The governorship candidate of African Democratic Congress in Ogun State, Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, popularly known as GNI, says continued rule by the All Progressives Congress or the Allied Peoples Movement in the state will spell doom for the people. In this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA, GNI also speaks on several failed projects of the current administration and how he intends to reposition the state. Excerpts…
There are allegations that some political parties are planning to rig the general elections, especially the governorship election, in Ogun State. What is the update on this?
A few weeks back, I raised the alarm about the clandestine and well-orchestrated plan by known opposition political parties – to manipulate the March 2, 2019 gubernatorial election. In the last few weeks, we have been inundated with impeccable information and security reports about the grand plot by these elements to deliberately compromise that election. They have hatched four different rigging plans.
What are the plans?
I will talk about one of them while the other three shall be withheld for exclusive counter action. Their first plan is to unleash thugs to precipitate violence in many polling booths and compromise the collation of election results up to close figures and push it to a point of having overall results declared as inconclusive (in a first run scenario) and then force a rerun in premeditated polling booths within a particular senatorial district (name withheld); where they then hope to cement the plot by outright intimidation and harassment of our party members or sympathetic electorates. The recent controversial Osun State governorship election comes to memory.
What are the details and method of implementing these plans?
The full details and mode of operation of implementing these plans will be kept away for now for both security and strategic reasons. However, we must state that these grand plot is their response to an apparent defeat at the polls. We recall that a few weeks ago, former President Olusegun Obasanjo equally raised the alarm about the rigging plans of the APC, especially at the federal level where presidential election figures are already being allocated. What we have on our fingertips is the localisation and domestication of same plan in Ogun State.
How do you think your team can counter these plans?
We want to assure them that we shall not be taken by surprise by their plot as we are fully ready to protect every single vote the people freely give us using all means that is lawfully feasible. We also use this medium to call on the newly-posted Resident Electoral Commissioner and his team not to lend themselves to the sinister plot of these anti-democratic elements. They must make every vote count and resist the temptation and inducement of the current establishment. In similar vein, we call on the Commissioner of Police, State Director, DSS, NSCDC and the military formation in Ogun State to be on notice of these planned acts; including intended security breach by certain names loyal to the government of the day. Our votes must be protected and every electorate must be protected all the way.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun, in his New Year address, claimed that his administration had constructed over 357km of new standard roads, additional 100km new standard roads, and 25 semi-urban roads spanning a total distance of 293.34km among others. What is your take on this?
That is not all. The Governor also claims to have constructed another 171 Ogun Standard Rural Feeder Roads spanning 1,283km in all the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the state. The question to ask is, where are these “constructed roads”?
Are you saying the roads do not exist?
Where are they? I have toured the 236 wards in the state, at least two times, and I have not seen them. Go out and talk to residents to confirm the claims. A lot of them have bitter tales, especially during rainy seasons.
What about the urban renewal drive claim of the current administration?
Another blight on the purported urban renewal drive of this government is the destruction of the means of livelihood of our people without adequate compensation plan to displaced persons and in most instances, no compensation at all. Do we even talk of the defacement of the environment in some parts of the state; where after several years of demolitions, construction has yet to commence or in bits-parts; leaving the people with untold hardships and mental torture.
But the government has spent a lot on several infrastructural programmes…
The most regrettable aspect of the infrastructural programme of the government is the lack of linkage between heavy expenditures recorded on the sector and stimulation of the local economy because it lacks local content, multiplier effect and inclusiveness of the people in terms of their participation; as most aspects of the value chain have been outsourced; be it granite, asphalt, iron, earth core, earth moving equipment and even water. It was the foremost economist, Maynard Keynes, who propounded the theory that “Governments must embark on capital projects to stimulate the local economy for continuous income regeneration and sustained growth”.
How would you assess the education sector in the state?
Generally, education in Ogun State today is in shambles with abysmal funding, decrepit infrastructure, unmotivated teachers and a disillusioned student populace. For a state that had education as the bedrock of its evolution and the claim to fame of our forebears, the parlous state of this critical sector is not just a travesty of today’s government but a big indictment of our future potentials.
Whereas government’s figures indicate that 20% of yearly budgets are allocated to education, the reality is that actual disbursements to that sector stood less at about 6%; year on year. Current educational institution capacity in the state indicates 1,440 public primary schools, 471 public secondary schools, 7 public technical colleges, 5 state owned polytechnics and 2 state owned universities; one would have thought that enhancing the infrastructure in these citadels, improving capacity and welfare of teachers and improving affordability – will be the priority of government but alas, the opposite is the case.
In 2016 and 2017 for instance, education budget stood at N40billion out of a total budget of N200billion representing 20 per cent. However, results from implementation of the budget appear to indicate that far less than stated was spent on the sector. Consequently, students still provide their tables and chairs while many primary schools are structurally defective with lack of investment on them. Asides the UBEC and SDGs counterpart interventions that are at best palliative, subventions to our tertiary institutions have been halted for several years as there is no single block of teaching room laid in any of these schools in the last seven years; with the exception of ETF and TETFUND interventions.
What are your plans for the model schools across the state?
We are still shocked at the policy mindset that brought about the failed Model Schools project that has seen huge structures built in remote locations across the state – at not less than N1.2billion per unit – culminating in waste! Whereas, our legacy schools such as Abeokuta Grammar School, Baptist Boys High School, Iganmode Grammar School, Yewa College and Ijebu-Ode Grammar School and Remo Secondary School; among several others, with ample space for expansion and opportunity to be made ‘model colleges of excellence’ have been abandoned; rather, government preferred to invest in new buildings without requisite needs assessment; which are today homes to reptiles and hoodlums. We may use the buildings as vocational centres.
