By Sola Abegunde
I had wanted to write about Governor Seyi Makinde’s diversionary tactics after reading the news reports that a former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo would be joining the Governor to commission a Bus terminal at Iwo Road this morning.
A brother of mine called my attention to the fact that he gave me some credit for being able to predict the Governor after he read my piece of yesterday.
Governor Makinde is very good at diverting public attention away from his failings but he is not that clever.
If you look well, you will easily see through him.
When there were serious outcries against his Agri-business policies sometimes ago, he quickly came up with a diversionary tactics and said a Documentary was being put together by an ace Film Producer/Director which will showcase the ‘ achievements ‘ of his Government at Fasola Farm Settlement.
The said Documentary never saw the light of day since then.
It seems Governor Makinde is underrating the extent of the problems he has created through the Circular road corridor and it does appear he will learn the hard way this time around.
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Bringing a former President of Nigeria to Ibadan to commission a project which in itself is dressed in controversies will not take away the tension he has invited upon himself through the Circular road corridor.
In the first instance, what is Governor Makinde’s business with Bus terminals?
Constitutionally, the management of Parks and Garages are the primary responsibilities of Local Governments.
Secondly, the cost of building these terminals has remained a serious source of concerns, most especially, when you look at the poor infrastructures in our public primary and secondary schools.
The last time I checked, the Bus terminals cost over 6b Naira to build just one and only Governor Makinde knows how much he spent to build the current one billed for commissioning.
Another issue is the fact that the funds with which these edified garages were built actually belonged to the Local Governments.
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All around Oyo state, we see Local Governments roads that has remained eyesores for the past six years plus that Makinde had been Governor of Oyo state.
Why not allow Local Governments to use these funds to build good roads network at the Local Governments?
Thirdly, the administration of the Bus terminals under an illegal Parks Management System is an insult to the sensibilities of the good people of Oyo state.
The Court of Appeal in Ibadan recently delivered a judgement that buttressed that point.
The Court of Appeal ruled that Governor Makinde lacks the powers to suspend the activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW and replacing them with the PMS.
There is no transparency in the way the resources of the Parks and Garages are being managed by the illegal PMS.
About a year ago, the erstwhile Chairman of the PMS, Mukaila Auxiliary, in an interview, admitted that he spent resources of the PMS to campaign for Governor Makinde in 2023.
So, how does the commissioning of yet, another suspected instrument of fraud smells like roses in the nostrils of Governor Makinde?
It is a diversionary tactics and it is dead on arrival.
What Governor Makinde needs to tell us is why he is hell bent on ensuring that thousands of residents in the Circular road are rendered homeless and that would lead me to the next issue.
The rather intellectually lazy and unfortunate excuse of the Oyo state Government regarding the alleged proposal by the late Governor Ajimobi and the controversial 500m corridor is not only laughable, it also shows the desperate moves by Governor Makinde to exonerate himself from what is happening to the residents of the Circular road.
That attempt to shift the blames on the late former Governor is a testament of the fact that Governor Makinde is aware that his actions are evil but he doesn’t want to be held responsible.
Unfortunately for him, there is no way he can share the blame with anyone, talk less of shifting the blame on another person whether dead or alive.
That petty act of attempting to shift the blame is dead on arrival.
Now, let us look at it from this angle.
Before he was elected Governor in 2019, what was Eng. Seyi Makinde’s position against late former Governor Ajimobi’s demolitions of some public properties which were done to accommodate road expansions?
Note that Ajimobi did not demolish any property for the purpose of handing the spaces over to Estate Developers as Makinde is currently doing.
The demolitions carried out by Ajimobi were strictly to accommodate road expansions but Makinde was violently against the demolition at the time.
What was Seyi Makinde’s position when a popular Radio station was to be demolished by the Ajimobi Government in Ibadan?
Did he not join an angry crowd to protest against the demolitions.
Those who saw him on that occasion said that he was at Challenge in the early hours, standing with the crowd of protesters and they said that he was wearing short nickers on that day.
So, now that he is Governor, what has changed?
Is it that it was bad for Ajimobi to demolish some properties to accommodate road expansions but it is good for Makinde to seize public properties and hand them over to Estate Developers?
I am surprised that Governor Makinde would stoop so low to be claiming that Ajimobi should take responsibilities for the crisis at the Circular road.
Assuming without conceding that the late Ajimobi actually expanded the corridor to 500m.
Did Ajimobi implement the policy?
Are we still at the stage of documentation that Governor Makinde now thinks he can deceive us with some documents purportedly made by Ajimobi?
Like I said, assuming Ajimobi extended the corridor to 500m, is Makinde bound by that proposal?
Only the gullible ones would waste their time considering such illogical excuses.
How many of the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s policies has Makinde cancelled?
How long did it take him to dismiss the democratically elected Chairmen and Councilors left by Ajimobi?
How long did it take him to cancel the payment of one thousand Naira per pupil per term Education policy of Ajimobi?
How long did it take him to cancel the contract for the Moniya/Iseyin road?
The list is endless.
So, why should it be difficult for him to cancel the alleged extension by Ajimobi at the Circular road?
Is he no longer the ‘ ore ara Ilu’? ( Friend of the masses)?
Like I said, we have moved past the documentation stage.
I hope Governor Makinde would not wake up tomorrow and tell us that Ajimobi is the one who awarded and signed the contracts for the Circular road even after he had been buried.
I don’t think Governor Makinde has anyone who tells him the truth regardless of how he would feel.
How could you be bringing Ajimobi up at this moment?
It is not only unfortunate. It is also wicked of him to have done that.
The affected residents know that it is you, Governor Seyi Makinde who had been lying to them, shifting the goal post everytime.
You promised them that there would be no corridor and you reneged on that promise.
You are the one who had been changing your positions concerning an acceptable space agreeable to all concerned.
You are the one whom they alleged to have been asking them to settle for a Deed of Lease with your Estate Developers.
Where is Ajimobi in all these?
I have kept asking myself, why would the Governor take away people’s properties and hand them over to Estate Developers who might even be strangers from some far away states?
Incidentally, these Estate Developers would eventually build structures on the spaces seized from the citizens.
Is it that the houses built by these hapless residents would constitute a nuisance to the beauty of the road or what?
Or, is it that poor people shouldn’t live near beautiful roads?
What will Governor Makinde benefit from the Estate Developers that his own people who voted for him must be deprived of their properties for the Estate Developers to do their own business?
I don’t know why Governor Makinde is failing to see that whatever goodwill he would have built through the Circular road has been completely overshadowed by the mismanagement of the corridor issues.
That is why I likened him to the weaver bird. ( Ega fi enu ko Ile, ega fi enu tuu).
Now that he wants to bring the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi to the controversy, would he be comfortable if the late Governor is ascribed the credits for the construction of the Circular road?
The Cross at the Circular road is for Governor Seyi Makinde alone to carry and he must carry that Cross alone.
There is no way he can convince any sensible person that Ajimobi is responsible for the implementation of the 500m corridor.
Dead men don’t implement policies.
On this matter, the late former Governor Abiola Ajimobi is completely exonerated and only an idiot will argue otherwise.
