Former Military President and chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Ibrahim Babangida, IBB, yesterday shocked many when he openly declared support for Social Democratic Party, SDP, led by former Secretary to Government of the Federation, SGF, Mr Olu Falae.

Speaking in Minna over the weekend when the national leadership of the party visited him at his hill-top mansion in Minna, Babangida said the party was real and smart, with the zeal to deliver democratic dividends to the people.

“If I hadn’t been too old, I would have loved to join the youths vanguard of your party. I have faith in the political party, for what it is and what it stands for. When I heard in the news that a party has come on board, the first thing that occurred to me was that the name sounds familiar, so I made a decision that I will wait and see how it plays out.

General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd),

‘’I was looking at how SDP will populate itself. And then the next pleasing thing that I heard was that it has people like Olu Falae, Professor Jerry Gana, Professor Adeniran.

“After that I said this party is real, because most of the names are names that I have known and I have worked with and for the sake of this country, so I said the party is smart to convinced all these gentlemen to come and join them.

‘’That is why I did not hesitate to give direction to those who came to me to seek advice on which direction to go.”

Babangida pointed out that the vision he had for the country was the same vision that is shared by those driving the party, adding that “the security and well being of Nigerians are very important and you have identified this in your programme, so Nigerians must rally round you and support you to ensure that this is realizable.”

Babangida urged the younger generation and women to give their support to SDP as it is “populated by men of integrity, men who when they work, they work well, when they speak, they speak well.”

Babangida then advised the leadership of the party to make its manifestos public to Nigerians, so they could be held accountable.

In his address earlier, National Chairman of the Party, Falae, said they were in the state to see Babangida as part of the party’s nationwide consultation to brief him on the activities of the party and to solicit for his support and wise counselling.

Vanguard 

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said security agencies would be on the lookout for acts of vote buying during the upcoming Ekiti State governorship election slated for July 14 this year.

The commission also noted that such malpractices were prevalent at the governorship polls held in Edo, Ondo and Anambra States respectively.

INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, and Oyo states, Mr Solomon Soyebi, who represented INEC Chairman, Mr Mahmood Yakubu, at a stakeholders’ meeting on the continuous voters registration, in Ado Ekiti on Monday, said the commission was aware that money was used to influence voters during Edo, Ondo and Anambra elections.

The electoral body said it was aware of how people were offered N5,000 each to cast their votes in those states, saying such won’t reoccur in Ekiti ”through strong synergy with security agencies.”

“The elections in Edo, Ondo and Anambra States were largely monetised,” Soyebi said. “We are aware of this . It was ‘see and buy,’ but it won’t happen in Ekiti.”

He said INEC had conducted a total of 286 polls since 2015 and that only 28 were nullified due largely to parties’ poor internal democracy.

“It was N5,000 per vote in Ondo and Anambra states. We are working with security agencies not to allow it to happen again. We even seized some cash in Anambra state,” he said.

“In Ekiti election, we won’t allow any vehicle to come near the polling units, because the politicians used to keep the money in the booth. With this, it will reduce because politicians can’t carry large amount in their pockets.”

Mr Soyebi also assured that the commission would be neutral in Ekiti election, urging all to work hard to mobilise the people for the continuous registration exercise and to claim over 200,000 Permanent Voter Cards that were still with the commission.

Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Abdullahi Chafe, said the police had mapped out strategies to stop electoral malfeasance.

Also the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Abdulganiy Raji, said over 218,000 PVCs were yet to be claimed.

Deputy governor of Ekiti State, Mr Kolapo Olusola, said the people in Ekiti were peace-loving. “All we want from INEC is neutrality, so that Ekiti can be at peace before, during and after this election.”

Traditional rulers in Ekiti State who attended the meeting, charged INEC to avoid the manipulation of the coming governorship election.

The Alare of Are Ekiti, Mr Boluwade Adeniyi, in his comments, said, “INEC boss, we are aware of smart card reader that will be used for this election. Our appeal is that, do not outsmart the smart card reader, so that we can have a peaceful poll.”

Attah of Ayede, Mr Mumini Orisagbemi, also had a warning.

“INEC is like a referee in a football match. We have never heard of a referee trying to score a goal in a match. If INEC as a referee wants to score a goal in Ekiti, our people won’t allow that.”

