AS OYO CABINET GOES TO CLASS…

Right from the blast of the whistle on May 29, 2011, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, never left anyone in doubt as to how to deliver on the assignment given to him by the people of the state through their popular mandate. According to the governor, he is on a mission to restore, transform and reposition the state which had, no doubt, been rendered prostrate by the immediate past administration.

But as an astute administrator, he quickly realized the need to retool and energize key managers of his administration towards a more purposeful, effective and productive service delivery to the state.

Besides, he also considered as necessary building team spirit among political appointees and making them to key-in into his vision and mission for the Pacesetter State. Hence, the three-day empowerment retreat held at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan between 16th and 18th September, 2011.

The choice of IITA for the retreat with the theme: 'Towards the Transformation of Oyo State'' was not unconnected with the serene environment of the foremost research institute to bring out the best out of the participants.

Senator Ajimobi set the tone for the empowerment retreat in his keynote address at the opening ceremony. In the thought-provoking address, the governor bemoaned the poor living conditions of the people of the state which he said had become worrisome and needed to be dealt with decisively.

“Even though our population is fifth largest in Nigeria, the estimated size of our economy is the 21st largest. As a direct result of this, our people are, on the average, amongst the poorest in Nigeria. At slightly over N35,000 annually, the income of the average person in Oyo State is 20 per cent of the national average and 31 per cent of the South-West Region. This should begin to give food for thought,'' he said.

Sen. Ajimobi, who said that the picture painted by available data was no less worrying, added that the quality of life of the people of the state was the 18th best in the country as measured by the human development index, stressing “whilst our people are living longer than the average Nigerian, they are largely poor and the quality of their lives is below the national average''.

He also expressed worries over the challenge posed by the inadequate resources for the state to meet all the needs of its people.

'We have under-performed in our attempts at mobilizing financial resources. It is disheartening that Oyo State continues to be dependent on allocation from the Federation Account for our survival. It is unpardonable that the proportion of our expenses covered from internally-generated revenue (IGR) has been diminishing in the last three years. In the last fiscal year, IGR was only 31 per cent of our expenditure. Our IGR penetration, estimated at 0.73 per cent, places us at the bottom among states. This cannot continue,'' the governor declared.

Unfortunately, he said that all these had further been compounded by a lot of issues which his administration had had to contend with almost immediately after its inauguration. The governor particularly cited the agitation for the payment of N18,000 minimum wage by state workers even in the face of meagre resources, as well as the violence which flared up in the transport sector through the disruptive activities of the state branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

According to him, part of the ways of improving the condition of the people is to manage the economy of the state in such a way that it would attract entrepreneurs of different interests.

“Although our state, as the 2010 Report on the Business Environment in Nigerian States shows, is ranked 5th nationally, there are a number of weaknesses which we must deal with,'' he said.

Amongst these, the governor said, were social infrastructure, including water supply, transportation, good road network, qualitative education, healthcare delivery, wealth creation and poverty alleviation, rural development and integration, security, local government collaboration and development, and the need for human capital development.

He also reiterated the need for improving on the state's IGR and exploring other funding sources such as donor funding, grants and aid to drive his transformation agenda while highlighting his administration's key cardinal programmes to include human capital development, encompassing education, skill acquisition and healthcare delivery; wealth creation and poverty alleviation; infrastructural development and urban renewal; revitalization and development of agriculture and agro-allied industry; rural development and integration; security and safety; civil service reforms and local government collaboration and development.

Gov. Ajimobi called on political office holders to make integrity and transparency their watchword and ensure the maintenance of the principle of collective responsibility in the governance of the state.

To demonstrate the seriousness of the retreat, eminent scholars and public administrators were on hand to present different papers; all targeted at sharpening the skills of the participants and prepare them for the task ahead. The egg heads, who included Prof. Alex Gboyega, foremost scholar on public administration, Prof. Ademola Ariyo, a renowned economist, Prof. Rotimi Tayo, Dr. Doyin Salami, Dr. Abiodun Folawewo, Mr Joseph Tegbe and Mr. Dipo Famakinwa, took turns to take the political appointees through theoretical and practical processes of achieving the transformation agenda of the Ajimobi administration.

