2023: Adebutu flags off campaign with Seven Point agenda (Photos)
The Ogun State Governorship Candidate of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu on Friday flagged of his campaign with the promise to pursue a Seven point agenda if elected as Governor of the State.
The campaign launch ceremony which took place at the Ake Palace Ground in Abeokuta saw thousands of PDP supporters thronging the venue with different placards and singing solidarity songs.
Speaking at the launch, PDP gubernatorial candidate, Hon Adebutu vowed to pursue a transformative agenda, and initiate policies, strategies, core values and services that will drive the economic growth of the Ogun State.
Read his full speech below
Our commitment to deliver the good people of Ogun State from the shackles of the ruling party stems from the first-hand experience I have by living amongst my people in Ogun State for the past 31 years. I am proud to say that I have not for once lived outside our beloved State for any appreciable time during this period. I make bold to say that all my life investments are domiciled in Ogun State. With these realities, I am privileged to feel the pains our people go through to earn a living and eke out a meaningful life.
Unfortunately, in most recent times, the government has not been available for the people it governs with provisions of basic social services, particularly at the lower tier of government.
In our quest to serve the people of our dear state, we conducted an independent survey to identify the needs of our people, the result of the survey is alarming and as a matter of fact, there is a need for an urgent rescue mission.
The survey revealed high rates of endemic poverty, youth unemployment, inadequate social services, poor infrastructure and insecurity, the cumulative effect is unbearable life for all and sundry. Insecurity pervades our communities and has become the norm, as our people cannot sleep with eyes closed again.
Dear people of Ogun State, It will interest you to know how much damage this government has caused us as a result of their inexperience, lack of integrity, incompetence and stratospheric height while key members of the government presently face grievous charges of corruption which ideally should have caused them to recuse themselves from governance.
The debt profile of the state is of great concern and worry, it keeps increasing since the inception of this government in 2019. The debt rose from N173.07bn in 2019 to N192.82bn in 2020, which caused our state to be ranked 7th most indebted state out of the 36 states. The situation has continued to get worse as the State’s debt is now been shielded from the public because it has astronomically gone up.
The domestic debt profile as recorded by this administration again rose from N155.57bn in 2021 to N241.78bn by June 2022 representing a disheartening 55.4% increase in debt. This government has continuously succeeded in enlisting Ogun State in the list of highest indebted states in the country.
Under their administration, the state dropped to the 19th position on the 2021 Fiscal Performance Ranking from the 3rd position in 2020, contrary to their fake noise and hype that there was improvement in the Internally Generated Revenue of the state, the sharp slide from the 3rd position to the 19th position within 10 months of review was as a result of the decline in the IGR of the state by about 28.44%. In correct perspective, the IGR dropped with about N20.17bn within a period of 11 months.
In contrast to the make-belief of this government that it grew the IGR to attain the 10th position in the 2021 fiscal performance, the expenditure per capita of Ogun State was at N5,120 per citizen which was lower than the National average of N8,129 spending per citizen on all the 36 states.
Sadly, with all the IGR generated in 2021, their government implemented just 63.25% of the approved budget; a chunk of this expenditure was claimed to have been spent on:
I. Personnel and overhead costs; yet the government is owing workers heavily with 72 months unpaid contributory deductions; 8 years leave allowance which means the government has sadly not paid any deductions in their 4 years in office, 13th month allowance.
II. Capital projects; yet our roads are very bad, the state can not boast of meaningful projects worth the value of N82.38bn. Some of the roads they claimed they constructed in 2021 are already failing just in one year.
III. Interestingly, alluding to the assertion of the Honourable Minister for Works and Housing, our Governor is particularly enamored with Federal roads. The question is why is he particular about the construction of Federal roads? Could it be because he is able to manipulate the accounting process of refund. However, we note that the Honourable Minister advised him to face his State roads.
Little wonder, highly indebted companies owned by them become debt free, obviously with the State fund.
Like we have always been pointing out, this government places no value to the lives of our people hence the neglect we experience in all major social services like health and medical services, education, sports and so on.
Sadly, with only just 7.19% and 24.92% of the approved 2021 budget spent on education and health respectively, other critical social services similarly suffered from the budget implementation which had serious implications on service delivery and economic growth and development.
Driven by sincere conviction to make life comfortable and as close to utopia as possible, which by the special grace of God, I have clearly demonstrated through my antecedents, including my tenures at the National Assembly and my numerous statewide philanthropic gestures, I hereby offer to our people, myself and my Co-travelers as harbingers of relief -ITURA, and a good life, so our people will have hope for a better future.
Through good governance, we shall reduce hardship and provide sustainable Relief – ITURA.
Our dear people of Ogun State, with the following Seven Focal Areas of our manifesto, we assure you that RELIEF HAS COME – ITURA DE!
The Seven focal areas of our desired government that will provide relief are:
Improved Security, Law & Order
True Local Government Autonomy, Public Service Reforms and Workers Welfare
Urban Regional Development, Physical Planning and Transportation
Rural and Border Communities Development
Agricultural & Economic Development
Development of Women, Youth and Sports
Enhancement of Education, Healthcare and other Social Services
1. IMPROVED SECURITY, LAW & ORDER
Security is the paramount responsibility of government and we truly believe that the protection of citizens’ lives and properties is uppermost.
