OYEBANJI: THREE YEARS OF BUMPER HARVEST OF SHARED PROSPERITY IN EKITI
BY ODUNAYO OGUNMOLA
It has been three years that Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji has mounted the number one seat in Ekiti State as his performance so far has delighted the people across the length and breadth of the Land of Honour.
Oyebanji, who was sworn into office on the 16th of October, 2022 is unarguably the most prepared governor in the history of the state and this assisted him in hitting the ground running with policies that meet the need of the people without any delay.
With previous roles as Special Assistant, Special Adviser, Chief of Staff, Commissioner for Integration and Inter-government affairs and regional cooperation, Director General office of Transformation, strategy and Delivery (OTSD), commissioner for Budget and economic development and lastly , Secretary to the State Government, Oyebanji had acquired the requisite experience that would enable him to perform as the Chief Executive of the State.
Armed with a development blueprint codenamed six-pillar agenda, Oyebanji did not waste time in getting down into business with his mission statement which is also in sync with the 30-year Ekiti Development Agenda as developed by the founding fathers of the state and also adopted by the immediate past administration.
The major components of the six pillars are Governance, Youth Development and Job Creation, Human Capital Development, Agriculture and Rural Development, Infrastructure and Industrialization and Arts, Culture and Tourism. One after the other, Oyebanji has touched all the six pillars and Ekiti has been placed on a higher pedestal of development.
In the area of governance, Ekiti is been celebrated across Nigeria as being a state that is setting that pace in entrenching good governance through probity, transparency, accountability and prudent management of resources. The state has no record of financial scandal that would have attracted the attention of anti-graft agencies.
Facts on ground have shown that Ekiti is in safe hands. The state has been recognized far and wide as a leading light in many sub-sectors in budgeting, audit and financial management. For example, Ekiti has consistently come first in budget transparency as it emerges tops in the ranking of BudgIT Nigeria for Quarter 2 of 2025.
Ekiti was ranked first in BudgIT State Fiscal Transparency League Quarter 2 and Quarter 3 in 2024 while it was also ranked first in the PSLI Subnational Audit Efficacy Index for 2023. Ekiti was also ranked first by the World Bank as the Overall Best in Safeguards (2024) among six states in Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP).
All the budgets run by the state from 2022 were products of extensive engagements with the people in the grassroots to whom the Governor gives accounts of stewardship before asking for the needs of each community to be incorporated into the budget for the subsequent year.
On the 16th of October of every year, the Governor appears before the State House of Assembly to deliver the annual State of the State Address in which he gives a full account of income and expenditure of the state before the legislators and by extension, the entire people of the state who elected them.
Apart from overseeing the smooth running of the wheel of governance of the state, the Governor has ensured that civil servants gets what is due to them in their salaries, allowances and running grants. Ekiti was among the first states in Nigeria that started the implementation of the new minimum wage of N70,000.
Besides, Governor ensures regular payment of workers’ deductions to their cooperative unions which has given them opportunities to access credit facilities. Besides, the Oyebanji Administration also makes car and housing loans available to workers which has served as incentives to them.
Before the implementation of the new national minimum wage of N70,000 in the state, the Governor approved payment of wage bonus to workers which they had been enjoying before the implementation of the new minimum wage commenced in December 2024 which elicited joy among the civil servants and prompted them to embark on an appreciative visit to the Governor shortly after receiving alerts.
Despite the commencement of the payment of the new minimum wage, the wage bonus did not stop and the workers also continued to enjoy free bus shuttle in the morning while going to work and in the afternoon after closing from work. Promotion, advancement, payment of car and housing loans have been a regular occurrence under the Oyebanji Administration.
Under Oyebanji’s watch, Ekiti has become one of the safest states to live in and do business in Nigeria because of his collaboration with security agencies. The Governor motivates and assists security agencies with the needed tools and equipment to perform their statutory duties and this has gone a long way in boosting the security architecture of the state.
