…‘We not only help farmers to produce food en masse, we also buy the harvest from them at profitable margin’

….ON SECURITY: What we agreed at S/West governors’ meeting

….ON EKITI 2026: I am not distracted by endorsements

By Rotimi Ojomoyela

GOVERNOR Biodun Oyebanji has been in the saddle of leadership for close to three years. In this interview, Oyebanji speaks on his plans on agriculture, infrastructure and provision of dividends of democracy to the people of Ekiti State. On the second term endorsements from groups and individuals, he says he does not want to be distracted  by the endorsements, noting that he is for now busy working. The state is due for the next governorship in 2026. Oyebanji also speaks on how his state emerged tops in the transparency survey carried out by BudgIT, among other issues. Excerpts:

 What are the strategies you put in place to strengthen governance, ensuring transparency and accountability?

 When I became the governor, I ensured that all other ministries that were not under the Treasury Single Account (TSA) were forced to get on board.

We also strengthened our audit process because I believe strongly that the hallmark of good governance is transparency and if you are entrusted with public resources, it must be expended in a way and manner that it can be defended. So we automated most of our processes. I changed the headship of the internal revenue agency and we gave them autonomy.

So the agency is being run as a private entity and I gave them the political backing to ensure that every Ministry, Department and Agency (MDA) in the state conforms to a certain standard of transparency and accountability. So, it is not difficult for us to be rated highly because it’s a commitment we made to Ekiti people and it’s the right thing to do. I’m excited about it and we have also made up our mind that this year, we have must ensure that our ranking doesn’t stop being number one. Our procurement process has been applauded as one of the best in the country. You see everything we do is on our website. We upload it there. It’s a lot of transparency. The tender process is so cumbersome and I also ensure that we don’t jump the protocols. So, we put all those processes in place, both at the state and at the local government level. They are inbuilt mechanisms of control and strategies to ensure that public funds are well spent.

 Recently, South-West Governors met on regional security, what were your resolutions and what steps are you taking toward implementing those resolutions?

 I don’t know how much of the strategies I can divulge here but the only thing I’m going to say is that, as the governors in the South-West, we made up our mind that we have a mandate to defend our people. The first responsibility of any government is to secure the lives of our citizens. We all have our structures across the state; we have a regional command structure where they can share intelligence and information, and also with the help of technology, to ensure that we respond. The summary of what we agreed on is that we will be proactive and that we are not going to be reactive to security issues.

 What is your administration doing in the area of agriculture so that the people can feed themselves and have extra to sell to the outside world?

 Well, I think Ekiti State is one of the leading states in the South-West in agriculture. Immediately we got into office, I made up my mind deliberately that, I don’t believe in palliative. I keep telling everybody that palliative is just a temporary measure to cushion the pain. Any person or any country that cannot feed itself is not an independent country. So, we have invested heavily on land clearing, land preparation, land development. The strategy in Ekiti State is to ensure that we make land available to our people, to serious farmers, cooperatives and also our to youths.

