Gov Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) having pulled a total votes of 187,057 during the governorship election held on Saturday, June 16 2022 set the stage to become the next helmsman of Ekiti State. Oyebanji had defeated his closest rival and former Governor of the state, Engr Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, who scored 82,211 votes as well as the PDP governorship candidate, Kolawole during the keenly contested election.
However, four months after the election, on Thursday, October 16, the 55 years old former lecturer at Ekiti State University and the immediate past Secretary to the State Government was sworn in as the next Governor of the Fountain of Knowledge State. Equally sworn alongside the Governor was his Deputy, Mrs Monisade Afuye at the event held at the 10,000 capacity sitting Ekitiparapo Pavilion.
The wife of the new Governor, Dr Yemisi Oyebanji as well as the immediate past Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu among others dignitaries were all around to witness the beginning of a new chapter for the state.
Now that Oyebanji has achieved his ambition to govern Ekiti State, the next line line of action is to roll up his sleeves and get down to translating his campaign promises to policies and projects that will make life more bearable for the people of the state.
Already, many are of the opinion that governing Ekiti state is one thing that is burdensome due to its limited resource advantage, save for human population. It is one of the States that are not economically and financially buoyant. The business orientation and prowess is low and just springing up. It has little attraction for investors. Realistic measures to change this long-standing narratives remain pertinent; thus putting before Oyebanji the onus to really deliver on his campaign promises.
Since its creation in 1996, Ekiti has predominantly been a monolithic civil service state. It relies solely on allocations from the federation accounts for survival. Oyebanji must therefore make urgent and deliberate moves to attract investors into the State, diversify the economy and make it business- oriented. Part of the challenges the new Governor inherited and must take bold steps to solve are the various dissatisfactions the people have against the immediate past government. For instance, the civil servants are protesting loudly over months of unpaid promotion, deduction and salary arrears. The pensioners are also not happy over months of hanging and unpaid pensions and gratuities running into billions of Naira.
In the last few months, there had also been reported cases of herders-farmers clashes in Ekiti. Some farmers in Oke Ako, Irele, Erinmope, Irare and other towns too numerous to mention had protested overtly against herders, who were daily destroying their means of livelihoods with the security agencies doing little or nothing to help salvage the situation.
Oyebanji will have to resuscitate the dying State Security Trust Fund and strengthen it, such that it could help in providing support for the security agencies to boost their morale and make them more productive. The Governor should not waste time to get patrol vehicles, communication gadgets, bullet proofs and every other logistics that could make the security agencies to have a new lease of life and of course be committed to doing their job.
It is not a bad idea if Oyebanji as the Governor will further fund the Amotekun and give them all the encouragement needed to offer their very best. Gov Oyebanji can not afford to do less in this area because no society records any meaningful progress in an atmosphere deemed not safe and chaotic.
The new Governor will also need do well to tackle headlong the challenges of infrastructural decay in the state. Some residents of the state had also in recent time protested the deplorable states of their roads and how they had been cut off from the rest of the state. Good network of roads are likened to artries which carry oxygenated blood to the heart without which the heart will stop functioning. It is expedient that Gov. Oyebanji won’t waste time to declare state of emergency in infrastructure as this will definitely boost the economy of the agrarian state.
Other daunting tasks ahead Gov Oyebanji are modernisation of the markets in the state as many of them are said to be in deep sorry state.
Sanitation is also one very critical area that is said to have taken the back seat for some time in the state. Residents said it appears the Ministry of Encouragement is no longer functioning. It needs to be overhauled and made effective as even Ado-Ekiti, the state capital is constantly under the threat of epidemic as a result of overflowing refuse heaps and dumps.
In the area of job creation, since everybody can’t be employed by government, it can however create an enabling environment through introduction of micro finance banks to fund SMEs or capitalising on unexploited opportunities as being warehoused in some already established instruments for this purpose.
Providing funds for petty traders, artisans, farmers, through their associations and cooperatives would inflate their capital and more money in peoples’ pocket will create robust and buoyant economy.
Healthy people make a healthy nation. Oyebanji has the task of reinvigorating, repositioning and rebranding primary health centres across the 177 wards of the state.
According to a report, the political class is also another group Oyebanji would have to work hard to pacify. Some of the APC members are said to be seriously aggrieved about how they were allegedly sidelined under the last government.
The new Governor must be shrewd in thinking and action in order not to inherit the enemies of his benefactor, Dr. Fayemi. He must also act in a manner that won’t portary him as muzzling the opposition. All these are tasks that need serious thinking and tact to subdue.
In his inaugural address, Oyebanji had said, “My vision is for Ekiti State to be a land of prosperity, opportunity, peace and progress. A land in which transformed people and communities can reap the fruits of their labour in dignity, good health and safety. A land of honour where integrity matters. For this vision to be actualised we need to focus on a roadmap to get there.”
The new Governor had said he will zealously prosecute the recently unveiled vision 2050 economic roadmap initiated by Fayemi to make Ekiti a model, saying, “I assure you that by God’s grace and the support of our people, together with you, we will keep Ekiti working.” As he had promised that his vision is to make Ekiti a land of prosperity, where equity, justice, fair-play and stability will thrive, it is pertinent for Oyebanji to live up to expectations.