The Conspiracy of Ibadan Preparation for Oke-Ogun State More Than Oke-Ogun People.
1. The clamour for Oke-Ogun State started about 4 decades ago, and the agitation is still renting the air till date.
2. At initial stage, the agitation seems unrealistic due to dis unity among the Oke-Ogun people especially on the issue of where the proposed state capital will be located.
3. That seems a bit resolved with the recent submission to the National Assembly where all our kings, leaders and representatives at the Local government, state and national levels endorsed Agunrege as the capital city.
4. The question now is since the agitation started, are the people really preparing for creating of a viable and sustainable state or we are just waiting for a state that will become additional parasite to allocation from Abuja?
5. Looking at it from River Ogun up to our boundaries with Kwara State and Benin Republic, do we have any industry that the proposed Oke-Ogun can count upon for her sustainable internally generated revenue? I want to believe the answer is NO.
6. This is to allude to the fact that Ibadan people are actually preparing for our exit from the Oyo State with our land mass even though by way of conspiracy.
7. How do I mean, in Oyo State, we have Oluyole Industrial Estate, Pacesetter Industrial Estate, and the newly created 3,400 Hectares Ilutuntun Central Business District all in Ibadan.
8. The empirical facts show that 99.9% of the industries in Oyo State are located within these industrial estates.
9. Recently, Oyo State was number 3 among the 36 states of the federation and FCT, Abuja on VAT generation. Invariably more than 90% of this will come from these industrial estates and Ibadan.
10. The question now is what are we doing in Oke-Ogun to ameliorate this great disadvantage. If the State has refused to give us an industrial estate what are we doing on our own to create one for ourselves?
11. Oyo State is among the pilot states for the African Development Bank Agro industrial Free Processing Zone, Oke-Ogun has the kind of land mass for such laudable development initiative. Can we have another Prof. Gbadegesin that Oke-Ogun can ride on his or her shoulder to get one of such projects for Oke-Ogun.
12. Let me close here by reminding us of the words of the African richest man, Aliko Dangote to the people of Taraba State that it is the local investors that will bring foreign investors.
*Oke-Ogun a gbe wa o.*
Kola Abimbola
Oje-Owode