How I will industrialise Ondo if elected governor – Mayowa Akinfolarin, APC aspirant

Mayowa Akinfolarin, a governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Ondo State, has pledged to industrialise the state using the template used by the Second Republic governor of the state, Adekunle Ajasin.

The late Mr Ajasin, who governed the old Ondo State (comprising today’s Ekiti State that wass carved out in 1996) between 1979 and 1983 on the platform of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), established state-owned companies in various parts of the state based essentially on proximity to raw materials to industrialise the state. Some of the companies his government established were the Oluwa Glass Company, near Igbokoda, Okitipupa Oil Palm Company, the cocoa-processing company in Ile Oluji, among others.

Mr Akinfolarin, a former deputy speaker of the House of Assembly with the longest tenure in that capacity and two-term member of the House of Representatives, spoke with this newspaper recently on issues including his development blueprint that he intends to execute in office if he clinches his party’s ticket and eventually wins the governorship election slated for 16 November. He also spoke on the political undercurrent in the state, his chances of winning the election, among other sundry issues.

Why he is running to be governor?

Mr Akinfolarin said he is in the race to become the next governor because he is the most qualified and experienced among the aspirants to govern the state.

He said the state cannot afford to have an accidental governor or someone who has not been adequately groomed to lead the state, especially at a time when there are “economic headwinds” across the globe.

‘’I am in the race to bring governance back to the people,” he said, and when probed further on how he intended to achieve this, he retorted that the people’s challenges, needs and aspirations will form the focus of the policies and programmes of his government.

Essentially, Mr Akinfolarin said he wants to become the next governor because he has the magic wand to maximise the state’s natural and human resources to generate wealth for the overall benefit of the generality of the citizenry.

According to him, if elected governor, he’d look inward in order to proffer home-grown solutions to the teething socio-economic problems of the state. In this regard, Mr Akinfolarin said he would adopt the Adekunle Ajasin industrialisation model of the Second Republic where state-owned companies were sited based on nearness to raw materials. Given the exigencies of the time, the aspirant said he would tweak the Ajasin template mostly by adopting private-public partnerships in his industrialisation agenda.

Development agenda

Mr Akinfolarin said his development agenda is simple and that entails making the state business-friendly and an investment hub. No specifics were given. He said he would do that in the fullness of time.

To attract investment into the state, especially from the private sector, he said he would work hard to improve the ease of doing business in the state by reducing to the bare minimum obstacles such as multiple taxation and state-backed extortions that could discourage investors from coming into the state.

According to him, there will no longer be capital flight as most projects of the state will be contracted out to indigenes who have the know-how and financial wherewithal to do so.

He said he would release a more detailed and comprehensive blueprint for the development of the state after he emerged as the candidate of the APC in April.

ALSO READ: Ondo Muslim community alleges marginalisation, seeks inclusion

Much as he would like to concentrate on reviving agriculture through mechanised farming, making available highly subsidised high-yielding seedlings to farmers, the state being mostly agrarian, the former lawmaker said he would create a revolving fund to help those in the small and medium enterprise ecosystem, especially women, scale up their businesses.

Besides empowering market women and farmers to thrive and contribute their quota to the commonwealth of the state, Mr Akinfolarin said he would encourage the youth to acquire vocational skills in addition to their educational pursuits.

To enable the youth to be economically self-dependent and even become job creators rather than seek limited to non-existent government jobs, he said he would fashion out a scheme that would make funds available to those who have demonstrable expertise in certain vocations to set up their businesses and monitor them to ensure that they don’t derail.

To cut wastages in government and block loopholes enabling the stealing of the state’s funds by civil servants and political office holders, Mr Akinfolarin said he would deploy technology to automate most of the administrative processes to reduce human-to-human interface, thereby reducing the tendency to commit fraud to a bare minimum.

His chances of winning the APC ticket

The aspirant said he had the brightest chance of winning the ticket of the party. In addition, he said he was the best to retain the state for the APC in the November election. The APC will face a major challenge from the PDP, a party still trying to find its rhythm and balance in the state after its abysmal performance in the 2023 general elections.

