Re: Adekanmbi vs Alli: Between substance and sensationalism

By Ifeoluwa Ogunsola

THE article with the title above, written by Suleiman Olanrewaju, Co-Director of the Adekanmbi Campaign Organisation, leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of anyone concerned with the truth. Worse, it casts a slur on the name attached to it. In the piece, Olanrewaju attempted to portray the Bimbo Adekanmbi campaign as something it is not. In the process, he presented the exact opposite of the actual service delivery record of Engineer Seyi Makinde’s government—Adekanmbi’s benefactor. What emerges is a flurry of fallacies that confirm Oyo State has been sustained in the past seven years on convoluted propaganda. This illusion amounts to little more than a mirage.

First, Olanrewaju claims that the All Progressives Congress (APC)/Sharafadeen Alli Campaign Organisation has drifted from the noble responsibilities of democratic opposition. According to him, the campaign and the party merely raise allegations they cannot sustain with facts. The truth is the opposite. Neither the Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli Campaign Organisation nor the APC needs to search far for evidence of the rot into which Oyo State has sunk over the past seven years under Seyi Makinde. The resolve of every well-meaning indigene and resident is clear: never again shall we stand akimbo while our state is built on such a defective foundation under the banner of Omituntun 3.0. Olanrewaju’s assertion that local governments have not been paralysed in the state contradicts reality. The local government chairmen cannot speak freely because they are effectively appointees. As the Yoruba say, when you are invited to eat free food (saaraa), you do not ask undue questions—you neither provided the money nor the ingredients. For the past seven years, the chairmen have been reduced to men eating awoof.

The state of the inner roads across the councils tells the story. Olanrewaju’s claim can only come from someone who is either deliberately colouring the truth or one who does not know the prevailing situation. Yet Olanrewaju, his principal Makinde, and co-principal Adekanmbi know the truth. They know that the local governments have been short-changed and that their development has been thrown under the bus. Right now, the people are only left to bear the brunt of their developmental incompetence. They know that the 33 local governments of Oyo State have largely served as conduit pipes for imaginary projects. They know that the chairmen are made to sign for money they never see, and that no council executes projects commensurate with its federal allocations and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

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Like many Oyo indigenes, Makinde and Adekanmbi know that no local government chairman in the state can approve a project in excess of ₦1 million without express permission from the power centre at Ikolaba, Ibadan. Where is such a requirement written in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Olanrewaju should let us know. If Olanrewaju claims ignorance of the moribund state of the local governments, he should simply ask his two principals what they do with the money that belongs to the councils. Aside from the payment of salaries, gratuities and pensions of local government staff, primary school teachers and primary healthcare workers, what else is done with the billions of naira that accrue monthly as FAAC allocations? We have heard credible accounts to the effect that a particular local government which received FAAC allocations in excess of ₦500 million in one recent month could not account for half of that sum. The executive arm of the council reportedly received only about ₦16 million for sundry items, while the state government paid salaries and pensions amounting to less than ₦150 million on its behalf. The workers in the councils are even jobless because their work has been taken over by Ibadan. Where the balance of the allocation to that council went, only God knows. Dr Olanrewaju should provide concrete answers to the questions being raised by the APC, rather than beat about the bush in defence of the already paralysed local governments.

In his piece, Olanrewaju also claimed that criticisms by the APC and the Sharafadeen Alli Campaign Organisation amount to a vacuum of ideas on their part, because, as he said, they lack programmes. That is far from the truth. Opposition is the bedrock of democracy. Citizen vigilance is essential. As responsible members of society, we cannot leave the body of a madman’s mother for him to handle as he pleases. The state belongs to us; we have a duty to be concerned about its fate. As true sons and daughters of Oyo, we are concerned about the legacy bequeathed by our forebears. A man who shows no concern for the destruction of his father’s house is no true son or daughter of the family. We are concerned for the fate of Oyo State because it is our inheritance. Olanrewaju should understand this clearly.

When he speaks of policy and ideas, we must ask: what idea has Adekanmbi espoused since he was handpicked as the APM gubernatorial candidate by his benefactor? The pillar of his campaign rests on the Omituntun 3.0 agenda—and that is precisely where the problem lies. Omituntun 1.0 rested on the accelerated development of Oyo State; Omituntun 2.0 was built on sustainable development. Omituntun 3.0 should logically rest on those two pillars. Yet we emphatically state that the 3.0 agenda is built on quicksand, because nothing sustainable has been properly accelerated through the first two phases. How do you sustain an agenda that was only half-heartedly accelerated? That is the real question confronting Adekanmbi and his team.

Any concerned indigene of Oyo State does not need to look far for evidence of the rot into which the incumbent administration has plunged the state over the past seven years. Drive behind the Secretariat at Agodi, Ibadan, through Agodi Gardens, and you confront huge craters capable of swallowing a 20-rim tyre. The same bumpy ride awaits anyone travelling from the University of Ibadan gate towards Ojoo Roundabout. First comes the ugly sight of the Agbowo Shopping Complex, still unfinished more than three years after the governor promised its completion, followed by the huge gullies that scar the centre of the road to Ojoo. The mediocre traffic-control arrangement at the University of Ibadan gate raises the question of whether the designer of that arrangement ever sat through a proper classroom. It saddens the heart of any true son of the state that nearly ₦3 billion of taxpayers’ money was committed to a project that effectively places area boys, PMS boys and agberos in control of traffic in front of the best university in Nigeria by global ranking. If that is the backwardness embedded in Adekanmbi’s 3.0, we want no part of it. The Sharafadeen Alli Organisation will rather vote for the progressive future that the APC candidate represents.

It is also fair to ask Dr Olanrewaju whether he has driven past the front of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s residence in Oke-Bola, Ibadan, after the reconstruction of that road by his principal. An emergency swimming pool has now taken over half the carriageway, providing a ready-made car-wash centre for okada riders. Is that the legacy anyone should consolidate?

We can mention only a few of the many examples of waste and failure that Adekanmbi seeks to build upon through his acclaimed Omituntun 3.0: the daily purchase of diesel to power streetlights that largely come on during the day; the more than ₦5 billion wasted on Adamasingba Stadium, which still cannot host continental matches; and the unconscionable spending of over ₦64 billion on the renovation of the Government House that is not being occupied by anyone. These are just a few of the sad commentaries on APM’s Adekanmbi and his benefactor, which we want to mention at this point.

•Ogunsola writes in from Agugu, Ibadan, Oyo State