AAC Candidate Promises N5 Billion Mining Revenue for Osun

In this interview, Olajide Esan, the African Action Congress governorship candidate in Osun State, talks with Ayoola Babalola about his plans. He wants to reduce reliance on federal funds, create jobs through agriculture, mining, and technology, promote transparency, tackle insecurity, and show voters that AAC is a real alternative to the main political parties in the state.

"I appreciate the opportunity to speak directly from the heart of our Covenant with the People of Osun (manifesto). This is not a document of empty promises, it is our shared roadmap built on five transformative pillars to restore power to the people, defend the masses, and build a self-reliant Osun." Osun has depended too much on federal money while our resources remain untapped. In our covenant, we will create a truly self-sustaining economy by unlocking the productive potential within our state. We will set up the Osun State Investment Bank to manage revenues wisely, invest in key sectors, and provide venture capital for promising startups. One key part of this vision is our Osun Agro-Trade Economic Plan, which will turn Osun into an agricultural powerhouse and trading hub of the Southwest. We will create specialized farmer clusters for important crops like cocoa, cassava, and maize, helping our farmers thrive and trade freely within our borders. This will strengthen value chains, boost food security, reduce reliance on outside supplies, and naturally grow our internally generated revenue through increased agricultural output and active intra-state commerce. By mining our gold responsibly in Ilesha, we aim for N5 billion annually in IGR through the Osun Mining Development Corporation and 13% derivation, with profits reinvested locally for the benefit of our people. We will also create a tri-hub ecosystem, Automobile Village, Electronics Hub, and IT/Tech Hub, to drive real economic activity and connect with our agro-trade initiatives. This is how we reduce reliance on Abuja: by making Osun productive through agriculture, trade, responsible resource use, and innovation, creating shared prosperity for every family without putting too much pressure on our hardworking citizens.

Agriculture is crucial for our rural people, yet it has been ignored. My administration will transform it into a key driver of employment and industrial growth. We will create specialized farmer clusters across Osun for crops like cocoa, cassava, and maize, allowing free trade within our borders and strengthening value chains for food security. We will link farming directly to our industrial hubs for processing and adding value. Farmers and cooperatives will have access to low-cost credit through Credit Union Banks, empowerment grants, and the Youth Innovation Fund. Mining revenues will be reinvested into rural roads, schools, and health facilities. Our farmers will feed Osun and earn higher incomes while our youths will see agribusiness as a respectable career. Osun will once again be the agricultural heart of the Southwest.

Our young people are talented but underemployed, and many move to Lagos looking for opportunities. That will change under our leadership. My plan focuses on economic growth. We will establish the Osun IT/Tech Hub at Fakunle in Osogbo, a state-funded project with free training in coding, software development, AI, robotics, UI/UX, data analytics, cybersecurity, and digital entrepreneurship. Partnering with OAU, UNIOSUN, and other schools, it will have modern labs, incubators, and mentors, creating 8,000 to 12,000 direct jobs in just three years. We will also create the Osun Automobile Village with training schools for mechanics and spare parts, along with an Electronics Hub for gadgets and renewable energy, and train over 5,000 youths in responsible mining. To tackle our infrastructure problems while creating lasting jobs, we will launch the Youth Infrastructure Corps. This program will focus on youths aged 18 to 35, especially civil engineers, artisans, and other skilled young people. Through structured training and partnerships with local and foreign experts, participants will get hands-on certification in modern construction techniques, project management, and infrastructure maintenance. They will work across the state to build and maintain roads, rural facilities, water systems, industrial hubs, and other critical projects, earning stipends during training and good wages after deployment. Our Subcontractors Program will prioritize local Osun youths and small businesses, particularly those led by young civil engineers and artisans aged 18 to 35, as subcontractors on major state projects. This will ensure that contracts for roads, facilities, and developments go directly to our people, building local capacity, creating thousands of additional jobs, and keeping wealth circulating within Osun instead of leaking to outsiders. The Youth Innovation Fund, micro-loans via Credit Unions, and agribusiness support will empower entrepreneurship. Our youths aged 18-35 will stay in Osun, earn good livelihoods in technology, entrepreneurship, agriculture, small-scale industries, and large-scale infrastructure development, not just survive but thrive and shape the future of our state.

