THE GATEWAY TO NIGERIA’S DEVELOPMENT

YUSUPH OLANIYONU celebrates Ogun State at 50

Even as Nigeria’s stature in the global community has diminished due to its economic and security crisis, an international visitor to the country will want to meet two global figures who reside here. Both men live in the same town, and they are from the same state, even though they are not the best of friends.

Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, is home to President Olusegun Obasanjo, who remains the longest-serving Nigerian leader, having been in office as both a military ruler and elected President for a combined period of 11 years, 7 months, and 16 days. It is also the home of Africa’s first Nobel laureate, Prof. Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka. Both men live in their respective private estates, occupying large tracts of land in different parts of the ancient town, which will be worth a tourist’s precious time to explore.

While Obasanjo owns the well-arranged Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Africa’s only morgue of that sort, and a museum documenting his life in prison located, among other edifices, Soyinka’s Ijegba forest home has a museum, art gallery and perhaps one of the finest and original works of art expressed through different media.

The presence of Obasanjo and Soyinka, who are indigenes, symbolises another significance of Ogun State, which today marks the 50th anniversary of its creation. Ten years ago, I wrote a piece celebrating the 40th anniversary of the State’s creation. From my personal experience over the last decade and the various developments in the state during that period, I believe we all have reasons to celebrate yet another landmark in the history of the state. Today, February 3rd, 2026, is the state’s golden jubilee.

From the merger of two provinces, Ijebu and Egba, carved out of the old Western State, which itself had been part of the First Republic’s Western Region, Ogun State was one of the 19 created by the Murtala-Obasanjo regime on February 3rd, 1976. While the country has moved from the 19-state structure to 36, in addition to the new Federal Capital Territory, Ogun State remains one of the two states in the 1976 set that have not been tampered with. There has been no addition, subtraction, or division in its territory. Lagos State has also remained untouched, but its existence preceded the 1976 state creation exercise. The other 17 states – Oyo, Ondo, Bendel, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Anambra, Imo, Borno, Gongola, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Bauchi, Kwara, Cross River, and Rivers State – have all been divided into more than one state.

In my 2016 article, I wrote about the joyous atmosphere in Abeokuta, where I was a primary four pupil looking forward to my tenth birthday, when the late General Murtala Muhammed announced the creation of new states before he was assassinated ten days later. In 1976, the areas that constituted Ogun State were a rustic, traditional society.

Today, the situation has changed. Ogun State has since become a giant among the sub-nationals in Nigeria. It is arguably the most industrialised state in the country. According to a source, while Lagos State remains “the primary economic hub, leading in finance, tech, entertainment, manufacturing, and trade”, today’s 50 year old entity is a significant manufacturing centre, home to large estates like Agbara Industrial Estate, the Sagamu, and Lagos – Ibadan Expressway Industrial corridors, “attracting global companies and benefitting from its connection to Lagos”. The source continued that “Ogun and Lagos generate over half of Nigeria’s industrial output. While Lagos is the economic powerhouse, Ogun provides the expansive space and infrastructure for large-scale manufacturing, making them a formidable duo”.

In the Nigerian configuration, Ogun State is to Lagos what New Jersey is to New York. It is a better place to work, live, and have leisure. That status is one of the achievements that the state has recorded in the last 50 years. That is why I believe that different administrations in the state, including the present one, ought to pay more attention to infrastructure development in industrial areas such as Agbara, Ota, Sagamu, Mowe, and the Ibafo axis.

Some years back, the state missed a massive opportunity in the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway property corridor that would have led to the emergence of high-profile real estate development and the creation of a new, well-structured, urban town whose value would compare with the best in Lagos. If there had been foresight, that area would have become a new, well planned town, housing high-profile people fleeing the crazy congestion in Lagos. We would have had something similar to the new Cairo and 6th of October towns, developed to ease population pressure on the Egyptian capital.

Ogun’s economic significance is not only due to its proximity to Lagos, but the state also hosts the border that links the country to the Republic of Benin and the rest of West Africa.

Ogun State is also today the education capital of Nigeria. It boasts of more tertiary institutions, both state and privately owned, than any other state in Nigeria. It has about 50 higher education institutions, of which over 20 are universities. It is the Cambridge and Massachusetts of Nigeria. That is not strange. The state has a history of being among the earliest to come into contact with civilisation in the country.

