So it’s one year already. How time flies.
DATELINE :October 16, 2022, Ekiti Pavilion, Ado Ekiti.
As the voice of the master of ceremony crisply sounded over the loud noise of the excited Ekiti people and particularly members of the All Progressives Congress gathered at the Ekiti pavilion, he said may I now invite the Governor – Elect, Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji to the rostrum take the oath of office as the next Governor of Ekiti, the ovation went through the roof.
A young man dressed in sparkling white Agbada with a tempered gold colour Awo’s cap with his gorgeously beautiful wife stealthily and steadily walked to the platform.
He took the Holy Bible which is the symbolic faith based authority and seal behind the oath he was to take before men and Almighty God his creator, in whom he has his absolute faith and trust.
” I Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji do solemnly swear, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance…and ended with SO HELP ME GOD”.
With that simple act, this calm looking young man mounted the saddle as the number twelveth Governor of our dear state and the man whose lot it will be to redefine the fate and fortunes of estimated 3.5million people.
He then proceeded to give his speech which was his pact with Ekiti people, he promised to put Ekiti and Ekiti people first, and that he would keep his fidelity with them, he showed the new horizon ahead that he wanted to take the people and how hard he would work to take everyone to that better place.
As I watched on Television with bated breath, misty eyes, not out of fears about what this young man can or will do granted his birth, he is an “Omo Teacher”[son of a teacher] and everyone knows that back in time the axiom is “omo teacher kii fail [ the son a teacher never fails] but more importantly at how the master planner had ordained this man for tile next chapter of our beleaguered people and State.
I drew strength for my knowledge of some part of his trajectory in life, at least the past thirty plus years, from his University days, we were in school together.
I knew him as very deeply intuitive man, studious man, hard working, and I have also known his political foray too, from the gentle graduate assistant in the University to his recruitment into government by the first executive Governor of the state.
From that first recruitment into that administration, he had been in government in one form or the other, even when the State was taken over by a different administration he was the Chairman of a board of a federal government agency in Abuja.
So this new job as a Governor is a fitting cap of a long career in public service that had seen him at different posts from Senior Special Assistant in Governor’s office, to Special Adviser to Acting Chief of Staff, to Honourable Commissioner in different ministries and then Secretary to State Government.
I dare say nobody had had that kind of profile among the lot that he contested the seat of Governor with.
I also can attest to his character, The then Abbey City, is a down to earth person, not garrulous or rambunctious, calm, a very modest and moderated person, and wears his gentility like a Military General would his eppaullette.
As he took that oath, it was the manifestation of the harmonious agreement of his “chi” and the man, going by the description of the great China Achebe stated in his all time great book “Things Fall Apart”
So over the past one year, what has been the impact of this young man as the twelveth Governor of Ekiti State?
To me, he inherited a badly fractured political party, with a lot of people deliberately schemed out by his immediate predecessor for infantile reasons, today Governor Biodun Oyebanji has fully healed ALL those relationships ..All.
Someone may ask what is the Significant of that to development?
Well, I will be quick to tell that, development never goes to or happen where there is strife and wars, how much of development can anyone do or contemplate in Gaza today?
We may not have had physical war rockets flying over the state like Israel and Palestine, we had no less lethal armaments flying across the State in the prevailing feisty and frosty environment back then, where party people took sides different opposing side, if you were not in the former Governor’s JKF TOKANTOKAN, you are an enemy of State, with a political fatwa declared and enforced against you. Casualties and victims abound wherever you turn.
Today I believe all that is gone because the Alchemist took over.
In physical development terms, When he came on board as the state Governor, everyone would attest to the fact that Ekiti State had been locked and hemmed in completely from all sides.
Then, all our roads within the state and going out of the State had failed completely, all had become very impassable and coming home was impossible, commuters were having such a bad time.
We had resorted to Bush tracks and make shift arrangements to get into Ekiti, indeed Kabiyesi Ewi had to go to the then Honourable Minister of Works to plead for help!!!
