The Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, was on Monday, June 24, 2024, elected the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum. His Anambra State counterpart, Prof Charles Soludo, emerged as the Vice Chairman of the forum.The Southern Governors’ Forum serves as the umbrella body for the 17 governors from the South West, South South, and South East geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Abiodun succeeds the former governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, who died in December last year. In this television interview, Governor Abiodun speaks on various issues including the challenges faced by governors, agenda of the group, need for state policing and local government autonomy. Excerpts:

What does Southern Nigeria Governors’ Forum stand for?

Our last meeting was precisely on September 24, 2021 in Enugu. Following were two other meetings, one that we held in Asaba, and the second that we held in Lagos and the reason for that interregnum is not very far – fetched. But shortly after that last meeting, our then Chairman, his Excellency, late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu took ill, and following that, we had elections and everybody was distracted and all that and we felt it was important for us to observe a period before coming back again to choose another chairman. Of course, we thought it fit for the gathering of this all important forum of the southern states- the economic powerhouse of this country.

The initiator of this forum then was Mr. President, Ahmed Tinubu, who was the first chairman of the forum and the initiator when he was the sitting governor of Lagos State. So we met and my peers decided that I should lead them; I am very humbled and delighted to be given such honour, I have accepted it. Along with my vice, Professor Charles Soludo, the executive governor of Anambra, will now be leading the Southern Governors, a forum for 17 states that represent about 90 million people out of about 200 million plus people.

The main idea behind this forum is to ensure the cohesion, unity even in adversity of the southern states. You know, we used to be a Southern protectorate in the past before we were split into different states. Yes, we have physical lines that divide us as states and tribes. But what you saw today, where we came out in one colour in one uniform declared a demonstration of our commitment to stand as one regardless of party affiliations all in efforts to promote unity and promote the economy of our sub-region, and to ensure that those that entrusted us with that mandate indeed get the full benefits. That in summary is the essence of the Southern Governors’ forum just as we have the Northern Governors Forum.

“But for us as governors, we must have a multi-modal transport master plan that allows us to connect rail transportation, air transportation, land transportation, and water transportation because we realise the fact that transportation is a key enabler in investment promotion, and of course, infrastructure, the general wellbeing of our people”

Under Rotimi Akeredolu, he pushed for Southern president, under your leadership, what will be some of the strongest things you will be pushing collectively?

The southern position was a very important item on the priorities of southern governors before 2023. Today, we appreciate the fact that was one issue that we were concerned about and united on, and indeed it became a reality, but I must be quick to appreciate the fact that, yes, we did so because we also had the cooperation and understanding of other colleagues from other side of the divide, but to answer your question, the issue of security is a top priority to us.

If indeed we’re going to be talking about how to enhance our socio economic development as a region, we all know that we cannot have any meaningful developments in the face of obvious security. So that was something that we discussed. We also have one voice support for state policing, we spoke with one voice for regional security outfits which almost all regions have setup that are working hand in hand and hand in gloves with security agencies providing them intelligence reports and support.

We talked about infrastructure. We believe that for us to be regionally integrated, we must have infrastructure for investment facilitation, for investment promotion, for more efficient and effective movement of persons, goods and services. On that note, we were unanimous in appreciating the president for the initiative behind the construction of the coastal road, which practically connects the southern region.

We’re keen to observe that this road is a key enabler to economic development. And like no other, I gave an example earlier on and I said, the second phase of that road will terminate just at the border between the Ogun and Ondo States and the alignments where that road is going through is an alignment into part of Ogun State. Today, if you’re travelling from Lagos to the waterside, it would probably take you four to five hours, when that road is constructed and completed, that journey would take you 30 minutes. So that’s the classical example of how much this road will facilitate the movement of persons and goods and services. It would open up the entire corridor along the coast, a lot of business activities and of course tourism and job opportunities that this will also provide.

So yes, we spoke about infrastructure. We spoke about also enjoining and ensuring that the Federal Government transfers some of these Trunk A roads; some of the states have expressed interest to take them over, some of our citizens don’t know the difference between a federal road and a state road. So, if a government is planning to take over a road, we have been encouraged to tell the Federal Government to transfer that road to them and of course we urged the Federal Government to begin to look at the roads that are currently in bad condition.

But for us as governors, we must have a multi-modal transport master plan that allows us to connect rail transportation, air transportation, land transportation, and water transportation because we realise the fact that transportation is a key enabler in investment promotion, and of course, infrastructure, the general wellbeing of our people. We discussed the issue of food security particularly at this point in time in our nation’s development.

We hear people talk about these and that; most of the governors are busy intervening in different ways or manners. The Federal Government has reached out to many of the states through us, in an attempt to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy and of course the floating of the naira but what we discussed as a region was to ensure that we become more deliberate and more intentional about food security and agriculture. I mean, this is a region that has over 8 million hectares of land. Unfortunately, we don’t have any business not growing what we eat and eating what we grow.

So we resolved that going forward, they’re going to be more intentional, more deliberate about promoting agriculture, and ensuring food security and also the capacity to grow what they eat if we want to grow; we can also export cash crops. We talked about the rotation of powers and it was something that touched on mineral resources, exploration and exploitation. We talked about value added tax and sales tax and administration, we talked about state security.

The role of governors, being chief security indeed and the truth, not just to chief security officers, by name. We discussed how to properly integrate ourselves to properly amplify the competitive and comparative advantages of each state that comprises the region. It’s important that we really have what we call the Southern States Development Agency (SSDA) or agenda. And these SSD will now begin harnessing each of these comparative advantages.