Last year, we cleared over 3,000 hectares of land for our youths and qualified agric cooperative societies in the States. The strategy is to embark on cluster farming. So cluster farming means that in a location, you clear land, and you aggregate the youths so that they farm on that land. It does two things; one, it allows them to share information. Then extension officers can attend to them at a location. It’s also good for those that want to buy from farmers. When we started last year, we on-boarded 1,000 youths for that programme and when we launched the programme, I told them that “we are going to give you land, seedlings, we are going to provide extension services and we are going to buy from you”. So we set up what we call ‘The Ilu Eye Agro Trading Company’. So, it’s the company that buys from them. We have removed the problem that has to do with marketing or middlemen, fleecing them of their profits. I’m just told that this year because of the success we’ve recorded last year, we have over 2,000 youths who have signified interest but it takes a lot of responsibility on us because land clearing is not cheap. I’m lucky that I have the support of the President because he bought into it and he gave us support. So as I speak now, we are planning to clear an additional 5,000 hectares. What the trading company does is to buy, warehouse and release to the market when prices go up, so as to bring prices down. Because if you don’t do that, these people will just plant and some people will come from outside the state, buy from them, and when there’s an increase in price, they will begin to sell it to us. We are also growing broilers, cassava, maize, rice but the challenge is not in the issue of producing but to ensure that we have an all year production. We should not be dependent on rainfall, we have to irrigate and ensure that we have all season farm in the state, and that is the second stage. A very committed study is going on at Itapaji farms and dams to ensure that we are able to articulate and provide water because as long as we depend on rain-fed agric, we will be having challenges. We have six clusters across the state now, we are engaging in all sorts of farming activities; and by next week, I would be going round to inaugurate a Renewed Hope Farm Estate. What we did is that we met, the four farm settlements that the late Obafemi Awolowo did, we have reactivated those four farm settlements, but now we are adding another six. So when they go, they have a decent place to sleep, they can watch football, they are going to put DSTV and install solar. So, I can leave my village and go to the farm and work for three days. If I have to come back to the community, when I’m on the farm, I’m not missing anything. We are starting with six across the state now and within the next few months, they should be ready. We are providing modern equipment, we’re also going to buy buses for them for transportation. The State Executive Council has approved all those things for procurement now, so that people would see what we have done in the state. We are not buying tractors. We are not in the business of buying tractors. We don’t want to carry the capital cost of maintenance but we have registered six tractors companies that if you want a tractor, you go to them and hire and the government will pay them directly; they work on your farm. Instead of buying tractors, we have opened doors for people who want to invest in the tractor business but the government will patronise them. Once we onboard the farmers, we tell them to go and clear this farm and we will pay the company directly.

How is the internally generated revenue in the state?

 Last year, we came first in the country. In terms of growth and percentage, we have 75% in the state.

Sustaining an airport is capital intensive, how do you intend to ensure that it keeps running?

 There are two things you have to look at, we did not get to that point by accident. If you recall, when Governor Kayode Fayemi came to the office the first time, he said that he didn’t believe in airports. He didn’t do it, Governor Ayo Fayose started it. When Fayemi came back, he set up a committee headed by Chief Afe Babalola and eminent Ekiti indigenes and he was convinced but that was almost two years into his second term in office, and he started the project. What an airport does to the people, it’s just like road, it is a means of transportation. Yes. It is capital intensive, but the long term gain to the people and to the state outweighs whatever might be the cost that we are putting to it. Because investors want to travel safely, they want to travel faster, they want to move very well, and if there’s no access it’s difficult, especially a state like Ekiti, we are landlocked, apart from road, the only thing you can do is to get in by air. Any serious minded state that wants economic development must embrace that. Now, we have a Knowledge Zone, people will be flying in from all over the world to do their businesses and go back. Tourists want to come to the state and air travel is one of the fastest and safest and they want a convenient means of getting to their destination. It is capital intensive but the gain outweighs whatever capital you must have invested there. On sustainability, we have learned from the experiences of some states that embarked on this venture and the airport is not functional. So we are talking to management agencies that have done it somewhere else and it has been successful. I’m sure that in the next two weeks, we’ll be able to have one of the best managers in the country to manage the airport and we will also give whatever it is to make sure that the airport is competitive and we are in the process of awarding the contract for the installation of Instrument Landing System (ILS). The ILS is a radio navigation system that enables planes to land on a runway in low visibility or bad weather. Once we do that, we’ll be the second airport in the South-West apart from Lagos that has it. The airport has one of the best runways in the country. We are going to make the airport, an airport of choice; most pilots that have flown to the airport keep saying that. The runway is 3.5km. We call it Ekiti Cargo Airport but it serves the dual purpose of both cargo and passengers’ services. Akure is a Cargo Airport too, so, everybody knows that it’s going to serve dual purposes of both passengers and cargo and the cargo shed is being built there and that places a lot of responsibilities on us that we cannot have a shed without also producing. The agric idea is to produce goods that can be exported from the airport, it’s a long walk and we have started.

 What is your assessment of Amotekun?

