Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, has described the past five years of his administration as challenging, but added that his faith in God had brought the victory he desired.
Speaking during his 64th Birthday and 5th Year thanksgiving service held in his honour at the Ogun State Government House Chapel, Oke-Igbein, Abeokuta, on Sunday, Governor Abiodun recalled his journey to power despite all odds, attributing his victory to God Almighty.
He said, “The process through which I emerged as Governor was a very unusual one; one in which my predecessor who was in the same party with me was fighting me and campaigning for another person in another party, and I will sit down and ask myself, ‘Baba God, this is very unusual, why do I have to go through so much to assume this office?’ And then I will answer myself that it is because God wants to take that glory.
“The last five years of governance over the state of Ogun for me has been one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. It’s been extremely turbulent, it’s been very challenging, particularly, and it has been rancorous. But the most important thing is that in all of this, God has given us victory.”
Governor Abiodun said his government was taking giant steps to reshape the economy of the state and that the steps were yielding results.
One of such steps, according to him, is the plan to make Ogun an oil producing state, as the Ministry of Petroleum Resources would soon begin oil exploration in the state.
“Only on Friday, the leadership of the Ministry of Petroleum led by the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources (oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, was here with three others and the chairman of Shell to make an announcement that they would soon begin to drill oil in Ogun State,” he said.
Governor Abiodun also seized the opportunity to respond to comments by the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in the last general election, Ladi Adebutu, on the Sagamu-Iperu road project.
Adebutu had criticized the 8-kilometer Sagamu-Iperu road project of the state government.
The governor said his focus was to continue the positive trajectory of the Gateway State and not to dwell on the submission of a man who could not see the over 600km of roads across the length and breadth of Ogun State done by his administration.
Governor Abiodun said he had learnt not to respond to people who had developed the habit of barking whenever they are no longer in the spotlight.
“I read on one of the papers that someone was saying that he was embarrassed that I was commissioning an 8-kilometre road, and a counterpart of mine was commissioning a 77-kilometer road,” he said, adding that he had learnt not to respond to such ignorant remarks.
He wondered that despite the stupendous wealth of the Adebutu family, the road that runs through their house was in a deplorable state for a long time and the family could not deploy a fraction of their wealth to repair it.
Governor Abiodun promised that his administration would continue to make life comfortable for the people of the state by embarking on the provision of more infrastructures that would, in turn, improve their well-being.
