Mimiko assures of speedy completion of ongoing projects

Written by Yinka Oladoyinbo, (Nigerian Tribune)

Ondo State governor, Dr OlusegunMimiko, on Saturday, assured the people of the state of the completion of the ongoing projects across the state.

The governor, who spoke at the Ekimogun Day 2011 celebration, held at the Oba Adesan-oye Civic Centre, Ondo town, said the projects, particularly the road projects, would be speedily executed during the current dry season.

The governor, who lamented the slow pace of work on some of the roads, however, said the contract for the dualisation of roads in Ondo town had been given to a new contractor in order to ensure that the project is completed in time.

He said the development efforts going on across the state were to ensure that Ondo State becomes a model to all other states in Nigeria.

Mimiko, who lauded the participation of Ondo indigenes in the programme sponsored by Globacom, also highlighted the development programmes and projects being implemented in Ondo town.

He explained that the state government intended to create a corridor of medical excellence in Ondo town with the establishment of the Gani Fawehinmi Diagnostic Centre, the Trauma and Emergency Centre and the Mother and Child Hospital around the same area.

He stated that apart from the health sector, the government intend to fight poverty and unemployment among the people with agriculture, as the Epe Farm City in Ondo East Local Government area had been completed.

The governor, however, solicited the support of the people of the state to enable him to realise his vision of turning the state to tourists and investors' haven.

The Osemawe of Ondo kingdom, Oba, Adesimbo Kiladejo, urged the people of the community to continue to commit themselves and their resources to promote the economic development and foster good governance.

Mimiko through the microscope

By Kayode Akinmade

When he took the baton of governance in February 2009, he had declared: “I will work for you”. Implicit in that declaration was a message to the people: “You have not voted me as your governor in vain?” 
He came out with a 12-point developmental agenda that is today telling the story of a Caring Heart. 
The areas targeted by the agenda include agriculture and food security, community-driven city and coastal region renewal and general development initiatives, aggressive capitalisation of land resource, roads and infrastructure, industrialisation, no-to-poverty, and gender equality/women empowerment. Others are healthcare and housing, education and capacity-building, artisanship development and empowerment programme, rural development, tourism, sports and youth development. 
The Mimiko vision on agriculture and food security is that Ondo should not only be sufficient in food production, it was also an avenue to stem unemployment in the state by engaging the youths in modern day farming. Agriculture has since been reinvented in the state, while the youths have returned to the land to eliminate poverty and create wealth. 
About 15,000 graduates are engaged in Caring Heart Agricultural Villages at Ore in Odigbo Local Government Area, Epe in Ondo East Local Government Area and Auga in Akoko North-East Local Government Area under a participant-ownership scheme. One feature of the agricultural villages is the provision of infrastructure, including housing units. The community-driven city and coastal region renewal agenda of the Mimiko administration has seen modern markets emerging from the ashes of the old ones across the state. 
From Akure to Okitipupa, Ikare and Ondo town, people now carry out shopping activities in decent environment as against the former dispensation when you could not distinguish between the neighbourhood markets and pig sties. The new era has moved traders away from the streets to the market stalls, thereby freeing the roads from avoidable traffic caused by hawking. 
Dealers in cars have also been relocated from road sides where they formerly displayed their wares, thus constituting public nuisance, especially in Akure. They now have the Caring Heart Auto Mart to operate from. The activities of the Mimiko administration in the almost three years of being in office also show that provision of good roads is high on its priority. 
The rehabilitation and reconstruction works are based on the premise that government cannot drive the desired economic growth and development in the absence of good roads. And the Mimiko initiative does not discriminate between state and federal roads. The mantra is “zero-tolerance for bad roads”. 
Roads currently getting attention across Ondo State include Ogbese-Owo Road, Oyemekun-Adesida-Fiwasaye Road, Mobil/Fiwasaye-Oba Ile-Airport Road and NEPA - Arakale Road, all in Akure; as well as Itanla Junction - Ademulegun - Idi Ishin - Yaba and Akure Motor Park Road in Ondo. 
Before then, the governor had caused Akure-Ilesha Road, a federal road, to be repaired, having gone into serious disrepair and causing mind-boggling accidents. Activities in the Ondo industrial sector are upswing. This is the evidence of Mimiko's impatience to industrialise the state, set a new tempo for economic growth and tackle headlong the unemployment challenge. In the pipeline is a cement manufacturing factory at Okeluse in Ose LGA. This is a product of strategic partnership with the private sector. 
The moribund tomato paste factory at Arigidi - Akoko has been reactivated while the Alpha - 3D Factory at Ikare-Akoko is completed. The comatose Ifon Ceramic Industry and the Cocoa Catalytic Industry, Idanre are also receiving attention. 
An automobile assembly plant is being constructed at Bomodeoku, Ita-Oba in Ondo East LGA. The N2 billion loan the state government got from the Bank of Industry is being disbursed to cooperatives, small scale enterprise operators and medium scale entrpreneurs to help in the creation of wealth, creation of jobs, accelerate industrialisation and stem rural-urban migration. 
The no-to-poverty programme of the Mimiko administration and wealth distribution policy is an affirmation action that has been translated into reality as an offshoot of the ideology of the Labour Party which produced the governor. It established skill acquisition centres in the 18 LGAs of the state for people to learn vocations through which they can make a living. There are also micro-credit facilities for low income earners. 
Mimiko is also supporting the state Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, OSOPADEC, with funds to expedite the transformation of lives of the people of coastal areas of the state. 
For women, there is the Special Market Women Improvement Loan and Empowerment Scheme, SMILES, which gives non-collateral loans at an amazingly low nine percent interest rate. In the health sector, the Mother and Child Hospital, the Abiye Safe Motherhood project showcases the Governor's position to cut the rate of infant and maternal mortality in the state. 
The innovation is on the way to becoming the World Bank's model to deepen safe motherhood in Africa. The Governor's intervention in the housing sector in collaboration with the private sector is bringing houses within the reach of the common man. Mimiko's '31s initiative' has made rural development much easier. 
Under the administration's rural development scheme, graduates are employed as Community Change Agents to help reach the grassroots to identify confidence building projects. On tourism front, Idanre, the town built on amazing hills, is being developed into a tourist hub of international repute. Beyond this, a Tourism Village, to be sited in Ore, Odigbo Local Government headquarters, is in the pipeline. 
The Dome, an international cultural and event centre, is also proposed for Akure. 
The laurels that the football teams sponsored by the state government have been winning in international competitions are enough evidence of the pride of place sports get in the scheme of things in Ondo under the Mimiko administration. 
The intervention in the education sector is lucid, and flows from a heart that truly cares. It seeks to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich, the haves and the haves not, the privileged and the less privileged. A visit to any of the mega schools will convince you that this is indeed a new dispensation in public school system in Ondo. 
And to be convinced of the new dispensation, you must rewind to the pre-Mimiko era in the state when the public school system not only suffered criminal neglect but also pushed to the brink of extinction. The public school system operated in a dilapidated environment. If you are a teacher and you are teaching in a dilapidated environment without the requisite infrastructure, it doesn't matter how good you may be, pupils cannot learn well. A government is relevant to the people only to the extent at which it provides the necessary infrastructure that will aid the work of the teacher, and this has been the preoccupation of the Mimiko administration in the state education sector. The sum total of the Ondo situation of almost three years is that Caring Heart is at work. 
And viewed from the microscope, the governor's sterling performance in delivering democracy dividends may be the weapon against the opposition in 2013 when he is sure to be re-elected for continuity.