Education is key for progress. We will tackle teacher shortages and infrastructure gaps by linking quality education to our economic hubs. The IT/Tech Hub will offer free, impactful skills training in partnership with our universities and polytechnics. Mining and hub-generated revenues will be reinvested into schools and learning facilities through community agreements. Every child born in Osun will receive N10,000 seed capital in the Osun Child Trust Fund (Child Future Investment Portfolio), invested until age 18 to support education, vocational training, or entrepreneurship. We will use the Comprehensive Citizens’ Database for better planning and resource allocation. Our graduates will be competitive globally because they will have strong foundations combined with practical digital, technical, and entrepreneurial skills.

Healthcare access, especially in rural areas, needs improvement, and our governance will focus on welfare. We will provide African-rooted healthcare and expand rural facilities by reinvesting IGR from mining, tech, and agriculture. The Ministry of Citizens’ Rights will protect vulnerable groups, ensure fair access to services, and tackle health-related injustices. The Child Trust Fund and Credit Union Banks will support healthcare needs sustainably. My personal promise is clear: I will dedicate my entire salary as governor to the regular, dignified care of our senior citizens. This model is financially sustainable because it is based on increased productivity and transparent spending, reaching the weakest among us without waste or elite capture.

Infrastructure is key to our fifth pillar: Standard Infrastructure and Manufacturing Development. My top three priorities are one, roads and connectivity linking agricultural clusters, industrial hubs, mining areas in Ilesha, and rural communities; two, top-notch facilities for the tri-hub ecosystem, including high-speed internet and labs at the IT/Tech Hub; three, rural water supply, schools, and health centres. We will fund them through increased IGR, especially the N5bn target from responsible mining, the Osun State Investment Bank, and strategic investments, without piling on new debt. We will ensure maintenance through transparent public dashboards and community oversight, so the infrastructure serves generations, not just one administration.

Security challenges, especially in rural and border areas, need proactive solutions based on intelligence and prevention instead of just reaction. As a geographer trained in spatial analysis and Geographic Information Systems, I have a unique strength for this. My administration will introduce tech-driven security that uses location-based data to build a solid, modern security system for Osun State. We will integrate GIS platforms and spatial analysis tools, drawing from the skills and innovations produced in our Osun IT/Tech Hub, to create detailed crime mapping, hotspot identification, vulnerability assessments, and real-time monitoring of high-risk areas like border communities, mining zones, farmlands, and major transport routes. By using location-based information, we can predict patterns, deploy resources effectively, strengthen local intelligence networks, and enable rapid, targeted responses that protect lives and property better. We will also have responsible mining security to reclaim areas from illegal activities, combined with community involvement through strengthened traditional rulers and regular consultative meetings. By creating jobs, reducing poverty, and building unity across faiths, we tackle the root causes of insecurity while using data to keep our people, farmers, traders, students, and families, safe at home, on their farms, and throughout the state.

Radical transparency is essential. Beyond the public finance website with real-time dashboards of budgets, allocations, and expenditures, where citizens can ask about spending and report issues, we will introduce deeper reforms. We will build a Comprehensive Citizens’ Database for accurate records and fraud-free benefit distribution. The Ministry of Citizens’ Rights will defend the weak against abuse of power and address judicial injustices. Regular community meetings with traditional rulers will prevent elite capture. In our government, no one will be above the law, every kobo will be accounted for, and the people will see it.

AAC believes power truly belongs to the people. We will change governance by strengthening the advisory roles of traditional rulers and creating regular public and community forums for real input into decisions. The Citizens’ Database and transparent finance tools will give grassroots communities real control over development priorities. Local governments will become active centres of decision-making, ensuring development meets the needs of our people at the ward and village levels, not just orders from Osogbo or Abuja.

