ONDO STATE AND DEVELOPMENT LESSONS FROM BENIN REPUBLIC

Benin Republic has made much progress over the years, reckons JOSHUA J. OMOJUWA

I was first in Benin Republic in the year 2000. King’s College, Lagos (KC) had gone to play one of the historic Benin secondary schools, in celebration of a notable anniversary. We had beaten same school a year before in Lagos when KC celebrated its 90th anniversary. I remember coming on later in that game, but I prefer not to recollect the score line. It’s got no use nor place in this piece. It felt like a vastly inferior country compared to Nigeria, at least the parts of Porto Novo we had visited. Nothing about that visit made any of us feel like we’d return to come live in Benin Republic someday. It’s a different story for Benin today. This has got nothing to do with that coup Nigeria helped to quell.

One of the reasons that aborted coup needed to have not been born is because that country is doing exceptionally well on many fronts, you wouldn’t want anything derailing its development drive. If you visit Benin today, just like the many Nigerians who already made the decision and now live and do business there, you wouldn’t mind staying over. They have done well for themselves.

Idris Ayodeji Bello is an accomplished Nigerian venture capitalist, he was in Benin days before the coup attempt. “I spent time in diplomatic circles and on the streets. With tech ecosystem leaders and with public-sector folks. Interestingly, many of the public-sector leaders I met were young — people in their 30s and 40s — but they worked with very clear private-sector speed and urgency. From policymakers to founders to everyday people, everyone seemed to be saying the same thing: deep gratitude for the reforms of the last decade and real optimism about what the next 14 years could mean, especially with the private sector playing a stronger role”. Bello’s views reflect that of many Nigerians who have recently been holidaying in Benin.

As if to let me know that my perception of Benin from that 2000 visit wasn’t unique to me, Bello had more to say around that. “This trip also changed some long-held perceptions for me. Growing up just across the Sèmè border from Cotonou, Benin always felt like a quiet village next door. That picture stayed with me for years. This time, it was unrecognizable. I travelled well beyond Cotonou into other towns and rural parts of the country, and it was clear that something deeper is going on. There was a sense of coherence — policies actually translating into infrastructure and execution”. He said a lot more but more references from him and I could be in danger of writing his name as the author here. There is something about the Benin story, the coup apart, that should make for some reflection for our own country.

Benin is a country of about 15 million people. That’d place it behind Kano and Lagos compared to Nigerian States. It is a country considerably less than 10 percent of Nigeria’s population. I think this country’s advancement in the last decade is one more proof that smaller states are easier to manage when it comes to development. Nigeria will thrive amidst some sound reforms but only just. Our opportunity lies in the states. We need to find a way to make everyone choose and do what’s best for themselves, whilst the centre handles essentials like national defense and foreign affairs, currency and international trade, interstate engagement and foreign trade and other such matters the states believe will be best handled by the centre. The future of Nigeria is more devolution.

This is why Ondo State’s lethargy grates on me. It is one of Nigeria’s most endowed states when it comes to human and mineral resources. Whilst resident in Lagos, I grew up feeling proud that I have my origins there, because most of the indices I followed at the time saw it looking competitive. This was the case since the days of Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa needs to reorder his standards. It’s been two years since he was sworn in and one cannot say this is his stand-out idea or project. I was hoping the 2026 budget would reflect that, but it falls short. Naming a budget, “Budget of Economic Consolidation”, yet allocating less than 60 percent of same to capital projects suggests anything but consolidation, except something else other than sustainable development is intended to be consolidated. One of my earliest memories as a child was noting that the glass tables in our seating rooms had the “OGC” logo, Oluwa Glass Company. The name stuck. I became an adult to find out that it was a company that once thrived in Ondo State, amidst others, and is now no more. I am not a believer in government starting companies but a focused government will advance the policies and also build the infrastructure to spur industrialisation.

There are a number of opportunities to tap into. The state government should be developing infrastructure around the Coastal Road Project being built by the FG. Ondo’s tourism potential remains untapped. I have seen Lagosians take bikes to go enjoy Araromi Beach in Ilaje. That signals potential and opportunity but years on, nothing has scaled. Development in the Epe/Ibeju-Lekki end of Lagos should signal commitment by a serious Ondo State governor, to develop the corridor that connects the economic opportunities in Lagos to the Ondo communities that are currently being accessed from Lagos primarily via motor bikes. There is already trade, the people have shown intention and the way, government should build the necessary infrastructure to help scale these opportunities and other such potential elsewhere. There is the vast opportunities in the Marine Economy.

A state with such intellectual capital should not be run like bold ideas have become anathema. The government must slap itself awake. There is plenty time to leave a mark. For all the limitations in our federalism, the states are empowered enough to do more than ever before. There is plenty Nigeria and its states can learn from across the border.

Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/BGX Publishing