By Caleb Ebimomi

During his inauguration for a second term of office on February 24, 2013, the Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, promised to take governance closer to the people by posting greater achievements on all fronts. in his inaugural speech titled: ‘The Work Continues’,  delivered extempore, Mimiko said: “Our major focus shall be on an aggressive drive at job creation for our teeming youths through innovative and durable programmes that will engender sustainable livelihood.

To this end, government is undertaking a 30MW Independent Power Project in Ore to provide independent power that will attract several industries to Ondo State. As noted by observers, one unique feature of governance in Nigeria’s model state, Ondo, is the constant rolling out of benchmarks and landmarks, fashioned on the social democratic mantra.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and former Aviation Minister, in a December 2, 2013 piece he titled “The miracle in Ondo,” captured his bewilderment in sighting Ondo’s landmark projects for the first time thus: “The truth is that I was ashamed of the fact that so much is going on in Ondo State in terms of development and services to the ordinary people and yet we as Nigerians, and particularly as Yoruba people, have refused to acknowledge or admit it either for self-serving political motives or for other reasons which are best known to ourselves.

Gov Mimiko

As I told him, knowingly or unknowingly, he is clearly basing his system of governance on the Danish model, which basically espouses the view that the state must be compassionate to the poorest and weakest in society and must provide the highest quality of amenities, including schools, hospitals, housing, transport systems and virtually everything else for them either free of charge or at minimal cost.”

The Mother and Child Hospital offers integrated services with in-built laboratory services and pharmacy in same building. A 100-bed facility,  it has four wings: in patient , out patient, critical and administrative wings, with state of the art equipment.

The building is a cross-shaped structure comprising four functionally semi-autonomous rectangular wings (administrative, out-patient, in-patient and theatre) projecting from a central spacious lobby capable of accommodating 500 people, and there is a fifth wing connecting the in-patient and theatre wings.

Indeed, immediately after his inauguration for a second term, Dr Mimiko rolled out the Kaadi Igbe Ayo (KIA), a multi-purpose smart card deployed to facilitate strategic planning and development, efficient record keeping, human resource monitoring in the public sector, anti-corruption drive and solutions, while enabling a higher level of qualitative/quantitative service delivery in the health, education, transport and agro-allied sectors. Currently, the Lagos State government, among others, is planning to introduce its brand of KIA, which it calls Residency Card.

Noted for creating ultramodern neighbourhood markets out of slums, the Ondo State government also has the distinction of being the only government in the world with a zero-cost philosophy. The neighbourhood markets which the state government has vowed that it would not stop building to elevate the downtrodden, boasts crèches, fire stations, police stations, modern restroom facilities, and a fully equipped office for the manager.

Of course, it is no longer news that Ondo’s Abiye (safe motherhood) programme is acclaimed as a template for Africa by the World Health Organisations (WHO) and the World Bank.  In the words of Governor Mimiko himself: “The beauty of Mother and Child facility is that perhaps it is the only facility where you offer complete tertiary care to pregnant women, world class standard, totally free of charge. You find the wife of a millionaire sitting side by side with the wife of a messenger, one because she cannot find better facilities elsewhere, the other because it is free. But now, even the baby of a lunatic is there.”

Again, that the world stood still when the United Nations decorated Governor Mimiko as the winner of its 2012 Habitat Scroll of Honour award during the 6th edition of the World Urban Forum, in recognition of his contributions to sustainable human settlement development in Ondo State, is no longer news.

A visit to the state capital, Akure, the cleanest in the country, would easily demonstrate Mimiko’s policy of beautifying the environment while simultaneously empowering the populace. Akure is clean partly because of its Mechanic Village, solar-powered, and built to accommodate auto workers of different specialisations, instead of allowing road side mechanics to litter and pollute the environment.

The Director – General Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) of the NTDC, Mrs Sally Mbanefo, speaking  in Idanre during the celebration of Mare Mountain Climbing Festival held in honour of the late Deji Falae, the erstwhile Ondo State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, described the projects in the state as world class, while also throwing the Corporation’s weight behind Mare festival henceforth. Authenticating tourism sites, Mrs Mbanefo visited the Medical Tourism Village established by the Ondo State government in Laje, Ondo, where she toured the Trauma Centre, Gani Fawehinmi  Diagnostic Centre and Mother and Child Hospital which she described as “an excellent concept by a visionary leader who cares more about the lives and well-being of his people.”