OPPOSITION ARE DIRECTIONLESS IN ONDO STATE- Gov Mimiko CPS

OPPOSITION ARE DIRECTIONLESS IN ONDO STATE- MIMIKO PRESS SECRETARY

Eni Akinsola,  Chief Press Secretary to Gov Mimiko
 

Mr Eni Akinsola is a seasoned journalists he has worked in various media organisation before his appointment as the Chief Pres Secretary to the Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, in this interview   with Remi Oladoye He spoke extensively on how his boss have been able to put in place a structure that will enhance Youth empowerment and food production in the state, he spoke also spoke debunked the allegation raised by the opposition and describe the as directionless.

 
What is the concept of Agric business introduced by the state government all about?

What we are trying to do is to create generate empowerment for our youth an encourage food production through participant owners but in our own concept of farm, people stay in the hostels where there is electricity, water supply, sport centres and Dstv, in their hostels, I mean we are making it attractive for the young people it is not just about production alone but creating employment opportunity ,life long opportunity that when they graduate from the farm and we make loan available to them which they can access, rather than working for government they can easily establish their own and use the experience to become an entrepreneur rather than working as a partner with the government the opportunity in Agric sector is enormous in Ondo state, when the governor came on board, the first setb of loan was fro yam farmers it was about 7oo million naira and they pay back now, I don’t know how much they give out

What are the Challenges so far

The major challenges we have then was a short of opposition when the programme was first advertise, the enrolment was not that high graduate are not interested in it but now we are oversubscribed, we have many more graduate willing to work in the farm and our agribusiness cities at large. We have three the first one is oversubscribe and that is why the governor said because of the land is there we are going to set up three more in ondo state we have a functioning ministry of direct labour that can built house in two or three month,

Two Month for a standard house?

Yes a standard house in two month the technology they use is hydrates technology on sand and cement, they are make there, and they are use there they are bullet proof and they are cool all day long no need of painting or anything.

How much do they need to pay to get hostel?

Farmers do not pay, government provide everything and government is maintaining them.

Has these farming programmes been able to sustain the state in food production?

I will be lying by saying yes, we are less than three years into these project and the first one did not come until a year and half when Mr governor came on board , the second one is less than a year to say sufficiency in less than three years is saying what is not the truth we are getting to that point where demand is also been meat.

Are you foreseeing or looking at a situation whereby you will serve other southwest state with the farm produce?

Of course , that is the direction, and Mr. governor has said this and he is working towards that, the idea or regional integration was made in Akure at the government house about two years ago, Governor Kayode Fayemi and Rauf Aregbesola visited Mr. Governor and mar governor said genteel men why not let us start thinking about leveraging on what unite us by getting some sort of integration and they all agree, Aregbesola said he is going to create a ministry of regional integration and Mr. governor said he was going to have a commissioner for special duties that will work in that projection and part of what they said was that the state will look at area of comparative advantage so that where a state have its strength other state will not dabble into it so that we will be buying from each other, that is part of what regional integration was all about when it started it was not a political party thing but now it is a political party centred and from my own little understanding of international relations, I do not see any political unit that started on that kind of platform, they first seek political unity and then seek regional unity and how it can happen is that they first seek economic unity and then pursue political integration and we are not going to be part of that our point has been made and it is still being made that let us look at the areas of commonality, let us look at area where we can work together as a united people then we will somewhere close when we have elevated those things that needed like geography, property, like distance, then we can then talk about politics so we are looking at that, our main target is to be able to produce enough fish for the southwest to consume and ell to the other part of the country, I want to tell you that as at now people come from cotonou to come and buy our fish.

Are you saying that your strength lies in the flourishing agricultural produce?

Our strength lies in a number of things. Ondo state is about the largest of the southwest from the farthest part of the North you can travel minimum of seven top eight hours at top speed in Ondo state to the south, I don’t know any other state in the country that has that kind of stretch, so we have the benefit of swampy land in the southern part rainforest of the middle part and the near savannah North, so we can plant almost everything like maize, onion, palm cocoa, and others like that, we have fish farmers in the south so we are blessed, yet we won’t call ourselves master of all trade, there are areas neighbouring state have advantage over us and that is what we are we are doing each day of our lives we look at such opportunities.

Have you put in place a kind of cooperation between Ondo state and other state that you think you can work with.

