Tinubu can solve poverty, insecurity using Ogun State model, says Gbenga Daniel
…wants senators- elect to elect experienced leaders that won’t be pushed around
By Tunde Opalana
While many of the 109 senators- elect are preoccupied with fixing leadership positions of the 10th Senate, two weeks to it’s inauguration, Otunba (Engr) Gbenga Daniel, elected to represents Ogun East senatorial district at the weekend laid bare his legislative agenda.
At a media parley in his Abuja residence, the two terms governor of Ogun State also gave a clue on how the Bola Tinubu’s administration can reposition Nigeria’s economy through fixing perennial poverty and security problems using the model he adopted as governor of Ogun State between 2003 and 2011.
Otunba Daniel said he met Ogun , a barely industrial and civil service state but left it eight years after as one of the fastest growing economies in the country with clusters of industrial hubs and three international standards free trade zones, where many states do cannot boast of one.
The secret of his success, he said, was that he allowed the state to develop through home grown economic activities, shrewd management of the state meagre funds and proper harnessing of human resources available.
According to him, the incoming administration at the federal level can adopt his policy of pure local content development to bring Nigeria’s economy out of the woods.
Daniel, a fellow of the prestigious Academy of Engineers said during his two terms tenure, he never contracted any construction or procurement to companies outside the shores of the country.
He also disclosed how his administration built a 40 kilometers Abeokuta – Shagamu dual carriage road at a moderate cost of N1.2 billion paid from the government coffers at N100 million per month for 12 months, without borrowing either internally or externally.
He added that he tasked engineers at the state’s Works ministry and workers of the Ogun Road Maintenance Agency (OGROMA) to carry out the project to completion.
“By using home grown technology and human resources, I was able to save the state from paying about extra N4 billion to contractors who bided N5 billion and above for the contract,” he said.
The ex- governor further gave an account of how the lighting project of the road was handled.
Daniel said he gave a specimen of the 1,000 units of light pole to be used to the association of Ogun State welders to fabricate at the cost of N30,000 per unit while the state bought the pole lamps directly at unit cost from the Alaba International market in Lagos.
“By doing this, more wealth was created among the welders who were able to built houses and bring development to the state, money circulated and economy of the state improved,” he added.
He advised that the Tinubu administration can frontally tackle security challenges through a prosperous economy.
Daniel said Ogun State was having security challenge with growing numbers of miscreants called ‘area boys’ but he was able to curtail them by engaging most of them in economic activities while many others went through different artisanship training sponsored by the state government.
Speaking on his legislative agenda, he promised bringing his wealth of experience in governance and the corporate world as a successful businessman to fore by introducing to the parliament bills and motions targeted at socio- economic reformation and national development.
The senator- elect said at this critical of national life, Nigeria needs legislators who are more nationalistic and patriotic than sectional politicians who are out to feather personal nests in the parliament.
Speaking on the scheming for leadership positions in the 10th Senate, Otunba Daniel dismissed the idea of fostering leaders on elected legislators.
He said “talking about election of leadership of the National Assembly. I do not agree that the executive is instructing the legislature of what to do. This process is about interest.
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“But the beautiful thing is that election on the floor of the National Assembly will be secret ballot.
“In essence, what I am saying is that the National Assembly is not a leader of opposition to the government. If that is what we are expecting them to do, that is the responsibilities of the opposition parties. In leadership of the National Assembly, the majority of them are part of the ruling party . So, if you want to blame them, you will first blame the executive. That’s my own fundamental way of looking at it.”
