A senior partner at KPMG and governorship aspirants under the platform of the ruling All Progressive Congress in Oyo state, Joseph Tegbe has said that the incumbent governor has not endorsed nor anointed anyone to take over from him.
He made the disclosure during a media parley where he called to intimate the media of his political ambition and visions of turning around the economic fortune of the state if elected the next governor.
Denying the insinuations making the rounds across the state that he was brought in to guber race by the Governor Abiola Ajimobi as his anointed successor, Tegbe recounted the many occasions the governor has said only God can anoint a person and that it is the decision of the party to choose a candidate while he supports whosoever emerges.
Noting that he has been part of the Ajimobi administration since its inception in 2011 by serving as a member of the Economic Team and as a consultant on economic policy, Tegbe expressed optimism that if God anoints him to be the next governor of the state, nobody can stop him from achieving same.
He said his understanding of the vision, policies, thinkings, working and ability to predict economic and social activities puts him in a good position for the Agodi Government House job.
He said, “I am close to Governor Ajimobi like every other person but I will borrow what Governor Ajimobi said and which he has repeated at different times and in different fora that he has not anointed anybody.
“But that, do I understand his vision, do I understand his policies, do I understand his thinkings? can I predict him when it comes to economic and social activities, yes I can. I worked with Ex-Presidents Obasanjo, Jonathan, and Yaradua, I am working with Prof Yemi Osinbajo, I worked with Donald Duke extensively on Tinapa Project, which was my concept with him, and I know what we need to take us to the next level.
“Governor Ajimobi has said it that only God anoints, the party chooses and he will support. If God anoints me today, nobody will stop it. It is a moving train. If I am God’s anointed person, which I pray I am, I will accept it and God will help me to take the state to the promise land.”
Speaking on his plan to transform the state, Tegbe said he hopes to turn the state to a big agrarian state because of its capacity to feed the region and the country by taking it from its current peasant to mechanized farming.
“My focus is to make this state an agrarian state. From peasant farming to mechanized farming. We will enumerate landowners, cluster them together under a big holder who will help the farmers with things like clearing the land, supplying seedlings to plan and when it is harvest time, they guarantee the offtake through a commodity exchange
“The second thing I will focus on is technology because there are a lot of youths in Oyo state. When we bring metropolitan fibre into Oyo state and create technology hubs which will eventually trigger industrialisation.
“We are known in Oyo state for trade and commerce but it must be done in a structured manner and that is my third focus area. In trade and commerce, we will enumerate them and support them in a structured manner and they will do what they are doing in a more structured way and the state will be finally getting out of poverty.
“To underpin these are plans, education, healthcare and infrastructure would be the three developmental pillars. For me, primary education should be free in all its ramifications. We all went to school with bursary, endowment funds can pay bursary and we will work towards that. Basic healthcare must be available and we will do that under the universal health insurance scheme.”