Of the aspirants contending for the ticket of the party, Mr Akinfolarin said he is the most experienced when it comes to good governance and beneficial leadership, saying that he understands the needs and challenges of the people.

His oeuvre of governance experience traverses the executive, administrative and legislative gamuts including being the Deputy Speaker in the Ondo State House of Assembly, and his two-term stint in the House of Representatives where he served as the chairman of the Committee on FRSC with several bills and sponsored motions to his credit. Previously, he had served as a member of the board of the National Library. He also once served as a board member in the Upper Niger River Basin, Minna.

He said, as much as he is loved by the leaders of the party, he is also embraced by the ordinary members. The party-wide patronage he enjoys will make the people pick him in the primary election, he said.

In any case, Mr Akinfolarin said his ambition is in God’s hands, saying there’s little he can do beyond mobilising party members and the people of the state to help him actualise his ambition.

Funding his campaign

Mr Akinfolarin is being rumoured to be sponsored by some ‘Abuja cabal.’ When this reporter cornered him on the speculation, the aspirant neither denied nor confirmed the rumour. He simply shrugged it off.

The aspirant, who said he is not a moneybag, however, said the support he gets from the people, at home and abroad, has been massive, reiterating that the people love him hence their donations to his campaign in cash and kind. According to him, he is in the race because the generality of the people wants him and has been supporting him in this regard to gather the needed momentum to keep going.

“The people sponsoring my ambition are the people of Ondo State spread across the globe. I am the people’s choice,” he told this newspaper.

What next if he does not get the ticket of the APC?

A handful of overly ambitious politicians often ditch their political party when they do not get the ticket to contest and move elsewhere to realise their ambition. Mr Akinfolarin is different, at least, based on what he told this newspaper. He stays in the APC come rain or shine, he insists. Well, for how long that will last is in the womb of time, as politicians in this part of the world change parties frequently like the British weather.

“That is not the end of life,” he said, when asked if he would move over to another political party to actualise his desire to be governor come November. Continuing, Mr Akinfolarin said his ambition was not a do-or-die affair, affirming that he would remain in the party to mobilise support and resources for whoever the candidate of the party is.

“I remained in the party in 2023 when I withdrew from the senate race based on the signals from above that I got. I threw my weight behind the candidate of the party. It’s on record that my local government, Odigbo, gave the highest number of votes to the winner in the election out of all the six local government areas that make up Ondo South. The leaders of the party in the local government and myself were responsible for the feat,” he told this newspaper.

“I’ll never leave my party,” he said, reassuringly.

Tough battle ahead

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed 16 November for the state’s off-cycle governorship election while the political parties are expected to produce their governorship flagbearers via primary elections in April.

Mr Akinfolarin, who is also an ex-state lawmaker where he was elected as Deputy Speaker, with a record of being the longest-serving deputy speaker in the state(2003-2011), believes he is the most experienced and qualified to lead the state among the horde of aspirants scattered across the political parties in the state.

Most importantly, Mr Akinfolarin told this reporter that he is going to bring “practical governance in a bottom-top approach to the people if elected as governor.”

By practical governance, the soft-spoken politician said, the collective yearnings of the governed would be the cornerstone of his administration and the fulcrum of his governance model in terms of policy formulation and execution.

Mr Akinfolarin is yet to be the candidate of the APC. He will know his fate in April when the party will conduct its primary election. But he believes he’s God’s own and the people’s choice and will definitely clinch the coveted prize.

The Odigbo-born grassroots politician has a tough battle ahead in the APC as he tackles the incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, Ondo South senator, Jimoh Ibrahim; Wale Akinterinwa, ex-commissioner for finance; Olusola Oke, SAN; Paul Akintelure, a medical doctor and ACN deputy governorship candidate in 2012; Olamide Ohunyeye, a retired brigadier-general and finance expert, among others, to win the ticket of the ruling party.

His parting shot to the people of the state

“Mobilise yourself and give me your support. I promise not to disappoint you when I get to the office,” Mr Akinfolarin said.