Being the text of the inauguration speech delivered by His Excellency, Mr Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, on the occasion of his inauguration for the second term as the fourth elected governor of Ekiti State, Nigeria. Ekiti Parapo Pavilion | Ado-Ekiti | Friday, October 16, 2026
Ekiti Kete!
1. A moment ago, my Deputy, Chief Mrs Christiana Monisade Afuye, and I took our Oath of Office for the second term as Deputy Governor and Governor, respectively. Four years ago, I stood on this sacred podium to perform same duty in the presence of God and you, the great people of Ekiti.
2. First, let me express my gratitude to God for His abiding presence with us throughout our first term in office and for His grace upon us to have been able to serve diligently to the satisfaction of the good people of Ekiti, who, through their overwhelming electoral decision on June 20, 2026, enthusiastically gave us an affirmative mandate to proceed to the second term with an unprecedented 85.7% of total vote cast.
3. Four years ago, we stood on this same ground and asked for your trust. Today, I stand before you with gratitude for that trust and a deeper understanding of the responsibility it carries.
4. For behind every vote is a human expectation.
5. There is the farmer who needs a good road to take his harvest to market. There is the pensioner who has served faithfully and deserves peace of mind in retirement. There is the young graduate who wants an opportunity to put years of learning to work. There is the trader hoping that a day’s sales will meet the needs waiting at home.
6. There are parents whose greatest prayer is that their children will have a better life than they have had.
7. These are the hopes entrusted to us. These are the lives our decisions must improve.
8. We receive your renewed mandate with humility and a solemn determination to justify it.
9. You encouraged us when the work was difficult. You corrected us when you believed we could do better. You reminded us, in countless ways, that leadership is a duty to people whose lives continue long after the speeches have ended.
10. We have heard you. And we will continue to listen.
11. In 2022, we promised to keep Ekiti working: to complete projects we inherited, pursue the priorities in our development plan and govern in partnership with you.
12. We have worked hard to honour that promise.
13. Today, we begin another chapter. Our task is to turn the foundations we have laid into opportunities people can seize, livelihoods they can sustain and prosperity that families can feel.
14. I am profoundly grateful to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CON, for their support for Ekiti State. Mr President has been a strong pillar of support to our administration. I can say without any fear of contradiction that in our 30-year history as a State, no President has been this good to Ekiti kete. Our partnership with the Federal Government has helped us advance important projects and meet pressing obligations. We will continue to pursue that partnership in the interest of our people going forward.
15. I also thank my spiritual parents, Pastor Enoch Adeboye and Pastor (Mrs.) Folu Adeboye, for their prayers, counsel and encouragement at all times.
16. I honour those who have borne the responsibility of governing Ekiti State before me: HEs Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Erelu Angela Adebayo, HEs Mr Peter Ayodele Fayose and Mrs Feyisetan Fayose, HEs Chief Segun Oni and Mrs Olukemi Oni, HEs Dr Kayode Fayemi, my predecessor in office, my leader, teacher and mentor. To H.E. Erelu Bisi Fayemi; I am very grateful for being a stabilizer and for standing by me at all times.
17. Each administration has added something to the story of Ekiti. Our responsibility is to preserve what serves our people, improve what needs improvement and carry the work forward.
18. Our political differences must never become obstacles to our common progress. Elections may place us in different camps; the welfare of Ekiti must always bring us to the same table. On the strength of the above, I commend Dr. Wole Oluyede, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Governorship candidate, Ambassador Dare Bejide, the Governorship candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Isaac Alade of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Chief Joseph Anifowoshe of the Allied People Movement (APM) for their spirit of sportsmanship.
The foundations we have laid
19. Four years ago, we adopted six pillars to guide our administration: governance; youth development and job creation; human capital development; agriculture and rural development; infrastructure and industrialisation; and arts, culture and tourism.
20. Each pillar addressed a practical question: how can government help our people live better?
21. We have made progress.
22. Our internally generated revenue has grown by more than 60%, strengthening our capacity to fund public services. We have kept salaries and pensions current and paid more than ₦19 billion in outstanding gratuities and N73b in pensions.
23. Behind that figure are men and women who gave their working years to Ekiti. There are families relieved of a long burden, retirees able to meet important needs and people reassured that their service has not been forgotten.
24. A worker’s salary sustains a household. A pension protects dignity. A gratuity honours years of service. We must continue to treat these obligations with the seriousness they deserve.
