By: Femi Ogbonnikan
In Ogun State, the conversation about representation is shifting from mere political slogans to verifiable evidence of human capital development and a sustained commitment to the welfare of the people.
For a state that prides itself as Nigeria’s industrial capital and a pacesetter in education, the true test of leadership lies not in promises made on campaign podiums, but in deliberate investments that secure dignity, opportunity, and a future for its citizens.
It is within this context that the administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun has built a compelling case for higher national service, with a record that speaks directly to the core mandate of senatorial representation: protecting people, unlocking prosperity, and giving a voice to the vulnerable.
To represent Ogun Senatorial District at the National Assembly is to be entrusted with the responsibility of translating local needs into federal action, and Governor Abiodun’s record over the last seven years provides the most credible evidence that he understands this assignment. Governor Abiodun’s most defining statement on human capital has been his approach to the welfare of workers, retirees, and grassroots political actors, those often forgotten once their service years are over.
On Tuesday at the Oba’s Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, former political office-holders in Ogun State’s 20 local government councils and LCDAs, who served between 2016 and 2024, openly described as unprecedented the clearing of N3.503 billion in outstanding severance allowances owed to 1,042 former chairmen, vice-chairmen, secretaries, supervisors, special advisers and councillors. As Special Adviser on Media and Strategy, Hon. Kayode Akinmade clarified, the payment of N3,503,489,479.56 was made after rigorous verification and reconciliation by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, the State Audit Department and the Local Government Service Commission, with 526 beneficiaries from the 2016-2019 tenure and 516 from the 2020-2024 tenure.
The process was seamless, transparent and paid directly into beneficiaries’ bank accounts. Beneficiary Hon. Emiola Ghazal, former Chairman of Ijebu Ode Local Government, captured the mood when he said, “This is unprecedented in Ogun State.
We never believed a government could take responsibility for entitlements owed by its predecessor despite what the predecessor put the governor through. The governor is truly a promise keeper, a leader with the milk of human kindness.”
This single act has restored confidence in public service at the grassroots, healed a wound of political betrayal, and signaled that legitimate labour will not be abandoned for politics. For a Senator, who will be called upon to defend local government autonomy, to legislate on grassroots governance, and to protect political inclusion, this credential is invaluable.
It shows a man who does not see grassroots politicians as disposable.
That same philosophy underpins the state’s pension revolution, perhaps the most consistent human capital protection policy in Ogun’s recent history. On October 8, the government announced that its total commitment to pension-related payments since May 29, 2019 has reached N157.9 billion, following a fresh release of N5.83 billion approved at the September 24, 2026 Joint Accounts Allocation Committee meeting. Head of Service (HoS), Mr Olanrewaju Saka broke it down: N4,906,950,967.98 for gratuity to Local Government pensioners who retired in 2022 and SUBEB retirees of 2021, and N918,596,179.16 for Additional Pension Benefits under the Contributory Pension Scheme. Since January 2026 alone, N4.12 billion has been paid in Additional Pension Benefits. The cumulative N157.9 billion includes N29,116,988,743.64 gratuity to 7,390 beneficiaries, N105,391,736,016.69 pension to 16,420 beneficiaries, N7,782,738,878.42 CPS deductions for 29,883 workers between July 2025 and August 2026, N3,332,112,713.71 Accrued Pension Rights to 2,567 persons, N5,041,139,048.90 arrears of CPS deductions, N1,347,359,839.24 Returns on Investment, N584,850,736.98 death benefits and other payments for 160 families, and N1,321,790,502.25 in palliatives, with approximately N4 billion in Additional Pension Benefits to 709 beneficiaries.
To put it in context, the state has consistently paid over N45.5 billion in gratuity to Local Government and SUBEB retirees alone since 2019. For a senator, whose primary duty is to sponsor people-centred laws and protect the sanctity of earned entitlements at the national level, this is not just an administrative record; it is a legislative template. It proves that Governor Abiodun understands that human capital is not expendable and that a worker who gave thirty-five years deserves dignity, not despair. This is the kind of compassion and fiscal discipline Ogun needs in the Senate to argue for pension reforms, contributory pension safeguards, and social protection bills.But welfare without future opportunity is incomplete, and this is where his youth and education architecture becomes his strongest credential for the Senate.
On October 9, 2026, the fourth edition of the Gbemiga Abiodun Education Support Programme expanded from 831 beneficiaries in 2025/2026 to 1,277 beneficiaries in 2026/2027, covering 336 primary pupils, 584 secondary students, 83 technical college students and 274 tertiary students across all nine local government areas in Ogun East Senatorial District.
