If Governor Dapo Abiodun starts a school on leadership and governance, many a politician would definitely be his most ardent students. Governor Abiodun rocks. The dashing and debonair Prince tickles Ogun from the cities to the boondocks. He is a visionary too. He’s got great dreams for Ogun State, no doubt, and an excellent palate for the iconic in arts, politics and industry.
Unlike his peers in other states, who stifle their domains, like Victorian overlords trampling the peace and shoots of genius without a care in the world, Governor Abiodun understands that good governance goes beyond providing infrastructure and enabling growth across all spheres. He understands the significance of symbolic acts and gestures.
Interestingly, however, he arrived like a lightning shaft from heaven to wrest Ogun State from the tyrant grasp of darkness. In three years, Governor Dapo Abiodun has rescued the state from the dungeons of decline.
With a deft combination of courage, compassion, and confidence in his vision, he has rewritten the state’s existential narrative, governing humanely while steadily improving the people’s fortunes.
Since he assumed office as the executive governor of Ogun State, Abiodun has radiated more dazzling and colourful spectra of light thus illumining his domain and environs with his fabled mystic.
On his watch, Ogun State has prospered. A journey through the state manifests as a pilgrimage of some sort. Sojourning by road, the sights and seasons of “The Gateway State” emit the shine that diamonds give in a landscape of coarse, leaden stones.
Yes, the Ogun Governor wears his gubernatorial strength and savvy like a badge of honour, on his chest; shining it with sweat as true virtuous men do. He stands tall, wading through odds with the courage of a knight and the confidence of a champion. Unlike the proverbial warrior who lives to sing the song of his own deeds and derring-do, Abiodun remains impressively humble and immune to conceit, treading a rare path to acclaim thus, attracting honour in torrents, from home and abroad.
However, his unyielding commitment to building a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable society has separated him from the pack as he quickens his pace and doubles his efforts in all areas of the state’s life. From infrastructure to social welfare, agriculture and education, Governor Abiodun has raised the bar within three years.
Interestingly, to God be the glory, May 29th, 2019, happened. For over five decades, however, the date had held a different kind of significance for Abiodun. It is his birth date. This year’s May 29th is even more symbolic because Prince Dapo Abiodun turns 62 on the same day he is celebrating his third year anniversary as the Governor of Ogun State.
Indeed, he could not have got a greater and more befitting 59th birthday gift in 2019 than his inauguration as the sixth democratically elected governor of the Gateway State – a fitting denouement to an episodic political journey which began about three decades ago. Governor Abiodun’s life offers interminable lessons on the beauty and benefits of resolve, compassion, unpretentious generousity and family values. I know.
“A man is nothing without his virtues”, he argues. Thus, he endeavours to do good. But his deeds are done not as an apology or extenuation of his fortune and citizenship of the world. While many a rich man propagates virtues as penances for the inactions of the world’s privileged divide, he imbibes and perpetuates the culture of goodness not out of a frantic zeal to apologize or expiate the perceived frailties of his rich, privileged divide; he does his thing because it is an intrinsic part of his humanity.
Against the backdrop of the numerous awards and commendations he enjoys at home and abroad, the people of Ogun State see in him, the much-awaited Messiah who would turn the fortunes of the state around within the shortest possible.
On Abiodun’s watch, Ogun State is rid of administrative malfeasance, the misplacement of priorities, and mismanagement of resources that dogged it through previous administrations. It is for this reason that the citizenry of the state and the most influential power blocs have unanimously decided to reward him with a second term in office, argued pundits.
Abiodun’s government amplifies the shared hope of a better and brighter future which he espouses and evinces via humane governance and developmental projects.
This clearly contradicts the image and fortunes of the state under its immediate past leadership. In that era, widely bemoaned as the state’s locust years, the people lived in an abject lack of infrastructure and good governance. But while the people toiled and withered to the ravage of deplorable infrastructure, poor governance, and insecurity, the bank accounts of their insensate leaders became fatter.
This was the situation until Prince Abiodun came to power on May 29, 2019. His coming was, understandably, perceived as a breath of fresh air because he was not the typical desperate politician with no second address.
True to his electoral promise of building a new Ogun State, Prince Abiodun rolled up his sleeves and has been working himself to the bone in his quest to restore the lost glory of the state.
Dapo Abiodun’s passion ignites a legend, shorn of wiles, and frantic artifice. Its intricate yarn appeals to electorate minds not because they reiterate grandiose delusions, but because they reiterate a very deep passion to serve.
At the inception of his administration, the executive governor of Ogun State, like a knight in shiny armour, wore on the sleeves of his heart, an undying desire to serve the citizenry of his state. Thus his relentless bid to improve the lot of his people and attract to the state, unprecedented development.
Little wonder large segments of the state’s citizenry and political power blocs have approved his re-election bid.
Having constructed and completed over 200 kilometres of roads and rehabilitated over 120 kilometres across the length and breadth of Ogun State within three years of his administration, it beggars no questioning that Governor Abiodun was nicknamed ‘Mr Roads or The Roadmaster’. At the outset of his administration, he disclosed that as a quick-fix mechanism to address the deplorable condition of roads in the state, the Ogun State Public Works Agency was established.
Between then and now, several intra-city roads are being rehabilitated or freshly constructed because of the governor’s belief that motorable roads are a boost for economic activities.
Many people have benefitted in no small measure from the benevolence of his heart and sipped from the fountain of his experience, it is only expedient to extol the virtues of this great man without any recourse to sophistry or gratuitous ornamentation.
In politics, Governor Abiodun has been a roaring success and the people of Ogun State can attest to this. In the business world, you cannot question his place in the clan of Nigeria’s successful business tycoons. And his domestic felicity will continue to make younger people run to him for tips.
Happy birthday, The Special One!