PT 

Three months after criticising President Muhammadu Buhari’s performance in office, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised Nigerians not to vote for a ‘failed government’ in 2019.

Mr Obasanjo on Monday called on Nigerians to be cautious not to re-elect a ‘failed government’ which may end up with excuses for its failure to meet Nigerians’ expectations.

The former president spoke during a visit to his Ogun State home by a ‘New Nigeria 2019 Group’ led by Chima Anyaso, convener, and Moses Siasia, co-convener.

He said it would be foolhardy for Nigerians to reinforce failure by re-electing All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Buhari in 2019.

He criticised the APC-led federal government for bringing hardship on Nigerians and running an ineffective economic policy which, he said, cripples businesses, causing economic woes in the country.

While castigating APC, Obasanjo also condemned his former ruling party, PDP. He asked Nigerians not to accept the opposition party’s recent apology; saying both APC and PDP could not salvage Nigeria.

“But this time, for us to make it, we need all hands on deck. You see, I have publicly said and I mean it, that as a party, neither PDP nor APC can get us there as they have been. Never mind about reforms and apology and all that.

“And yet we have to get there. I asked one of the foundation members of PDP, the PDP when we started, was it a grassroots party? He said it was an elitist party. Really, we have never had the so-called grassroots party. Even NEPU which we could say is the nearest was not grassroots enough. And I believe strongly that we must have a strong popular grassroots movement to bring about the change, sustainability and stability that we need in our democracy and development.

“I am happy to meet with you, but don’t take anything for granted. There will be a lot of work that we have to do. What those I call power addicts would want to do is to divide you based on gender, age, tribe, religion and region. You have one commonality – interest of Nigeria. And it doesn’t matter where you come from. We have that interest.

“The truth is this: when you have an ineffective and incompetent government, we are all victims. And don’t let anybody deceive you. Those of you who are in business, your business could have been better today if we had a competent and effective and performing government. As I said, stop giving excuses; we met challenges. If there were no challenges, then we wouldn’t need you to come. You came in because you knew there were challenges and then giving us excuse that you have many challenges, that is why you haven’t achieved results.

“And then you still want to go. The first lesson I learnt in my military training is never reinforce failure. What we have now is failure. Never you reinforce failure. Let failure be failure. And if you do not see what you should see, you will then be a victim of what you don’t like because it’s only when you see what you should see and you do what you should do that you put away what you do not like. And if you don’t see what you should see and you don’t do what you should do, you will be a victim of what you don’t like.”

He, however, said he believed some members of APC and PDP still have integrity and can help Nigeria succeed.

“But let us bring together all these movements because we are pursuing the same thing. If we allow ourselves to be taken piecemeal, it is finished. Now if we are together… Yes, I said you cannot take PDP as it is and APC as it is; but they are not all made of evil people.

“There are good people. I said PDP is leprous hand, APC is leprous hand, but there are some clean fingers in them. So, let’s take those clean fingers in them and graft the clean fingers in our own. That is the way to go and if we go that way, we will get there, we will move together, and we will move fast and we will move far,” he told his guests.

PT 

Attaining age 90 in a country where life expectancy is 55 years is a monumental achievement. Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the great Awoist, nationalist, patriot, democrat, leader, ideologue, and Afenifere chieftain, has, by the mercies of God that he serves with single-minded devotion, made that rare achievement.

Since I got close to him about a decade ago, it has never ceased to amaze me how someone could be so single-minded, dogged and self-sacrificing in matters that concern ordinary Nigerians, legacies of his leader - our leader - the Sage, Obafemi Awolowo, the wellbeing of our country, as well as transcendental issues of personal principles, justice, equity and fairness. No one spends just thirty minutes with Chief Adebanjo without noticing his passion on these issues.

Before meeting him in person and getting close to him to the point of being admitted into his bedroom on so many of my visits to his residence, I had read, heard and watched his countless interventions on matters that concerned Nigeria in general and his Yoruba Nation specifically. So lofty and elevated were his positions on issues of politics, law, economy and society that I, somewhere in the inner recesses of my mind, thought them mere ripostes and precepts higher than the personal and private life conducts of Adebanjo himself. With the critical disposition of a probing intellectual and skeptic, I started my interaction with him on a cautionary note and expectation of discovering in him the hypocrisy and duplicity of many of Nigeria’s social critics who run with the hares and hunt with the hounds.

