By Theo Adebowale
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U nless the economy performs, those who acquire political power stand the risk of ending their career in shame. Shame because such are not likely to leave behind any achievement worthy of remembrance.  Two major dangers are immediately imminent.  For the one whose tenure has ended, satisfaction and self fulfillment would be lacking.  For the office, just anybody, including those without passion or competence, and those who can never do well, would apply desperation to assume power.  These dangers are already visible, but they can still be stemmed.  The need to curb the dangers is urgent because there is arising a population of power seekers, men and women, who would otherwise have made it in business, trades, professions, or the private sector generally.  Some individuals in the employ of public and private sectors with promising careers are exiting for politics because they cannot behold more rewarding, less risky opportunities in the economy, at their beck and call. It is imperative that public office holders should, as a matter of patriotic service, open up the economy.  There must be a functional economic master plan, agricultural and industrial lay out.

The joy of a politician should be to succeed and success is gauged by the amount of economic activities taking place in his domain and the consequent good life the constituents enjoy.  A people who can afford to feed and feed well, and meet their social responsibilities by carrying out legitimate business would be happy, they would be respectable.  But when the people do not have economic shelves to access, and they cannot identify opportunities to seize, they resign to ignorance and brood over their helplessness arising from blindness.  It is general knowledge that there is hunger in the land.  At the same time, everyone knows that the land is crying for cultivation.  If you doubt this, drop any seed on any spot around your home, office or church.  Before you know it, the seed sprouts, and soon begins to fruit, an indication that agriculture is favoured.  But who would plant?  Where can he plough?  Inability to gainfully provide useful answers to these and other questions is reason for joblessness and unemployment.  Any potential or even reluctant farmer cannot find a space for his enterprise.  The large portion of land lying about the place for more than 10 years past is a no-go area.  It is better to stay off it before speculators and hoodlums come up in arms, to claim ownership and reclaim their ‘possession’.  Even public forests that announcers have made us know that some farmers now encroach upon, have attracted the interest of speculators and hoodlums.  While it is a welcome development that government is bringing order to that property, it is an opportunity for public policy makers to develop a master plan to cover the whole state.  Giving effect to such a master plan would enable orderly and effective productive system for the economy.

It is important to organise Ondo State into economic and industrial zones, providing land at affordable rates.  And this can only be done by the state government.  It does not need to enter into endless logjam of land acquisition.  Rather, it needs to provide a simple means of identification of such property items, designate which would be dedicated for agricultural, i.e crops and livestock, and regulate how to employ the property and make payments like rents, lease or outright purchase so that genuine interest in, and investment on such property would be protected from con men.  In order to build confidence in its people, government only needs to provide basic amenities in existing agricultural colonies.  If government takes the Benin-Owena Dam farm settlement in Igbara Oke, makes the road from the highway to Sokoto motorable with drainage, it would not only encourage intensive economic activities in the zone, other senatorial and geographical zones would promptly buy into it and showcase themselves for official patronage.  Each of the 18 local government areas would be willing to host the kind of patronage Owena Dam would attract.  With the benefit of the Land Use Act government already has in stock, it would be adapted to agricultural sector to pay for the facilities and services.  Raising necessary funds for this capital intensive project would not be problem for the state government.  The Bank of Agriculture and the Bank of Industry would be willing to avail the state government with the billions of naira that have remained fallow in their coffers these past decades.

The youth, graduate job seekers and retiring workers from both private and public services would surely find such a policy attractive.  A chance meeting with Ebi, a business management resource trainer last week and opened up my mind to the various economic activities and platforms lying untapped all over Ondo State.  It is crystal clear that taking our job seekers through a few weeks of excursion into the business world would permanently bail the population out of the inherent poverty and joblessness that is so starring.  Their orientation would change once they can be shown that opportunities are crying to be picked, and the funds invested in buying iPhones are sufficient to take a ‘step of faith’ into the business world of self employment, and that quality mentorship is equally available and affordable to guide them into prosperity.  Should government make the road to Small London motorable, another large window of opportunities would automatically fling open for legitimate business with robust profit.  Investment in illicit drug trafficking would be naturally threatened and legitimate farming and food processing alternatives would be replacement.

We should understand the times and make the best use of them now.  Political thuggery suffers a serious setback in the ongoing electioneering season.  Those who were warming up to take advantage of the 2019 General Elections by supplying services of violence have been greatly disappointed.  Opening up the space for them to engage in legitimate business activities would not only be an easy venture, it would also provide a practical evidence that agriculture is a less hazardous alternative.  It would demonstrate to the job seekers that self employment is a viable, if not preferable alternative.  This helps to change the mentality of the people from believing that tertiary education in particular, prepares the graduate for paid employment.  The system would survive the initial teething problems and open their eyes to life more abundant outside the office.

This is the time to invest in creativity. Creativity requires a lot of space.  By maximizing existing facilities and mapping out an economic master plan, Ondo State, the South West and Nigeria would be opening up the space for mass participation in nation building which becomes meaningful when more hands, otherwise potential devil workshops, are engaged in positive, creative productive activities.  The energies saved from prevention of political violence must be quickly diverted into economic activities for the benefit of the people, and the Nigerian state.