Oyebanji’s era in governance witnessed the establishment and takeoff of the Nigerian Air Force and Nigerian Army bases in Ado Ekiti and Ikere Ekiti respectively which resulted from his frequent advocacies and visits to the Defence Headquarters for enhanced presence of elite security agencies in the state as a show of force and deterrence to criminal elements many of whom have taken flight from the state.
The Ekiti Governor has made a strong showing in infrastructure development in the last three years. The state has witnessed a massive construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads since 2022 bringing a new lease of life to the residents. Structures like schools, hospitals, drainages, bridges and electricity installations have either been rehabilitated or constructed for the benefit of the masses.
The period has witnessed the completion of the Phase One of the construction of a brand new Ring Road from Iworoko through Afao to Ago Aduloju in Ado Ekiti; reconstruction of Ikere-Igbara Odo Road, Ikere-Ilawe Road, Igbara Odo-Ikogosi Road, Itapa-Ijelu-Omu Road and Okemesi-Itawure Road.
The construction of Ikole-Ara-Isinbode Road has offered motorists and commuters an alternative link road to Kogi, Federal Capital Territory and other northern states. More internal roads in Ado Ekiti like Bovas-Spotless Road, GRA (3rd Extension)-NTA Road, Ado-Ekiti, Ori Agere-Ijoka-Oke Age have provided opportunities for alternative roads within the city. Ita Ido-Ido Ile-Okemesi Road has been reconstructed while Ikere-Ise-Emure Road has been rehabilitated.
Massive renovation of General Hospitals have made healthcare delivery more available across the state. These include General Hospitals in Ayede, Okemesi, Efon Alaaye, Ilawe, Ifaki, Ilupeju, Ijan and Ijesa Isu while all Primary Healthcare Facilities have been massively renovated across the 177 wards in the state.
Oyebanji has meticulously worked on the Ekiti International Agro Cargo Airport lifting it from an average facility he met on ground to a world class aviation hub which has recently been granted an approval by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to commence full commercial flight operations. The amazing story of the airport is one of the several gains of continuity the Ekiti people voted for in the 2022 governorship election.
Being a farmer himself, Oyebanji recognizes the importance of agriculture in ensuring food security, banishment of hunger and provision of job opportunities for the people of the state and that explains why his administration invested heavily in the sector and the results are there for everybody to see.
Ekiti has become a big hub of commercial farming that engages about 6,000 youths in about five clusters across the state. Apart from these clusters, there is also a Special Agriculture Processing Zone (SAPZ) that is fully dedicated for commercial agriculture which has attracted investors and youths. Massive clearing of lands have reclaimed them from criminal elements who hitherto used them as hideouts.
Apart from the massive engagement of youths in these schemes, the Oyebanji Administration also attracted big-time investors into the agriculture sector like Agbeyewa Farms, YSJ Limited, among others making a large swathe of hitherto uncultivated land into a hub of production of crops and generating employment for the teeming youths.
The Governor recently expressed gladness that his administration’s investment in youth commercial farming through Being Back the Youth into Agriculture scheme has been yielding dividends with a good number of the youths making profits of over N1 million each within three months. Dormitories have been constructed for the young commercial farmers in Eporo, Iyemero, Ikere, Ado and Eric to make the places comfortable for them and
The Agricultural Land Clearing Scheme of the Oyebanji Administration has seen a total of 5000 hectares cleared to assist farmers in assessing land for agricultural purposes purposes. A total of 160,000 birds have been raised under Ekiti State Broilers Production Scheme in four locations: Ilupeju, Ikole, Ido and Ado.
Other notable strides in agriculture include Ekiti State Fish Production Scheme, provision of cocoa and oil palm seedlings to farmers at subsidized rate, supply of fertilizer and agrochemicals to farmers at subsidized rate, ongoing construction of modular power irrigation at Ise, Ikere, Aramoko and Ado.
A masterstroke to fight hunger and food insecurity in Ekiti State which was a brainchild of Oyebanji also established Ilu Eye Trading and Aggregation Company and its retail arm, OUNJE EKITI, for the procurement of excess farm produce which are sold to members of the public at highly reduced prices at designated points in the state. This has brought relief to Ekiti residents and also reduced post-harvest losses.