Alas, in vain did I get to spot the expected gaps between Adebanjo’s public postures and private conducts. With him, what you’ve heard and seen is precisely what you get on close contact and scrutiny. What a joy!

Besides his unimpeachable integrity and honour, Adebanjo is a compendium of Nigeria’s history. He effortlessly recounts the country’s history of Constitutional and political development, not just as a scholar but, more, as a participant observer. He is Nigeria’s history ‘come alive’. The free lectures we get whenever we’re with him on how our beleaguered country got to where she is and the historical personalities that played key roles in her affairs, are priceless. As he is ‘historical’, so much more is he contemporaneous on matters that affect our collective welfare as a people. Adebanjo consumes news voraciously and digest them efficiently.

But Baba Adebanjo is not a tepid intellectual. He is light-hearted and full of life. He relishes jokes and he’s quite ‘social’. He is always there in our moments of celebration. I had the honour of my life when Chief Adebanjo wrote and delivered the lecture to mark my 50th birthday six years ago. In every good and joyful cause, he is there in his dignity and satorial elegance. Oh my, Baba is fashionable and dignified!

Just as he is contemporary and up to date on socio-political matters, Chief Adebanjo is a digital old man. With the latest iPad and iPhone, he’s right there with you on WhatsApp, email and online news channels. In words and in deeds, this old man is youthful. Adebanjo courts, encourages and promotes the young and youthful. He connects with them like no other elder that I know. All the foregoing and more are our joy in having Adebanjo with us now, in times past and, prayerfully, for many more years to come.

But Chief Adebanjo is yet a man of sorrow. He is quite unhappy that the vast majority of Nigerian political leaders are selfish, incompetent, unprincipled, unpatriotic and anti-people. He expresses his regrets that majority of those who mouth Awolowo’s ideals and principles do so mainly for political gains and self-aggrandizement. He is miffed that quite a sizable number of those he fathered politically have strayed from the narrow and straight path of serving the people with honesty, dedication, integrity and credibility. Baba is anxious that there seems not to be available enough of the few that’ll take the baton from him and his surviving contemporaries and colleagues in the struggle to enthrone true federalism, democracy, equity and fairness in our country. He is absolutely sorrowful that very many of those who should know often sacrifice principles for short-term gains.

For these sorrows, Chief Adebanjo works himself to the bone, in his old age, searching for and encouraging those who show commitment to the good of Nigeria and her suffering people.

I’m seized with trepidation over the sometimes intruding thought of what would happen to this country when this passionate and committed patriot and inspirational leader and his colleagues go to where all mortals go. Who will remain as the consistent voice of truth and of the voiceless? Who else will inspire and admonish us to be principled and selfless in our socio-economic and political pursuits? To whom will we go for direction in the maze and labyrinth of Nigeria’s political system and disorder? Who else will be our true moral compass as he has consistently been?

Whenever these nagging questions crop up in my consciousness, I’m comforted and assured by the admonition of our Lord Jesus Christ in that we shouldn’t be anxious for tomorrow. It is enough and gratifying that we still have Chief Adebanjo with us today in his full physical, mental and moral strength. 

Here’s, therefore, wishing this inimitable, tireless leader and inspiring father and role model, our dearly beloved Chief Ayo Adebanjo, happy 90th birthday. Many happy returns of the day, Sir.

• ‘Sina Kawonise, former Commissioner for Information and Orientation in Ogun State, is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of NewsScroll newspaper.

A former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu, has revealed why he confessed to rigging elections for the former ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

During an interview on Channels Television, Mr Mantu, a former member of PDP’s Board of Trustees, said he was actively involved in compromising election officials, security officers and even agents of rival parties to either assist in rigging candidates of the PDP to victory or look the other way in cases of obvious rigging.

“Yes, yes, I did. But I am now confessing the truth. What do I mean? I didn’t have to go and change election but you provide money. You give money to INEC boys to help; that is, they see any chance they should try and favour you. You provide money for the security. All our elections in the past, I’ve been in the game for about 20 years.

