In this interview with Yinka Kolawole, Osun State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Funke Egbemode x-rays the activities of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s administrationand how he is juggling governance with politics in the state
As the image maker of the state, how well would you say this government has fared with delivering on its mandate so far?
First of all, I’ll like to explain the way I approached the job. One, we agreed at the pre-swearing-in workshop, a retreat for commissioner nominees at Ada, where we had what we called the “Ada Declaration”. There we all agreed on how the state media should function, which is that we would operate One Newsroom.
One newsroom means that the cabinet members and their activities will be pushed out and promoted by the Ministry of Information, where I am the Team Head of the Newsroom. The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ismail Omipidan, and I drive the media strategy of the administration. So far, it has worked for system.
You will notice that there has been no retraction of stories and no confusion about figures on what the governor or the government is doing because everything is coming out through one source. The governor has been very supportive of the media machinery. He is a media-savvy gentleman, who wants only his activities and achievement projected. He does not believe in propaganda and does not court controversy. He is doing a lot to strengthen the information machinery of the state.
For instance, we asked the governor to support us on what we now have as the osunnewsroom.com, which is the state news website, and we are gradually growing. We have people visiting the sites nationally and internationally. We are now growing the site to accommodate stories beyond government activities.
You can now find national and international stories there, because we are not an island. We have come to realise that the osunnewsroom.com can’t just be about activities in the 30 local governments and Area office of the state. Now that’s how I’ve approached the job.
Before you came on board, there’s the issue of ‘State of Osun’ and ‘Osun State’ and that has created a lot of controversies over the years. Now, as Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, what are your takes about this and what has been your approach to reverse it?
My job does not include how I feel but to be the image maker of the state and the mouthpiece of the government. Whether it is State of Osun or Osun State, that is a matter to be resolved by Council and Court and I really should not talk much about it, because its a matter that has been taken to court and it will be subjudice to talk about it.
What has been the major activities of this government that has brought hope and still bringing hope to the people of the state?
There’s a way to summarise what gives us hope in Osun and what brought hope. You have a man, who took an oath just like any other governor but didn’t just sit in office to do a list of how many points agenda he will bestow on his people but a man, who went round the state to feel the pulse of the state during a Thank you tour and Citizens Needs Assessment.
The Citizen Needs Assessment helped the governor to assess the needs, the gaps in sectoral development and he found out that what the people of Kajola wanted was different from what the people of Ikire wanted. What gives us hope in Osun is that we have a man, who’s passionate about his people, has a listening ear, a governor, who didn’t wait for them to come and tell him what they wanted. He went to them and that’s a new dimension to leadership. He listened to their needs, noted them all and swung into action.
Today, he’s doing something about the yearnings of the people and touching every sector. He’s delivering on his promises and he’s an accessible governor, who’s for an-all inclusive governance. He’s very tireless, patient, and wants to do what’s right by his people and that gives us hope. If you look at what he is doing across all sectors, you will realise that he’s determined to leave a mark, change how things are done and adjust to the needs of the people, not just because it’s convenient but because they are what he has promised and because that’s what needs to be done.
For instance in the education sector, the people told the governor that they wanted certain policies changed. Indeed, the previous governor already alerted the people of Osun that there would be things his successor might change, when he came on board and so, when the people said they wanted the traditional, distinguishing school uinforms back; that is what they wanted and that was what they got. They wanted the original names of their schools back, the confusion in the education policy to be resolved, and that was what Governor Oyetola made happen.
You see, only Osun in the whole country had an education policy that was not in sync with the national education policy. These yearnings of the people were discussed extensively at the State executive cabinet meeting. This governor doesn’t want to pretend to be a know-all governor. This is an education problem and it’s at the heart and root of any society and so, he put together a team of experts, who sat for hours.
In that committee of experts were former VCs, former principals of schools, former Registrar of WAEC, representative of parents and other academic scholars, who came up with all the points that we reviewed. That’s how things ought to be done really. With a man, who pays attention to details, Osun can only get better.
In the area of security, we are doing something different with our security, because security is not just about guns and bullets but about intelligence and that’s one thing we have introduced in Osun. This administration of Governor Oyetola places a lot of emphasis on intelligence gathering and that’s one of the things that’s working for us.
How is the government re-positioning the economy of the state to better the lives of the people?
Mr. governor has said we should do more on the empowerment of the people and now we have gone into the realm of billions in terms of empowering the people, even youths on small, medium scale businesses. The Governor is of the opinion that you can’t grow the economy by depending on the government. Osun is bigger than civil service. Osun is full of civil servants that are brilliant and making serious input into government.
