Very rarely would a man become governor, and what you see is a sense of class without noise, performance without percussions and his folks appreciate his presence, not impresario.
Ekiti State governor, Biodun A. Oyebanji, also called BAO, is one year in the saddle, and like stream without a splash, he rides the boat of state with many things to beat his chest about. His first doing was to bring the state together, weaving a state of PHDs with a better sort of enlightenment: humility of purpose. We saw that as he mobilized his state for the party’s presidential candidate now president Bola Tinubu, how he visits projects, makes unexpected cameos at schools, hospitals, parleys elders and predecessors in spite of party loyalties.
His imprint is bold in different fields. Is it in the civil service where he has granted full autonomy to its revenue service and disbursed housing loans to about two thousand workers, normalized appointments, given car loans and paid N10 billion in pensions? Is it in security with modern technology and men? Or is it 68 percent performance of IGR? Up to 18 major road rehabilitations and constructions are either completed or near so. In education, a lot of reconstruction work is afoot in schools at primary and secondary levels while scholarships and grants are going the way of many a grateful student, including law students. As it is with education, so it is with healthcare.
The first year does not tell the whole story of an administration, but it gives a hint of the vision. BAO has enthusiasm, and has shown that charity must begin at home. Playing frugal, he is not spending any money yet on official cars for his office, making do with his predecessor’s.
Office is about discomfort before outward grandeur. Grandeur already is written into the esteem of the office. BAO enjoys it without the material splendour of new-fangled convoys and furniture. There will be time enough for that. For now, Ekiti has a shepherd that allows his work to congratulate him.
NB: Sam Omatseye is a respected columnist with the Nation