AAC is a movement fighting against systemic oppression and elite capture. My candidacy brings this idea into practical governance by rejecting recycled politicians and vote-buying. In the first four years of an AAC-led Osun, you will see a functional Citizens’ Database, thriving tri-hubs creating thousands of jobs, responsible mining generating real revenue for our families, an active Ministry of Citizens’ Rights, and the Child Trust Fund supporting every child. Osun will become a self-reliant state of cultural pride, with Omoluabi festivals and GreenAcre parks, where power is restored to the masses, not hoarded by a few.

The major parties have structures, but they have used them to worsen poverty and recycle failure. Our strategy is simple yet powerful: we focus on ideas instead of inducements. We will engage directly with youths, farmers, workers, and elders through community visits, forums, and voter education. We will show the people the difference, our detailed, people-centred Covenant versus their same old stories. Change will come from the grassroots.

Vote-buying makes citizens temporary slaves and must end. Our campaign will focus on voter education to remind our people that true development comes from service and competence, not bags of rice or money. We will expose manipulation wherever it occurs and insist on voting based on issues. The system may have conditioned us to expect inducements, but together we can break that cycle and choose leaders who truly serve.

The realignment among the old parties shows one thing: the same faces and structures recycling power cannot bring change. It strengthens our message, voters deserve a real alternative outside the establishment. We will use this moment to show how their alliances still serve elite interests, while our Covenant offers real solutions on jobs, transparency, welfare, and resources. Osun people are wise; they will choose the credible path of revolution over the rotation of failure.

The Ministry of Citizens’ Rights will be the heartbeat of our people-focused governance. In practice, it will fight for fair compensation for workers, protect the vulnerable from oppression, and coordinate targeted welfare through the Citizens’ Database to stop fraud. It will work with Credit Unions, empowerment funds, and the Child Trust Fund to deliver dignity and support. Ordinary citizens, mothers, farmers, artisans, elders, will feel the direct impact through better access to services, justice, and support. This is governance that defends the masses, not one that manages them from afar.

I am 39, a product of the same young demographic I seek to empower. We will not treat young people as mere voters but as active builders of governance. Through free training in the IT/Tech Hub, the Youth Innovation Fund, and inclusion in community forums, youths will gain skills and platforms to influence policy. They will lead as entrepreneurs, innovators, and decision-makers in our hubs, clusters, and mining ventures. The energy of our youth will drive Osun’s future.

If elected, Osun will become a shining example for AAC’s national agenda. By showing that a state can achieve independence, transparency, massive job creation, and grassroots power without heavy federal reliance, we will inspire other states. Success here, in responsible resource use, welfare, and people-focused governance, will demonstrate that real change is possible from the grassroots. Osun will light the way to a new Nigeria where power truly belongs to the people.

Osun is rich in traditions and religious diversity. We will respect and integrate them fully. I personally pledge to promote unity and reconciliation among Christians, Muslims, and Traditionalists so we solve problems together. We will strengthen traditional rulers’ roles in governance and promote cultural pride through Omoluabi festivals and GreenAcre parks. Our progressive policies will be rooted in African values and the Omoluabi ethos of integrity and virtue, ensuring harmony while advancing development.

Voters deserve measurable results, not empty words. In our first four years, citizens should judge us on clear targets: creation of 8,000, 12,000 direct jobs from the IT/Tech Hub plus many more from other hubs and mining (with over 5,000 youths trained); N5bn annual IGR from responsible mining and overall revenue growth; a fully functional Citizens’ Database and transparent finance website; an active Ministry of Citizens’ Rights; seeded Child Trust Fund for every child; visible rural infrastructure improvements; and reduced reliance on federal allocations through diverse growth. Most importantly, judge us by whether power has shifted to the people, whether governance serves and protects the masses instead of oppressing them. This Covenant is ours together. Let us rise and build the prosperous, just, and self-reliant Osun we all deserve.