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(Being Text of a address delivered by Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, Gubernatorial Candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC) at a World Press Conference on the socioeconomic situation of Ogun State and the 2019 elections. 30/01/2019)
Protocols:
1) Gentlemen of the Press, leaders of our great party, our political associates, members of the civil society and other groups present, ladies and gentlemen.
2) Let me once again use this medium to wish everyone here and indeed all Ogun State citizens a happy New Year. My prayer is that all individuals and families in this state – are able to explore their potentials such that we have a glad citizenry and prosperous state in 2019 and beyond.
3) We have called this press conference this morning in good faith to examine the situation of our dear state; because every election year represents a defining moment for any people. It is a period of making choices, either the good or bad.
4) Ogun state is no different as our people will be going to the polls in few weeks to elect new leaders that will superintend over the affairs of this state. Four years in the life of any people is significant and if the experience that our people have had with governments is anything to go by, they must be circumspect and discerning with their choice this time around.
5) A lot has happened in Ogun State within the last eight weeks that campaigns officially started according to INEC timetable. On our part, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) campaign teams have been moving around the three senatorial districts, selling our manifesto, meeting the people, listening to their plight and documenting their demands.
6) We reckon also that other opposition parties woke up recently and started moving around with various soundbites. However, the State of the State address delivered on New Year day by the outgoing governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun caught our attention particularly; and we felt it was proper to interrogate the socioeconomic situation of our state in its proper perspectives.
7) What is the current reality in Ogun State today, if we may ask? Before I venture to offer an answer, it is important to again stress the undoubtable fact that government exist primarily for the welfare and security of citizens; needless to say that any government pursuing policies that do not directly elevate the people’s lives has failed in its mandate. Chapter 2 Section 2b of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) aptly refers.
8) Going around Ogun State today, one can see a largely discontented citizenry because good governance has taken back seat. We have been inundated with variety of misapplied activities that brought about neglect of important sectors that could have enhanced our human capacity. Aside the attendant indebtedness traceable to poor priority setting and misallocation of projects, the state has witnessed vast descent in the areas of education, health, sports, social services and fiscal discipline.
9) It is essential to note that Ogun state is one of the most blessed in Nigeria with mineral resources and huge locational advantages; bounded by Lagos State, the economic nerve of the nation and a 20 kilometer stretch of the Atlantic Ocean. The weather is temperate, the soil is fertile, topography is favourable, resources abound across its geography and she is blessed with credible human resources. The opportunities for growth are without bounds and the potentials for sustainable development are limitless.
10) Despite these endowments, the present living conditions of the people is below par and does not reflect these potentials. If these possibilities inherent within us have been vigorously pursued, the socio-economic development of the state could have been enhanced and the quality of life of our people would have been substantially elevated. On the contrary, insincerity in policy decisions, misapplication of resources and self-aggrandizement on the part of government have combined to slow down our growth. For me, these indicate one thing – Failure of leadership – and a new people-focused leadership is most urgently needed to rescue our state.
11) I do not intend to bore us with details of this decline but it is imperative we take a critical look at the facts and figures in few sectors; especially the human capital element – being education and health, our public finance management and other insights.
12) Education in Ogun state today is in shambles with abysmal funding, decrepit infrastructure, unmotivated teachers and a disillusioned student populace. For a state that had education as the bedrock of its evolution and the claim to fame of our forebears, the parlous state of this critical sector is not just a travesty of today’s government but big indictment of our future potentials.
13) Whereas government’s figures indicate that 20% of yearly budgets are allocated to education, the reality is that actual disbursements to that sector stood less at about 6%; year on year. Current educational institution capacity in the state indicates 1,440 public primary schools, 471 public secondary schools, 7 public technical colleges, 5 state owned polytechnics and 2 state owned universities; one would have thought that enhancing the infrastructure in these citadels, improving capacity and welfare of teachers and improving affordability – will be the priority of government but alas, the opposite is the case.
14) In 2016 and 2017 for instance, education budget stood at N40billion out of a total budget of N200billion representing 20%. However, results from implementation of the budget appear to indicate that far less than stated was spent on the sector. Consequently, students still provide their table and chairs while many primary schools are structurally defective with lack of investment on them; aside the UBEC and SDGs counterpart interventions; that are at best palliative. Subventions to our tertiary institutions have been halted for several years as there is no single block of teaching room laid in any of these schools in the last seven years; with the exception of ETF and TETFUND interventions.
