Ondo 2024:  Ex-OSOPADEC chair, Edema promises industrial revolution

Ondo 2024:  Ex-OSOPADEC chair, Edema promises industrial revolution

Joel Oladele, Abuja 

One of the 16 aspirants vying for the ticket  of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Ondo State, Olugbenga Edema, has vowed to revolutionize the State industrially if elected.

The former chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC) disclosed this while addressing Newsmen after the screening exercise at the party’s National Secretariat, Abuja on Friday.

According to Edema, Ondo State is blessed with a lot of potential that only a visionary leader can maximize, adding that he has all it takes to make the state a cynosure of all eyes.

He therefore promised to boost the productivity of the state so that no worker will earn less than N250,000 as minimum wage.

“Therefore, when I become the governor of Ondo State, I want to cater for 5 million people at first. And I know that by the time we create the environment that is very, very conducive because of what I’m going to tell you in the next minute. There is going to be an exponential increase in the population of Ondo State. And that means we have to cater for an additional 2 million or 3 million people within the space of four, five, eight years. 

“How do I mean? Ondo State is very blessed with numerous resources, both human capital and natural resources. We have the longest coastline in Nigeria about 85 kilometers and to the glory of God we already have a license by the federal government of Nigeria to do a deep seaport there.  

“The implication therefore is that by the time we start with the Deep Seaport when I become the governor of the state, that deep seaport directly will be taken care of in terms of employment about 100 to 150 thousands people directly. The implication is that this 100 to 150 thousands people will not be sleeping on the streets. They will not be sleeping in tents. They will be sleeping in houses, that means we also have to build houses for a minimum of 100,000 to 150,000 people with an average of two or three people per household. 

“Who will build these houses? The carpenters, the bricklayers,  and everybody so that within one year when we start this deep seaport construction Ondo State population, especially in the southern part of Ondo State will move from the present population, accommodating minimum  of 150,000 with their dependants, so we have to prepare for them,” he said.

On bitumen exploration, Edema stated; “we have to also develop the economy of Ondo State in such a manner because it’s inquate,  it’s what we call potential. Blessed with natural resources, yet untapped. So by the time we begin to tap into it. We have bitumen by the time we start the bitumen exploration, and begin the processing,  we also expect that people will come in. So the potential that we have needs somebody who is visionary to be able to motivate or mobilize it. 

“So we’re talking about the bitumen. We are talking about the oil activities that are going on in Ondo State currently, we are not taking the full fledge of Ondo State because we are oil producing. 

“For instance, I had the opportunity as chairman of OSOPADEC to participate in an exploration. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the political will to push it through. When OML110, the federal government revoked the license and I spoke with leadership that we should take it over as a government because it is right behind our backyard. Unfortunately we lost it. 

“If OML110 has been in the kitty of Ondo State investment as I’m talking, we will produce a minimum of 5000 barrels per day 365 days per year. How do you mean so if we look for technical partners, and we take only $10 per barrel, the cost of producing one barrel is now up to $20. So if if it’s $1 per barrel per day, that Ondo State gets its own share of the investment. “We will not need to be paying the salary of our workers 30,000 per month and that was when I said here the last time I came that the minimum wage of somebody who works in Ondo State by the time we  become governor cannot be less down N250,000, people thought I was joking. I was yelling. But these are things we tend to do.

“ By the time we increase productivity, by the time we increase the capital activities of our workers, somebody who is unskilled today, if we train him as a carpenter, as a painter, as Tiller,  his productivity will increase. If it increases, you will not have a choice but to pay him the face value. You won’t need to import a carpenter from Benin Republic, you won’t need to import somebody who will do your tiling work in Togo, you won’t need to go and import somebody who will do your POP from Ghana or any other place. So the issue of capital flight will be eradicated altogether,” Edema noted.

Speaking further, he said he’s not new in the race as he has been actively involved in politics as far back as 1992, noting that he’s the most qualified of all aspirants.

“So distinguished gentlemen, what they asked me at the conference is what I’m telling you because I’m not just new in race. I was a member of the Social Democratic Party in 1992- 93, before General Sani Abacha drove us away and I joined as a university graduate which I was very young. But I was a member of the National Convention. I was a delegate to the National Convention in Jos in 1993. 

“If I had been in any trade, any organization, I would be a manager or a top manager in that trade. It’s only in politics you don’t have what  a reward for a long entrance. It’s only in politics that you don’t have long service award, it’s only in politics that you don’t have a pension. Nobody appreciates the fact that you have been in politics for 20, 30 years, and they don’t see it as a service. 

“I served, I jumped on it , not because I was hungry. Not because I didn’t have a job in 1990,  as a university graduate, I would still get a job. Mind you, My own brother under Ak Oxford was the member representing Ondo State, now Ondo and Ekiti as a member of OMPADEC. If I had wanted a civil service job, Adebanjo Edema would have given me. 

“So I wasn’t hungry but because it was a movement and that movement produced Olusola Ebiseni as the chairman of Ilaje/Ese-Odo local government at the age of 29. So I decided I was going to keep on to this and I paid my price between 1993 and 99. I wasn’t jobless, but I knew I had to develop myself during the period that was when I left Geography to study Law at the University of Ibadan. 

“So I prepared myself for this job. I knew a day like this would come and I would need the skills, the intellect that I would have garnered over the years. So of all the aspirants I’m the only one that produced a codified manifesto to tell the whole world about what I stand to do and what I can do,” Edema said.