Oyo 2019 and ‘external aspirants’

AS the general elections draw near, politicians and non-politicians alike have been strategising on how to clinch power either to become the governor or lawmakers at state federal levels. Non-politicians in this context are those people who are not politicians or politicians in Oyo State but have affiliations with politicians elsewhere as errand boys, special advisers or assistants to well known politicians who want to bank on influence of such politicians to make in road into the state.

Since political parties have been described as a platform just to win power in Nigeria, godfathers know how to provide waivers for such politicians to contest for whatever positions they wish. The unfortunate thing is that they would be imposed on party members who have been toiling day and night to build the party from the scratches. This is made possible because of money that these group of parvenu possessed or provided by their sponsors.

We have seen it in many states where foreign based politicians won power as governor or lawmakers. The question is what becomes of the lives of the people? The lives of the people are miserable because the people were alienated from the government. Most of the projects embarked upon by such office holders are misplaced. They are not in tandem with the yearnings and aspirations of the people. Most often times, wealth of such states are carted to their base. This is made possible because capital flight occasioned by the jobs given to foreign friends and godfathers.

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In other words, most contracts are awarded to contractors in their bases and to their godfathers. Not only that, there is always elitist approach to governance, whereby, elite children would be appointed into government at the detriment of the political party members with no godfathers. Projects are concentrated in the urban centres to the detriment of the rural communities wherein lie the potentials of the state?

This piece is meant to call on all good people of Oyo State to be at alert for these merchants. It is high time we stopped foreign machineries from ruling us in Oyo State. Anybody that wants to rule us whether from Ibadan or elsewhere should first go and identify with the people and know where the shoe pinches, not the one who when we surrender our lives to will now use horse whip to whip us or govern us according to his whims and caprices.

Adewuyi Adegbite

Ayekooto05@gmai.com