15) The big controversy at Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE) – over several months of unpaid salaries and the MAPOLY/MAUTECH imbroglio – are sad signposts of the current decay. Ogun continually recedes in examination performances and shamefully, we are currently ranked 19th by WASSCE result as at 2017-2018. Besides the inadvertent abolition of bursary support to our indigent students for many years now, upgraded educational infrastructure is lacking despite increase in enrolment figures for primary and secondary schools that jumped by 38% from 2013 to 2018; without commensurate infrastructure.
16) We are still shocked at the policy mindset that brought about the failed Model Schools project that has seen huge structures built in remote locations across the state – at not less than N1.2billion per unit – culminating in waste! Whereas, our legacy schools such as Abeokuta Grammar School, Baptist Boys High School, Iganmode Grammar School, Yewa College and Ijebu-Ode Grammar School and Remo Secondary School; among several others, with ample space for expansion and opportunity to be made ‘model colleges of excellence’ have been abandoned; rather, government preferred to invest in new buildings without requisite needs assessment; which are today homes to reptiles and hoodlums.
17) Equally central to a people’s development is their healthcare. This is one area that Ogun citizens must roundly condemn the outgoing APC/APM administration; and I used the word APC and APM advisedly because the operators of this government are currently distributed within these two parties; and will definitely carry the assets and liabilities of the administration.
18) Our healthcare system is in coma; dilapidated structurally and functionally. Basic equipment are lacking with ineffective emergency preparedness and low-skilled and inadequate manpower. Today Ogun state has 25 state hospitals and 4 Comprehensive healthcare centers – of which just one at Totoro Abeokuta is barely functional. To these facilities we have 200 medical doctors, 650 nurses, 30 laboratory technicians and 20 physiotherapist working in the general hospitals secondary and primary healthcare centres across the state.
19) It is shocking that all the 20 Local Governments and 37 LCDAs in the state have a combined 20 medical doctors while medical consultants at both the Ministry of Health and Hospitals Management Board is less than 30; a very worrisome development that has affected the health of our people; while government continues to look the other way. To a population of 5.7million, this is abysmal and inadequate and because Ogun state is currently doing a doctor-patient ratio of 1:6,000 quite below the national ratio of 1:4500; even though all still fall short of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended 1:600.
20) This is coupled with lack of basic drugs provisions and very low investment in training and emolument to operators. The once vibrant Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) that was adjudged the third best in Nigeria as at 2004 is today a mere consulting clinic; where the best brains have escaped to seek greener pasture elsewhere owing to pathetic funding and decaying infrastructure. This is not surprising as there is no single CT or MRI machine in any government facility in the state; while the only addition in OOUTH in 8 years is the Ultrasound Scan machine procured through the kind intervention of a philanthropist. The state’s community based health insurance scheme called Araya has been operated in tokenism and incapable of meeting the administration’s promise of free healthcare for pregnant women, children under 5 and the elderly – which was lavishly made in 2011; but have proven to be a charade.
21) We have taken notice however of the attempt to construct a 250-bed modern hospital, but of course, we are again dumbfounded by the wayward promise by government to fully deliver the hospital by May, 2019; a wild goose chase considering the project is still at infancy at January 2019. It is saddening also that there is no pipe borne water in most locations in Ogun state today as our people rely on crowded boreholes, shallow wells, river and other unclean sources of water; that have become responsible for the increase in water-borne diseases in the state. What is more ridiculing, outpatients in most of our hospitals also have to bring in their water to these facilities because the hospitals simply lack it!
22) Essentially, it is safe to say that the current administration has failed woefully in human capital development. The prohibitive cost of our governance and misapplication of scarce resources to graft-ridden projects have denied citizens access to quality education and affordable healthcare.
23) Ladies and gentlemen, One of the cardinal programmes of the current administration is Urban renewal – with road infrastructure development as its core; but the efforts have been limited to only flyovers and expansion of existing roads within limited parts of Ogun state and because of the insincerity around the projects, we are not surprised that the last eight years have witnessed a government that embarked on gale of misdirected activities that saw emergence of some widened roads and several flyovers but in the process – built a people discontented and stricken with poverty.
24) When we talk of good road networks as facilitator of development, this government again got it wrong! Despite the big outlay, spending over 70% of capital votes on flyovers and road expansions, it will interest us to know that vast majority of our rural and community roads are in various state of disrepair; causing pain and anguish for the people. No wonder, the National Competitiveness report on states done by the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN), rated Ogun state as number 36 out of 36 states of the federation in terms of quality of roads!
25) A trip to our towns and local communities will reveal an appalling condition of these areas lacking in motorable roads, infrastructure and other social amenities; a situation that has suppressed the economic growth of the state significantly due to the potentials inherent in these areas vis-à-vis lost opportunities.
