By Sulaimon Olanrewaju
Dr Julius Maada Bio, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a man of no mean achievements. An experienced and exposed man, he rose to his country’s political pinnacle at the young age of 32 years, when he became the military head of state, following a coup d’état. But he was in the saddle for only 74 days, from 16th January 1996 to 29th March 1996, after which he voluntarily relinquished power and handed over to a democratically elected government. On retirement from the Sierra Leonean Army as a Brigadier in 1996, he relocated to the United States of America, where he bagged a master’s degree in International Affairs from American University in Washington, DC. Upon completing his studies, he went into business and eventually became the president of International Systems Science Corporation, a consulting and investment management firm. Bio later moved to the United Kingdom, where he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bradford and enrolled in a doctoral programme in Peace Studies.
He joined the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in 2005, became its presidential candidate in 2012 and contested the presidential election in the same year but lost to then incumbent president, Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People’s Congress (APC). He contested again in 2018 and garnered 51.8 per cent of the votes to defeat Samura Kamara of the ruling party. In 2023, he was elected for a second term with 56 per cent of the votes. A man of great conviction, totally committed to the overall development of Sierra Leone, Dr Bio became the first Sierra Leonean president to introduce free education through executive order for primary and secondary school students in public schools throughout the country in 2018. He has also been pushing for food sufficiency, agriculture productivity and self-reliance through the Feed Salone programme.
A highly respected leader, Dr Bio, who served as President of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for August 2024, was in Oyo State the other week and was received by the governor, ‘Seyi Makinde and top government functionaries. While in Oyo State, he engaged with the state government, researchers, academics, development partners, and investors to garner support for his Feed Salone program. During his sojourn in Oyo State, the Sierra Leonean president was at Fasola Agriculture Industrial Hub. Dr Bio was so fascinated by the wonders of Fasola, which has become a melting pot of agriculture, science, technology, commerce and industrialisation, that despite time constraints, he had a session with some of the investors in Fasola Industrial Hub, who he later invited to Sierra Leone for further discussion.
However, before embarking on the 90-minute trip from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, to Fasola Industrial Hub, President Bio had taken part in a high-level panel discussion which featured Governor ‘Seyi Makinde, Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State and Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State, where each of the governors shared their experiences in growing the agriculture sector in their respective states. In his presentation, Governor Makinde stated that during his first term, he had concentrated on building roads that link all the geopolitical zones in Oyo State, especially those that link the agricultural production centres to the consumption centres. The other governors also spoke about their various interventions in their states. In his comments, Dr Bio singled out Governor Makinde and commended him for his initiative. He then went ahead to share his own experience.
President Bio said, “I was in China to see President Xi Jinping. During our conversation, I asked him how he could feed the 1.4 billion people in his country while many countries with much fewer people were finding it difficult to have food sufficiency. The answer he gave shocked me. He said, ‘Build the roads’. I was wondering what building roads had to do with feeding the people. He then explained that once you link the production centres with the consumption centres, getting food for the vast majority of the people would be easy. The consumption centres get adequate food supply and the growers are happy because they get good patronage. Without linking the rural areas with the urban centres, both the farmers and the consumers will suffer. What I had to travel to China to learn, Governor Makinde is already practising without having to travel that far; he has been addressing the issue of food sufficiency by linking the zones in the state with good roads.”
What President Bio, who is held in high esteem by many world leaders because of his candour and fairness, did, albeit inadvertently, was to endorse Governor Makinde as a world-class leader with a global perspective on issues.
World-class leaders are people of elevated thoughts driven by innovation and value creation. But their trump card is courage. Because they have an elevated thought process, world-class leaders build models that capture the complicated, multi-faceted and multidirectional causal relationships between the key variables in any situation. They have a broader perspective of issues and are not motivated by parochial considerations. Because they are innovative, they can generate uncommon and sometimes unpopular ideas, which create value for the people. Because they are courageous, they are not bothered about who is not in support of their idea; they just keep on plodding until they achieve the envisioned goals.
The perspective of a world-class leader is often at variance with the pervasive or dominant ones in society because while the bulk of the society is reflexive, they are reflective. They do not just jump to a conclusion; rather they travel far into time and space to ensure that they arrive at the best possible solution for the benefit of the people. As opined by Albert Einstein, a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness that created it; world-class leaders elevate their thinking above society’s imposed limit to outwit difficult situations for the overall good of their people. That is what Governor Makinde did by addressing the issue of food sufficiency through the connection of production and consumption centres with a network of good roads.