We have tried as much as possible to let our idea of what we mean know at the first meeting of the Southwest governor in Ado Ekiti, everything was said by Mr. governor, I do know for instance that they agreed that the Akure- Ado road is going to be constructed by both governors, plans were being made to know that coast implication and to develop those thing together and that is part5 of regional integration but each day, we talk they informed us they are forming a committee and some of the highlight is that they first target is political integration which may be a clog in the wheels of progress.

How far have you gone in aligning with the Federal government policy on cassava production in Ondo?

At the national executive council meeting, Mr. governor had the privilege with Murtalla Nyako of presenting a blueprint on Agric Revolution in Ondo state and the Federal Minister of Agriculture said on several occasion that what we are doing in agric, sector other state must copy them because we are making the people owners of their destinies, it is not that some entrepreneurships will put resources, use the land waste the land and proceed to another state, no whatever its been made in Ono farm remains in Ondo state.

Are you not allowing investors from other state?

That is why it is PPOP approach, it all depend on what you want to do, there are terms and condition for everything there are opening in every areas for investors there is arable land from the North to the South for investors but what we do not want is to deprive the people of their land because we don’t want problem of land in the future, when the growth of who owns the land arise, in the partnership with any investors from any other state ownership reserve with the government. And it would be given out on favourable terms to would be investors and in most cases government provide infrastructure.

Back to the Cassava question sir, what have you been able to achieve?

In Ore alone, we have about a thousand hectares that has been planted with cassava this season, in Epe, of the four thousand hectares of land almost half of will go for cassava production and from that we gave this arrangement with an Agricultural organization to provide improved cassava stem for planting that process is on, for traditional farmers the yield is bigger and faster this are part of what we are doing. about transforming them to powder pulp, Onodo state is where there is highest level of cassava consumption in the southwest because apart from Gari, Lafun, there is also what we called pukuru in Ono state it is a unique cassava flour and it is being exported even as we s peak, we have que in to the federal government programme on cassava and agriculture generally, there has been a lot of correspondences between the governor and the honorable minister of Agriculture in the country.

What is the target of this government in Agriculture.

We have an agency called Wealth Creation Agency, those are the people who manage Agro business cities. There has been some issues on youth employment generations in Ondo state what has been the effort of government so far. Perhaps we have to start with the Agric Project immediately, the question we have in Nigeria is do you power industries on petrol , is there anywhere in the world where industries are powered on petrol and diesel, nowhere in the world except Nigeria, so that is the challenges of industrialization in Nigeria so we are in a different situation and we are not accepting any challenge , so what government is doing is the biggest industry that is not depending on electricity much in the world is Agriculture, one can run a 50 000 hectares of palm farm without electricity, through which one can produce raw materials for consumption I don’t need electricity to process cassava to turn it into pukuru , I don’t need one wax of electricity to do that in Large quantity but the challenge we gave is that of electricity and what we have is n that of electricity and what this government is doing in regard to this challenge we don’t just wake up one day and start on electricity project because if we produce a thousand megawatt of electricity , the moment you connect it to the NEPA pole it becomes the property of the power generation, Now that the opportunity for private partnership is open, the Ondo state government is planning serious planning is at advance stage to have a 30 megawatt in ore and 215 meggawatt in Akure, the 30 meggawatt in ore will power the Ore industrial part and what we are trying to do in ore is trying to make it a hub so that we can have thousands of industry in that area that will be the power there will be advantage of Ore being a loader, it is a highly populated area apart from Akure and the population is not majorly yorubas we have many Igbos Hausa’s and other tribe so we are creating a mini Nigeria out of ore and the way to go is Ore Industrial City and there is also Ore sunshine village going on in ore. It is also an avenue to create a new city out of the city. We want to move people, create a new place away from the clusters so that we can redevelop the town like it is happening in Akure the city is congested and the people are moving into the satellite towns around Akure, this is part of the total industrial park we are planning so industry will come and industry cannot come without facing power generation, we are facing the root problem generating power business concern won’t need to be invited they will come on their own.

Like what time will it be ready?

I cannot say the exact time but I can assure you by this time next year the ore own will be ready, the equipment had been purchase and all the payment had been made so everything will be ready before next year runs out. What we don’t allow in Ondo state is for an investors to come and tell us they want to partner with us and ask us to pay without they putting any imput on ground, we don’t allow that and that is what has been happening elsewhere so if you are bringing your funds bring it to Nigeria, starts your structures and we put our own imput but where we are partners with the world bank and the federal government in the Onod state social community development agency, government put in a hundred millions every years for five years we are paying for five years and what the agency is doing is to build community industries and concerned all over.

When do people look forward to see result of the industrialization project.

