ARAKUNRIN OLUWAROTIMI ODUNAYO
AKEREDOLU (SAN) ON 24TH OF FEBRUARY 2017
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS INAUGURATION
AS THE 6TH CIVILIAN GOVERNOR OF ONDO STATE.
JOURNEY TO REDEMPTION
Humbled by the uncommon kindness of
the Almighty God and an unequivocal expression of preference by the good people
of Ondo State, exemplified by the victory of our great party at the last
gubernatorial election, I am extremely delighted to share with you all the joy
of this day of glory.We are grateful to Almighty God for granting this state
such a beautiful day and a beautiful moment like this.
I thank the President of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria and leader of our great party, President Muhammadu Buhari
GCFR, for his leadership and unwavering stance to support what is just and
noble. Today’s celebration would, perhaps, have been impossible without his
steely disposition to always stand against all acts not in consonance with
decency, probity and justice.
I thank the President of Senate, Dr.
Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Yakubu
Dogara. I thank all APC Governors who stood to be counted with us in our hour
of need andother eminent Nigerians too numerous to mention.
An especial reverence must be
reserved for our indefatigable party chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, whose
strict adherence to lofty principles and doggedness laid the foundation for our
resounding victory at the polls.
This exemplary leader behaved like a
true elder, whose sagely presence in the village square not only professed
rectitude but acted it, resolutely, affirming nobility of the human spirit. Our
party benefitted, tremendously, from his vast experience in public service. We
are eternally grateful. The verdict of history shall be kind to him.
We express our profound appreciation
to all the leaders of the party, at the national, state, local government, ward
and unit levels, for their untiring and selfless efforts during the election.
May I also use this opportunity to
pay tribute to those who have served this state in this capacity, both living
and departed, for their invaluable contributions to the development of the
state. On behalf of our State, I pay tribute to Governor
OlusegunAbdulramanMimiko for his several years of service toOndo State. I thank
all our guests and friends both far and near who have taken it upon themselves
to be here or sent words. I thank all citizens of Ondo state, particularly our
resilient youths and women.
I come to you this day, with a
message of hope, a clear agenda of prosperity and a vision of life abundant. I
believe the greatest expression of faith in our ability is to be strong enough
to look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake our
society to align with our highest ideals.
We can rise out of this dust and
build a new Ondo state where honesty, prosperity and confidence can once again
be our self-identity. We can pull ourselves by the bootstraps and shake off our
current frustrations and disappointments.
We must recognise the need for a
cohesive platform, indispensable to an effective and efficient implementation
of policies and programmes of both government and party, respectively.
Divergence of opinions is integral
to party politics. We are bound to disagree as politicians but we must cast aside
bitter recriminations and destructive predilections. Democracy thrives on
infinite multiplicity of ideas. Popular participation is one of its fundamental
norms. The subordination of individual preferences for the collective will is
essential if we are to avoid anarchy. Party supremacy should be respected at
all times. This should not be difficult for us to accept if we are truly
desirous of bringing about positive change in the lives of our people.
We listened to the voices of our
people in the course of our campaigns to all the nooks and crannies of the
state. We heard themloud and clear through their votes. We witnessed, first
hand, the deplorable conditions under which they exist. To those who cast their
ballots in favour of our programmes, your trust is not misplaced. We are
determined to make the difference with the specific mandate of redemption
liberally handed over to us. Those who expressed other preferences are no less
patriotic. Before long their anxieties will be addressed, realistically. All of
us will be involved in the reconstruction project. The collective interest of
the state must be our paramount focus. Consequently,we stand before you to
pledge, with the guidance of God and our resolve not to renege on our promise,
that your welfare shall form the basis of all our activities.
To achieve this, the main mission of
our administration is therefore to lead a patriotic, highly inspired and
competent team to rescue the ship of our state. We intend to help rebuild our
economy, resuscitate damaged infrastructure, restore hope and return our state
to a prosperous land. We are determined as an administration to break down the
barriers that have made stagnation possible. We will break down the barriers to
honest leadership, to comprehensive development, to physical growth and social
security. These we intend to do through the promotion of transparent
leadership, rule of law, extensive consultation, quality and accessible public
utilities and social security; all in a sustainable manner.
We acknowledge the enormous
challenges faced by the state and the severely limited resources available to
meet these ever-increasing and compelling demands. In readiness for this
enormous task ahead, I have two months ago inaugurated a Strategic Development
and Policy Implementation Committee comprising of eminent and very
knowledgeable Nigerians to produce and articulate a compressive change policy
and programme blueprint. They have since submitted their preliminary report.
This blueprint is anchored on five
cardinal programmes, which are popularly known as our Platforms for Change
(JMPPR). These are:
1. Job creation through Agriculture,
Entrepreneurship and Industrialisation.
2. Massive Infrastructural
development and maintenance.
3. Provision of functional Education
and Technological growth.
4. Provision of Accessible and
Qualitative Health care and social service delivery.
5. Rural Development and Community
Extension services.
