By Laleye Lashore
Time there was when development was almost at a standstill in Nigeria, when there was no movement forward and everything stood still under the syndrome of zero allocation. During the period, delegates of the federal and state governments would converge on Abuja to share revenue in the federation’s joint account, only to discover that there was no much money in the account. On some of those occasions, commissioners of finance would return empty handed to their respective States with the understanding that they would recoven the meeting.
There were occasions when Ekiti state received less than a billion Naira from the federation account. We thank God that those days of paucity of funds are now over. By then, government would owe arrears of salary, pension and gratuity, while they could not embark on meaningful projects. Many state governments hid under that pretext to evade making their marks in their various states.
But, in Ekiti State then, Ayo Fayose of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), just like the Segun Oni administration (also of the PDP) which came after Fayose, made remarkable achievements, which indicated that Ekiti State made more progress under the PDP more than under other arrangement. Whichever way one looks at it, governments of PDP have always been more beneficial to Ekiti State. The transparent financial dealings and development-oriented programmes of the Oni administration should not be forgotten in a jiffy. What of the revolutionary transformation of Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, under the Fayose administration? Ekiti people are still calling for a repeat of the Segun Oni Road Revolution Project that touched all nooks and crannies of Ekiti State. It appears as if the destiny of development of Ekiti is tied to the PDP.
Already, with what Dr Wole Oluyede has been telling the people anywhere he goes, he would kick the ground running in turning Ekiti State around for good. From his talks, he appears to be focused on establishing a solid economic foundation for the state. He emphasizes that with the abundance of material and human resources in Ekiti State, we should be leading other states in the area of economic development.
Dr Oluyede says Ekiti State has nothing to show for the huge financial allocation it receives from the federation account following the removal of subsidy on oil. He adds that Ekiti State has abundant resources that could make it generate more revenue than it is getting from the federation account.
The Australia-based medical consultant berrated the incumbent Governor Biodun Oyebanji for his failure to address the issue of epileptic supply of electricity in Ekiti State, as he pointed out that there cannot be industrial development where there is no electricity.
He stresses that what Ekiti State lacks is a visionary, innovative leader, who would harness the endowments of the State for its transformational growth. Oluyede, who is a medical consultant to 9 countries of the world, says with his experience, he is volunteering himself in the task of taking Ekiti State to greater heights.
Everywhere he goes, Oluyede thanks the people of Ekiti for their support for him during the attempt to manipulate him out of the governorship race. He promises to justify the confidence the people reposed in him whenever they called him or interacted with him.
“I implore you to have abiding faith in me that I will not let you down. I will fulfill all my promises and all of us would step into shared prosperity, which we would bequeath as legacy to our coming generations”, says Oluyede.
He adds that, “I can assure you that we would build a robust foundation for the economic development of our dear Ekiti State. So robust shall the foundation be that our children would not be able to deviate from it. Rather, they shall consolidate it and build on it.”
Laleye Lashore is a veteran multimedia journalist based in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
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