 It’s one of the best things that have ever happened to us in the South-West and Amotekun is work in progress. There are challenges but we are navigating the curves, they’re effective. In Amotekun, we recruit locals that understand the local terrains, that are connected to the people. Effective security rests on intelligence, if you don’t have the necessary intelligence, you’ll be shooting from the dark. These Amotekun elements are based in their various localities, they connect more with the people, the traditional people and the locals feel safer with them. They can share intelligence with them and whatever intelligence they have, they can’t share it with ordinary man outside the security outfit, they understand the terrains, they understand the forest. There are stumbling blocks being put by the Constitution that do not allow them to carry arms but we continue to discuss with the Federal Government and I understand the concerns around that also. I’m sure with time, reason will prevail and we put up a structure that will allow them to carry arms. In fairness, I appreciate that concern and it’s not something you have to rush into but when it comes to intelligence gathering, they share with the formal security apparatus.

 What is the situation regarding local governments in Ekiti State vis-a-vis the Supreme Court judgment?

 We are law abiding, the Supreme Court has ruled and I’m sure that most states in the country have complied but before the Supreme court judgment, NULGE said Ekiti does not touch local government allocations. Since the tenure of Governor Fayemi, we have been assisting them, now their money has not come but I have paid local government workers. Before December last year, their money didn’t come but I paid them, I paid SUBEB, I paid primary health care, they don’t have that kind of money people think they have, that is the truth.

 You have been receiving endorsement from various communities, associations and political parties for second term but you are yet to acknowledge, neither have you accepted. Are you running for second term?

 I have a tenure of four years and I’m in the third year of my administration but I don’t know whether you believe it or not, I’m a highly spiritual person and I believe that a man cannot get anything unless God gives. I appreciate all those endorsements, I thank those people that have endorsed us for a second term but in the party, there’s a process. I became the governor through a process and we would follow the process at the appropriate time. I just don’t want to be distracted with this endorsement stuff but the laws also allow party members and stakeholders to endorse. Every citizen of Ekiti has the right to aspire for the highest office, all those endorsements do not preclude them from contesting; it’s just an endorsement. When INEC blows the whistle for political participation in Ekiti State, I will speak about whether I’m going to run or not but the decision to run is not mine, I represent a lot of stakeholders, I didn’t wake up one day and say I want to become a governor, the process produced me. We will go through the process, and then, we would come back at the appropriate time. For now, I’m busy working.

 Ekiti State in recent time has become a huge construction site. While the ring road is under construction, and Ado-Ekiti fly-over and many other inter-state roads as well, you have not taken any bonds to finance these projects. Where is the money coming from?

 Governance is about doing the right thing, it’s about providing solutions to problems. Most of the constructions going on in the state are products of studies that can catalyze our economy. If you don’t do that, we will remain prostrate as a state. Most of the roads being done in the state are roads that lead to either the Agric Processing Zone or to our farm centre, hospitals or to schools, just to ensure that we activate the economy of the state. On the flyover, there was a study sometime before I became Governor that said that in the next five years, with the way Ado is growing, the place would become impassible if we don’t intervene but because of the cost, people just decided not to go through that route. It makes a lot of sense that instead of spending so much on this, you can expand and I agreed but I told myself that look, I’m here. If I don’t do this thing, and in the next five years, nobody comes to do it, I will blame myself. We started the construction, it’s a one kilometer flyover and, as God will have it, the reforms of the President gave more resources to the states and I told myself and my team that we also need to persevere, we also need to make some sacrifices, and I will lead by example. I told them that we should spend the resources prudently. So creatively, we’re able to fund those infrastructures. We’ve paid gratuities and backlog gratuities are paid. We paid pensions as at when due, we are not owing pension. We have almost completed payment of all outstanding deductions to workers. We pay the bonuses, we do promotions, we pay salaries as at when due, it’s not only construction we are doing. We are renovating, in partnership with the World Bank, more than 100 health care centres across the state have been renovated and we are equipping them. We are renovating 11 general hospitals and we are equipping them across the state and we have not taken a loan. I’m not against loan taking but I just felt that we can manage what we have but it speaks to our transparency and accountability, it’s not that we have the resources and then most of my colleagues, they’re not happy with me because I’ve squeezed them. They complain behind me, they are not happy, I squeeze them so that we can do those things for our people and the joy is that people appreciative this, that’s my changer. They know we don’t have much but in spite of that, we are moving on. We have a President to thank for this because it’s his reforms that actually give that process to us, that is the truth. There’s no way I’ll be able to do that without the support of the Federal Government.