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By Oluseye Ojo
The 2027 governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Oyo State, Bimbo Adekambi, has said he would leverage the state’s vast intellectual capital, youthful population and agricultural potential to build a stronger and more digitally driven economy if elected governor.
He made the disclosure yesterday in Ibadan during an interactive session with journalists, where he outlined some of the policy directions he intends to pursue ahead of the 2027 governorship election.
Adekambi, a former Commissioner for Finance in the state, said the state has enormous but under-utilised economic assets in its human capital, technology ecosystem and agricultural sector, which could be connected to digital markets, structured credit and international opportunities to create wealth and employment.
“Salary is a baseline, it is not an achievement to boast about,” he said.
He stressed that his vision went beyond the routine responsibilities of government to building systems capable of producing sustainable economic growth.
He identified capacity building and digital elevation as two critical drivers of his proposed administration, saying they would cut across education, agriculture, health, security, youth development and other sectors.
According to him, Oyo’s large pool of educated and technology-savvy young people should not merely be beneficiaries of government programmes but active participants in the digital economy.
He also promised to strengthen the state’s agricultural and agro-processing value chains, particularly by linking producers and young entrepreneurs to finance, credit facilities, technology and wider markets.
The APM candidate said his approach to governance would be anchored on reliable data, particularly in tackling poverty and other social problems.
Adekambi, who previously chaired the Community Social Development Agency (CSDA), recalled that while working on interventions for out-of-school children, vulnerable groups, teenage pregnancy and persons with disabilities, he discovered that Oyo lacked a comprehensive poverty map then.
He said the state consequently partnered with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to undertake poverty mapping, a process which took about two years to segment and analyse the data.
He argued that such baseline information should be preserved and used by successive administrations to ensure continuity and prevent governments from repeatedly starting development planning from scratch.
He said the same principle should apply to the problem of street hawking, arguing that simply removing children from the streets without addressing the poverty confronting their families would not solve the problem.
“To address street hawking, you must treat the root cause, which are hunger and poverty among parents,” he said, advocating sustained social safety nets for vulnerable households.
The former finance commissioner also listed his experience in financial management and public-sector reforms, including his role in improving salary payment processes and internally generated revenue during his previous stint in government.
Responding to questions about salary arrears during the period, he attributed the backlog to a severe economic crisis that affected states across the country, saying Oyo lacked the resources to meet its obligations at the time.
He said the state used 80 percent of the first Federal Government salary bailout it received for salaries and 100 percent of the second, insisting that there was no salary backlog when he left the government.
He challenged those disputing his account to verify the relevant records and consult officials who were involved in salary administration at the time.
He also recalled his intervention in the $200 million World Bank-supported urban flood management project in the state, for which the state provided $20 million in counterpart funding.
He said the project was at risk of losing World Bank funding because the state was initially failing to meet some of the lender’s procurement and implementation requirements.
According to him, he was tasked with addressing the challenges, including issues concerning contractors’ capacity and project execution, thereby helping to keep the project on course.
He also cited his role in reforms that facilitated the online publication of the state budget and Oyo’s participation in the Federal Government’s States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme.
He said his experience as a banker, civil servant and consultant, including his work on financial systems for Birmingham City Council and Middlesbrough Council in the United Kingdom, had exposed him to international best practices in public-sector management.
On Governor Seyi Makinde, he acknowledged the governor’s achievements and described him as a father figure, but said his own aspiration should be judged on his experience, competence and vision for the state.
He promised an accessible administration that would make decisions quickly and reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks, particularly for investors and innovators.
“I am not the kind of governor who delays proposals for months across ministries. Give me a two-minute presentation; if it’s solid, I can give you a decision immediately,” he said.
He said his proposed governance framework had already been broken down into measurable targets for the first 100 days, six months and one year in office, with community participation expected to play a central role in implementation.
