that level. This is because most of the parents that still have their children in the community schools are those that cannot afford private school. As a result, the population has reduced so greatly that government with good intention can easily afford to pay for the WAEC so as to further encourage enrolment into public schools.
Public primary school is the worst of all. In my research, a primary school pupil in Ondo State pays and average of ₦5,000 per term, though some schools charge their pupils less because of their inability to pay the normal ₦5,000. This means in the three terms, a pupil pays ₦15,000 per year. This means that if the total population of a school is 150 pupils, you will then multiply 15,000 by 150 to have ₦2,250,000 per 150 pupils in a year. Mind you, the use of 150 pupils per school here is not an assumption. In fact, the school that I got this from is a big primary school in the southern part of Ondo State. Though there might be some primary schools across the state with fairly higher population like 200 to 300 but I know of many too with less than 100 pupils. As Agboola Ajayi mentioned the absence of accurate data as a factor that is affecting education in the state, whoever emerges as the next governor of the state should look in this direction. Get accurate data, declare free education with massive infrastructure in our community secondary and primary schools in order to encourage enrolment. If it is true that those that have children in these schools are those who could not afford private schools, it then means that as soon as they are able to afford it, those sectors would become history. Our dear Sunshine State should therefore make hail while it shines.
Acknowledging the pockets of effort made by the late Arakunrin Akeredolu to repositioning the state to where it belongs in the areas of commerce and industry, it is heartwarming that the two major gladiators jostling for the state’s number one seat once served as deputy governors under him, hence the need to build heavily on the legacy of their boss. In this direction is the Ore Industrial Park from where we already have the Paper Mill, Ethanol Plant, Medium Density Fibre Board, Ply Wood and Textiles Company which the late Aketi started. Regardless of the current state of this project, it should not be allowed to die. As projected by the late Amotekun hero, these companies are capable of generating employments as seen in some of them that are already working.
As Aiyedatiwa cannot rule out Aketi factor in his becoming a governor, he should make deliberate effort (should luck smiles on him again) to respect the dead by improving on the industrial park and making it Ondo State model for one-stop industrial park in the country. In spite of of the various lies told by each of the candidates during the debate, there is the general agreement across the state including people from his party and local government of origin that the governor has not done any project that is credit worthy since fate bequeathed that office to him despite the mouth watering subsidy money entering the state. Anyway, should luck smiles on him (as I have said), let him change his ways and sit up. Four years is a long way to make a difference. He should try to disappoint those who think he has nothing to offer.
Agboola should go back to the drawing board and re-examine his plan for the state because he was basically reactive during the debate. Maybe he should have engaged his time in explaining his 7-points agenda to us. As it now stands, let him reduce his so called 7-point agenda to one or two that he can successfully delivered because we have heard many degrees of agenda in Nigeria that ended in frustration. He should not lead the state to another round of colonization where your sole purpose is to export the state’s raw materials without thinking of production on our soil. The position of a governor is not a joke, every aspirant should be ready to lead with determination and be transparent because the era of deception is gone. Every government policy is now in the public domain. Besides, Ondo is a state with informed citizen.
Therefore, public money should be used for public project because bad governance is a time bomb in Nigeria that can explode anytime. Every government official should therefore be careful in the way they handle public fund and other resources.
May it continue to shine on us.
And may the best candidate emerge.
