By DAUD OLATUNJI

Senator Ibikunle Amosun has made efforts in redefining the pace of governance in the gateway state with his articulation of what has been termed as the Ogun Standard. However, the legion of critics are still unbelieving.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun had early in his administration tasked the citizenry to measure his administration on five cardinal areas, viz: affordable qualitative education, efficient health care delivery, increased agricultural production / industrialization, affordable housing and urban renewal and rural and infrastructure development /employment generation.

At mid term recently he claimed to have achieved in all five areas, though the jury out there, especially the former ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is deeply critical. The PDP believes that the only area where Amosun has performed is in security which,  ironically, is outside the mainstream of his five cardinal agenda.

The governor who acknowledged the support of the people to his government in the last two years said the successes recorded  so far are attributed to God’s mercy and favour.

Giving an example of how God helped him to achieve his agenda on qualitative  education, Senator Amosun disclosed recently: “towards  the fulfillment  of our  Affordable Qualitative Education Programme, we adopted the following approaches: Free education to all Public Primary and Secondary Schools with abolition of tuition fees and all forms of levies.  N3.2 billion was expended on the purchase of free textbooks, exercise books and other instructional material distributed to all Public Primary and Secondary School Students.

Gov Amosun

Speaking on   construction of roads since his assumption, Amosun said “as I speak, there are construction projects going on in every senatorial district of our state. We are either building schools or health facilities. If we are not rehabilitating old roads, we are constructing new ones. Indeed, Ogun State is being correctly described as a huge construction site.  In this sector, over 400km of rural roads have been opened up in the 20 Local Government areas of our State”.

Remarkably, the State House of Assembly has in the last two years passed 22 bills into law while 42 motions have also been adopted as part of efforts to complement the efforts of the administration.

Speaker of the Assembly Suraj Adekunbi said: “The bills and resolutions are  meant to complement the efforts of the Senator Ibikunle Amosun-led-administration in fast tracking socio-economic development of the State.

Irrespective of the words of support from the legislature the political opposition in the state especially the Labour Party and the PDP accuse the administration of deceit.

The PDP while approving the security measures taken by the Amosun administration, nevertheless scores the government of doing woefully in all other sectors.

State Chairman of the PDP, Engineer Bayo Dayo in his assessment of Amosun’s two year government faulted the administration for lacking a blueprint for the development of the state.

He said “whether we like it or not, he will finish his first term, but PDP will take over from him in 2015. “All professionals, market women and students are fed up with Amosun’s government and by the grace of God  there will be  change of government. You see for  Senator Gbenga Kaka who is a member of CAN to have  criticized Amosun government speaks volume of the bad governance.

“Their own people are not happy, the governor is not a listening person. Many schools in the state are without chairs, pupils sit under trees  and he still goes ahead to build model schools while the existing ones are neglected”.

Corroborating the view of the PDP, LP accused the administration of having misplaced priorities on account of its focus on white elephant projects.

The LP State Secretary, Sunday Ogini berated the government for concentrating its efforts in the urban areas adding:  “This  is a  government  that has  no blue print. Construction of roads are done at the expense of people, market women   have been displaced without adequate compensation. Most of the  state hospitals are glorified mortuaries.