25. Across the State, we have built and improved roads connecting communities, farms and markets. We have advanced the Ekiti State International Cargo Airport, expanded electricity access and invested in infrastructure that can support businesses for years to come.
26. Some of these projects began before our administration. We carried them forward because the money invested in them belongs to the people, and the benefits must reach them.
27. Continuity is a duty we owe to every taxpayer.
28. In healthcare, we have renovated and equipped primary health facilities and general hospitals, improved facilities at Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital and recruited more health workers with enhanced condition of service to reduce attrition.
29. Through Ulerawa (our Health Insurance Scheme), residents have received essential health services closer to home. We have also invested in newborn care, medicine storage and additional hospital capacity.
30. These investments must be judged by the experience of the patient: the mother seeking safe delivery, the child needing urgent treatment, the elderly person requiring care.
31. A hospital fulfils its purpose when the person who enters it finds skilled hands, essential medicines and compassionate attention. That is the standard we must keep pursuing.
32. In agriculture, we have cleared land, established farm clusters and created opportunities for young people to earn a living from production. Our livestock programme has demonstrated what becomes possible when training, infrastructure and a reliable market come together.
33. The livestock processing hub under development along Iworoko Road will extend those opportunities into processing, cold storage and other businesses.
34. We have improved schools, provided learning facilities and equipment, strengthened technical colleges and supported our tertiary institutions.
35. We have also invested in surveillance and supplied operational vehicles and equipment to security agencies. The farmer must be able to work in safety. The trader must be able to travel with confidence. Families must be able to sleep in peace. Security will continue to command our attention.
36. Three days ago, I presented a fuller account of our stewardship to the Ekiti State House of Assembly. Today, I want to speak chiefly about the work ahead.
37. We have achievements to build upon. We also have needs yet to be met, difficulties yet to be overcome and citizens who are still waiting to feel the benefits of our progress.
38. Their expectations are part of our unfinished work.
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Making progress count
39. Ekiti Kete, the measure of our second term will be how much the investments we have made improve the lives of our people.
40. A road must help a farmer reach a buyer before the harvest spoils. Electricity must catalyse industrialisation and productivity, help a welder complete a job, a tailor meet an order and a small business keep its doors open. A school must help a child acquire knowledge, confidence and functional skills.
41. Our airport must help open markets and bring visitors and investment. Our health facilities must help people receive care without exhausting everything they have.
42. Government’s work acquires its fullest meaning when it makes life better in the home.
43. I know that many families are under pressure. The cost of food, transport, education and other necessities weighs heavily on household incomes. For a parent struggling to provide, progress must be something practical: a better chance to earn, a public service that works, a burden made lighter.
44. We must bring that understanding to every policy and every expenditure.
45. The prosperity we seek must spread through daily life: more productive farms, stronger businesses, useful skills, decent work and greater security for families.
46. It must allow people to plan beyond the next meal and face tomorrow with confidence.
Turning knowledge into opportunity
47. Ekiti is the land of knowledge. We treasure that inheritance.
48. Our parents made sacrifices to educate us. Many sold the produce of their farms, postponed their own comforts and worked beyond their strength so that their children could go to school.
49. We must honour those sacrifices by helping education deliver its promise.
50. A young person who has studied hard should have a fair opportunity to build a livelihood. In this second term, we will connect education more closely to enterprise, practical skills and the needs of a changing economy. This is the vision behind the Ekiti Knowledge Zone (EKZ) where construction is currently ongoing.
51. We will support technology, innovation and the responsible use of artificial intelligence. We will encourage our institutions and businesses to solve real problems, develop useful products and prepare our young people for emerging opportunities.
52. We must also give practical skills the respect they deserve.
53. The trained electrician who makes a building safe, the mechanic who keeps vehicles moving, the carpenter who produces durable furniture and the technician who maintains essential equipment all contribute to our prosperity.
54. Our children must grow up knowing that honest, skilled work carries dignity.
55. Ekiti needs people who can think deeply, make things well and turn ideas into enterprises. We must create greater room for all of them to succeed.
Making the land yield more
56. Our land remains one of our greatest assets. In the years ahead, we must grow more, process more and earn more from what Ekiti produces.
57. Farm clusters, processing facilities, dependable power, water and transport must work together. Farmers need access to the means of production, cheap capital and a dependable path to the market.