The programme, established in memory of his late son whose desire to help others continues to inspire the family, attracted over 3,000 online applications with more than 1,500 from Ogun East indigenes. Beyond the N99.1 million disbursed last year, the new cycle introduces two critical human capital layers that align with national development priorities and the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. First, 80 Senior Secondary School Three students are being supported through a UTME and SSCE Support Programme with JAMB registration and LearnOn WhatsApp revision platform and sustained engagement involving parents, ensuring transition, not just enrolment. Second, the technical college category introduced in 2025, where each beneficiary receives N150,000 for basic training equipment and is already undertaking paid assignments and improving livelihoods, will now be scaled into a full entrepreneurship pipeline. Twenty graduating technical and tertiary beneficiaries with viable business ideas will receive business development training, mentorship and start-up support of up to N250,000 each.
Additionally, 30 tertiary beneficiaries will be trained in high-demand digital skills: digital marketing, software development, data analytics, cybersecurity and UI/UX design. As Commissioner Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu noted, this moves the programme from scholarship to employability.
Programme Coordinator Reverend Bola Oyeledun emphasized its broadened access, while Lamisa Abiodun urged technical beneficiaries to take vocational education seriously for sustainable livelihoods. For Ogun Senatorial District representation, this is exactly the kind of thinking needed in the National Assembly, laws and interventions that connect education to enterprise and enterprise to employment, ensuring no child’s potential is limited by the financial circumstances of their family.
These human investments are being matched with physical infrastructure that will create the jobs those skilled youths will fill. At the APC stakeholders’ engagement in Ibiade, headquarters of Ogun Waterside Local Government Area, Governor Abiodun approved the construction of the J4-Gao Road, a strategic corridor neglected for decades, to open up Ogun Waterside for investment. He also disclosed that the Federal Government had approved a four-kilometre bridge linking the local government to the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. These roads are not just asphalt; they are enablers for the two transformative projects he announced: the Gateway Deep Sea Port, whose groundbreaking is scheduled for November 2026 with completion by 2030, and the Liquefied Natural Gas project. Both will position Ogun Waterside as an energy, maritime and logistics hub, complement Ogun’s growing industrial base within the Lagos-Ogun economic corridor, and generate over 50,000 direct jobs across logistics, transportation, construction, hospitality, services, manufacturing and other sectors, with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s full support. He rightly noted that Ogun Waterside, with 126 polling units and about 62,000 registered voters, has been neglected for too long and that these projects will change its economic fortunes. His charge to youths to acquire skills to take advantage of these opportunities directly links his infrastructure vision to his education and digital skills programme.
What emerges is a coherent human capital ecosystem. A government that pays pensioners, settles severance, funds scholarships, buys tools for technicians, incubates start-ups, trains coders, builds roads and negotiates a deep sea port is not doing scattered philanthropy. It is executing a deliberate strategy to keep people in school, keep skills in the state, and keep hope alive. That is the essence of senatorial representation: to be a bridge between federal power and local need.
In the final analysis, Ogun does not need a Senator who will go to Abuja to learn on the job. Ogun needs a Senator who has already governed a complex state, balanced its books, paid its debts, educated its children, empowered its women and artisans, and attracted the kind of multibillion-dollar investments that will define the next fifty years.
Governor Dapo Abiodun has done all of these without noise, without abandoning inherited liabilities, and without leaving any legitimate obligation unpaid. He has transformed personal pain into public purpose through the Gbemiga Abiodun Education Programme, transformed bureaucratic neglect into a N157.9 billion pension commitment that restored dignity to 16,420 retirees, transformed grassroots cynicism into confidence with a N3.5 billion severance payment, and transformed a forgotten riverine axis into Nigeria’s next maritime frontier. If representation is about character, competence and compassion, then his record is not just a campaign document; it is a covenant with the people. It is proof that leadership is not measured by titles held, but by lives touched, by obligations honoured, and by futures secured. For Ogun Senatorial District, the choice is clear: send a promise keeper to the Senate, and the promises of prosperity, dignity and inclusive growth will finally have a keeper in the chamber where Nigeria’s future is legislated, where budgets are passed, and where the destiny of a generation is decided. In Abuja, Ogun needs not a learner, but a leader. In Dapo Abiodun, it has a proven builder of people, prosperity and ports, ready to translate executive experience into senatorial impact.
Ogbonnikan is a Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Ogun State Governor on Media
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