Dapo Abiodun and unusual governance

As an annual ritual, the Ogun State government on Monday, October 17, 2022, kicked-off the innovative idea of seeking the inputs of the stakeholders into the budget preparation as a way of ensuring fiscal discipline, public confidence and accountability.
Here are the reasons for the novel idea of inclusive governance brought on board by Governor Dapo Abiodun when he assumed the mantle of leadership in May 2019.

One, openness and citizen’s engagement encourages effective participation in governance. Second, people’s involvement in the decision-making process promotes trust and confidence between the government and the governed. More importantly, bringing governance closer to the grassroots enhances good governance and effective service delivery to the citizens. It also provides the opportunity for some feedback on the performance of the government through direct engagement with the people, bearing in mind the fact that people are the means and end to development.

All of these are encapsulated in the vision of the governor to provide focused and qualitative governance through collective efforts of all the stakeholders geared towards sustainable economic development and prosperity for the people of the state.

Looking back into the immediate past era of impunity and executive arrogance, the initiative is novel and refreshing. It is governance unusual because this is the first attempt any administration in the state would engage the people directly in the decision-making process on issues that affect their lives. So, for all intents and purposes, the idea is a practical demonstration of the bottom-top approach to governance, which is rightly summed up into the “Building Our Future Together” mantra of the present administration.

When Abiodun made the declaration of his intention to champion a paradigm shift in governance in his inaugural address in May 2019, some cynics didn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. They simply dismissed it as a mere slogan, saying it would fizzle out with time. But they got it wrong. In practical reality, it is a pledge that resonates among the critical stakeholders cutting across all sectors of the state economy. And it will continue to be so in as much as the effort to sustain the trust and confidence between the government and the people can be maintained.

At an election session like this, the usual practice is for state governors to chronicle their achievements as a basis for support for re-election. But Abiodun, due to his belief in public engagement and reciprocal trust, places high premium on feedback as a guide for future action plans. Basically, this strategic trust is based on the five developmental pillars embedded in ISEYA which translates literally into infrastructural development, social wellbeing, education, youth empowerment and job creation as well as agriculture and food security.

Therefore, it was in furtherance of the administration’s effort to consolidate on the gains of its inclusive governance that the stakeholders once again converged on Ijebu-Ode in Ogun East Senatorial District for the town-hall meeting on Monday, October 17, 2022, to seek people’s inputs into the 2023 budget and Mid-Term and Expenditure Framework (MTEF). It was the first in the series to be held this year across the three senatorial districts as an interactive forum, as well as a consultative and dialogue process with the citizens to obtain feedback on their desires, needs and requirements and contributions towards the preparation of the state’s annual budget.

Like the previous one, the meeting brought together political appointees, elected representatives, top public and civil servants, students unions, artisans, market women and men, transport workers unions, labour unions, and traditional rulers for cross-fertilisation of ideas on how to enrich the 2023 budget document to achieve a better performance in the next fiscal year.

And as the governor rightly pointed out during the interactive forum, the 2023 budget is as important, if not more important than the other years since the inception of his administration, because it is a transition budget. “This budget will take us from the current phase into another phase of our ‘Building Our Future Together’ developmental agenda in Ogun State,” the governor told the gathering.

While setting agenda for the meeting, the governor further summed up the essence of the interactive forum, saying, “We intend to consolidate on the global best-practice Public Financial Management (PFM) reforms that we started in 2019. Our fiscal policy thrust is based on providing an enabling business environment for private sector investments and partnerships through improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our key processes, including but not limited to land acquisition, business registration, construction permits, land titling, dispute resolution as well as provision of key infrastructure as well as incentives to attract investors into the state.”

This is clearly a total departure from the past, and it is already running deep into the system of the present administration. In order to widen the scope of coverage of public engagement, the governor approved the extension of the yearly town hall meetings to Remo division to harness their inputs for the 2023-2025 MTEF and 2023 budget. It was held on Thursday, October 20, 2022.

The state Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr Olaolu Olabimtan, reviewing the inputs made by the people of the zone into the MTEF and 2022 budget, said  85 per cent of requests were included in the 2022 budget, while 65 projects were executed in each of the sections of the state.

Apart from consensus-building process and the resultant feedback, one other major significance of this style of leadership is that it allows the people to choose the projects that are considered to be of priority importance to their wellbeing. And by doing so, it engenders the ownership of the process option, which is now the new thing around the world.

