The intricately knitted personality, of Dr Olusegu Agagu, former Ondo State Governor  was largely a function of his public-life spanning ‘tutelage’ as Deputy Governor of the old Ondo State to becoming the Executive Governor of the ‘new’ Ondo State, as well as the interfacing period of national calls as two times Minister in the very sensitive sectors of aviation, power and steel!

One can safely conclude that it was the call to duty at the instance of politics that truly brought out his nature-embedded exceptional creative and constructive leadership quality, epitome of uncommon stewardship as a Chief-servant his rich vision, a team-player and an altruist, as the landmark achievements that pervaded his public life loudly and proudly bear witnesses!

To say Agagu was a visionary leader, a pace-setter, a team-player, an indestructible link-bridge and a binding force uniting hitherto irreconcilable entities, is actually to admit a pardonable ignorance of other suitable words to describe him!

The globally rated and celebrated Dangote Refinery and Petro-chemical industry which finally berthed few months ago in the Lagos-end of the Ondo-Ogun-Lagos common coastal border, bears a tragic-comedy witness to one of the visions conceived and developed by Dr Agagu, to transform the industrial, economic and human life of Ondo State and her people but tragically truncated by a successor whose high-point was window-dressing.

The multi-billion Dollar industry was initially conceived and designed to be sited at the famous but now moribund Olokola Free Trade and Export Processing Zone, in the Araromi Sea-side being developed in collaboration with Ogun State.

The morning after the passing on of Dr Agagu, Alhaji Dangote was one of the first mourners to visit the Ikoyi residence of the man of vision as if to “confirm” whether or not the owner of the vision had truly gone and was probably nursing in his mind what to follow. I was one of the few journalists on ground who spoke with Dangote, he however declined to comment on any other issue apart from the exit of the iconic leader.

The turn out of event has since proclaimed Dr Agagu was not just a visionary leader, but also a prophet.

The bitter lasting message from the above tragedy is that the people of Ondo State must wake up from their slumber and docility to begin to ask questions, as done by people in Ogun State, how we missed the golden opportunity, with the view to avoiding such looming catastrophe in the nearest future.

All may not be totally lost in this direction as Dr Agagu’s vision was not limited to the refinery, he was able to see even before millions of people today the wealth buried in the marine economy now being referred to as the Blue Economy. This Blue Economy vision was built around his policy to open up the Ondo coastal and -riverine economy through massive deployment of road and bridge infrastructure never done by any administration in the history of the state. The other side of his Blue Economy coin, was the creation of the long-dreamt Ondo Deep Sea Port at Igbokoda, which this generation of successors owe him to actualise.

With the establishment of the Federal Ministry of the Blue Economy, now is the time for Agagu’s political successors to use the regional platform of Wema Board and Development Agenda for Western Nigeria to reach out to the federal government for the development of the Deep Sea Port.

It is imperative to reveal that one of the aims of Dr Agagu’s Blue Economy vision then which till today is yet to be keyed into and tapped for the development of the state, is to reduce the Lagos tourism-hospitality traffic-jam by giving tourism investors an equally profitable alternative for then to build Five-star hotels and resort centres for retreat of national and international dimensions in the coastal hub of the state, where tourists could access using the coastal water-ways, without having anything to do with land roads. So just as the Deep Sea Port is envisaged to address frontally, the nightmare-cogestion at the Lagos Port has come to represent, he also had the vision to “decogest” the Lagos tourism grid-lock!

Vision no doubt remains the soul and blood that give life and further existence to a people, a state and a nation, the Bible too attested to this when the Scripture says, “My people perish for lack of vision” It is however a tragic irony that some leaders out of unpardonable ignorance or selfishness informed by viciousness not to allow their predecessors to out-shine them in performance, could consciously frustrate the actualisation of vision already released to the people and backed with the needed financial credit for its take-off and actualisation as it was the case with the abandoned Okitipupa Cassava Factory envisioned and kick-started by late Dr Agagu.

The factory apart from being designed to empowering several hundreds of small and medium scale cassava farmers across the state, was also billed to employ about 3,000 youths for a start. Is anyone still searching for the reason why crime rates among youths in the state is high? We could only better appreciate the evil done to youth employment if we take a comparative look at how the laudable effort of Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) in resuscitating the then moribund Okitipupa Oil Palm Plc, has today helped to wean several thousands of youths from crimes in the state.

Ten years after the exit of the visioner, I expect all admirers of Dr Agagu, especially would-be beneficiaries of those landmark projects of his vision that would have turned around their fortunes among which were Olokola, the abandoned Ode Aye-Igbotako road project, the abandoned Ikale-Ilaje linked bridge at Igboegurin, the Cassava factory, the Akure Water Works designed for 6 local government areas, to troop out to perform the ‘commissioning’ of these projects though physically invisible, but are visible in their consciousness and name them after Dr Agagu!

At this juncture, it is very important to put on record especially for the benefit of several thousands of students, graduates and parents who are enjoying the benefits of the now Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa, that today this would have been a mirage as it nearly fell victim of the mission to kill Agagu’s visions, but for the deafening and unrelenting public and media outcries that arose when on two occasions the National Universities Commission made moves to revoke the licence for failure to allow its take-off by the Olusegun Mimiko administration that took over from Agagu.

In life, at death and in death, Dr Agagu had proven he was a phenomenon of sort; an institution in leadership who successfully animated his visions, now dwelling among the people and are being transferred to succeeding generations through the Olusegun Agagu Foundation which is wiping tears from faces.

Indeed all his admirers, benefactors, followers and members of his family alike would be proud to write Dr Agagu’s Epitaph in the language of the famous Tanzanian-born pan-Africanist, Walter Rodney that “Every generation shall out of relative obscurity discover his destiny, either to fulfill or betray it”, because Olusegun regardless of his background, successfully discovered and fulfilled his destiny, not-withstanding the briefness of his sojourn here.

Fanoro, a journalist, is the National President, Congress for Rights of Yoruba Nationalities (CROYN).