26) Government again expressed barefaced falsehoods when it said; and I quote again in parts from Mr. Governor’s new year address, “Construction of over 357.11km of brand new Ogun Standard roads; Construction of an additional 100km of brand new Ogun Standard roads; Construction of 25 Ogun Standard Semi-Urban Roads spanning a total distance of 293.34km throughout the State; and Construction of another 171 Ogun Standard Rural Feeder Roads spanning 1,283km in all the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the State”; [End of quote]. The question to ask is, where are these “constructed roads”?
27) Another blight on the purported urban renewal drive of this government is the destruction of the means of livelihood of our people without adequate compensation plan to displaced persons and in most instances, no compensation at all. Do we even talk of the defacement of the environment in some parts of the state; where after several years of demolitions, construction has yet to commence or in bits-parts; leaving the people with untold hardships and mental torture.
28) The most regrettable aspect of the infrastructural programme of the government is the lack of linkage between heavy expenditures recorded on the sector and stimulation of the local economy because it lacks local content, multiplier effect and inclusiveness of the people in terms of their participation; as most aspect of the value chain have been outsourced; be it granite, asphalt, iron, earth core, earth moving equipment and even water. For it was foremost economist, Maynard Keynes who propounded the theory that “Governments must embark on capital projects to stimulate the local economy for continuous income regeneration and sustained growth”.
29) The major tool in the hands of a state government in a federation is the fiscal policy regime and administration. Today our public financial management system is not transparent and our economic fortunes reversed. The basic principles of fiscal sustainability are not adhered to. With deficits and rising debt servicing to the tune of N3.64billion monthly from FAAC allocations.
30) With an external debt overhang of $107.5million as at December 2017 (up from $103.4million in 2016), coupled with an increase in domestic debt that rose from N58.48billion in 2013 to N106.53billion in 2017 – totaling N140billion as at 2018; our debt servicing (moving at 18% every year) has created huge dent on future revenue prospects and developmental plans.
31) Another way to examine our dire situation is that average monthly revenue of N9.37billion (FAAC plus IGR) is less than our average monthly recurrent expenditure (including salaries and overheads) which as at June 2018 stood at N10.09billion. This is classic bad financial management because it means our income is barely able to sustain the overheads; which leaves nothing to capital expenditure; hence the use of bailout and refund to bridge part capital needs and salaries payments. It suffices to say Ogun state government has needed to constantly borrow to finance capital projects and cannot embark on any new project without borrowing! In the spirit of good faith to our dear state, citizens will also like to be inundated with facts as regards other unstated liabilities such as Contractor liabilities; Outstanding salaries and Subventions to tertiary institutions; Arrears of pensions and cooperative deductions among others.
32) All these is interesting to note, coming from a government that had so much financial liberty at its inception. Our sporting infrastructure is decayed as a visit to the Ijeja sporting complex and our three stadia will reveal neglect and abandonment. Gone were the days when Ogun state won medals at national sporting competition; or attracted tourists to the diverse potentials within the state via various sport meets. The dearth of sporting infrastructure has diminished our youth capacities, deprived us income potentials and exacerbated crime among out teeming youths.
33) We recall how this government as part of laundering its agricultural sector achievements in December 2017 – launched the Mitros rice wonder pyramid. A lot of observers queried the scam but the administration was defiant. A year on, precisely December 2018, no trace of the Mitros rice anywhere; as the pyramids have become plains! Our people must also be weary of a government that is promising to construct/renovate several tourism sites with less than four months to terminate! Citizens must be circumspect of a regime that did not add a single workers housing estate to the ones it met on ground eight years ago.
34) Gentlemen of the press, our campaign is issues-based and we have made issues of governance the focus of this conference. Ogun State citizens cannot afford another four or eight years of self-aggrandizement or sustaining a failed rebuilding mission in any guise. The electorate in our dear state must be prepared to choose between darkness and light; between sincerity and deceits; between capacity and mediocrity.
35) Ogun state cannot afford another four years of indirect tenure elongation for the apostle of mission to rebuild or have in the saddle of government an ill-prepared candidate whose only agenda is to sustain the current decline. Our people must reject arrogant candidates that have no touch with the challenges of our people.
36) What the ADC and I are offering Ogun people is good developmental programmes as enshrined in my 7 Steps to Abundance Manifesto. We have a Greater Ogun State Agenda and we possess the capacity and competence to drive this agenda. Most importantly, we have the sincere heart to be committed to our promises. In answer to the questions and challenges of this state at this time, human capital development will be the focus of the incoming administration; with education and healthcare taking priorities. Job creation and empowerment of our youths and women will be given top priorities via our economic approach and targeted programmes. Rural development that focuses on enhancing our communities in terms of infrastructure will be vigorously pursued.