To whom much is given, they say, much is expected. Thus, in a quick run-down of his achievements, the governor gave a long list of infrastructural projects that had been completed and evenly distributed across the three senatorial districts and local government areas of the state.

“In the three senatorial districts, there is an even, just and equitable distribution of resources. From the records, we have an average of 65 projects in each of the 20 LGAs all across the state,” he added.

According to him, the commitment of the administration towards infrastructural development has resulted in the building of over 80 major roads and 120 others, totalling 400 kilometres of roads either constructed, reconstructed or rehabilitated.

This is apart from the ongoing construction of the International Agro-allied Cargo Airport (Ogun State Agro-Cargo Airport), which is a major step towards the transformation of the state to an industrial hub and investment destination of choice.  The airport, the governor enthused, would not only create jobs for the people of the state, but also help the state increase its position on the Ease-of-Doing-Business Index.

In Ogun East Senatorial District, some of the completed and ongoing construction or rehabilitation projects include, among others: Ijebu-Ode/Mojoda/Epe Road; Ibefun/Idowa/Ijebu-Ode Road; Oba Erinwole Dual Carriageway; Obafemi Awolowo Way, Takete; Orile Oko Road; Oru-Awa-Alaparu-Ibadan Road; Asafa Oke/ Asafa Isale/ Ayegun/ojofa Street, Ijebu-Ode; Molipa/Fusigboye Street, Ijebu-Ode; Ejinrin Oluwalogbon Mobalufon, Ibadan Road; Molusi College Road, Ijebu-Igbo; Ilishan Market Road; Igan Road, Ago-Iwoye; Martins Kuye Street, Ago-Iwoye; Eruwon-Atan Road; and construction of the Ogun Agro-Cargo International Airport.

In the area of housing, Abiodun, while presenting the score card of his stewardship, said, “We are constructing affordable houses in Sagamu and Ijebu Ode, while construction will soon begin in a third location in the senatorial district.

“Our intervention in education include: reconstruction of over 1,000 public schools with yellow roofs adorning them, while over 25,000 units of school furniture have also been supplied across the state.

“Other interventions include, amongst others the renovation and construction of Primary Health Centres in all the local governments in Ogun East Senatorial District; construction of powered bole-hole schemes; construction of lock-up shops across the senatorial district; provision of solar-powered rural electrification; renovation of existing fire stations; empowerment of women and youths through our initiatives of Oko’wo Dapo and FADAMA GUYS; and many more.

For the Remo land, the governor cited Oba Erinwole Road in Sagamu, the Hospital Road, Market Road, Awolowo Road, Sagamu junction-Iperu-Ode and Ilisan-Ago-Iwoye roads, as well as the cargo airport at Ilisan as some of the projects carried out within the zone.

He further informed the gathering that his administration would be performing the ground-breaking ceremony for the special agro processing zone and seaport, adding that the railway line project from Alagbado would be extended to Kajola, while the one from Okokomaiko (Lagos) would be extended to Agbara to ease the movement of goods and services.

The sustainability of the state’s economy is premised on the over N70bn in IGR between January and September, 2022, as well as other reform initiatives introduced by the administration. These include: Land reforms (OLARMS); judicial reforms, tax reforms and all other public financial management reforms, which are now yielding positive impacts on the economy. This is self-evident in the growth of our IGR.

As observed by industry watchers, Ogun State has performed tremendously well in the last three and a half years of the present administration in the area of investments in agriculture, road infrastructure, ICT, urban renewal, the building of an Agro-allied airport, and security of life and property.

The combined effect of these efforts is what has crystallised in investment promotion and rapid industrialisation of the state. Little wonder that The Best Strategic Media (TBS), in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, on Friday, October 21, 2022 conferred the distinguished award for Industrial Revolution on Abiodun. This is no mean feat, especially at this time of global meltdown and its direct negative consequences on the nation’s economy and the general well-being of the citizenry.

Meanwhile, an arrangement is already being made to mitigate the impact of the global crisis on the people of the state through conditional cash transfer to the elderly and the vulnerable segment of the society.  The Governor made this disclosure at the town hall meeting for 2023 budget and MTEF (2023-2025) for Remo division, held at the Akarigbo Palace, Sagamu. He said the administration was already compiling the names of the elderly, the vulnerable and youths that would benefit from the conditional cash transfer scheme in the next 30 days. That is a clear demonstration of responsible and responsive governance, which will go a long way to give a glimmer of hope to the hopeless.

Ogbonnikan writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State