I have my strength in limestone, I have my strength in poultry, in eggs, in cassava; others have their strength in gold, in coal and so on, and shall begin to marry these advantages that we have with potential investors, with investment promotion and Nigerian Investment Council / Commission to ensure that states no longer rely on just federal allocation that each state can now begin to increase their potential to generate revenue and also to be able to ensure that again, they provide for the wellbeing and welfare of our citizens. To that extent, we discussed and I believe that what we’re seeing is a new repositioned, refocused Southern Governors Forum that will be meeting quarterly, and of course, it would be rotated around member states.

Viability of states, apart from Lagos and your state, others depend on federal allocations, and if you take it off some states, they will literally fold up, and the local government autonomy…

Well, you know, it’s unfortunate that in Nigeria today, governors who have been entrusted with the onerous task of superintending over their states and providing leadership and ensuring peace and security, investment promotion and facilitation and looking after their people are the ones that are being castigated and blamed for everything and anything.

On the issue of local government administration, these are constitutional issues that I believe we would have to rest at this point in time. We’re a country that recognizes the federal and state levels of administration or a country that reveres federal, state or local governments. Now, the issue of reference here is the issue of Rivers State, you know, as of now, it’s the state House of assembly that’s able to pass a bill into law that decides on the tenure of local governments Chairmen and executives and that is the position of the constitution as of today. When tenure has expired, they should know that tenure has expired. It is not up to the governor of that state to extend that tenure or anybody else, you know, it will be a dangerous precedent in this country.

And this was the collective position of the governors and there would be dangerous precedence and abuse of democratic process for tenure of an elected chairman to expire, and for anyone to imagine that tenure can be extended by one day. So, I think that put that matter to rest, because if that is not the case, it becomes a precedent; it becomes a reference point. And the next thing is you find out that I, for example, have my council Chairmen’s tenure expiring, I think about a month, the next thing is that someone would go to court and they should remain in office for three or four months. So, I think our democracy has evolved to a point; it is continuously fledging that we should not do anything to truncate the process. So I think that speaks to that question of yours about what the governors view about the issue of tenure of local government.

As to whether INEC should conduct local government elections, for now, the governors and their state electoral commissions are the ones empowered to conduct these elections in their various states into local government councils.

“And this was the collective position of the governors and there would be dangerous precedence and abuse of democratic process for tenure of an elected chairman to expire, and for anyone to imagine that tenure can be extended by one day”

If this is the case, what do the people expect from state police if it becomes a reality? Wouldn’t there be abuse thereafter?

I am a state governor and I know how I manage local governments in my state.  The federal allocation that comes into our states comes in two parts and the FAAC and the JAAC. The JAAC is the allocation that goes to the local government and me as governor; I’m not a signatory to that account. That allocation goes into the JAAC accounts and when it comes in, and when it’s known, we have a JAAC meeting, comprising the chairman of council chairmen, some traditional rulers, the local government Service Commission, and an all-encompassing team.

They look at what has come in, they pay the first line charges, usually the salaries of teachers, salaries of health workers, salaries of virtual traditional rulers, and then the emoluments for the local government administration and council chairmen themselves. And in my state, most of the time, by the time we apportion this JAAC; I would have to write a cheque from the FAAC of my IGR to augment it if there is a shortfall. So, I really don’t understand, this is in line with how governors have been handling the situation. That is how local government is being handled in my state. And I want to assume that this is what is obtained in all the 36 states.

On state policing, the truth is that the Nigerian police force, the Commissioner of Police is subject to the Inspector General of Police and only answerable to the IG. Even when there is a need for government to call the Commissioner to attend to something very urgent, he has to get clearance from the IG, because that’s the reporting line in which case, between the time we call and the time he gets permission from the IG, that time could cause some level of harm and insecurity.

So asking for state police, we have discovered that when you have a policeman in Lagos, or Anambra or Ogun State, the police man posted to Lagos comes from Maiduguri, the one posted in Anambra is from Ogun State, he doesn’t understand the terrain, he doesn’t understand the language, or get the level of intelligence required and by the time he settles down to understand the geopolitical ground and everything, he is transferred to another state again. So, we began to advocate for community policing, because there, if the police man is posted to where he comes from, by implication, he understands the politics, the locals, language, and sentiments of the people; he knows the criminals and that is what led to the issue of these regions security outfits like Amotekun that has been very effective.

It is through this that we discovered that we have manpower shortage of the federal police; two, we’re not in charge; three, as I assumed as governor of Ogun State, I discovered that the police in my state don’t have vehicles, no protective equipment, no motorcycle, and many others, yet you want to get the best out of them and as a matter of fact, they don’t have enough personnel. So, I tried to complement them with the Amotekun outfit that is now able to provide intelligence from the wards and local governments. So, this is one of the reasons why we have to advocate for state policing, this is not something new; in other climes we want to emulate, they have community police, even such police in America.

Also on the issue of cholera, what are you doing to halt it?

A couple of days ago, we had the Director General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. Yes, in Ogun State, we recorded one death. Even before that, as soon as we were aware of the prevalence of cholera in Lagos, we began to immediately become very proactive. I know cholera prevalence is seen mostly around the slums and a disease is prevalent when you have issues with sanitation, poor water treatment, hygiene generally. In fact, we had a press conference today on this issue and we are taking proactive steps and what needs to be done and what everyone should do to ensure that the outbreak not just in Ogun State but other states are under control. We know it’s like this during rainy seasons; for us in Ogun, we’re on top of it; we have stepped up the campaign to stop further spread.