There’s no area of human endeavour that you don’t have Osun people, from aviation to medicine, Agriculture to Engineering. That’s why the governor decided that what we really need to do is harness our resources, which we started in November 2019, by having an economic and investment summit to showcase what we have – from natural resources to tourism.
Now, our tourist sites, for instance, are beyond what we can make money from by ourselves. We need to bring in investors from everywhere and that’s what we are doing in every sector. We had the fruit juice factory that came to do its flag-off in January, the ethanol factory last year, and so on. La Campagne Tropicana is interested in our beautiful sites and our free trade zone is equipped for businesses to thrive. We have even taken the gospel of ‘Osun is Open for Business’ to the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The governor is always about us doing everything to make the state attractive to investors. Just last week, we have the NIPC here to show that the Ease of Doing business is important to us. We have the One-Stop-Shop in place to support Small and Medium Scale Businesses so that investors will not come here and run into turbulent waters or bottlenecks.
The Governor signs C of Os everyday so that people, who need C of Os to approach banks and other agencies are not discouraged. We are working with Central Bank and other donor agencies to make sure that our Agriculture efforts move from being just Agric to being Agric-business. We want to eventually become an exporting state, because Agriculture and tourism can generate employment. Don’t forget our Dagbolu International Market.
We want our people to import and use the Dagbolu International Market, because the train runs from Lagos directly into the market. It sits on a large expanse of land with facilities to accommodate large scale businesses, including a car mart. We want to compete with Lagos Trade Fair complex and we want our people not to look for trailers and truckers if they need to send their products or goods out of the country.
We are running into the wet season, what is the state government doing for farmers?
We just flagged off the Cocoa season and seedlings were given to farmers. The world is moving beyond what’s wet season and what’s dry season. As a state, we want to have a state that does all-year-round farming. We have in Ede a demonstration Farm, where we are doing farming round the year,because we are using greenhouses and deploying technologies and training farmers. We will continue to work with Agric agencies within Nigeria or outside, for those who are interested in Agric-business, especially, our teeming young people, who are interested in farming business.
How far have you gone in the infrastructure developments?
A lot of people felt this governor wouldn’t be able to do anything considering the paucity of funds in the state but the governor started with the most difficult task of all, which is paying salaries in full. Even I was afraid, when he was sworn in and up till this moment he’s not defaulted once. He has done a lot in infrastructure and like empowerment, infrastructure is a daily thing.
We have done plenty of roads and plenty of roads are also being done even as we speak. Some of them include Oba Adesoji Aderemi Way (East-Byepass), 17.5km; Gbongan-Akoda Road, 30km; Osogbo-Ikirun-Ila Odo, 40km; rehabilitation of Itaasin (St. Stephen) – Our Lady’s School – Police Divisional Headquarters, Modakeke – Famia Road, 1.8km; Osogbo – Kelebe – Iragbiji Road, 16.55km;rehabilitation of Ilesa – Iperindo – Ipetu Jesa Road, 30km; Odori – Adeeke Road, Iwo, 5.6km; completed, total overlay of Ikirun (Idi Esu) Roundabout – Iragbiji Road, 6.092km; Dele Yes Sir Roundabout – Okefia Roundabout, Osogbo, spot patching of Isare – Ifofin – Iloro – Akewusola Road, 1.5km; Ede Army Barracks – Ara – Ejigbo Road, Moro – Ipetumodu – Yakoyo – Asipa – Ife/Ibadan Expressway, Ada – Igbajo Road, 13km etc. And these are just a few.
We have a round peg in a round hole and a leader, who thinks paying salaries is one thing, making his people happy is another, securing them is very important and improving their environment for now and the future is also of utmost importance. He’s juggling all the balls successfully to the admiration of even the naysayers. We have done a lot of roads across all the senatorial districts of the state.
All the local government areas of the state have benefitted in one way or the other from Alekuwodo Network of roads, Ada-Igbajo and so on. It’s quite a list. Some of those roads had not been touched for 30 years and some didn’t even exist. Now, we are topping it with the Olaiya Flyover, because a city centre is a city centre and a state capital is a state capital and cannot continue to look like a rural area. This is an ancient city but with modern people in it.
It’s a state capital we are trying to invest in and bring more people into, it means more vehicles; heavy duty vehicles, more cars and more houses are springing up, because as more people are trooping in to do business, they will need a place to live in. Everything is more and as we approach the extra level, it was decided that our people will not spend their productive time in traffic, so, we found a way of funding our infrastructure through what we call the Alternative Funding Approach.
