Former Ogun State governor and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Gbenga Daniel, speaks with Assistant Editor (South West), MUYIWA OLALEYE, on the development strategies of the Governor Ibikunle Amosun administration, politics in the state, among other issues.
As former governor of Ogun, how would you evaluate the state compared to when you were there?
I am not here to criticise any administration. I think every governor has his own areas of emphasis. From what I have seen, I think the present governor has concentrated a lot of energy on building fly-overs. And that can be seen everywhere. In Abeokuta, at the last count, we had about five or six. There is one in Sagamu. I have seen two in Ijebu Ode. They are trying to do another in Ijebu Igbo and in Ota axis too. Whether we like it or not, those are landmarks that are there permanently and, of course, people will remember him for those constructions.
I have also seen some schools which they call Model Schools. We are still waiting, but I can see them in one or two locations and we are hoping that they will turn out to be what they intended them to be.
I think, by and large, one thing we must give to Governor Ibikunle Amosun is the boldness with which he pursued some of the things he wanted to do. I was not strong enough to do those demolitions, I must confess. When we were to do the Lalubu Road, we just extended the road and there were lots of protests. And after about two, three or four meetings, we had to plead and build their fences. I think he has demonstrated strength of character that is rather too unprecedented.
What are your expectations for the state in the years ahead?
My expectation is for the state to be the best in the South West. That is my dream. It entails seeing that projects that are well-conceived are re-examined and tackled based on what such projects have to offer the state. Of course, part of the industrialisation process that I started was to create the three Free Trade Zones (FTZs). We also ensured that we balanced it. As a matter of fact, many governors were accusing me because, at that time, Ogun was having three FTZs that we got the licences for. We were the only state in the country with such – the Olokola Free Trade Zone, the Ogun Guangdong Free Trade Zone, which is already functioning and, of course, the Kajola Specialised Transportation Free Trade Zone.
Ogun Guangdong FTZ is running in Igbesa already. We have got licences for the one in Olokola as well as Kajola. What we did with the then President was that we removed the terminus of railway from Ido to Kajola. The whole essence was to develop that zone as FTZ where transportation business would be going on. We want to see an Ogun State where those FTZs are developed because those are the opportunities beckoning us to employ our people massively.
At the last count, before we left government, there were about 30 major companies running in Ogun Guangdong FTZ and I knew that the master plan provided for about 100. By the time I was leaving government, a shoe manufacturing company there had employed about 200 people. So, if you look at about 100 companies employing about 200 people in that FTZ alone, that means about 20,000 jobs. So, we don’t have any reason to talk about unemployment.
I can tell you, Ogun Guangdong is the smallest of the three FTZs. The Kajola FTZ is bigger, so is the Olokola FTZ. So, the potentials are enormous. I saw Ogun as the location for the seaport that was supposed to serve the entire West African sub-region. We had finished it. The job was already done. It remained only the implementation. It is just for us to look at it and see it for what it was.
Projects that have capacity to generate employment and add value to the state as well as add money to the state coffers must be given priority. What most people don’t know is that in 1999, the IGR (internally-generated revenue) of Lagos State was about N5 billion. Today, it stands at about N30 billion. Now, if Lagos State is generating N30 billion, there is no reason we should not be having like half of that. The potential is there in some of those things that I have mentioned, from the location of the deep seaport to the airport and various companies. If we have the opportunity to develop the airport and seaport, why are we wasting time? What we have and Lagos doesn’t have is land. If Lagos goes commercial, then we can go industrial. That is really the Ogun of my dream.
What is the current political situation in the state?
I don’t know where to start from because, as you can decipher, a lot has happened. First, as a country, we have made tremendous progress. We could say it is definitely not yet uhuru because we still have several areas of challenge that you and I are conversant with; the issues of security and power. Those are the two knotty issues that we are facing nationwide. But in our own state, Ogun, it has been over four years now getting close to five years since we had the change in the administration. I will think that it is a mystery, and depends on what angle you are looking at it. They have made additional progress in so many areas, but there is no doubt that we have also retrogressed unnecessarily in so many other areas. So, whether the retrogression is more than the progression or vice versa is now the perception of whom you are talking with. I am sure if you are talking to the people in government, they will definitely tell you that they have done quite a lot; they are building bridges across the state and that they are expanding roads, which are clear evidence.
How do you mean?
I can begin to look at it from the things that are important to the people. Because of our own culture, education is key to our people. Employment is key to our people. Once people now get educated where many families spend fortunes – borrow money to send their wards to school to get qualified – they come out and they cannot get any job, and government policy is not directed towards job creation, then that government has failed. I think they are talking about the case of major towns in the state. Let us even forget about the rural areas and other places that have not been touched, that have had their own distribution of bridges; because it does appear now that this administration is assessing itself by the number of bridges that have been constructed. So even in those places that have had bridges, the agitation is even more. People would say, “Yes, we have seen these bridges under construction, but they have not added any value to our lives. In the course of constructing these bridges, we have lost our shops, our means of livelihood and the worst is that we have lost our homes so much that even our dead have not been spared; our dead have been exhumed.”
In Yoruba mythology, they would tell you it is a curse. And yet, the people who are building these roads and bridges are not our own people. They are foreigners. This is capital flight. So these have no added value. But more than anything else, in each of those communities, they would tell you, “Oh, if the government knew they had so much money, they should have asked us what our needs were and we would say, okay, even if you want to do a bridge here, don’t do dual carriage bridge where there is no traffic.”
This is the first time I am seeing dual carriage bridges where there is no traffic. If you have so much money, government has the right to say this is my priority. Okay if building of bridges happens to be your priority then, why don’t you say, okay, I mean the parts of Sagamu and Ijebu Ode that I go, if you go down to Aramawa in Ijebu Ode, if there is need for a bridge – and of course there is no need for a bridge there – then why is it not a single carriage bridge, so that the other billions that are being wasted can be used to tar some of the other roads inside town.
The one in Sagamu is a dual carriage bridge where there is no traffic. I keep comparing some of those bridges that he has built in Ogun with the nearest one here in Lagos; the bridge that we take to the airport, which flies over (Mobolaji) Bank-Anthony Way (in Ikeja) to the Murtala Mohammed Airport. That is a single carriage bridge. That is the road to the airport and yet, without mincing words, that (Mobolaji) Bank-Anthony Way is probably one of the three busiest roads in Lagos. If I want to count the busiest roads in Lagos, I would say, Ikorodu Road, Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way, Allen Avenue and then I would go to Broad Street. That Bank Anthony Way Bridge that links the airport, the nation’s airport, which is the busiest, is a single carriage bridge done 38 years ago! And even now, I don’t see them needing a second bridge there probably for another 50 years. So, why do you now go and do bridges that are not required? That is a misplacement of priority.