58. A good harvest should bring reward to the person who laboured for it.
59. We want our young people to see agriculture as a serious business: a field for knowledge, technology, investment and innovation.
60. Beyond cultivation, there are opportunities in storage, processing, packaging, transport and sales. Every additional step we undertake here can create work and retain more value in Ekiti.
61. When agriculture prospers, the benefits travel: from the farm to the market, from the market to the workshop, and from the workshop to the family home.
62. We will pursue reliable power for industry and enterprise, including the infrastructure needed along the Special Agricultural Processing Zone corridor.
63. We will work with the Federal Government to complete ongoing electricity transmission projects and examine viable opportunities to generate, transmit and distribute more power within the State. We will continue to improve water, health and transport infrastructure where they serve communities and unlock investment.
64. Our ambition is an Ekiti where more people can start a business, sustain it and employ others.
Creating opportunity across Ekiti
65. Our arts, culture and tourism also have an important place in this future.
66. Our hills, springs, landscapes, history and creative traditions are resources we can develop thoughtfully. When visitors come, farmers supply food, artisans sell their work, drivers provide transport, hotels receive guests and young people find employment.
67. We must make it easier for visitors to travel, stay and experience the richness of our Land.
68. As we pursue these opportunities, growth must reach beyond Ado-Ekiti into our towns, villages and farm settlements.
69. A young person’s address should not determine the limits of their ambition.
70. We must create greater room for women entrepreneurs, traders, artisans, people with disabilities and young people whose abilities exceed the opportunities available to them.
71. Every part of Ekiti has something to contribute. Our task is to help more of that potential flourish.
72. And we will continue to attend to the everyday duties on which public confidence rests: schools where children learn, clinics where patients receive care, safe communities, prompt payment of workers and pensioners, and careful stewardship of public money.
73. Every naira entrusted to government must be treated as money earned through someone’s effort and sacrifice.
The work we must do together
74. Government has a duty to create conditions in which people can thrive. Our collective progress will also depend on what we each bring to the work.
75. I call on our public servants to remember the person behind every file: the retiree awaiting payment, the entrepreneur seeking a decision, the family needing a service.
76. Promptness matters. Courtesy matters. Fairness matters. A needless delay in an office can become a serious hardship in a home.
77. I call on our business community to invest with confidence and help create opportunities for others. I call on our institutions of learning to deepen their connection with the needs of our society.
78. I call on our communities to protect public facilities and take pride in the assets we share.
79. To our young people: your energy, imagination and enterprise are essential to Ekiti’s future. We will work to widen your opportunities. I ask you to prepare yourselves to use them—with discipline, skill, integrity and the courage to begin.
80. To Ekiti sons and daughters across Nigeria and in the diaspora: keep bringing your knowledge, experience, investment and networks home. There is work here that your contribution can help accomplish.
81. I know the task ahead is enormous, but it is now a familiar turf. With God’s guidance and you by our side, I know that we will not walk alone. Ekiti-Kete, we will do this together. Together with you, our dream of shared prosperity will be achieved.
82. Ekiti Kete, this second mandate brings a greater responsibility to deliver.
83. I know that public trust must be earned afresh every day. I will remain accessible. I will listen. I will welcome honest counsel and work with people across our political and social divides.
84. Where we have done well, we will build further. Where we have fallen short, we will make corrections. Where our people still face hardship, we will keep seeking practical answers.
85. Four years ago, we set out to keep Ekiti working.
86. In the four years ahead, we must make sure that our work yield more for our people.
87. Let the farmer find a market and receive a fair reward.
88. Let the young person find a path from learning to earning.
89. Let the entrepreneur find the power and confidence to invest.
90. Let every child find a school that prepares them for life.
91. Let the sick find care, and let those who have served our state grow old with dignity.
92. Above all, let more families be able to say: our effort is bearing fruit; our children have a future; our lives are getting better.
93. That is the promise at the heart of this new term.
94. That is the Ekiti we must build together.
A word on the upcoming general elections
95. Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, in another three months we will be going to the polls to elect a new President, representatives in the National and State Assemblies. Ekiti State is tied to whatever goes on at the national level, and these elections have crucial implications for us.