Our Government shall provide incentives and supportive measures for the purpose of eliciting high productivity of security personnel.
We will ensure deliberate interface between neighborhoods and the security agencies in order to create safe communities. The role of traditional and religious institutions in promoting Law and Order shall be better defined.
The financial autonomy and the independence of the judiciary shall be guaranteed.
2.TRUE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY, PUBLIC SERVICE REFORMS AND WORKERS WELFARE
We shall ensure true autonomy of the Local Government Councils to enable them function as provided for in the Constitution.
Bearing in mind that transparent elections are the ultimate check for democracy; necessarily, we will ensure that the operations of Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) shall be truly independent.
Our Government shall strive to make Ogun Public Service maintain her place of pride. We shall ensure regular payment of workers’ salaries and emoluments while recognising them as sacrosanct.
Payment of pension and gratuity to Senior citizens shall be recognized as rights and not privilege.
Workers’ welfare shall also be our priority.
3. URBAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, PHYSICAL AND TRANSPORTATION
Our government shall rationalize our land-use and developments through proper planning. Our Government shall ensure the master planning of critical areas of the state to attaining their true economic values.
Our Government shall improve on monitoring of physical planning activities, ensure compliance with physical planning laws and regulations so as to have well-organized physical environment.
Our Government shall endeavor a timely building approval process and documentation.
Our Government will collaborate with the private sector to facilitate delivery of sustainable infrastructure such as light rails, airports, deep seaports and roads to ease the transportation system.
Our Government shall endeavor to pursue infrastructural development mainly through various partnerships with the private sector for the purpose of providing infrastructure without necessarily increasing the debt burden, such as independent power generation, mineral resources development
4. RURAL AND BORDER COMMUNITIES’ DEVELOPMENT
We shall establish a Rural and Border Development Authority for the development of rural communities and boarder areas. The Development Authority will take full responsibility for the development of border and rural areas to address infrastructural development, social amenities, as well as border delineation.
Our Government shall specifically redress all anomalies bequeathed overtime for the betterment of our people.
5. AGRICULTURAL & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Our Government shall be humane, compassionate and inspire hope in all its citizenry with a view of not leaving any behind.
Provision of farm implements, seedlings and subsidized fertilizers shall be a choreographed seasonal arrangement.
Our Government shall encourage farmers by establishing cottage industries to enable primary processing of farm produce in order to add value to their basic yields.
Training & retraining of farmers in modern techniques and access to Agricultural loans and grants for the purpose of improving productivity shall be of priority to our government.
Our Government’s economic development strategy will be geared towards job creation and engendering revenue generation. The cycle will be incomplete if leakages and excesses of government are not contained.
The service delivery of our Government shall form an impetus for the citizens to be patriotic and freely discharge their civic obligations.
6. DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN, YOUTH AND SPORT
Our Government shall develop and implement a State Gender Policy that is in line with the National Gender Policy that will also enforce existing legislation against Sexual and Gender-based violence.
Our Government shall create specific empowerment programmes and vocational training schemes for women and youth.
Our Government shall create enabling environment for the development of sports for the benefit of the populace at large and the youth in particular.
Our government shall restore the Principals’ Cup and other similar inter-school competitions in addition to establishing recreation centers in line with the maxim of “a sound mind in a healthy body”.
Our Government shall consider various options for the optimum utilization of our various Stadia. Our Government shall encourage talent development programmes.
7. ENHANCEMENT OF EDUCATION, HEALTHCARE AND OTHER SOCIAL SERVICES
In the pursuit of a humane society, our Government shall avoid costly white elephant projects, in order to have sufficient funds to cater for qualitative education, healthcare and social services.
Our Government shall enhance quality education, affordable healthcare services, and also promote vocational and technical education.
Our government shall revisit its relationship with the missionary schools and private tertiary institutions of learning for a better result-oriented arrangement, while making a complete review of its own educational assets.
Our Government shall create a basic social security scheme for the aged and the vulnerable. Government will be inclusive of people living with disabilities. We shall strengthen our environmental agencies to deliver on their mandate to the people.
Our Government shall be innovative in the healthcare sector by encouraging public-private sector participation.
Our Government shall seek new covenant with our people and NGOs to improve social services and create a society for the well-being of our people.
Conclusion
Achieving the economic and social vision contained in our Manifesto is premised on delivering the outlined initiatives, policies, strategies, core values and services that will drive transformative growth in Ogun State.
In this regard, core social and economic components which are intrinsically linked with human capital development, competitive economy and good governance, form the foundation of our vision.
Our government will facilitate timely execution of projects by publishing the detailed implementation plans and roadmaps and make them available to desiring stakeholders in the State, in order to demonstrate transparency, accountability and our firm commitment toward actualisation.
Together we can achieve the goals set out for the Seven Focal Areas of ITURA DE as one people for the betterment of Ogun State.
God bless the good people of Ogun state
God bless Ogun State
God bless Nigeria
Itura De!!!!!!
Thank you and God bless.
Sir, Hon. (Dr.) Oladipupo Olatunde Adebutu, FCPA, KJW
December, 2022
