Another election draws nigh in Ondo State and the Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, in his usual cosmetic approach to governance, has signed another Memorandum of Understanding with a bitumen exploration company!
And you his goons in their hundreds celebrating on the blogosphere the signing of the agreement. For how long shall my people remain dogmatic and blind because of partisan leaning, especially those from the southern part of the state?
As an oil producing state, I state all the time, and I will say it here again that we have no simplest of reasons to be economically backward and development-atrophied.
The greatest strength of our Governor is his chamelonic politics, which is ably fueled by the poverty(mental and material) of the led. And this is because he has mastered the transient need of our people. So he knows how to dangle the carrot before them so he can get what he wants.
Were we a serious people, Governor Mimiko should not be anywhere near governance in the 21st century in our dear state, a state blessed with well endowed human resources. But a people deserve the type of leader they have. And he is simply giving out to them as they need.
Folks who are easily deceived point to his ‘revolution’ in the health sector. Yet when you ask them to point to such revolution in their locality, they are quick to refer you to the Mother and Child in Akure or the one in his town, Ondo.
Igbotako, where I come from, has a General Hospital. If by tomorrow you go there and get Paracetamol of May and Baker brand, come here and tell the whole world and I will apologise profusely. My people rely on medical illiterates and quacks for medical treatment. Recently, the stata’s ministry of health was there to close a notorious clinic run by an auxiliary, one-okan expert who had claimed to be a medical doctor for many years. So, I ask, again: what manner of revolution that does not get to the rural areas where the masses are based?
He has started dribbling them again. Politics is around the corner. He wants to install his successor at all cost. He has started promising the people heaven on earth.
Recently, I met a senior citizen of the state in Abuja who was with him in the Labour Party, but refused to defect with him to the PDP on the basis of principle. When the man gave me a graphic detail of the humongous debt profile of the state under Governor Mimiko, I collapsed momentarily on my seat two times.
Every state borrows to fund projects when their internal revenue inflow cannot meet up . But the projects on ground must commensurate with the money borrowed. So, you ask again: where are the projects? Perhaps the Ondo State University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, created more out of tribal affiliation than the love of Ondo State.
As I write this, workers in the state are being owed six months salaries. No one is even talking about the pensioners. Those ones are a forgotten lot. Then you ask: what were the bail outs for? Remember those bail outs are loans to the state from the FG. What about the 13% derivation the state gets every month? What about its statutory allocation every month? What about the bonds he sourced through the capital markets? Does it mean the state does not generate any revenue internally? What happened to OSOPADEC?
My only worry now is that the dominant opposition party in the state, APC, is practically doing nothing to engage the Governor. By now, a formidable APC would have been taking the Governor up on the cosmetic projects he purports to have initiated and some completed.
A serious APC would have taken the Governor to the cleaners on the astronomical debt profile of the state. A prepared APC would have taken the Governor up on the reasons for the non-payment of workers’ salary. Six months running now!
A determined APC would have tasked the Governor on what went wrong with the widely-publicised teacher recruitment exercise in the state. Today, most schools in the rural areas rely on PTA teachers to teach their pupils. Any wonder the state has steadily been declining in WAEC and NECO annually. This is a sad development.
Yet, we have a major election coming by November this year. The fireworks are not just there. Perhaps they want to use fire brigade approach when the election is finally around the corner. I worry tonight. Our people are in bondage, but they don’t seem to know. Will the sun shine again?
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