Letters

Oyo State: Makinde and Awo’s legacy

ONE line of our current National Anthem portrayed the aspiration of the author of Nigeria of his dream where “the labours of our heroes past shall never be in vain”. With their toils and sweat, imprisonment for no fault of theirs but primarily based on patriotism, our past leaders’ efforts earned Oyo State the sobriquet “Pace Setter.” Those were true leaders who devoted their resources to their avowed commitment to transform the Western Region to little “England” of their time: Our late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo laid the foundation upon which our on-going democracy is structured. Committed Awoists like late Chief Bola Ige built on the structure before the vampires took over.

Over the years, the houses that Awo built have been in serious state of deterioration. The new landlords of Oyo State have regarded their inheritance of governance as their destiny to loot. No wonder one member in the past State House of Assembly marvelled why a law of the state needed an amendment. Crass illiteracy at work. As at today, Oyo State is no longer practising democracy but “cosmetocracy”, a government by cosmetology, window dressing, white washing, crash programming, etc.

Ponder over these few examples. Late Chief Awolowo’s cabinet comprised round pegs in round holes, beautician was never put in charge of the state finance, nor did he assign a lawyer to the ministry of Agriculture. What do you expect of the government where psychophants and people without a primary constituency or imbued with attributes of governance manage the state affairs? Makinde should be warned

In the spirit of ”cosmetocracy”, it is a requirement that both the body and the spirit must be “white-washed”, in line with George Orwell’s “1984” satire where the Ministry of Truth dished out anything but the truth! Road construction/maintenance seems to be one of the orchestrated achievements of the Ajimobi regime. Were these asphaltic roads of modem highway technology so constructed to match the bitumen roads of yester-years? We leave the general public and the electorate to access the quality (or is it quantity) of the various roads across the state and especially within Ibadan , which start to wear out shortly after construction, like patches in an old dress.

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Adeoyo General Hospital in the heart of Ibadan land gulped a fortune like the renovated Mapo Hall in Ibadan and Atiba Hall in Oyo, and hopefully later the colonial Heritage Council Hall at Ogbomosho. The Ring Road Specialist Hospital, Ibadan, has been so unfortunate over the years that only the structures on ground could attest to the good intentions of those who facilitated its construction. With bad link roads, lack of electricity and essential drugs and other medicares with patients procuring virtually everything they required; one wonders where the colossal allocations on health sector were expended.

Late Chief Awolowo’s agrarian project sited farm settlements in several locations across the then Western Region. Ikorodu Farm Settlement (now in Lagos State) was a nucleus of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu. What do we have in Oyo-State? Akufo Fashola and Ijaye Farm Settlements, which could be the fulcrum of a true agricultural revolution in Oyo-State, have been more of political propaganda. Agricultural inputs were being doled out on political patronage to those who would re-sell. Oyo State cannot feed her people, thanks to other states and neighbouring countries.

Traversing across the 33 local governments in Oyo State, one does not need a specialist or consultant to know that the volume of monetary allocations to the local governments, if judiciously expended, are enough to transform our rural areas. But the pattern of administration from the top to the bottom and to the civil servants and government contractors has opened the floodgate of unmitigated corruption, despite the “due process” tantrum.

The Former Western State, the Father of Oyo State, was a force to reckon with in sports, thaiiks to the “Shooting Stars” Football Club of Ibadan that brought Oyo State soccer lime light. But cosmetology later took over, whereby a large chunk of funds allocated to sports got diverted to private hands. The state organ of broadcasting is another propagandist which art of operation is to praise sings the incumbent outgoing Governor Ajimobi; Napoleon, the Government is always right. It will not be a surprise when the baton changes in 2019.

Where then do we go from here? We have just started ex-raying style of governance in Oyo State and subsequent editorials would focus on other areas. We quote the statement of Wiston Churchill, that war-time British Prime Minister, following Gen. Montgomery’s history at El Alamein: “this is not the end”. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Hurray Seyi Abiodun Makinde the people Gov now that the baton has changed in 2019. Welcome on board.