By Olaotan Falade

“Change and adapting to a quickly changing reality are inevitable. If we want to remain within the ranks of the advanced world, we need to match the speed at which the world is developing. We do not need the type of change that allows us to catch up with others; we need the type of change that allows us not only to win the present race, but lead to the next one”.

From right; Special Assistant to the Governor on ICT, Lanwa Akinbulumo, Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, Head of Communication, Consumer NG, Funsho Williams, Head, Strategy & Development, Consumer NG, Falade Olaotan, Aneofik Akpan and Special Assistant on Digital Media to the Governor, John Paul Akinduro, at the presentation of the “Seal of Trust” on Kaadi Igbeayo as best e-governance card by Consumer NG to the Ondo State Government, at the Governor’s office, in Akure, Ondo State

“By making the right decision at the right moment, a leader can tip the balance between success and failure, overtake others, make something out of nothing and improve the lot of his people, while earning the respect of others”. – His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of United Arab Emirates.

Meeting his Excellency, Governor Olusegun Mimiko recently has had a major influence on my perception of Nigerian politicians. Before now, I’ve heard quite a lot of positive stories about him and his developmental strides across the length and breadth of Ondo State but I choose not to believe. You might wonder why. As a Nigerian, you might even choose not to wonder because you and I know the extent they (the politicians) can go to deceive the public especially the non-performing ones.

From time immemorial Nigerian politicians had failed the electorates. As it is now, if it were possible for the people not to have anything doing with them, they will gladly do because obviously the people had become a government to themselves. They’ve learnt through years of failed electoral promises from politicians to provide everything for themselves without the slightest intervention from the government.

From my toddling years till now, our politicians had preached same manifestos and campaign sermons over and over to the extent that before they mount the podium at their rallies, people already have a clear idea of their messages; ‘if you vote us in, we will give you water, good roads, improved health care facilities, stable electricity…’, interestingly, up till now none of those promises ever gets fulfilled.

In the few instances where some had performed to some extent, they brag about it as if they had done the people a special favour by doing the job they were elected and paid to do. They adorn the front pages of major national dailies and buy several airtime on both radio and television stations to ‘sell’ their ‘performance’ messages and in most cases this is usually in the first term of their administration so that they can have something to ‘refer’ to during campaigns for a second term. Many atimes, the money spent on ‘selling the message’ is worth more than the entire projects. That is how bad we have it here in Nigeria!

A leader should not try to convince his people that he is working for their good just by taking decisions that eventually benefit them. A leader should rather focus on making his people see tangible results through endearing, innovative and sustainable projects that do just that. In Mimiko, I have seen such a leader. Talk about a simple, passionate and energized leader, Mimiko fits in. Unlike some of his colleagues here in the South West who are self-acclaimed awoist just by adopting the late sage’s cap and eye glasses, Mimiko has proved himself as a pace setter in governance in the country and an unparalleled disciple of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who had, through revolutionary programmes in health, education, health, urban development, job creation, agriculture and commerce, among others, tackled poverty and improved the wellbeing of the majority of the people.

Since the creation of the state some forty years ago, Mimiko has scored many firsts as governor and yet he had chosen not to make unnecessary noise about it. While sighting the endless project sites of his administration in my recent visit to the state, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was still in the Nigeria that I used to know. I took my time to stylishly ask on of his aides why they had all remained silent about these laudable projects. His response was “If you make unnecessary noise about any of these projects and even some other ones that we had commissioned and the people had started benefitting, Oga (referring to Governor Mimiko) will fire you immediately. He believes he is doing what the people elected him to do. Therefore, there is nothing extra ordinary about it”.

One of the revolutionary approaches of the Olusegun Mimiko-led administration to effecting a true change and new dawn in Ondo State was the introduction and implementation of a multi-purpose smartcard, Kaadi Igbe Ayo.  While smartcard technology has been deployed by several governments for specific purposes, to date, there has been no multi-purpose smartcard powered by the social democratic mantra of democratizing access to all the good things of life, through which citizens can access and enjoy all the dividends of democracy; a card that would make it impossible for the people to be cheated.

According to findings, the card was deployed by the Ondo State government to facilitate strategic planning and development, efficient record keeping, human resource monitoring in the public sector and anti-corruption drive and solutions. Among other things, the card provides a higher level of qualitative/quantitative service delivery in the health, education, transport and agro-allied sectors.

The residency card, it has been established, serves as an interface in all transactions between the government and governed. It allows all residents equal access to government’s social and welfare services without discrimination and allow government to monitor the distribution of such services even to the remotest parts of the state at every point. But that is not all: it facilitates the systematic development of databases for efficient security and surveillance purposes, the categorisation of citizens for employment, taxation and financial palliatives, the use/management of public facilities (public transport, subsidized consumer products, even fertilizer).

