Industrialising Ogun

Opinion

By Femi Onasanya

As Ogun State prepares to host its second Investors Forum between 21st and 22nd May, 2014, I believe so strongly that there is need to give the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led administration a pat on the back for the manner in which it is going about fulfilling its avowed electoral promise of industrialization and employment generation for residents.

The watchword of the state government is the fact that, ‘if you keep doing things the same way, you will keep getting the same result.’

Hence, its dynamic approach to governance in the last three years which has brought about several laurels and awards both locally and internationally, including the fastest growing economy in Nigeria, the architect of the new Ogun as well as consecutively adjudged the most secure state in the country.

Securing life and property which is a duty of government is paramount in changing the economy of a state or nation.

Even President Goodluck Jonathan last year referred to Governor Ibikunle Amosun as ‘a hardworing governor’ at the commissioning of a mega company. He also once said Ogun is the only place he had visited most, not for fanfare but to commission multi-national companies.

Speaking at the commissioning of United States largest investment in Nigeria, Procter and Gamble located at Agbara,Ogun State,which is expected to provide 2,000 direct and indirect jobs, President Jonathan affirmed that “Ogun is the most industrialised state in Nigeria’’.

It is pleasant to note that, this was the 43rd mega company to arrive the Gateway State in less than three years. So, I’m not surprised that the up and doing Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Otunba Abimbola Ashiru also pointed out that 19 more companies had concluded arrangements to start business in the state this year.

It is no news that the present administration at inception held investors’ forum to attract investors as well as breakfast meeting with investors with the Governor in attendance and captains of industry while a routine visit to various companies across the state as a way of sustaining the good rapport is on-ongoing.

This year’s edition, as stated by the government, would be an avenue to showcase the comparative advantage the Gateway State has over others in agriculture.

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It is no news that Ogun is the highest producer of cassava in the country aside the fact that its soil is one of the best for cocoa, cotton, rubber and several other cash crops.

Investors from several parts of the country and beyond would converge on Abeokuta, the state capital, to see the opportunities that abound in doing agricultural business in the Gateway State.

As a way of encouraging corporate organisations and individuals to keep up the tempo, a few days ago,  the state government honoured faithful tax payers at both corporate and individual levels and assured that it will not relent in using taxes judiciously on laudable projects.

Apart from creating a secure, enabling environment for business to thrive, “the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led administration has aggressively transformed the ancient Gateway State from 19th Century to 21st Century’’. These were the words of the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo during the commissioning of the state’s first flyover on 24th January, 2014. Today, flyover is no longer strange to us in Ogun. Others have been constructed in Sagamu, Ijebu Ode Expressway, Ijebu-Ode town, Sapon and Itoku areas of Abeokuta, while three are also being constructed on the 32km Sango-Akute-Ojodu road under construction and a sphagetti .

And road construction projects are on-going in Ayetoro town, 107km Ilara-Ijoun-Oja/Odan-Tombolo,as well as Ilisan/Ago-Iwoye Road, Mowe-Ofada road, Magboro road, Channels Television Road, among others.

These, no doubt, are strange feats in the state which used to be at the centre of uproar and crisis. However,unemployment is one of the major problems bedevilling the Nigerian nation.And one lasting dividends of democracy that could be given to the man on the streets is job opportunity. Unfortunately, our practice in Nigeria is more of giving the masses fish to eat rather than teach them how fishing. An idle mind, they say, is the devil’s workshop.

The Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in a publication of Oxford Business Group, pointed out that “unemployment is at 23.9% with youth unemployment at around 37%. In the north-east of the country where Boko Haram thrives, unemployment is worse, reaching 35% in Yobe and Adamawa.”

If concerted efforts are in place at all levels of government to engage people in productive service, our country would in no distant time become a ‘Mecca’ for all to visit.

•Onasanya wrote from Abeokuta, Ogun State via [email protected](08036170135).

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