“Call me Banchioc, only Banchioc can save me now,” yelled Honore de Balzac, the impossible French novelist and playwright, who in one moment of desperation for survival on his deathbed, sought salvation in a certain physician. But Banchioc was never a doctor: he was a fictional character in one of Balzac’s great books, who sought physical salvation in the world of illusion. But there is a sense in which actual reality can also be found in the world of illusion, and so unreality becomes a reality, and this is where Franz Kafka triumphed as the grand prince of modernist technique in literary production. In his book ‘Metamorphosis’, Kafka presents his ordeals in a society in the cusp of class consciousness of material acquisitiveness. Cloaking himself in his fictional character Gregor, Kafka woke up one morning to find himself transformed to an insect for belonging to a low social scale, which another realist writer, a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary historian and critic, György Lukács, dismissed as a heresy. But Lukacs himself was later jailed for the offence he never committed, thus validating the truism that reality could be unrealistic. Lukacs later owned up, hailing Kafka as a hero of critical realism in the world of illusion. Years afterwards, the world of illusion as actual reality crept into Ekiti State after what was thought to be an unrealistic proposition became an event to be celebrated with pomp and drums. Like Balzac in his quest for Banchioc for salvation, a huge cross-section of Ekiti people in their strident calls said in 2021 that it was Mr Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO) (the then Secretary to the State Government (SSG)), that they had found worthy to wear the succession crown to save Ekiti State from sliding back to the hopeless and derelict past. They proved it on June 18, 2022 governorship poll. But also like Lukacs, before the poll, not a few voiced impossibility to that prospect, dismissing such a contemplation and suggestion as a dream in the realm of a nightmare. Months later, the reality of the “unrealistic” calls for BAO to lead had seized the state in high velocity, as Oyebanji’s ubiquitous campaign banners and posters became the most conspicuous all over the state after the state’s population itself. As it turned out, before the election, Ekiti people had already voted the All Progressives Congress (APC) to provide leadership in the state and BAO had been listed to bear the banner of the party. But these clarion calls were not without the distractions fueled by internal civil insurrection of varying colours expected at every election cycle, as cyber insurgents and their political pharisees counterparts, in ambush, launched vicious proxy battles in the media, to abort Ekiti people’s collective dream. Of course other patriotic and decent aspirants with fervent belief in the Ekiti dream were also in the field seeking a fair contest. The climax of the contestation was Oyebanji’s emergence as governor in the June 18, 2022 governorship poll, culminating in his inauguration on October 16, 2022. Oyebanji’s ascension in October last year (2022) coincided with the birth anniversary of the state that the new governor had helped to berth 26 years earlier: a voyage of destiny in the crust of dream until its realisation became unmistakable on June 18, 2022. The journey to the beginning of his glorious leadership of the state began on September 8, 2021 when Oyebanji obtained nomination forms at the Abuja headquarters of APC to contest June 18, 2022 governorship election in Ekiti State. Afterwards, Oyebanji’s campaign convoys curled through the maze of Erinjiyan-Ikogosi-Efon luscious hills and lusty slopes in Ekiti Central; rolled into the cold, semi-savannah North; slithered through other parts of Ekiti South senatorial district; and finally berthed in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, to sell his six-point agenda to Ekiti people. At the June 18, 2022 governorship poll, Oyebanji coasted home to victory and began his duties in earnest to add pep to the job begone by his predecessor, Governor Kayode Fayemi. Combining the brilliance and statesmanship of Otto Von Bismarck with the benevolence of Cyrus the Great, Oyebanji in no time demonstrated competence and generosity of the heart in his interventions in the lives of Ekiti residents in terms of personal comfort and collective enjoyment of his campaign promises. However, he had a soulmate helping to lead the field: the Legislative arm controlled by his party (APC) was also at the ready to give Ekiti people good governance. At the headship of the legislative flank of the burgeoning administration is another dashing young man from the corps of the Ekiti State intelligentsia, Rt Hon Stephen Adeoye Aribasoye, the House of Assembly Speaker, who is also a learned counsel at the Bar and a veteran of the protest culture in the civil society and students union movement, who since assumption of office has been wielding the morality and authority of the civil rights advocacy and potency of the law to guide him in his official conducts. Oyebanji thus enjoys a fitting companionship and comradeship in Aribasoye and other noble Assembly members in the Ekiti State dialectic of history at a time when men of goodwill, integrity, duty, verity, bounty, benevolence, devotion, temperance and other leadership graces, are needed to weather the web of malicious and harsh physical and mental tortures unleashed by the inclement economic climate that stings the world into numbness. Born into a proximate wheel of fortune in their zodiac pantheons in a marriage sealed in heaven, Aribasoye’s fierce natural loyalty of the November moon turned to be a fitting adjunct to Oyebanji’s December’s lunar graces of fair-mindedness, honesty and intellectual verve that thrive in the life of a conversationalist like Oyebanji, which also invariably defines his personal life as an astute administrator that thrives in scholarship, communal ethos and community solidarity. Like an archer that embraces challenges as thrilling opportunities for success, Oyebanji’s adventurous spirit also teaches him to embrace both change and uncertainty, reminding him that every journey is a chance to become stronger. His will power, energy of the spirit, loyalty and commitment to his principle are the very source and fountain of his vision and mission to tread rough terrains and emerge victorious. With both Oyebanji and Arisaboye hoisting the banner for Ekiti growth, the story so far a year after BAO mounted the sail is largely fair to the ear and warm to the heart, for soon after he took over power, a bitterly fractious state fuelled by a deadly adversarial politicking was re-united. The drums of war have been silenced for the creative energies of the