The state capital was the first place in Nigeria to have a modern government. The independent Egba United Government (EUG) had existed since 1893. The Egba Union Government was formally recognised by the British through the Lagos Colony Governor, Sir Henry Edward McCallum, in 1898, before the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates to form what is today known as Nigeria in 1914. The EUG was so effective that it sponsored the establishment of its own water corporation to provide clean, piped water and commissioned it in 1914.

The first newspaper in Nigeria was published in Abeokuta in 1859 by Reverend Henry Townsend, a British missionary, and it was named Iwe Iroyin fun Awon Ara Egba ati Yoruba (Newspaper for the Egba people and other Yorubas). The newspaper was published in both English and Yoruba. The state was the home of many African giants in various fields and Nigerian pioneers, including one of the founders of modern Nigeria and the first Premier of the Western Region, Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo.

Even today, many of the young men and women of Nigerian origin who make the entertainment and sports industries tick around the world are from Ogun State. They include Ayodeji Balogun aka Whiz Kid, Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, World boxing champion, Anthony Joshua, and field athlete, Tobi Amusan, among many others. The likes of Globacom owner Otunba Mike Adenuga and chairperson of Global Infrastructure Partners, Adebayo Ogunlesi, Chief Adebutu Kensington, majority shareholder of Wema Bank PLC, Kunle Soname of Value Jet Airline, are the present-day economic giants from the state.

In 26 years of the current democracy in the country, Ogun State has produced a President, Vice President who each served the maximum eight years in office, and a speaker of the House of Representatives. Those are numbers one, two, and four in the nation’s protocol.

Other positive developments have taken place in the state. The state has witnessed a transformation over the years. I express this view without prejudice to the debate as to whether the situation of things could not have been better.

Over the 50 years of the state’s existence, the 10 military officers at its helm served for a total of 14 years and 2 months. The five elected civilians have governed for 36 years and 10 months.

The jury is still out on the contributions of these elected governors to the state’s development. What is obvious is that late Onabanjo did well in the areas of education and health services, which his administration provided to the people at no cost, in accordance with the four cardinal programmes of the then Unity Party of Nigeria. He also built landmark infrastructure facilities, including the Oba Lipede and Ita Osu Modern Markets in Abeokuta and Ijebu Ode respectively, the Gateway Hotels, Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University), and Ogun State Television, among others.

Osoba gets the credit for mass rural development, including rural electrification and the construction of rural roads to open up the hinterland. He also fought with the cabal stalking access to water supply by the ordinary people. Daniel did a great deal to create economic assets for the state. His landmark projects included the Tai Solarin University of Education, the four ICT Polytechnics, the Olokola seaport and others.

Amosun did very well in infrastructure and urban development, particularly in the state capital and other major towns. His administration constructed the first flyover in the state, raised the state’s internally generated revenue and laid the foundation for the present influx of industries in the state. The incumbent governor, Abiodun, has done very well in terms of mass housing development, road construction, and the building of key infrastructure, which has compelled an increased federal presence. The Abiodun government also accelerated industrialisation and has successfully built a cargo airport in the state, which is now operational. Ironically, while the Dapo Abiodun administration is often criticised for the poor state of the roads, it may end up with the best record of road construction in the state’s history.

Last week, I was happy to hear the governor’s promise that one of the ways the administration planned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the state is to commission two road projects each week for the next two months. That will translate into a minimum of 16 additional new roads ready for use by commuters.

Surprisingly, none of the elected governors had peacefully and successfully handed over to their successor. While Chief Onabanjo was dead before Osoba was elected, Daniel took over from Osoba in a hostile manner, and there was no atmosphere for a peaceful handover in 2003. The same situation prevailed in 2011 and 2019, when Amosun and Abiodun, respectively, took over from their predecessors.

Next year, another transition will take place. We do not yet know whether history will repeat itself or whether there will be a clean break from the past. However, Abiodun has stated that he will ensure a smooth handover and that, God willing, he will personally hand over the baton of the state to his successor.

The 50th anniversary of the state is occurring at a time when the Dapo Abiodun administration is also entering its last 16 months in office. The governor is lucky that this landmark event is happening under his watch. The anniversary must be a compelling reason for the government to raise the bar even further in delivering good governance as it winds down next year.

Happy anniversary to the good people of Ogun State.

Olaniyonu writes from Abuja