Result are already here we don’t need any time frame if you get to agribusiness city the cattle are growing and very soon we start selling those that are to be eat by people and the one for reproduction you know there is a season for cattles to be raise, I know for sure that cattle rearing is not something that can take place in a day or a month and yet you start reaping but it will take like two years , also I’ve told you about the electricity that by this time next year will start because saw the papers when it was been signed, we have a technical hub here we call it I.T hub with whawhi of china the biggest technical firm is china is is coming to invest in billions of dollars in computer and ICT stuffs we have signed the papers, the people are already in town and they are taking possession of houses in Akure the truth about ondo state industrial development is that it is not a one day thing , if you have to start an industry you must first start with evaluation and environment impact assessment, the power generation feeders it took one year six month to get the EIA for the generations things we’ve learnt from the mistake of the past we’ve done what is to be done right.

The opposition parties claimed that the is administration have received over 500 Billion naira in the last three and half years and with what you have just said, is it true that the government had received such money

If you divide 500 Billion into twelve and divided it by forty, whatever amount that gives you is what the opposition claims we got per month and you can determine if Ondo state ever got anything close to that in the last three and half year, and there is a saying that you don’t play madness with a mad person. If you play madness with a mad person nobody will be able to differentiate who is mad and who is not. The opposition party in ondo state are directionless ,they have the conquertorial ment5ality, their tactics is not about logic it is not reasoning it is about telling the public what is not Possible, I do know that there are months we get 3.58B, or 4.5B.

Are you telling us that all the achievements recorded so far is solely from the internally generated revenue or the allocation received from the Federal government?

The truth is that what we’ve done has been solely from our IGR and allocation from the Federal government.

But how much is the IGR generated in a month.

Our IGR is about 300 million naira in a month, but I do know Ondo state has approach capital market for a bond of about 27Billion naira and we have started plan on it., all we have been doing are from the allocation and IGR, we are good managers of resources and we have been able to block some of the area of waste, collect and share, that era is gone because I do know that is the strategy of the immediate past administration that is why if you ask the elite they will tell you there is no money in circulation that is because we don’t pay 50 percent of contract on front in Ono state when you are suppose to get guarantee from banks why do I need to give you money that does not exist so what we are doing is checking the limit of business interaction you get loan from your bank to run your contract and get paid overtime.

What has been the effort of this administration in education?

Ondo state educational programme is superb, through qualitative assurance education , ondo state tertiary institution students paid the least salary in the southwest, I don’t think they are paying up to fifty thousand naira while LASU is paying about 200 thousand or more., then you can see the mega schools they are of different type we have type 1 and typ2 we didn’t just built the mega schools there are some factors we consider before citing the schools ,the present administration in the state is not toying with the education, we are not just building the mega schools we are putting in place a suitable mechanism that cater for the maintenance of the schools, the halls in the school will be outsource for party at weekend it has been given to somebody to keep and we expect that by the end of every month we will be getting some eight hundred thousand naira or less from the hall so I don’t know what kind of maintenance that will cost about 800 thousand naira in a month, the pulpils were children of the common people on the street like trader, driver and so on and we give them free books and uniforms they also get free ride to school

The PDP gubernatorial candidate chief olusola Oke sometimes ago at the PDP unity rally alleged that the state governor abandoned many projects including the University of science and technology in Okitipupa which was started by Agagu administration.

Most of the building started by Agagu administration were abandoned by contractors some of them took more that 50 percent and delivered less than 10 percent it’s like we are doing everything to conserve what has been spent to maximize gains so that it won’t be a huge loss for the state. The present administration in the state has done a lot on the permanent campus of the site and by the special grace of God they will resume operation at the permanent site by next academic session.

Tell us about the sunshine city in Ore

Ore sunshine city is a huge project with many amenities , when completed there is going to be a mega filling station, there will be a motor park and a trailer park that can comfortably have 1000 trailers park at the same time, there will be two hotels two guest houses and several canteen and then business enterprise and what Mr governor want to do is that when you are going to the east you can conveniently keep a night before you go government is also putting in place a good health centre so that if there is any accident on this road they are lifted from here to the trauma centre in Ondo, the area covered between 100 to 200 hectares , NNPC is going to built the fuel station then document have been signed between the government and the private companies it’s going to be PPP.

Hope it won’t be something middle class people may not be able to afford

On this road it won’t be expensive, the sunshine garden we thought was going to be expensive we started at 1.5 Million but now its 8.8 Million naira and it is oversubscribe, and we have build 225 building at Oba Ile sunshine gardens people are begging us for more