That helped us to free up funds to attend to other immediate essential things while we let the contractors fund those projects and we pay back later in instalments. This has helped the state tremendously and that is why construction of roads is going on everywhere.
Not a lot has been heard from water resources. Why?
We are doing a lot in that sector. We have two great guys manning the sector and they are are passionate about their assignment. The day I found out what had been done in water resources, I was amazed. The special publication we did from this ministry, titled: “The First 24 Months” has a long list of things done in water resources. Every Commissioner and Special advisers in the State has been given a mandate on what they should do and deliver on and we are all doing that but of course, we are all work-in-progress.
There is a group called Top Osun Professionals, which has been reported to be no more loyal to the present government, what is your office doing to correct the impression?
The job of my office is to promote the activities of the government. I do not speak for the political party but let me state clearly that there is a difference between yesterday and today and people know which side their bread is buttered. People know, who is making them happy. There are people, who just decide to set you on fire just to check if their lighters are working. What I’ll say is people need to be careful of distractions, because my own marching order is that, I should not expend energy on any media space on distractions. I’m aware that there is another bigger project in the pipeline for the city of Oshogbo.
I’m also aware that Osun is one of the few states in the country paying minimum wage and I’ll like to appeal to people of Osun to focus on what they can see and not on folktales or rumours. You know part of the advantages of democracy is that it allows plenty of freedom of speech. Governor Gboyega Oyetola is a smart leader, who knows how to make his people happy, knows those who are with him and those who truly know that Osun must change for the better and he’s not playing politics with the lives of Osun people. He is not distracted by Top or any other group. There is too much to be done. The Governor is a very busy man.
What’s going on in women affairs?
Like I said the governor is very big on all-inclusive governance and he’s making sure everyone gets what they should get and he doesn’t put merit last on whatever he’s doing. So, if he knows a woman can construct a road, he won’t say women were not constructing roads before so let the men continue. He wants women to have a great advantage in his administration.
Let’s not forget we also have a focused First Lady that makes sure everything that needs to be done to empower women are being done especially, when you think of how far she has gone with eradication of Female Genital Mutilation and eradication of Open Defaecation.
So, either on the big stage or at home, the governor does not forget that we are here. He puts women in every committee, he puts them in every constructive discussion, because for him, you need women to make things happen and he’s married to a woman, who is an epitome of beauty and brain.
How about the Ministry of Health?
Haaaaa! You know Health was our first score. We are encouraging Mr. Governor to blow his trumpet and because he had not blown his trumpet then, people didn’t know he was doing a lot in health. So,we decided to blow the 332 Primary Health Care Centres by showing the pictures and videos of what they used to be and what they have become now. He was able to calm the nerves of the naysayers, now they know that they need to fact check what they say about him, because we have documents and evidence of what has been done, what is been done and what we are about to do.
CONHESS and CONMESS will still cause trouble in other states but not here, because our doctors are happier now and trust me, the governor wants to do more for them, because they have been so wonderful. The governor appreciates the people in the health sector and I’m sure they will want to see fresh things and that’s why the governor wants to build Doctors’ Quarters and we have also been able to increase our number intakes into the school of nursing, because we have met better requirements and goals set by the Council. You will imagine if we had not rehabilitated the Ejigbo General Hospital,when our “contingents” from Abdijan returned and had just dispersed but we had somewhere to take them to, somewhere we quarantined and took care of them until they tested negative and were able to go back to their different states, because not all of them were from Ejigbo. We are happy we have a governor, who wants things done in every sector, who is hands-on and wants everything done right.
What’s government doing in technical education to ensure it’s self reliant?
The governor is very much aware of what needs to be done. Part of the recommendations by the expert committee was that we should place more emphasis on technical education; that we should revamp that area and we have been doing a lot in that regard. Very soon, we will be bringing them out in the open. Technical education is very important to us and if this state will be a commercial hub, you have to have business men and to have them, you have to train them on the technical know-how and this technical colleges are going to get what they deserve. It’s just a matter of time.
Do you have anything to say to the people and the political parties?
We need to work with this governor and this government and show appreciation on what has been done so that we can do more. I want to tell the people of the state that making our state great is a collective effort. Let us work together to do what is right and let our parents watch their children; they are our tomorrow and they are the people, who will lead this state. We need to pay more attention to the coming generation and we need to know that this state is blessed. Let us work to harness and push the potentials. Let’s not play politics with our lives. Let’s not allow those who hide their children all over the world and out of plain sight use our children and youths as canon fodder.
