When Prince Dapo Abiodun was, on the occasion of his 59th birthday, sworn-in as the Governor of Ogun State on May 29, 2019, he made some solemn pledges in his inauguration speech.

In the seventh paragraph of the speech delivered before a mammoth crowd at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, the new governor said: “You will always find in me, the conduct of Omoluabi expected of Omo Teacher! I will govern with character. I will serve you diligently and sincerely. I will make your interests the core of governance. I will neither personalise nor abuse the mandate. I will not betray your trust”.

The above pledge has been repeatedly and consistently demonstrated and fulfilled by the governor in the course of his 365 days at the helms of affairs in the “Gateway State.” In fact, it should be taken for granted that anyone who aspires to occupy public office at any level in Ogun State should come aboard with such characteristics of nobility.

Ogun State is not only the “Gateway State” of Nigeria in terms of maps and geography, it is actually and undeniably the pathfinder to Nigeria in many areas too numerous to recap. Journalism berthed in Nigeria with the publication of Iwe Iroyin in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Founded on December 3, 1859, by a missionary, Henry Townsend. It was published bi-weekly, in Yoruba and English language and ran for about eight years, specifically from 1859 to 1867.

Furthermore, Ogun State has led the nation in almost every facets of human endavours, producing the only Nobel Laureate in Literature, Professor Wole Soyinka. The greatest music legend to have come out of Africa, Abami Eda, Anikulapo-Kuti; Fela’s mother, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria; Dr. Tai Solarin, Prince Bola Ajibola, Sir Mike Adenuga, Chief Adeola Odutola, Hubert Ogunde, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Basorun MKO Abiola, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Ernest Sonekan, and many more, are all from Ogun State. Therefore, it is expected that the person in the exalted office of the state will be a personification of Omoluabi, as pledged by Dapo Abiodun, the Royal Prince from Iperu.

On assumption of office, people expected the new governor to follow the ‘established precedent’ of a new governor immediately preoccupying himself with overturning what his immediate predecessor did. Rather, Prince Dapo Abiodun decided to set up committees to look into gray areas. These contentious areas include last minutes employment and award of contracts by the immediate past administration, appointments of permanent secretaries and general managers of statutory bodies, last minutes loans and incurred financial obligations, abandoned and ongoing projects, crisis in tertiary institutions, and so on and further on. In fact those who were very agitated and expectant of drastic, it not vindictive actions, described the Governor as “slow”, and his government as a “government of committees”.

Yet, Dapo Abiodun trudged on with the royalty and nobility in him taking the lead. About seven months in the saddle, the “Omo Teacher” decided to regularize and accommodate into the civil service, the over 1,000 workers hurriedly employed by the immediate past administration in its twilight.