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When his Excellency, the Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel, assumed office in 2003, Ogun State’s civil service was operating in what can best be described as a mechanical administrative age. In many ministries and departments, typewriters were still the dominant work tools. Files moved physically from table to table. Records were stored in paper heavy archives. ICT, as a working governance tool, was almost absent from daily administrative reality.
This is not second hand history to me. These were scenes I encountered repeatedly while following governance activities across the state in those early years. The civil servants were experienced, committed and hardworking, but the system itself had not evolved technologically. It was clear that without deliberate intervention, Ogun State risked falling behind in an increasingly digital Nigeria.
What followed over the next eight years was not sudden or dramatic on the surface. It was structured. It was deliberate. It was layered. And it was driven by the clear conviction of his Excellency, the Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel, that governance in the 21st century must be technology enabled.
From policy meetings to implementation briefings, a consistent theme emerged. ICT would not be treated as decoration. It would be treated as development infrastructure. That policy shift alone changed how ministries began to think about service delivery.
The first phase focused on building internal government digital backbone. Public Service Network structures began to emerge. Digital communication frameworks started replacing purely manual memo systems. Gradually, ministries that once operated in isolation began moving toward shared data environments.
But the real momentum came when the vision found strong operational drivers. Around 2007, Soji Akin Bankole stepped into a critical role as consultant on ICT after the tenure of Mr. Folorunso Ali, he also doubled as Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Gbenga Daniel. From that dual strategic position, coordination between policy vision and execution structure became more seamless.
In his capacity as consultant on ICT, structural digital penetration into government became more aggressive. A Gateway ICT computer assembly initiative was established, through which tens of thousands of computers and over a thousand laptops were assembled, distributed and maintained across ministries and parastatals.
This was not just about supplying machines. It was about changing work culture. Civil servants who had never worked on computers were suddenly required to adapt. Training programmes became necessary. Change management became real.
At the infrastructure level, wide area networking architecture began to centralize data movement across government. Information stopped being trapped within individual offices. Decision making cycles became shorter. Information retrieval became faster. For a system coming from paper dependency, this was a major shift.
Education became another major battlefront. The Ogun SchoolNet project pushed computer laboratories into secondary schools across the state. For thousands of students, that was their first physical interaction with a computer system. The long term implication was clear. The next generation of Ogun workforce would be digitally aware from early learning stages.
The ICT expansion did not stop at basic education. The push toward ICT tertiary training led to accreditation processes for four ICT polytechnics within the state. The goal was long term capacity sustainability.
Ogun State would not only consume technology. It would produce skilled manpower to support it.
There were also quieter but equally critical backend reforms. Collaboration with the Bureau of Lands moved land data gradually toward GPS supported digital mapping concepts. Engagement with revenue authorities supported early digital tax identity framework thinking. Payroll digitization efforts were introduced across parts of local government administration, reducing manual manipulation risks and improving financial process transparency.
From an investigative observation standpoint, one thing became very clear. The ICT revolution of that era was not a single project. It was an ecosystem shift. Hardware deployment. Network infrastructure.
Human capacity development. Institutional policy realignment. Educational pipeline building. All moving simultaneously.
What made it sustainable was political consistency. Throughout that period, ICT development retained strong executive backing. His Excellency, the Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel, maintained visible interest in progress reports, deployment outcomes and long term digital positioning of the state. ICT was not left as a ministry side project. It remained part of central development strategy.
From my years of watching state development patterns, it was evident that between 2003 and 2011, Ogun State crossed a technological psychological barrier. Civil servants began seeing computers as work necessities, not luxury equipment. Schools began seeing ICT labs as educational essentials, not special projects. Government communication began shifting from physical movement to digital transmission.
Today, as Ogun State marks fifty years, many digital systems now taken for granted have roots in that transition period. The evolution did not end in 2011, but the foundation layer was clearly laid within those years.
For those who only look at physical infrastructure, the ICT story may appear quiet. But for those of us who watched governance from inside corridors, project rooms, policy briefings and field verification visits, it was one of the most significant structural transformations of that era.
From a documentation standpoint, from an observation standpoint and from a historical accountability standpoint, the ICT modernization push between 2003 and 2011 remains one of the defining structural reforms associated with the leadership of his Excellency, the Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
History will continue to debate policies, projects and priorities across different administrations. But one thing remains clear. Ogun State’s movement from typewriter era administration into early digital governance architecture did not happen by chance.
It happened because a leadership decision was made that the Gateway State must not remain analogue in a digital century.
And in that chapter of Ogun State’s development history, the name his Excellency, the Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel, will continue to stand prominently.
By Kehinde Ojo.
SB E-news.
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