A retired Brigadier General in the Nigerian Army and Aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming November 16th, 2024 governorship election in Ondo state, Olumide Ohunyeye, has promised to liaise with the federal government to bring a refinery to Ondo state if elected as the governor.
Ohunyeye, who also promised to set-up a Microfinance Bank in each senatorial district of Ondo state said he was prepared to move the state from a consumption to production state if elected.
General Ohunyeye, a financial expert, while speaking during an interactive session with the members of the Association of Retired Permanent Secretaries, Retired Senior Civil Servants, in Akure, the Ondo state capital said; “to set up microfinance bank is much easier, what we need to do is to set up the framework, provide the infrastructure and liaise with the federal government and the Central Bank for the establishment.
“The essence of the microfinance bank is to provide readily available small medium scale loans to our citizens especially the artisans, market women and farmers that needs it to kick-start their businesses.
“As regards the bringing refinery to Ondo state, it will require federal government approval, authorisation, legal paper works then we will get the right investment partners under a meaningful colouration arrangement to come in to invest.
“And it is easy through a functional MoU and the essence too, is to enlighten Ondo state in terms of convertibility from the current non producing to a producing state. We want to industrialize the state, we want to generate employment for our people across board, and our standard of living must grow and these things are very important if we are to achieve our goals.”
He also vowed to key into the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu towards developing agriculture for exports and growth of foods consumption and export saying “we are going to form people into cooperatives.”
Ohunyeye who hails from Ilu-titun, in Okitipupa local government area of the state revealed that education, economic development, healthcare, infrastructure will be the cardinal pillars that will form the bedrock for developmental efforts for his administration.
According to him, it is necessary to build the infrastructures within the state, saying “infrastructural development underscores all other areas that are discussed. We have infrastructure of road network, improvement in health facilities, agriculture amongst others.
“We know that the critical mass of our people basically leave agregarian lives and they basically dwell in rural areas. How far have they progress in their day to day activities? I am sure that if we bring in performance measurements criteria, you will see that there is still lot of things that needs to be done within the sector.”
Prince Fioye Bajowa, the President, Association of Retired Permanent Secretaries, Retired Senior Civil Servants, who appreciated other members of the association for initiating the programme said; “if we want the best for Ondo state and for the future we must not allow sentiment to govern us this time around and that is the only we can have the way out.
Bajowa said; “all the three people that have come to this place are from the same political party and we are not limiting our interactive session to only single party because Nigeria is not a one political party country, we are multi-party country. So, all who are aspiring to govern us in this state are invited to come so that citizens will know what they plan to do for them.”
According to him, “we have witnessed both military and democracy administration in this state and those of us who served under the military can say that we are not disappointed. The problem of development of any state is a structural one. So, if we have this structural approach, all other things of development will be key in.”
