Amosun: A vision for now and future By Kayode Odunaro. On Apr 1st, 2014 at 00:02 Filed under: Columnists On August 22, 2013, I had a momentous journey to London. It was a trip that was planned in advance that circumstances nearly aborted. I was scheduled to attend the first ever Yewa Day in United Kingdom and Ireland, an inspiration of Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland in Ogun State. With my British Airways ticket for Wednesday August 20, 2013 I had arrived at Murtala Mohammed International Airport only to discover at the check in counter that though I had a valid UK visa, my international passport had expired about a month earlier! Trip aborted. I started a frantic effort at getting a new passport and at the same time looking for available seats on BA to London for Thursday or Friday to be able to attend the Yewa Day on Saturday. I managed it at a huge cost using my entire shopping budget for the trip. I got a seat for Friday that made my economy ticket to cost the equivalent of a business class ticket. But that flight was indeed divinely arranged for me to be with some VIPs at the point of dis-embarkation at Heathrow Airport. For unknown to me on that flight were my former boss and former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, the incumbent governor of Ogun State Senator Ibikunle Amosun and Minister of Agriculture Dr. Adesina Adewunmi, another Ogun State indigene. On arrival at the break of dawn I suddenly found myself in the same train coach with these VIPs for the trip from the aircraft to the immigration entry point. I exchanged courtesies with these powerful indigenes of my state and we proceeded together for the Immigration formalities. Incidentally, Senator Amosun, Adewunmi and I were cleared before Aremo Osoba and in deference to the elder statesman from our state, the three of us waited for him. In course of our waiting and small talk Senator Amosun made a profound statement that struck a resonating note with me. While we waited surveying the smoothness of the procedure and infrastructure at Heathrow, Amosun commented that it is amazing how everything works seamlessly here with solid infrastructure and facilities. He expressed hope and optimism that Nigeria as a nation will get it right one day to have such a system to which Adesina nodding, readily agreed. My input in this early morning sobering talk was to say that Senator Amosun’s urban renewal projects is laying a foundation for a future that may one day match the facilities we beheld in London. At this point Aremo Osoba joined us and we all went together to the arrival hall of Terminal 5 where we all went on our ways into the city of London. Later that Saturday afternoon, Amosun who came to London as special guest for the Yewa Day in London further exposed the theme at the airport in course of his speech to the effect that his vision and motivation for his activities in government was to provide infrastructure in all parts of the state to rival what we see in cities such as London or elsewhere where our citizens troop to for holidays or economic reasons. He said that in London for instance, you can hardly differentiate various neighborhoods or sections of the city as there is a seeming sameness in term of infrastructure and facilities. One cannot but agree with such a vision and the ongoing attempts to bring it to live by Amosun of All Progressive Congress APC, administration in Ogun State. I had written in the past of Amosun’s road infrastructure that signposted his attempt at realizing his “Mission to Rebuild” vision. Since the publication of that report, I have received a mixed review from various individuals across the world online and in face to face encounters. Most, including rabid political opponents, readily agree on the merit of the urban renewal programme that is not only necessary but gear toward future generations. Others agree that for once we have a governor spending “our money” usefully for what we can see and appreciate. Note the phrase “our money”. For there is this argument that the governor is doing the job he was elected to do in the first place. This line of thought often forget that the governor could as well just run a business as usual system of patching a road here and there or engaged in some projects without any multiplier effect or futuristic investment attractions potentials. However one finds it curious that even some supposedly enlightened folks mouth the ignorant position that the current urban renewal effort is “a misplaced priority”! The line of argument has it that the massive roads, flyovers and giant culvert for drainage are not really needed NOW. Such myopic thinking fails to take into consideration the dynamics of development and ceaseless population explosion as well as the mega city status of Lagos state, the closest neighbour to Ogun State. It is certain that spill over to the state is an ongoing process that will task infrastructure to no end. For me it is definitely a pedestrian view of development to be overly fixated to mostly social dislocations and short term financial setbacks accompanying long term development initiatives of government. As often said all pregnancies must be delivered with some pain or discomfort over a time but the end result is a new life. So it is with Amosun’s developmental initiatives. Nobody denies the foreseen and unforeseen fallouts of developmental policies. Such denial will not only be uneducated but self-serving. All development comes at a cost in economic terms and otherwise. The holistic view of the process is for the benefits presently and in future to be far above the cost in terms of human impact and multiplier effect on the economy. The same with the fixation with loans for these infrastructures; governments, corporate organizations and even individuals worldwide take loans that they repay overtime for capital projects. This is an economic issue and I want to be educated on how the massive works that are ongoing in Ogun State can be done with internal/federal allocation revenues alone in view of an ever growing recurrent expenditure. One sees the dogged pursuit of the “Mission to Rebuild” as taking the bitter pill for a healthy body. Somebody has to take the bull by the horn, think out of the box and in the now popular jingo “do the needful” for the state to move out and away from its rustic status to a modern developing enclave ready to absorb the impact of a creeping mega city from Lagos. If the funds are available through Internally Generated Revenue, loans and other means and Amosun remain resolute, there is no doubt that sooner than anybody thinks, Ogun State will have the infrastructure comparable to the Dubai and Londons of this world. Such places were built by men and women of vision like Amosun. To think it is not possible or costly is to be visionless, atavistic or just playing to the gallery of partisan politics.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 09:32:57 +0000
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