That was the state Governor Oyebanji inherited.
Today there is work going on intra state roads and high level of intervention on the so called federa roads, his Shuttles to Abuja has made the issue of our roads a topical item and today, assurances have been secured to fix all.
Not waiting on that, the BAO administration has taken on intervention efforts that has enabled people to come home and be relatively sure that they would get home and not in the bush somewhere.
Over this one year, BAO the Alchemist has kept faith with his oath by sorting out pensioners whose backlog of entitlements had not been paid over several years, suddenly it would seem Ekiti became an “oil producing state” with Governor Biodun Abayomi s numerous interventions, in recruitment of teachers, over a thousand newly employed, no administration has done that ever, thereby closing the age long deficit, one would wonder how that deficit was allowed to get to this point in the first place.
Over this one year, he had taken the issue of security seriously to my mind beyond just giving support to the security agencies in cash, equipment or vehicles, he has crafted a backend involvement of informal structures to deploy the local intelligence to work with the formal structures and reasonably the State is safer, yes one or two incidences, but relatively, the state is safer, as evidenced by the thriving nightlife economy, no gang or cult wars in the past one year unlike in the past.
Another understated accomplishment is that this Governor is living the reality of our modest economic status and profile as a state, he has been with very prudent and frugal with our lean resources while working to grow our internally generated revenue.
He has managed the little available resources well to enable him attend to other sectors no unnecessary gallivanting all over the place at huge costs to the state.
Our health sector, I am told he has touched with payment of some carry over outstanding entitlements , just as he had also done some inherited outstanding due to the State University not leaving out retirees and civil servants, no wonder , the newly appointed Head of Service declared that Governor Abayomi has made his job easier with the level of support the state civil service has received .
It is not surprising therefore that the best teacher in Nigeria emerged not from Lagos State, or Rivers or Delta but from our own state of Ekiti, just as well as young students are coming back home with sterling laurels.
This past year has seen an Alchemist at work in Ekiti State, with the gentle strides that he has made quietly over the past year of getting a hang of the job, I am reasonably convinced that if the past one year is a stable foundation,we have a brighter years ahead of us as a people and State in the hands of BAO the Alchemist.
So who is an Alchemist? The dictionary definition is ” person who uses or seems to use alchemy to change ordinary metals into gold.
For thousands of years, alchemists tried to figure out how to turn lead into gold that is what Governor Oyebanji is trying to do with our state, a rediscovery of who we are as a state and people, gold and golden in relevance, character and characteristics.
Today we have an Alchemist at work in Oke Bareke Government House, Ado Ekiti, and I urge Ekitis to continue to support him to succeed, it is not surprising to see three of his predecessors at the thanksgiving service, Governors Niyi Adebayo, Ayodele Fayose, and Kayode Fayemi come together to openly endorse all that Governor Biodun Oyebanji has done so far and openly declare support for his continuity in office going by his accomplishments in the first year.
As Ekitis would say, ” Satide ko ba ti a dara, Alamisi na a ha ti mo” meaning morning shows the day.
My prayers are with you, Mr Governor, and your family, I must also give a lot of credits to your pretty and delectable wife for her soothing and calm support, no doubts, she is doing a whole lot behind the scene to make things go well, thank you, our very cerebral and beautiful first lady, the most beautiful and most educated first lady that has inhabited our state house.
I must also celebrate our Deputy Governor , Chief Mrs Monisade Afuye, thank you for the matured stability that you have added to the administration, and not forgetting the entire cabinet, it surely shows that you are giving the Governor your best. Thank you
Lastly, to the party chairman, from my experience , if the party is at loggerheads with the Governor, I am sure, he will be distracted, but that does not look like the case here, thank you Barr. Paul Omotosho for steering the ship of party very calmly, managing expectations in the face of growing needs and little resources.
All in all, we trust God for the years ahead for incremental growth and development in our dear state and more accomplishments by BAO, the Alchemist under the abiding grace of God.
Congressman Bimbo Daramola
Ire Ekiti.