The Oyebanji Administration has invested massively in the power sub- sector which has seen many communities in Ekiti East, Ekiti West and Ayekire Local Government Area liberated from power outage of over ten years due to the Governor’s commitment in ensuring restoration of electricity to such communities through his bold step of assisting them with the needed infrastructure and connection with electricity regulatory bodies.
The Independent Power Project (IPP) has made steady power supply available at key installations like the Government House, the Governor’s Office, the State Secretariat, the House of Assembly Complex, the Ekiti State University and the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, all located in Ado Ekiti.
In pursuit of his Shared Prosperity agenda, Governor Oyebanji leveraged the collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and key financial institutions like the Bank of Industry, the Bank of Agriculture and the development partners to boost small scale businesses with various incentives to add fillip to the economy in the grassroots.
Through this collaborations, credit facilities have been made available to artisans, market women, young traders as government cannot give jobs to everybody. The impact of this empowerment is being felt in the grassroots. Pensioners have benefited from the milk of human kindness flowing from Oyebanji as he has committed billions of Naira into offsetting the arrears of their gratuities.
As another set of 800 retirees were paid N2 billion gratuities on Monday, 13th of October, 2025, the total amount committed to the payment of gratuities by the Oyebanji Administration in three years stood at N14.6 billion while a total sum of N25 billion has been expended on the payment of monthly pensions in three years. This has helped reduce post-retirement poverty among the senior citizens.
Oyebanji has managed the Ekiti economy well who has seen the state witnessing zero borrowing since October 2022 and a reduction of domestic debt from N110.57 billion to N57 billion within one quarter. His leadership also witnessed a remarkable improvement in the Internally Generated Revenue which has been nationally acknowledged by the Joint Tax Board (JTB) as a model to other states.
The tourism sector is up and running again with the state’s number one tourist destination, Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort now being managed by a top hospitality firm. The resort is now receiving tourists from all parts of the world while other tourist potentials of the state are being harnessed to generate more revenue into the state coffers and provide more employment opportunities.
In the education sector, public primary and secondary schools have been rehabilitated for the convenience of pupils, students and teachers and to make them more attractive. The Governor has ensured the payment of counterpart funds to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) which has given access for release of funds to build facilities and provide instructional materials.
Besides, about 3,000 teachers were recruited to fill the vacancies occasioned by retirement, resignation and death and this has kept education in primary and secondary school running on the full throttle. Also, the impact of the Oyebanji Midas’ touch has been felt in the tertiary education sub-sector with increment in subvention to all state-owned tertiary institutions.
The local content policy of Governor Oyebanji has empowered local businessmen, artisans and contractors as he ensures that they are regularly patronized by his administration to give them a sense of belonging, empower them, prevent a capital flight from the state and ensure that Ekiti wealth is retained and circulated locally.
Some examples suffice along this line. It is a known fact that Mr Governor’s clothes are sewn by local tailors while his administration also awards contracts of government projects to competent local contractors. Ekiti auto dealers are patronized for the purchase of official vehicles for local government administrators and area education officers while local livestock and chicken sellers are patronized during festive periods.
The humanitarian gestures of Governor Oyebanji in which he offers support for the less privileged through his OJUSE BAO initiative and Abiyamo Esther Oyebanji Foundation alongside his siblings have given hope to the hopeless and succour to the needy across the state outside the bigger platform of the position of Governor that Providence has given him.
Through these humanitarian gestures, the homeless have been given new houses, victims of natural disasters were assisted, physically challenged were supported with financial lifelines and equipment that has assisted them to live better lives, scholarships given to indigent students, working tools and cash support were given to small scale traders while widows and aged persons were supported with food and cash.
Surely, Oyebanji’s Shared Prosperity is not a mere talk. It has become a reality from a Governor who is determined to leave the State better than he met it and the third anniversary of his ascension to power offers an opportunity to showcase his enormous achievements and consolidate on the good governance deeply entrenched in the state.
Ogunmola is Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media (Print Media)