For instance, Prof. Alex Gboyega, renowned Public Administration scholar, spoke on “Meaning, Purpose and Dimensions of Governance Under Democracy'' while Prof. Ademola Ariyo and Dr. Abiodun Folawewo, both of the Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, delved extensively on “Planning and Budgeting for Effective Transformation of Oyo State''.

Also, Dr. Adeyemi Fajingbesi, a Managing Consultant with Economic Policy Analysis Centre (EPAC), Ibadan took the participants through “Development Financing for a Transformed Oyo State Economy'' while a seasoned administrator, retired permanent secretary and former Resident Electoral Commissioner with the defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC), Chief Bayo Oyero, spoke on what was expected from political appointees from within and outside the government circle.

The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Waheed Akin Olajide, the Head of Service, Alhaji Tajudeen Olasunkanmi Aremu and the state Auditor-General, Mr. D. A. Okediji, all spoke on different topics that were germane to the development of a virile civil service as a vehicle for the actualization of the transformation agenda of the Ajimobi administration.

One other feature of the retreat was that all the commissioners in the state were made to submit their respective four-year action plan while key performance indices which would help in sharpening the focus of their ministries were handed over to them.

The consensus of opinion at the retreat was that the Ajimobi administration was inheriting a state that had been bastardized, grounded and ruined, and whose economy had been in comatose.

No wonder eminent industrialist, Chief Kola Daisi, speaking at a dinner organized as part of the activities for the retreat, lamented the state of affairs in the state, stating that it was imperative for his government to embark on a restoration agenda for the state because he had inherited a state that could be likened to pre-zero.

He acknowledged that the task before Governor Ajimobi was gargantuan, as he had a lot of issues to contend with in his task at transforming and repositioning the state.

Daisi noted that no sooner had Ajimobi took over the reins of government than some of what he called the inherited challenges like the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) lawlessness of years and the buried landmine of agitation for minimum wage by the state workers reared their ugly heads.

He, however, believed that with the sagacity that God had endowed the governor with coupled with the quality of the political appointees, those developmental issues would be a thing of the past.

The General Manager of British American Tobacco (BAT), Ibadan, Mr. Hugo Norman, also at the dinner, emphasized the need for public-private partnership (PPP) as a tool for economic collaboration, saying this could be achieved through an economy that is private sector-led, but with the public sector providing basic policies and good working environment. He identified the key elements for actualizing this as security, workable policies and infrastructure.

At one of the sessions, Governor Ajimobi told the commissioners and political appointees that they were his own marines, a parody of the American marines who were in the fore front for America. He said the quality of the appointees would ultimately reflect on the quality of governance he gave the people. Indeed, at the closing ceremony, the governor implored anyone of the appointees who felt that the laid down criteria of his administration's transformational programme was too strenuous for them to come secretly to him and tender their letter of resignation, stating that he would understand. He said that the battle to reposition Oyo State was a battle of his life that he would fight and win.

Gov. Ajimobi, who was given the nickname Captain Colombo because of the role of a class captain he played at the retreat, drummed it into the ears of anybody who cared to listen that his administration would be business unusual, a clear departure from the rudderless and `paddy-paddy' government that had been entrenched in the state.

Each commissioner was made to present their four-year action plan through power point. The plans were rigorously critiqued and some of them whose presentations fell below expectations were sent back to the drawing board. Indeed, each of the three-day retreat, which began by 9 am, ended at 7 pm, with the participants attending three sessions on a daily basis.

It is, however, pertinent to state that so many retreats had been held in the past which were no better than mere talk shops, with the blueprints therefrom gathering dust in the shelve. How much of the outcome of the retreat that `the Ajimobi Marines' are able to implement will determine the success of the administration and its acceptability by the people of the pacesetter state. As the political appointees left the IITA at about 6 on Sunday evening, they confessed that they could never have been the same again and were re-energised for the battle of transforming Oyo State from its state of rot and hopelessness.

*Issa-Kasumu, PhD., a participant at the retreat, is a lecturer at the University of Ibadan.