Dear Arakunrin,
I will like to begin this appreciative letter by stating that it has always been strange to address you without the full compliments of your office. Your humility confounds me. You are a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), a blessed, intellectual, a well celebrated man who insists on being called Arakunrin without more. The more I think about this, the more I appreciate you for the foresight to know that being a good man, one filled with the milk of human kindness; a man whose word is his bond is all we need at this time.
Arakunrin, I write, not to dwell on titles, and your stance on them, but to thank you for being the proper omoluabi that Ondo State chose, and therefore deserve. You are, as your followers like to describe you, a real ‘talk and do’ Governor.
On the 5th day of June, year 2018, you visited linyi city in the province of Shandong in China on the invitation of the Mayor of the province as facilitated by a company indigenous to Ondo State- Klick Konnect Networks Intl. Ltd. During the trip, you professed your deep desire to see Ondo State industrialized. You expressed your determination to see Ondo State return to the days where Industrialization was real, and was not just a word that politicians used carelessly. You expressed that you wanted jobs for your people, you wanted infrastructure, wanted collaborations, wanted a better livelihood for the people of Ondo State, that you wanted knowledge transfer, and that you were impressed with the developments in the Linyi province and you want these replicated for your people.
Your passion, enthusiasm, ingenuity and leadership birthed the Ondo-Linyi bi-city relationship. I recalled that you told the owners of industries in Linyi city of the province Shandong of The Peoples Republic of China that they were welcome to invest in Ondo State, and that should they choose to come, they could count on the support of the government of Ondo State, and bank on your personal integrity.
I write to thank you for delivering so excellently on your promises within the first two years of your administration.
The most recent, and the most significant development is that thanks to your personal intervention, Ondo-Linyi Industrial Hub, and their entire host community have just been electrified: this is very significant to the host community who have had no electricity for close to two decades, and it is also significant to the Linyi investors who had relied on self-generated, expensive sources to power their equipment.
How many leaders would give this course the kind of doggedness that you gave it Sir? Especially seeing that electricity is not the responsibility of the state to provide. Yet, you didn’t leave the investors to dry. Like you promised, you intervened personally and assisted in insisting that the electricity issue is sorted. Finally, thanks to you, the Ondo-Linyi Industrial Hub is connected, and the real journey to full-scale industrialization can now begin.
Your support goes way further than electrification Sir. I also recall the other incentives that the government of Ondo State under your leadership made available to the Linyi investors. You inspired the establishment of a wood processing factory that now produces HDF and MDF; the first of its kind in Nigeria! Because of you Sir, Ondo State now has a large scale cassava-to-ethanol factory, and our people now farm Cassava lucratively, as the factory can conveniently off-take all our cassava. This is good for our youths and our women as well. You have brought hope to our farmers and put an end to post-harvest loss of Cassava.
Because of you Sir, Ondo now has a large-scale paper mill, and books and other writing materials now cost far less.
Thanks to you Sir, a large scale textile factory that already produces threads and will begin to produce our popular fabrics by the end of the year has begun full operations, with a workforce that consists of mainly our women. Empowering our women Sir, has impacted their families positively. The textile industry has come alive in Ondo State, and it is set to attract patronage from within and outside Nigeria in particular and Africa as a whole.
Because of you Sir, Ondo now has its own manufacturer of large-scale Agro-chemicals; another plus for our farmers and for agriculture in the South-West.
Because of you Sir, a milk factory and an automobile factory will be settling into the Ondo-Linyi Industrial Hub before the end of this year.
Because of you our dear governor, Ondo State indigenes have been empowered in their thousands. The spillover effect has brought empowerment to transport and logistics operators, the banking sector, technicians, caterers, suppliers of raw materials, cleaners, welders, carpenters, traders, and many other beneficiaries. Our IGR is at an all-time high and you have made a very loud statement that Ondo is open for business!
Under your leadership Sir, these factories along with two others in our great state have acquired the Mancap certification- a seal of good quality, and an attestation of the export-grade standards of the goods coming out of Ondo State. This is another first from the stable of Arakunrin. Don’t be surprised Sir, that whenever you visit any nation in Africa, made in Ondo products may have arrived there ahead of you.
Because of you, the Linyi investors have shown reciprocity by engaging in very strong community social responsibility. They have put infrastructure such as transformers in place to ensure steady, stable electricity supply, free of charge to host communities. They have provided portable water to their host communities. They have employed massively from the host communities. They are training and transferring knowledge far beyond their host communities and they have assisted in providing critical infrastructure within and beyond their host communities.
Because of you, many more investors are set to throng our space from the Linyi Province and from other corners of the world. Investor confidence is at an all time high at a time when the world is conservative about investing in Africa. It takes good leadership to stand out. Thank you for being at the forefront of exemplary leadership our dear Arakunrin!
Finally, I thank you for putting so much faith in an indigenous company- Klick Konnect Networks Intl. Ltd to drive and manage the Ondo-Linyi Industrial Hub. Your integrity has lessened what would have otherwise been a very daunting challenge, and because of you, we have recorded so much success and experienced continental, even global recognition. We get lots of invitations from African leaders to come to their countries to replicate what is being done in Ondo State.
Thank you for giving us space to grow, and expectations to live up to. If the buck stops at your table, then the credit should as well, Sir.
Thank you for leading aright and for assembling a core, investor-friendly team who have caught your vision and are running with it.
Thank you, Arakunrin for being the poster ‘boy’ of integrity, diligence and exemplary leadership. May we be blessed to have you lead us further into a higher place of economic prosperity!
Yours sincerely,
Alex Ajipe
CEO/Managing Consultant
Klick Konnect Networks Int’l Ltd.