What is your take on the state’s public financial management system?
The major tool in the hands of a state government in a federation is the fiscal policy regime and administration. Today our public financial management system is not transparent and our economic fortunes reversed. The basic principles of fiscal sustainability are not adhered to. With deficits and rising debt servicing to the tune of N3.64billion monthly from FAAC allocations.
What about the state’s external debt?
Our external debt overhang around $107.5million as at December 2017 (up from $103.4million in 2016), coupled with an increase in domestic debt that rose from N58.48billion in 2013 to N106.53billion in 2017 – totaling N140billion as at 2018. Our debt servicing (moving at 18 per cent every year) has created huge dent on future revenue prospects and developmental plans.
What is the implication of this development?
Before I answer that, another way to examine our dire situation is that average monthly revenue of N9.37billion (FAAC plus IGR) is less than our average monthly recurrent expenditure (including salaries and overheads) which as at June 2018 stood at N10.09billion.
Back to your question. This is classic bad financial management because it means our income is barely able to sustain the overheads; which leaves nothing to capital expenditure; hence the use of bailouts and refunds to bridge part capital needs and salaries payments. It suffices to say that Ogun State Government has needed to constantly borrow to finance capital projects and cannot embark on any new project without borrowing! In the spirit of good faith to our dear state, citizens will also like to be inundated with facts as regards other unstated liabilities such as contractor liabilities; outstanding salaries and subventions to tertiary institutions; arrears of pensions and cooperative deductions, among others.
How would you assess the achievements of the current administration in the agricultural sector?
This government as part of laundering its agricultural sector achievements in December 2017 – launched the Mitros rice wonder pyramid. A lot of observers queried the scam but the administration was defiant. A year on, precisely December 2018, no trace of the Mitros rice anywhere; as the pyramids have become plains! Our people must also be weary of a government that is promising to construct/renovate several tourism sites with less than four months to terminate! Citizens must be circumspect of a regime that did not add a single workers housing estate to the ones it met on ground eight years ago.
What is your message to the electorate?
Our campaign is issues-based and we have made issues of governance the focus of our campaign. Ogun State citizens cannot afford another four or eight years of self-aggrandizement or sustaining a failed rebuilding mission in any guise. The electorate in our dear state must be prepared to choose between darkness and light; between sincerity and deceit; between capacity and mediocrity.
Ogun State cannot afford another four years of indirect tenure elongation for the apostle of mission to rebuild or have in the saddle of government an ill-prepared candidate whose only agenda is to sustain the current decline. Our people must reject arrogant candidates that have no touch with the challenges of our people.
Your name will not be on the ballot paper but your party’s. What would your party offer the people?
My party and I will offer Ogun people good developmental programmes as enshrined in my Seven Steps to Abundance Manifesto. We have a Greater Ogun State Agenda and we possess the capacity and competence to drive this agenda. Most importantly, we have the sincere heart to be committed to our promises. In answer to the questions and challenges of this state at this time, human capital development will be the focus of the incoming administration; with education and healthcare taking priorities. Job creation and empowerment of our youths and women will be given top priorities via our economic approach and targeted programmes. Rural development that focuses on enhancing our communities in terms of infrastructure will be vigorously pursued.
From history, many nation-states have made a remarkable leap from the backwaters of underdevelopment and recorded huge transformation that have stunned the world, using different approaches, strategy or models. Nations such as China, Singapore, Norway and to an extent our earlier contemporaries like Brazil, Malaysia and India, have shown that any government that gets its priorities right and adopts the right economic approach will sooner than later reap the benefit of strong economic growth, human development and social welfare. It has also been proven that sub-national economies can be developed in a way that enables them to be major contributors to the national development. What this means is that, if we look inwards and explore our potential, Ogun State’s economy can grow and become a major hub not only within Nigeria but also the West Africa sub-region as we remain the gateway to Nigeria and West Africa.
How would you tackle the dependency on the federal allocations by the state?
We shall reduce largely our dependency on federal allocations as we hope to build a state that is self-sustaining by gradually building our IGR base without burdening the people. We are bringing in the Nordic model of Social Welfarism that has proven useful to small functional governments with fiscal autonomy. This model thrives on a liberal economy and welfarism. It encourages a democratic culture that pays critical attention to the social welfare of its citizens. Our party, ADC, believes in social democracy as an ideology, we shall promote a business friendly environment for entrepreneurship and industrialisation to thrive while ensuring that our people’s welfare and economic enhancement is given adequate attention. Under this development model, education, healthcare and social security will be the cornerstone of our welfare system.
Under this model, every economic participant is a free agent with minimal regulation which means everyone is able to do one business or the other without any inhibition coupled with government’s provision of enabling infrastructure. This model significantly reduces poverty and inequality; two major goals of the sustainable development framework. Economic pundits have said, while it can work in nations with large heterogeneous population, it works even better in smaller societies and that is where a state like ours can take advantage; provided there is cooperation and trust among the citizenry and sincerity on the path of the drivers of government.
We shall practically combine lavish welfare systems with fast growth and low unemployment aimed at encouraging the thriving, supports the striving and takes care of the struggling. Our economic potential across the three senatorial districts will be fully tapped under this model.