37) From history, many nation-states have made remarkable leap from the backwaters of underdevelopment and recorded huge transformation that have stunned the world, using different approaches, strategy or models. Nations such as China, Singapore, Norway and to an extent our earlier contemporaries like Brazil, Malaysia and India, have shown that any government that gets its priorities right and adopts the right economic approach will sooner than later reap the benefit of strong economic growth, human development and social welfare. It has also been proven that sub-national economies can be developed in a way that enables them to be major contributors to the national development. What this mean is that, if we look inwards and explore our potentials, Ogun economy can grow and become a major hub not only within Nigerian but also the West Africa sub-region; as we remain the gateway to Nigeria and West Africa.
38) We shall reduce largely our dependency on federal allocations as we hope to build a state that is self-sustaining by gradually building our IGR base without burdening the people. We are bringing in the Nordic model of Social Welfarism that has proven useful to small functional governments with fiscal autonomy. This model thrives on a liberal economy and welfarism. It encourages a democratic culture that pays critical attention to the social welfare of its citizens. Our party, ADC believes in social democracy as an ideology, we shall promote a business friendly environment for entrepreneurship and industrialization to thrive while ensuring that our people’s welfare and economic enhancement is given adequate attention. In this development model, Education and Healthcare and Social Security will be the cornerstone of our welfare system.
39) In this model, every economic participant is a free agent with minimal regulation which means everyone is able to do one business or the other without any inhibition coupled with government’s provision of enabling infrastructure. This model significantly reduces poverty and inequality; two major goals of the sustainable development framework. Economic pundits have said, while it can work in nation with large heterogeneous population, it works even better in smaller societies and that is where a state like ours can take advantage; provided there is cooperation and trust among the citizenry and sincerity on the path of the drivers of government.
40) We shall practically combine lavish welfare systems with fast growth and low unemployment aimed at encouraging the thriving, supports the striving and takes care of the struggling. Our economic potentials across the three senatorial districts will be fully tapped under this model.
41) At this junction, l wish to – and on behalf of our party – raise an alarm about the clandestine and well-orchestrated plan by known opposition political parties – to manipulate the March 2nd 2019 gubernatorial election. In the last few weeks, we have been inundated with unimpeachable information and security reports about the grand plot by these elements to deliberately compromise that election. They have hatched four different rigging plans – one of which we shall highlight here while the other three shall be withheld for exclusive counter action.
42) Their first plan is to unleash thugs to precipitate violence in many polling booths and compromise the collation of election results up to close figures and push it to a point of having overall results declared as inconclusive (in a first run scenario) and then force a rerun in premeditated polling booths within a particular senatorial district (name withheld); where they then hope to cement the plot by outright intimidation and harassment of our party members or sympathetic electorates. The recent controversial Osun state governorship election comes to memory.
43) The full details and mode of operation of implementing these plans will be kept away from these conference for both security and strategic reasons. However, we must state that these grand plot is their response to an apparent defeat at the polls. We recall that few days ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo equally raised an alarm about the rigging plans of the APC especially at the federal level where presidential election figures are already being allocated. What we have on our finger tips is the localization and domestication of same plan in Ogun state.
44) We want to assure them that we shall not be taken by surprise by their plot as we are fully ready to protect every single vote the people freely give us using all means that is lawfully feasible. We also use this medium to call on the newly posted Resident Electoral Commissioner and his team not to lend themselves to the sinister plot of these antidemocratic elements. They must make every vote count and resist the temptation and inducement of the current establishment. In similar vein, we call on the Commissioner of Police, State Director DSS, NSCDC and the military formation in Ogun state to be on notice of these planned acts; including intended security breach by certain names loyal to the government of the day. Our votes must be protected and every electorate must be protected all the way.
45) Finally, I urge the good people Ogun state to embrace the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as the vehicle that will engender the Greater Ogun State agenda of making life more abundant for all. The March 2nd 2019 election is a referendum on good governance and choice for a better future. Vote buying is real and it is a plague with huge implication on our future growth. Let us endure the remaining four and half months and reject them on the ballot paper with a vote for ADC. All men of goodwill must rise up to support the effort to rescue our state from political buccaneers and return it to the path of people-centred governance and sustained development.
46) Once again, I thank everyone for listening. God grant victory to the ADC, God bless Ogun State and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
END.