And I tell you each time it is not necessarily when I am contesting an election but when my party sponsors a candidate I would like that candidate to win the election. What we used to do before, we make provision for INEC, we make provision for security, we make provision for even agents of other parties so that they would not raise any objection to what we are able to get. Whether I rig myself or not, but when I provide those resources to the officials, I am rigging election.

“I believe so because if people are born again like me and refuse to do it. We the players, unless we give before somebody will take. Don’t give so you will not get a taker,” he said.

The interview has sparked outrage with people calling on the authorities to arrest and prosecute him for electoral fraud.

But Mr Mantu explained during the same interview that he decided to confess to election rigging because he was tired of the negative perception Nigerians have abroad.

“You didn’t even ask me why am I thinking this way,?” he asked the interviewer.

“I am tired of being seen as a criminal on the street of the world because you are a Nigerian. You assume that everybody is an innocent human being until being proven otherwise but whilst you are outside this country with a green passport and they see that you are a Nigerian, even if you are a pastor or an imam they will assume that you are criminally minded or you have criminal tendencies just because of where you come from. That must change,” he said.

He said he confessed because he was tired of the abundance of poverty in the country. He said he hopes that his confession will result in good governance by the election of credible people, who would prudently manage the resources of the country and ensure equitable wealth for everyone, into public office.

“I am tired of living in poverty in the midst of plenty. Even how much you have, you see people coming to you every day, my wife has given birth my relation is in the hospital. Every day. But if everybody has enough to take care of his or herself, they won’t come bordering you saying give me this, give me that.

“We have the resources that people can live decent lives without being beggars to those who have. Just because we haven’t gotten our own governance system right. So, we need good governance, good governance can only be provided by good people, good people who are truly repentant, who are actually there to serve the people, who are concerned about the well-being of the people being the primary concern. If we have such leaders, then I can tell you they would judiciously and prudently use our resources for the common good of everybody.”

PT 

INTRODUCTION

If there is an area in which Ogun State prided itself as leader in Nigeria, it is education. Not only that Ogun State indigenes and residents excelled in various educational pursuits in almost six decades of post independent Nigeria, the State led all others in terms of access to education. When Nigeria celebrated her 50th Independence anniversary in 2010, the Federal Government honoured 50 greatest Nigerians of all time. Among those 50 Nigerians, seven (7) were Ogun State indigenes who attained greatness by virtue of the education they had. Chief Obafemi Awolowo who democratised education and made it available to the poor was one of them, just as Professor Wole Soyinka, the first African to win a Nobel Prize was included.

Before now, it was routine that Ogun State was counted among the highest performing States in national examinations such as WASCE and UTME. No thanks to the neglect and commercialization of the education sector by Governor Ibikunle Amosun, Ogun State has slid to be part of the bottom 50 percent in performance in WASCE, for example. In both 2016 and 2017, Ogun State came 19th in ranking among the 36 States in Nigeria. Borno State which has been grappling with the big challenge of insurgency performed better than Ogun State in 2017 WASCE!

For close watchers of the education policy of Governor Amosun in the 7 years that he has mounted the saddle, the consistent decline of education and contraction of access of the poor to it in the State are a matter of course.

FACTS AND FIGURES UNDERLYING THE ROT

Because of the economic recession in the country and resultant widespread poverty among our people, many parents who are forced to transfer their children and wards from private to public secondary schools are prevented from doing so because Ogun State government increased the transfer fee for each pupil by a whooping 700 percent from N2,500 to N20,000. It is the same percentage increase from N2,500 to N20,000 for those parents, who for one reason or another, seek to transfer their children from another State to any public school in Ogun State. Even to transfer a secondary school pupil to another secondary school within the State will set a parent back N10,000 from the former fee of N2,500, a 300 percent hike. To make a transfer for a primary school pupil in any of the three categories of transfer, parents have to cough out N5,000 for the services that were free of charge before Amosun took over Ogun State.

In addition to the above, to obtain First (Primary) School Leaving Certificate, pupils in public schools now must pay N1,000 (it was free of charge), while those in private schools must pay N2,000 to the State Government instead of N500 previously paid. For students in private schools to sit for JSS examinations, they each have to pay N5,000 to the government, up from N2,500.