Mr. KAYODE AKINMADE is Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy.

Unknown Gunmen Kill Ondo Monarch

Unknown gunmen have killed the Ajalaye of Ofefeland, Oba Akindamade Ajinhan, in his house at Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo.

The monarch’s first son, Gbenga Ajinhan, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday at Odigbo, that the incident happened between 7.30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday.

He said: “The two gunmen just entered the compound and requested to see my dad, who was sitting on the veranda near the front door and my dad asked them what they wanted.

“But they requested to go inside the house, saying it was a political issue which needed secrecy.

“One of them stood at the gate, while the other one spoke to my dad.”

Ajinhan said that as soon as his dad reached the front door, the man brought out a gun and shot him on the leg.

“He shot daddy again in his stomach and when daddy fell, he shot him again for the third time in the head.

“As soon as he turned back and saw me standing near the car, he shot at me too but I dodged it and the bullet shattered the car’s windscreen.

“The gunman then went after my junior brother, who came out of the house with an empty Jerry can, but my brother hit the gun with the Jerry can and took to his heels.

“The gunman picked the gun and ran into the bush with his partner. They didn’t enter the house and didn’t take anything, as my mother and sisters were all inside the house.”

Also speaking to NAN, the deceased younger sister, Mrs Lara Ayelomi, described the incident as “shocking and painful.’’

“People are very wicked, they didn’t let him finish his assignment, he was a very important person, everyone loved him and he loved everyone.

“I don’t suspect anyone but I know that God knows him. This is a very big loss to our family.”

The Odigbo Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Mr Adekimi Ojo, who confirmed the incident, said it was unfortunate and a surprise.

“It was the first of its kind in Odigbo, we don’t have any suspects yet, but the case is under investigation,” he said.

Source: PM News

NYSC DG wants politicians to watch utterances

Brig.-Gen. Nnamdi Okore-Afia, Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has urged politicians to guard their utterances and to stop using inciting words that could threaten the security of corps members during elections.
Okore-Afia made the appeal in Abuja on Sunday at a meeting with security chiefs and INEC commissioners in respect of elections to be held in some parts of the country.
The states where elections will be held are Bayelsa, Sokoto and Adamawa.
The NYSC boss urged security agencies to intensify surveillance and security around the corps members during and after the elections.
He called on politicians to be cautious of their choice of words so as not to trigger any violence which could endanger the lives of corps members, adding that ``NYSC members should be allowed to do their work.
``I want to urge our political actors to desist from uttering inciting statements that may likely make the corps members targets of attacks.''
He reminded politicians that the corps members deployed to states during elections were not indigenes of the states and did not have any political interest, aside from doing their national duty.
Okore-Afia called on members to always stand firm in their resolve to enthrone an enduring democracy, stressing that good governance would guarantee their future.
He, however, warned them to resist any attempt by any political party or their agents to influence them in the discharge of their duties.
The DG assured corps members of adequate security throughout their service year, saying: ``the scheme and the Federal Government will protect you wherever you are posted to.
``Don't allow yourself to be cohort or intimidated into abandoning your conscience and duty to your country as history will certainly record your sacrifices in positive light as the heroes who brought Nigeria out of political darkness of rigging and thuggery.''
He called on well-meaning Nigerians to always care, provide and protect the corps members as their children, ``whose only concern is to see to the development of any community they are posted to.''

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