96. As you all know, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and His Excellency Senator Kashim Shettima, GCON, will be seeking re-election on the platform of the APC. This election is even more crucial to the future of our State. We need them not only to win, but to win BIG in Ekiti. Our State has never had it so good under any presidential authority in terms of project execution and federal interventions. As of now, two major roads that are at the centre of national traffic to Ekiti, Itawure-Aramoko-Igede-Ado-Ekiti Road and the Ado-Ijan-Ilumooba- Ijesa-Isu-Ikole Road have been awarded and contractors are on site, while Akure-Ado is ongoing. This is in addition to other projects and interventions in the State by the Federal Government and the Office of the First Lady; Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CON.
97. All these projects are critical to our economic progress but their eventual completion is tied to their re-election. We should also vote for the candidates of APC in both National and State Assembly positions for us to retain the climate of political stability we currently enjoy. I therefore want to passionately appeal to all Ekiti home and abroad to take the election very personally and turn out in unprecedented numbers to cast your votes for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Mr. President to ensure the continuity of good governance in our dear State.
Appreciation
98. As I conclude my remarks, I sincerely thank every son and daughter of Ekiti, at home and abroad, our highly revered royal fathers, market women, men and women of faith, and the electorate in general, for entrusting us with your mandate. I know the enormity of expectations you have of us to immediately hit the ground running, right from now.
99. I thank H.E. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, the Vice President Sen. Kashim Shettima, GCON, the Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, GCON, Deputy Senate President; Senator Barau Jibrin, CFR, the Senate Leader, Sen. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, National Assembly members, and all members of the Federal Executive Council. Many appreciations to the National Chairman of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, and the National Working Committee members and other APC leaders. Gratitude to the Chairman, Ekiti 2026 Governorship Election Committee and Governor of KadunaState, H.E, Governor Uba Sanniand his Committee members, thanks to the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, H.E. Governor AbdulRahmanAbduRasaq and other members of the Forum; their Excellencies, Members of the Progressives Governors’ Forum under the chairmanship of H.E Hope Uzodinma, former Governors, Deputy Governors, National Assembly members, past and present members of Ekiti State House of Assembly as well as the Chairman of APC Ekiti State, Barrister Sola Elesin and members of the State Working Committee, the Ekiti APC Women CampaignCouncil, the Ekiti APC Youth CampaignCouncil, and our party members across Ekiti State. I thank you all for building our party into a strong and credible platform, and for your support in making this day a reality.
100. I must also acknowledge the immense support of our revered Royal Fathers; The Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja the II, the Ewi of Ado-Ekiti who is our landlord, for his encouragement and cooperation. I thank His Royal Highness, Dr. Mohammed Sani Haliru Dantoro, Emir of Borgu. I also salute the unconditional love shown by other Royal Fathers across the State under the Chairmanship of HRH Oba Adejimi Adu Alagbado, the Ogoga of Ikere-Ekiti. To Captains of Industry, Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers, Business Community, religious leaders, various Independent Campaign Groups, Labour and Trade Unions, Pensioners, Artisans and informal sector players, market women, People Living with Disabilities (PLWD), Community Development Associations (CDAs), and Town Unions, EKiti State University (EKSU) Alumni Association and our people in the Diaspora, I am very grateful.
101. I am also grateful to Aare Afe Babalola CON, SAN…, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, Aremo Segun Osoba, Chief Bisi Akande and Chief Pius Akinyelure for their support at all times. To my co-contestants – Dr. Wole Oluyede of People Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Dare Bejide of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Isaac Alade of Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Chief Joseph Anifowose of Allied People’s Movement (APM). I offer my sincere appreciation and I also extend my hands of fellowship going forward.
102. Special appreciation to my wife, and the First Lady of Ekiti State, Prof. Olayemi Oyebanji, for being a great source of support and comfort. I am also grateful to our children, my Dad, my mother-in-law, family members for their support, sacrifices and encouragement. My appreciation to my Deputy, Chief Mrs Christiana Monisade Afuye, for being a reliable partner in service. I thank the former members of Ekiti State Executive Council, all former political appointees who served with me and were part of the success story of the first tenure.
103. I use this opportunity to welcome the continued support of Investors, Development Partners and Ekiti Kete all over Nigeria and in the Diaspora. Ekiti is still very open to business, has an enabling institutional framework that will ensure prudence, diligence and accountability in all obligations.
104. Ekiti Kete, let us make progress count—for every community, for every generation and for every home.
105. God bless Ekiti State.
106. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
107. Thank you all for listening.
108. God bless Ekiti State! God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
‘Biodun Oyebanji
Governor, Ekiti State, Nigeria
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