This platform for Change is erected
on strong pillars, which consist of the core sectors of government activities
that our blueprint lays emphasis on. These are Finance and Management of state
resources, Health and Social Services, Infrastructure and Public utilities,
Agriculture and Natural resources, Commerce and Industrial development,
Education and Technology, Land, Housing and Environment, Women Affairs and
Social Development, Youth and Sports development, Culture and Tourism as well
as Information, Civic orientation and Mobilisation among others.
Our blueprint when unveiled shall
explain in details our philosophy, vision, sectoral policies and comprehensive
Programmes of action clearly calendared over a period of a tenure of four
years. With this document our pact with the people will be clear, our path well
defined and expectations clearly understood.
In building the structure to deliver
on our campaign promises, I come to you with a clear mind and an honest heart,
to serve and give the very best of my ability to restore Hope and Happiness to
our people. I urge you to see hope the way I see it. I see hope with limitless
boundaries for endless opportunities for all of us. I see hope for progress,
stability and prosperity for all people of goodwill who are willing to
contribute their quota to developing our state to a land of honourable,
contented, smart, honest, diligent and patriotic people. I see hope for
self-confidence, job security and increased commerce and economic production. I
see hope for redemption and renewal of our broken infrastructure, and social
values.
But make no mistake about it; our
journey to redemption will not be without stress and undulating curves. There
are mountains before us to climb. As we climb up these steep mountains.
Sometimes we may trip or slip, we will get back up. We will focus on the
journey. We will never stop. We will never stop. We will never stop. In the end
we will reach our goal, which is to bring back jobs to our youths, food to
families, safety, confidence and prosperity to this land.
For all these to happen, I am humbly
going to ask ONLY one thing from you, good people of Ondo state. What I ask for
is Attitude. We need to come with an attitude of belief and transformation.
Indeed, in all successful cultures and societies, attitude is the spirit and driver
of victory.
Ladies and gentlemen, for us to see
the change we all desire, we must be ready to constitute ourselves into change
evangelists with exceptional missionary zeal to succeed. We must know that the
man in the mirror is you and I. We need to have faith and find courage in the
words of the good scripture thatsays, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew
their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow
weary. They will walk and not be faint.”
I believe if we combine these
abilities with the force of Providence, a lot of great deeds will happen.
We shall not subject ourselves to
any specious and unproductive stereotypes, which find expression in the usual
egregious celebration of the passage of time spent in office as achievement. We
will be too busy to notice the pace of the itinerary of the administration.
Our state is particularly lucky. We
have men and women of quality. We set the pace for others in the not too
distant past. The country depended, to a very great extent, on our
resourcefulness. We contributed, immensely, to the GDP of the country at a time
when agriculture was the mainstay of the country’s economy. Our people were
exemplars in virtually all fields of human endeavour. The story is, painfully,
different today. The fault, as the saying goes, is not in our stars but in
ourselves that our fortunes have dwindled, considerably, and we have become
underlings. We have transited, regrettably, from a producing economy to a
basically consumptive society, which depends, almost solely, on handouts to
survive. The resultant effect of this unproductive attitude is grinding
poverty, desperation and hopelessness among our people.
It is a cruel irony that a state,
richly endowed in material and human resources, wallows in inexplicable
privation. Our unproductive taste has sustained the dichotomy between the rural
areas and the urban centres. All attempts at improving infrastructural deficits
seem concentrated at the capital of the state. Government intervention, where
available, has been grossly inadequate in addressing the socio-economic
challenges faced by the masses. Our administration shall, decidedly, try to
close the gap between the hinterland and urban centres. Real development can
only be actualized and accentuated through an active symbiosis between the two,
an understanding predicated on collaboration and co-existence designed for
amity and progress. Our people will be encouraged to participate in the massive
reconstruction contemplated by our administration in this regard.
Any honest indigene of the state
must be disturbed by the crisis in the educational sector at present. The
philosophy of education, conceived on the idea of functionality for improved
living by our forbears, has been reduced to a routine certification ritual, the
culmination of which is the award of certificates, diplomas and degrees to
graduates who are left more confused than when they enrolled in school. The
unemployment crisis, apart from being a global socio-economic phenomenon, is self-inflicted.
If education is the nurturing,
training and mobilization of those who live in a society to confront the
challenges of development, faced, primarily, by the people in that environment,
the current situation confirms that we have since departed from that
well-trodden path for a very long time now.It is a big shame that a state,
which was a clear leader in education in the country, now lags behind. It
appears that our curricula at all levels of training have failed to produce
experts whose contributions to the growth of the economy are needed. Our
administration will strive to reverse this unfortunate trend by promoting
functional education aimed at real development. We shall also revisit the issue
of vocational training with a view to improving the skills of our artisans.
We recognize that the issue of
unemployment is endemic. We equally understand that the greatest employer of
labour, at a time such as this challenging period, is the private sector. The
government will ensure that the environment remains peaceful and conducive for
economic activities. In addition, we shall deploy considerable energy into
agriculture. Through this, we hope to generate employment for the teeming
youths. This administration will do everything possible to encourage investment
in agriculture. Our youths must be ready for training necessary to kick-start
this mission.