people to enhance productivity. No more capital loss in integrity and fortunes, as Ekiti State is now enjoying the innocence of her character that defines the Ekiti genius as towering in value and lofty in integrity. Locals are no longer stranded in their own land like a solitary community of outcasts fated to a sedentary living. A state once notoriously renowned for the beatification of genteel poverty is now thriving through APC’s leadership that takes human capital development as a strategic index for the people’s economic, sociological and psychological well-being. For the people’s governor, his integrity finds eloquence in the potency of the thesis of his vision and mission and his ideals are unmistakable. One year after, Oyebanji did not betray the trust of Ekiti people in their calls for his service, for in the sinews of the archer, Oyebanji took his aim, and the Banchioc in him raced across the state, posting quixotic accomplishments. And thus far, he has demonstrated that integrity by his several impactful interventions in various aspects of the lives of Ekiti people as promised during campaigns. The list is inexhaustible: In his power supply initiative, Oyebanji facilitated the installation of a 3.5MW Independent Power Plant to boost power generation. He posted good records in the construction and rehabilitation of roads, such as, Ado/Ilawe Road, Idofin/Odo Ado Road, Okeila/ Okeyinmi Road, Agric Olope/Matthew/ Odo Ado Road, Okebola/Baptist Road, Omisanjana/Sije/Ajebamdele Road, NTA /GRA 3rd Extension road, asphalt overlay of the entire Ado township roads, among others, including installation of streetlights in major parts of Ado to reduce crimes. He also rehabilitated electricity projects and connected Ayekire/Gbonyin and Ekiti East local governments that have been in darkness for over 10 years to the national grid. He rehabilitated 43.4km farm roads in six local governments while also dredging all flood-prone areas, including de-siltation of waterways across the state capital and has empowered farmers with farming tools, seedlings and other intervention initiatives to ease farming activities for bumper yields. In his Ekiti State Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP), the engineering designs for 12 roads totalling 77km roads had been received and would be launched by the end of October for construction work to begin. Oyebanji also provided 50 percent subsidy on seeds to rice, maize, cassava, cocoa and cashew farmers, while also distributing farm inputs to 2,279 farmers and supporting 1,566 farmers with both production assets and small-scale processing equipment, including provision of 25 percent subsidy on tractorization to farmers and funding for Livestock Productivity and Resilience and Support (L-PRES) to counterparts. Other agricultural production initiatives include establishment of a two-hectare model polyclonal cashew farm/scion garden and overhauling of the poultry pens at Livestock Development Centre (LCD). The government also partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pro-CASHEW programme to establish the first government-owned scion garden and polyclonal cashew demonstration farm in Nigeria, among several other agricultural production initiatives for socio-economic development of the state. His social service initiatives include recruitment of teachers to both secondary and primary schools, recruitment of sign language interpreters into special schools and public institutions, palliatives to vulnerable citizens and payment of salary arrears to both state and local government workers. He also upgraded wet markets across seven local governments, including the disbursement of housing loan worth N126,495,000 to 1,084 beneficiaries across the MDAS and completed Emergency Command Centre (ECC) to provide a central point for incident reporting. Oyebanji completed Ekiti State Civic Centre renovation, and subsequently handed over the ground floor to anchor tenants, Jara/Shoprite, while embarking on the ongoing construction of model schools in Ikere and Ikole local governments and gave bursary awards to 167 Ekiti indigenes in the Nigerian Law School and paid N117,000,000.00 to 1,950 beneficiaries under the Ekiti State Social Transfer Component of Ekiti State Cash Transfer Unit (SCTU), including payment of N96,000,000.00 to 600 beneficiaries under Ekiti State Livelihood Grant Component of Ekiti State Cash Transfer Unit (SCTU). After long years of agitations, Oyebanji implemented salary parity for clinical staff of the Hospitals’ Management Board and also Implemented 90% CONHESS and 100% hazard allowance for health workers in the local governments while he also installed medical equipment in the 13 secondary health facilities across the state and expanded ‘Ulera Wa’ Health Insurance Intervention from five local governments to 10 local governments for 50,000 beneficiaries. He also established 17 Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) across the local governments to improve discovery and response to health emergencies and established two Cholera Reference Laboratories at EKSUTH, Ado-Ekiti, and State Specialist Hospital, Ikole. In the mix is also the ongoing reconnection of Erijiyan, Ikogosi and Ikogosi Resort back to the national grid to enhance the state’s tourism corridor while the connection of the Agricultural Processing Zone (APZ) in Ikole to the national grid is ongoing, Also of importance is the connection of llawe 33KV line with Erijiyan-Ekiti and Ikogosi in addition to the ongoing connection of the Agricultural Processing Zone (APZ) in Ikole to the national grid, among other numerous life-lifting initiatives to enhance the living conditions of Ekiti people, so much so that in Ekiti homes, the mention of Oyebanji’s name elicits and radiates hope, trust and sense of belonging. Today, October 16, 2023, the bell rings to the rhythmic virtues of the man of the people. As Oyebanji has justified the strident calls by Ekiti people to lead the state, and as the starting point has been bright, it is a triumph of Oyebanji’s ideals and vision, which propelled him as a young man to join other elderly compatriots to ensure the creation of Ekiti State in 1996. So far, Oyebanji, who has brought panache, his personality and ideals to bear in his leadership style, has demonstrated that the years ahead with “strong beginning” from today hold much promise for the accomplishments that will transform the agrarian Ekiti State to a prosperous society for the benefit of all Ekiti people. Long live the living Banchioc in the Land of Honour! * Olujobi, a journalist, author and former Deputy Director of Media and Publicity of the BAO Campaign Organisation, is a Commissioner in Ekiti State Local Government Service Commission
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