GOVERNOR IBIKUNLE AMOSUN: THE SUN MAN OF THE YEAR, SUNLIGHT OF OGUN STATE

Congratulations to an enigmatic and sunny personality, the new “SUN of Nigeria”, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the Executive Governor of Ogun State. This award coming from the Daily Sun Newspaper after assessing governance in Nigeria had picked the most outstanding personality in governance –which epitomizes leadership and management ingenuity. This award indeed is ephocal, historical and glorious.

It is certainly not the first time the Governor Amosun who is variously referred to as Mr Phenomenon, the Elephant of Ogun State will be receiving such national awards and accolades. In the last one year, Governor Amosun has received Zik Leadership Award and Vanguard Man of the Year. The Sun award has made Governor Ibikunle Amosun to become the first and only Governor in Nigeria to receive various nationally recognized awards in one year.

To keen followers of Governor Amosun administration in Ogun State, this new award is just a continuation of testimonies of the elephantic achievements and giantstrides of the governor within five and half years in government even in this period of economic recession.

When excellence is rewarded the people rejoice. His Excellence Governor Amosun has indeed performed Excellently well in turning round the destiny of Ogun State from hitherto low end to a glorious present.

AmoSun as the “Sun man of the year” is indeed the Sun who has brought Sunlight to Ogun State which darkness cannot comprehend.

Many people will ask: why is Governor Ibikunle Amosun referred to as the SUN that has brought LIGHT and SUNSHINE to Ogun State.

A curious look at his government in less than six years under the worst economic recession ever witnessed in Nigeria showed that Governor Amosun has outperformed all the governors that ever ruled this Ogun State in the midst of plenty!

Governor Ibikunle Amosun has combined the political sagacity, visionary instinct and the power of knowledge of economics of late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo; the social–development engineering and intuitive capacity of Chief Bisi Onabanjo with his own deeper knowledge of financial engineering and a good understanding of the concept of development. Governor Amosun is a strategic planner, a highly focus leader who is never distracted even when it is obvious that his government has been living under distractions for the past five years!. Only few leaders could perform under such distractive atmosphere!. This clearly shows the genius in Amosun, the most humble Governor to have ever ruled Ogun State.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun has revitalized the critical sectors of the state economy which were dead before he assumed office in May 2011. In fact, the foundation of the state that was laid in 1976 has been destroyed before Amosun arrival in 2011.

Pre- Amosun era was the period of complete pilfering and sharing of the common wealth that our fore fathers bequeathed to us. Examples: all the three Ogun State hotels built with loans were sold for paltry sums and the funds unaccounted for; all quarters built with billions of naira were sold to PDP cronies, government lands in prime areas were simply donated out without records. It was a period of multiple Certificates of Occupancy for same plot of land. Ogun State was a sheep that was ruthlessly slaughtered and shared by the husbandmen.

That was the darkest era in the anal of history of Ogun State. Darkness was all over Ogun State and the people cried “ O Lord, take away this darkness and give us light, a real light that only the sun can provide” In May 2011, Almighty God answered Ogun People prayers. The SUN, called AmoSUN appeared and darkness disappeared.

Let us jointly assess the Sun-man, AmoSun from six angles alone, namely education, rural institutions, state economy, health and staff welfare and development

In Education, before 2011, the educational system in Ogun had collapsed. The PDP led government of the period could only assess funds from Universal Basic Education Board just for two years in its eight years of government because it refused to pay counterpart funds even in the midst of financial plenty. The result was a complete collapse of primary and secondary education in Ogun State. Our education at that period could be said to be a “case of living without life”. Governor Ibikunle Amosun government of less than six years has paid counterpart funds for eight years!. He has rehabilitated and built more schools than the combined schools built by all the governments before May 2011

Before 2011, Ogun State tertiary institutions have the worst image in Nigeria in terms of cultism, admission racketeering, workers strikes arising from poor welfare and delayed salaries payment. An Example is Olabisi Onabajo University, OOU that was owed salaries of over nine months. Governor Amosun inherited and paid over 10 billion naira as unpaid salaries of the state’s tertiary institutions. Today the story has changed from the worst to best. Our educational institutions can now be compared with the best in Nigeria even with regular payment of salaries.

People should appreciate this great feat judging from the fact that while some states in Nigeria could not sustain one tertiary institution, Ogun State with the largest number of tertiary institutions in Nigeria, eleven of such, is waxing stronger. Thanks to the ingenuity of the new SUN of Nigeria, the Sunlight of Ogun State.

In the finance sector, Governor Amosun in 2011 met a monthly Internally Generated Revenue of about N600million and in less than six months increased it to over N6billion naira. Two assumptions could be deduced from this feat: it is either the past government was incompetent and lack the capacity to identify sources of government revenue and enforce its payment or the funds were simply mismanaged. If this is so, it means over N500million of government revenues were either mismanaged, lost or stolen in the inglorious and darkest era of PDP led government in Ogun State. I cannot imagine what could have happened to Ogun State if the Sunlight of Ogun State had not taken a proactive step to shore up the revenue base of the state. It would have been a calamity if the government had had to rely on federal allocation of less than N1.5b monthly and N600m IGR to pay salaries of over N7billion monthly excluding other recurrent and capital expenditure. Perhaps Ogun would have been in a comity of states owing staff salaries for several months. In fact except, Ogun and Lagos States all the Yoruba speaking states including Kwara are owing FULL staff salaries for an average of seven months.

The Sunlight of light of Ogun State is indeed the Sun shining unending lights to all the working families in Ogun State.

In the health sector, before the Sunlight came, our health institutions were existing without existence. They were just mere consulting clinics. Today, the facts are obvious. The Sun man, has bought more medical equipments for our hos pitals than the combined equipments bought by all the previous governments. This is apart from the massive renovation of the health facilities.

Perhaps the greatest of Amosun achievement was the ensurance of state security. Before May 2011, Ogun State was under siege of criminals bred by the then ruling PDP government. It was a state in war. Wars with her defenseless and unharmed citizens. Ogun People lived in constant fear of dehumanization, brutalization and harassments from the government that was supposed to protect them. That was the era when our banks closed shop at will for fear of armed robbery attacks.

The security of the state pre-Amosun period was an unsecured one. No one was secured except the number one citizen. Ogun State then represents a failed state. Today, Amosun has changed the trend from lack of state security to complete security of the state. He has bought more armoured and security patrol vehicles worth billion of naira more than any other states in Nigeria including states who had security trust funds!. To armed robbers and kidnappers, the fear of SUN man, AmoSUN is the beginning of the abandonment of their criminal tendency.

Governor Amosun has practically repositioned Ogun State as the hub and the state of first choice for foreign investors. In fact, the direct foreign investment to Ogun State in last five years is over $600 billion dollars, almost equal to the federal receipts for two years. And with over 500 new foreign companies doing business in Ogun State, it is the believe that in next the five years Ogun State will catch up with Lagos in IGR. This is vintage SunMan, the superlative AmoSUN, the man who saw tomorrow!

AmoSUN has indeed brought light to the darkness that pervaded Ogun State pre-2011. If anybody is not seeing this Sun, the person must be blind because the blind can only see darkness and not sunlight. Everything seems like a night to a blind man and night signified darkness. With AmoSun, no more NIGHTS in Ogun State. May the SUN of Ogun State continue to shine and in shining darkness will disappear forever. May Almighty God prolong the daylength of this Sunlight. God Bless Senator Ibikunle Amosun,the Sunlight of Ogun State

By Deola LORDBANJOU,         Former Member ALGON Ogun