We must begin to deemphasize
white-collar jobs. The era of unproductive civil service is winding to a close,
gradually. The current economic realities make the deployment of the unemployed
to other sectors, other than agriculture and rural development, unsustainable.
We must train our youths to acquire entrepreneurial skills as a corollary to
our programme on agriculture.
The health care delivery system
currently operating in the state will be sustained and improved upon. We shall
adopt a deliberate policy to ensure that our people have access to health care
regardless of their social status. We intend, within the available resources,
to provide qualitative primary health care delivery system to the rural
populace. Health care centres in the rural areas will be accessible and
functional.
Our policy on massive
infrastructural development will seek to open up the hinterland through our
roads and waterways. Our state has the longest coastline in the country. It is
unthinkable that all economic activities are restricted to land while our
waterways are abandoned. Opening up the hinterland will reduce, drastically,
the perennial rural-urban drift and encourage our sons and daughters who live
outside the state to consider returning home to contribute their own quota. The
economic propensities of such a venture will be, unimaginably, exponential.
We are all witnesses to the negative
impact that our local economy has been subjected to as a result of
over-reliance on federally allocated funds for even the most basic recurrent
expenditure items. It is high time that we looked inwards and come up with a
solution that ensures we are sustainable and viable as a collective entity.
We shall develop a comprehensive
Development Plan that focuses on leveraging our collective resources and areas
of comparative advantage for the benefit of our people. The plan will detail
our philosophy and response to surviving in this harsh economic climate. In
addition to this, it will also take a medium term view to our economic
development on an overall basis, and more importantly ensure that we remain
consistently above board during economic booms and bursts.
We will adopt a collaborative
approach to get this done by ensuring that we engage with the other segments of
the public sector, as well as the private sector in developing and implementing
our ideas of transforming the economy of our great State within the shortest
possible period.
All these lofty aspirations will
remain a mirage if those saddled with the responsibility of implementing the
decisions of the government do not support with dedication, honesty and
patriotism.
I acknowledge the very important
role that the Civil Service has played, and continues to play in the
development of our beloved State. I understand the challenges, and these are
quite apparent to those within and outside the system. We will work towards
addressing these challenges in delivering on our mandate to our people. We
particularly seek the support and cooperation of the Civil Service and all
organs of labour. We will drive efficiency through capacity building and
training needs assessment targeted at retooling our civil servants. Be rest
assured that your welfare, training, capacity building and the overall
interests of our people will be one of the highest pillars of our mandate.
We acknowledge the constraints that
our current financial situation will place on our ability to deliver on our
mandate. We however, believe that an adequate focus on transforming the current
socio-economic status of our State will lead to substantial internally
generated revenue for our State. We believe that Ondo State has the required resources
– human and material to ensure our sustainability in the short, medium and long
term.
We are looking at building on our
existing relationships with local and international development partners. Many
of them have been there for us in the time past, and we reach out to them,
especially at the new dawn in the administration of our State.I am therefore
using this opportunity to reach out to businesses, manufacturers, private
investors as well as potential international partners. You are welcome to Ondo
State. We commit to partner with you in developing the economic potentials of
our State for the benefit of all our stakeholders.
The collective deployment of our
resources, combined with those of our neighboring and sister States cannot be
over-emphasized. Our administration believes that we can achieve a lot more if
we work with a number of our sister State Governments to ensure that certain
development efforts (infrastructure or otherwise) are channeled in such a way
as to deliver maximum benefits for the participating States. We believe we
don’t have to build or develop everything ourselves. There is a lot we can gain
if we harmonise efforts and resources to build enduring assets that can cater
for the needs of every one of us.
Security of lives and property shall
be guaranteed. Our administration will protect all and sundry. We will act in
the interest of everyone. We will be there for all. All those who will add
value to governance in the state shall be engaged. We believe that the inputs
and participation of every stakeholder is required for us to succeed and
deliver our mandate. We will provide numerous avenues for direct engagement
with our people. Whether you are civil servants, market women, students,
vulnerable groups, artisans, professionals, we will have specific means of
reaching out to you to feel your pulse, and more importantly to seek inputs
into programs and policies that will directly impact your lives.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a
brand new day! With the assistance of the Almighty God and the good people of
Ondo State, we hope to take the state out of the morass of privation,
hopelessness and desperation. The welfare of our people shall be the
fundamental objective and directive principle of governance in Ondo State.
Your Excellencies, My lords, ladies
and gentlemen and my good people of Ondo state, the hour is here and our
Journey to Redemptioncommences now. And to God Almighty, the creator of heaven
and earth, the author and finisher of all things perfect and excellent I say:
“Forth in thy name oh Lord I go,
my daily labour to pursue,
thee only thee resolved to know,
in all I think or speak or do.
The task thy wisdom has assigned
o’ let me cheerfully fulfil
in all my works thy presence find
and prove thy acceptable will”.
Long live Ondo State,
Long Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I thank you very much for listening.
God bless.
Tags
Politics