Mimiko’s trailblazing achievements did not end with the smartcard. From the beginning of his tenure till now, the governor had introduced, implemented and commissioned thousands of certain people-oriented projects which includes; Mother and Child Hospitals; Abiye Maternal Care Centres; Mega-Primary Schools; over a thousand purpose-specific and state-wide community projects and countless such other efforts in road reconstruction, urban renewal and city beautification and several others still in the offing.

While several countries of the world are still battling to meet up with the Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, Governor Olusegun Mimiko had effectively within the four years of his first tenure surpassed this enviable feat.

It is a surprise and indeed a ‘strange culture’ in Nigeria’s political landscape that a man who one would have expected to start ‘relaxing’ by now since he barely has a year to the end of his tenure and especially now that it appears he is not seeking re-election into a public office is still restless in ensuring a total fulfillment of his campaign promises to the good people of Ondo State. It was thus not a surprise when the governor said there were over a hundred completed projects scattered all over the state awaiting commission.

Despite the beautification and face lifting projects going on in almost all the major cities including the state capital, government’s bulldozer had not pulled down a single structure in the state without first providing a better replacement for the people. Therefore, as the government was/is going about her statutory business of bringing about succor and development to her people, the people are/were also happily going about their lawful businesses without fear or intimidation from government’s agencies or workers.

A very happy and over fulfilled resident told me: “Mimiko had brought development to us without tears. Each day we wake up to see new policies, structures and plans all aimed at making life better for the people at no painful cost unlike what we have seen and heard in other states where government hides under the disguise of development to bring untold hardship to the people by pulling down their houses, businesses etc. without prior warning or a corresponding compensation. We bless God for Mimiko and are seriously praying for a successor that will key into his revolutionary and development agenda without bringing us tears and hardship’.

One of Mimiko’s first is also the creation of a specialized medical university (Ondo State University of Medical Sciences) which happens to be the first in Nigeria and the second in Africa. The university started full-fledged academic operations earlier this month with the matriculation of over 234 candidates.

Also, for the first time in Nigeria, we have a situation where the government is paying unalloyed attention to catching children young. The mega-schools scattered all over the state with world class facilities is a testifier to this. As it is now in Ondo State, the private schools are running out of business because the public schools have been restructured to offer quality educational services. Parents need not lose sleep over transporting their children/wards to school as government had put in place almost a hundred buses dedicated solely for that purpose and this has been operational now for over four years!

In the health sector, the Abiye programme is also one of the very unique revolutionary moves of the governor. From the point of view of the governor, the Abiye programme was conceived to ensure that pregnancy would no longer be a death sentence for women in Ondo State, through the provision of free and adequate healthcare for pregnant women and children of zero to five years of age.

The programme was clearly designed to tackle four major factors predisposing pregnant women to death, namely; delay in seeking care when complications arise; delay in reaching care when decisions are made; delay in accessing care on arrival at healthcare facilities; and delay in referring care from where it is initiated to where it can be completed.

The Abiye strategy was therefore put in place to counter delay in seeking care, delay in reaching care, delay in accessing care and delay in referring care through various provisions and actions ranging from assigning Health Rangers to pregnant women for proper monitoring from conception to birth; provision of mobile phones for maintaining free contact with Health Rangers and Healthcare Providers; provision of appropriate transportation like four-wheel and tricycle ambulances; renovation of existing basic health centres and construction of new ones and adequate provision of drugs and other consumables.

Little wonder, Abiye has recorded so much success such that it has been signposted as the model for tackling infant and maternal mortality in the developing world. This global acclaim is evident in the fact that the World Bank officially listed Ondo State Abiye programme on its website as one of the success stories coming out of Africa. The tertiary healthcare aspect of the Mimiko Healthcare Revolution revolves around the Mother and Child Hospital, Akure, the Medical Village, Ondo, which accommodates among others, the Trauma Centre, Kidney Care Centre, Gani Fawehinmi Diagnostic Centre and another Mother and Child Hospital. The health care services is so effective and functional that people travel the length and breadth of Nigeria to be treated in Ondo State.

My take in all of these unprecedented achievements which time and space had even denied me full details is that Nigeria is evolving from the doldrums of ceremonious politics where mediocres are chief executives. With the likes of Mimiko leading the revolution in effecting some of the biggest and most endearing projects in Nigeria and Africa by extention without a crazy tax culture or special funding anywhere, one can boldly say that if others who have been entrusted with the peoples’ mandates at whatever levels of government follows suit, soonest Nigeria will be better for it.

Falade Olaotan is Head, Strategy and Development, Consumersng.com