Since the time of Governor Rasidi Ladoja, every administration in the state before the era of Makinde had invested a fortune in tractor acquisition with a view to supporting farmers with land clearing. The administration of Governor Ladoja procured 50 new tractors, which were shared among the local governments. Similarly, the administration of Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala purchased 40 tractors, which were distributed to all the geo-political zones in the state. Governor Abiola Ajimobi, in conjunction with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) in Oyo State, acquired 320 Massey Ferguson tractors and 30 mini trucks which were distributed to the councils in 2013.
However, by the time the administration of Governor Makinde took off, none of the over 400 tractors on which the state had expended billions of naira was anywhere to be found. No local government could account for any of the tractors; neither did the Ministry of Agriculture have any clue where those tractors were. So, Governor Makinde decided to change the strategy, rather than travelling the same route his predecessors had gone, which left both the farmers and the state shortchanged, he decided to try something new.
So, the government encouraged the private sector to invest in tractor acquisition to rent out to farmers. However, to reduce the burden on farmers, the Oyo State Government resolved to subsidise the cost of hiring tractors for farmland clearing by farmers to the tune of 50 per cent. To guard against abuse, the government came up with a booking app, which enables the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to monitor the exact size of the farmland from the Secretariat in Ibadan. It also allows government officials to know the exact size covered by a tractor on farmland. In addition, the government trained extension officers and directors of agriculture across the 33 local government areas on the farmers’ booking applications and provided needed support to the farmers.
With that, the government has removed a major barrier to farmers’ optimal productivity. Year in and year out, farmers go through hell to clear their farmlands because of the high cost occasioned by the scarcity of tractors. With this innovation, with just a call or a click on a button, farmers can hire tractors at half the price and get value for their money. This achieves three things. One, the farmers are happy and can clear more farmlands than they had ever done. This also means that they can plant more than they had ever planted. The other thing is that those in the business of hiring tractors are guaranteed patronage. That means they can invest more in the business and improve their services to Oyo State farmers. The third is that the state doesn’t have to hold down resources by buying tractors which would later vanish into thin air.
Commenting on the tractorisation programme, Mr Abass Adewunmi, Chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Oyo State branch, said it was an answer to the prayers of Oyo State farmers as it enabled farmers to clear more farmlands and plant more crops. He added that the increase in Oyo State farmers’ output had pushed down the prices of food items in the state.
His position was corroborated by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for February 2025, which said that Oyo State had one of the lowest food inflation rates in the country.
In Chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the term used to explain the situation in which a slight change in an element ignites a huge effect in another element in a deterministic nonlinear system. The proponent of the theory, Edward Lorenz, explains that this is usually possible because of the sensitive dependency of the elements on one another. According to him, the flapping of the wings of a butterfly, which is nothing but a minor perturbation, can trigger a hurricane several weeks later.
So, by connecting the zones and implementing the tractorisation policy, Makinde ignited a huge effect which has resulted in increased farm produce, reduced prices of food items and improved life for residents of Oyo State.
Since he assumed office, Makinde has been engineering a new Oyo State by embarking on programmes and projects that keep on transforming life and living in the state. Makinde’s transformation has been all-encompassing and ubiquitous, leaving no sector behind. From education to health services, from social security to food security, from wealth creation to employment generation, from revenue generation to poverty reduction, from road construction to aviation, from rule of law enforcement to strengthening institutions, from urban renewal to rural development, from gender equity to social inclusion, Makinde has been resolute about making Oyo State a model in the comity of sub-nationals.
The applause that accompanies Makinde’s strides in each of the sectors has been thunderous, just as the acclaim has been unprecedented. From former President Muhammadu Buhari, who adopted Makinde’s anti-COVID-19 strategy; to former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who praised Makinde’s accomplishments in infrastructure development; to Committee of Nigeria’s Retired Inspectors General of Police, who gave Makinde the thumbs up for adequately securing Oyo State; to incumbent Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, who extolled Makinde for his unprecedented commitment to the overall development of the state; to representatives of 16 states of the federation who praised Makinde to high heavens while on a field trip to understudy the wonders of Fasola Industrial Hub on the platform of the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES); to the African Development Bank (AfDB), which recently designated Fasola Industrial Hub as Nigeria’s first Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ); to Ghana’s former Minister of Food and Agriculture, Honourable Muhammed Muniru Limuna, who commended Makinde for creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive; and now to the President of Sierra Leone.
For Governor ‘Seyi Makinde, value creation is a culture; hence public adulation is a custom.
•Dr Olanrewaju is the Chief Press Secretary to Oyo State Governor.
