By Adio Friday Odunjo
I find it hard believing that I’m forced to put pen to paper again, after my last intervention which resonated across divides and was greeted with mixed reactions from friends, acquittance and associates.
I must admit I pity my ideological friends in the battered Otoge ship (AA and BOB camp), for they’re caught up with their past, they’re being made to daily eat their vomit and deodorize things they’ve always applied insecticide on, which to me is one of the hardest decision for any ideological being.
The Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq is fortunately and unfortunately daily proving naysayers and bookmakers right, about his incompetence and clear incapacity and capabilities to rise above pettiness and give Kwarans the desired and deserved governance.
While I wouldn’t shy away from acknowledging the fact that he’s made some modest improvement, it’s however too infinitesimal to gratulate about, it’s in all ramifications far below the expectations of the Kwara electorates who massively voted in the otoge strange bed fellows.
The Governor who’s found of spending more days in Abuja than Kwara, yet has refused to make vital and necessary appointments, to ease governance and afford him the opportunity to enjoy his junketing, has chosen to run a sole-proprietorship government wherein, the government and governance revolves around him and him alone.
It’s no surprise that anytime he’s out of the State (which is a weekly scene), the entirety of government drags to a halt until he breezes in again, only to connect the next available private jet within 48 hours.
A Governor that cherishes local and international junketing should at least have competent hands like Commissioners, Chief of Staff, Director General and General Managers to effortlessly man government offices and ensure the government functions as expected.
While I never believed in the marriage if strange bed fellows that berthed otoge and obviously this government, I sure know it was never one of the otoge campaign promises that we’ll be bequeathed with a sole administrator cum sole-proprietorship that’ll be the alpha and omega of our collective fate.
If anything, one of the major thematic selling points of the otoge campaign was saying no to “One man show”, sadly we’re neck deep in not only one man show, it’s arrogantly being done with reckless abandon.
I stand to be corrected, Kwara has never in its more than 5 decades of existence ever had it this bad, in terms of monopolistic governance which is more like ancient days monarchical style of governance wherein the leader is equated to the gods and thus his actions and inactions are law and final and whoever holds a dissenting or modifying opinion is treated like an outcast.
While Mr. Governor junkets around, Kidnapping and other security challenges which were hitherto alien to Ilorin the Kwara State capital, which fetched it the sobriquet of the State of Harmony, is fast turning into a mirage.
Kidnap for ransom is now a booming business in the heart of Ilorin, wherein Kidnappers kidnap residents from the comfort of their homes, takes them away, negotiate and receive ransom and then afterwards the victims are released, all happening in Ilorin unchallenged.
I have not come across a release by the Governor on the alarming and daring kidnap for ransom escapade in Ilorin, nor has the Governor or any of the government’s top ranking functionaries ever deemed it fit to visit and solidarise with the victims.
Residents are now left to live in fear. The Kwara Southern part of the State, especially Ekiti, Oke-Ero and Irepodun are now under siege of interstate kidnappers, yet nothing physical is being done to address the life threatening development.
Shall we also talk about the gestapo like invasion of Kwara South communities by displaced Fulani herdsmen from neighboring States ? One wonders why the State government would turn a blind eye to the invasion of its communities, by Fulani herdsmen displaced from their previous abode on the suspicion of being behind varying degrees of crime and criminality.
All these and many more, is fast watering down and dwindling the enthusiasm with which Kwarans accepted the otoge crusade and ushered the proponents in.
Alas, there expectations are being daily dashed and no wonder, most of the active otoge crusaders are already regretting some of their roles.
Even though they still believed Otoge crusade was a child of necessity and thus worth it, they’re however ruining the lost opportunity to reset the State’s direction and truly birth a State that works for all.
As it stands today, Kwara is only working for the Governor, some of his family members and selected cronies, while majority of Kwarans especially the workers, sacked sunset teachers among others are still hoping and praying for the elusive dividends of an otoge, which they not only supported but invested their time and resources to actualise.
