Imagine a young man living in Ogun State. Every morning, he sees trailers carrying goods from factories not far from his home. He sees workers entering industrial estates, warehouses filled with products and companies doing serious business. Yet, after finishing school two years ago, he is still searching for a job. His mother runs a small business, his father is getting older, and sometimes he has to travel towards Lagos looking for the same opportunity that should exist close to home.
There is something uncomfortable about that picture. Ogun is one of Nigeria’s major industrial centres. The state has factories, industrial estates, agricultural land and the enormous advantage of sitting beside Lagos, the country’s biggest commercial market. Major companies manufacture their products here and new investments continue to come into the state. This is something Ogun should be proud of. But perhaps we have reached the point where we must ask a different question.
Instead of only asking how many factories we can attract, we should also ask how many Ogun families can feel the benefit of having those factories here.This is where Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, has an opportunity to introduce a different conversation.
His ITESIWAJU agenda identifies job creation and industrialisation as important priorities. Like every political programme, the important issue is not merely what is written on paper but how it can work in the everyday lives of the people.One practical starting point is surprisingly simple. Government should sit with the major industries operating across Ogun and ask them what skills they actually need.
Do they need welders, electricians, machine operators, refrigeration technicians, mechanics, food-processing technicians, software specialists or logistics workers? Once we know the answer, our technical colleges, vocational centres and skills programmes can begin training young people for opportunities that actually exist.For too long, we have sometimes measured youth empowerment by the number of people who attend a programme or receive certificates.
We announce that 5,000 or 10,000 young people have been trained and everybody goes home happy. But six months later, what happened to those young people? Training should lead somewhere.Imagine a young person completing technical training designed together with industries operating in Ogun.
During the programme, he spends some time inside a real factory as an apprentice. By the time he finishes, he does not only have a certificate. He has practical experience, contacts and a skill somebody is willing to pay for. That is the kind of connection Ogun needs.Yayi has publicly spoken about training 100,000 young people in digital skills and creating large numbers of jobs. Those are ambitious targets, and like every major proposal, they should be examined carefully. But the larger idea is important. Our young people do not simply need another empowerment ceremony.
They need a pathway from learning to earning.Government cannot employ everybody, and it should not pretend that it can. What government can do is help create an environment where businesses grow, industries employ more people and young people have skills that the market actually needs.There is another opportunity that we often overlook.
You do not have to work inside a factory to make money from a factory. Think about what a large company needs every day. It needs transportation, uniforms, food, packaging, cleaning, security, printing, repairs, technology and machine maintenance.
Around every successful factory there can be dozens, sometimes hundreds, of smaller businesses making money because that factory exists.Why should more Ogun businesses not become part of that chain? Imagine a tailor in Abeokuta who starts with three workers and eventually employs twenty because his company supplies uniforms to industries. Imagine a mechanic in Ota expanding his workshop because companies send vehicles to him for maintenance.
Imagine a young technology company providing software services to manufacturers. Imagine farmers supplying agricultural produce directly to food-processing companies instead of struggling to find buyers after harvest. This is how industrial wealth begins to move beyond factory gates and into ordinary homes.
Agriculture should be part of the same thinking. Ogun has large areas of agricultural land. Instead of always selling raw produce, more of what our farmers grow can be processed here. Cassava can become industrial starch and other products.
Tomatoes can be processed and packaged. Poultry can be processed locally. Agricultural produce can be stored, packaged and transported from within the state. Each additional stage creates another opportunity for somebody to earn a living.This is why Yayi’s professional and public-service experience is relevant to the discussion. Before his long political career, he worked as an accountant, auditor and tax consultant. He subsequently served in the Lagos State House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate and today chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations. That experience has placed him close to the difficult questions of public finance: where money comes from, what should receive priority and how limited resources can be used to achieve more.Creating jobs requires that kind of practical thinking. It cannot simply be achieved by shouting “jobs” at political rallies. Government must connect industries, schools, technical colleges, farmers, investors and small businesses. It must understand what already exists and identify the missing links.The present Ogun administration also deserves credit for strengthening the state’s position as an investment destination. Development should not mean abandoning everything a previous government started simply because another political chapter begins. What works should continue. What needs improvement should be improved. Ogun should not have to start again every four or eight years.The factories are already here. The land is here. The young people are here. The farmers are here.
The entrepreneurs are here. The real challenge is connecting them. Connect training to real opportunities. Connect farmers to processors. Connect small businesses to large companies. Connect our technical colleges to the skills industries actually require. Most importantly, connect the wealth being created in Ogun to more of the families who call Ogun home.Ultimately, the real success of industrialisation will not be another photograph of politicians cutting ribbons in front of a new factory.
It will be the young graduate who finally gets his first proper job, the tailor whose small shop becomes an employer, the farmer who finds a dependable buyer and the apprentice who becomes a skilled technician.Ogun already has many of the factories. The next big challenge is making sure that more of the opportunities created inside those factory gates find their way into the homes of ordinary people.
That is the conversation about jobs and industrialisation that Yayi has placed on the table, and it is one that deserves serious examination as Ogun considers its next chapter.
Lekan Odunlami
Michael Lekan Odunlami, Esq., is a legal practitioner based in Lagos. He writes on public affairs, governance and politics, with particular interest in Ogun State politics and issues affecting the everyday lives of the people. He can be reached at [email protected].