Now, Ogun State government has announced that henceforth, it’ll no longer assist parents in the payment of WAEC fee. This fee, which successive Ogun State governments had paid for almost 20 years, is currently N13,000, excluding administrative charges of about N2,000 by the different schools. From available data, the number of students in public schools in Ogun State for which the government paid never exceeded 40,000 in any given year. At N13,000 per student, this amounts to N520 million maximum per annum. A government that claimed to have expanded one kilometer of road for N1.98 billion has found it burdensome to sustain payment of WAEC fees for children of the poor who are in public schools mainly because of their poverty. The amount claimed to have been spent on just one kilometer of expanded road is enough to pay for WAEC for Ogun State indigent students for 4 years, and it is just 8.67 percent of the N6 billion collected monthly as IGR in the state. I’m told that the government is justifying its stoppage of the WAEC fee support on the ground of the specious argument that Ogun State students performed poorly in WASCE because they didn’t pay for it. The sterling performance of Abia, Rivers, Edo, Imo and Bayelsa states which came first to fifth respectively in the 2016 WASCE, but which incidentally all pay for their students, empirically refutes this lie of the Amosun government.

Despite all the fees and levies forced out of pupils and students in both private and public schools, the state of facilities in public schools in the state remains pathetic and an eyesore. 

Perhaps the worst of all these is the 18 months of Deductions owed teachers in the State’s public schools. Deduction is the fraction of a worker’s salary signed off to be deducted directly from their salary and allowances and paid as saving to a Cooperative Society owned and operated by the workers. It is, in some cases, up to 70 percent of the gross earnings of the worker concerned. Ogun State government makes this deduction monthly without remitting same to the cooperative societies. This criminal diversion of teachers’ entitlement not only deprives them of their hard earned income but demoralises them in the onerous duty of teaching our children knowledge and character. It is the main reason why the performance of our children in public schools continues to nosedive. 

TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS 

More neglected in the education sector of Ogun State are the tertiary institutions. The statutory subventions to all the institutions (Olabisi Onabanjo University, Tai Solarin University of Education, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Tai Solarin College of Education, the four ICT Polytechnics, and the College of Health Technology) have either been drastically reduced or stopped outright. In TASCE for instance, the government is owing staff 18 months salaries. And since September 2016, TASCE staff have been receiving half salary. 

In OOU, TASUED and MAPOLY, the institutions are able to pay their workers mainly from fees they charge students. Besides the annual grants they get from Education Tax Fund (ETF), in Abuja, these institutions get nothing from their owner government for academic support (learned conferences, linkages, infrastructure, etc). The level of demoralisation among staff members of those institutions is all so palpable. 

Concerning students of tertiary institutions in Ogun State, in the past several years, they have not been paid bursary, neither do they have any scholarship support or students loan facilities from the government.

Now, all these assaults on education by the Amosun government are taking place when it has become firmly established that the substantial wealth of nations comes (contrary to Adam Smith) no more from natural resources (crude oil, solid minerals, etc) but from quality human capital. The preponderance of the wealthiest in the world currently are technology entrepreneurs and executives, all of who are products of quality education facilitated and supported by the modern State. 

The commercialisation of education, and consequently, restriction of access to it, in Ogun State is particularly unfortunate because it is happening when Nigerians everywhere in the country are reported to be getting poorer by the day. According to the latest World Bank study on poverty prevalence, a whooping 83 million Nigerians live on less than $1.9 per day, which is highest number of the absolutely poor in the whole world.

OUR OFFER

We will revamp all the State-owned tertiary institutions and ensure that they are not run as glorified secondary schools through the regular release of subventions and other support funds in addition to improved governing structures and attention.

• We will see to it that more privately-owned tertiary institutions are attracted to the State, while strengthening the ones already on ground. 

• We will ensure that all primary and secondary schools in Ogun State qualify as model schools and ensure prompt payment of salaries, leave bonuses and allowances to teachers. 

• We will invest in training in ICT and other modern teaching techniques. We will gradually introduce electronic teaching boards and other teaching aids into primary and secondary schools in the State.

Targets:

- education for skills development as part of total human development

- ICT-based and ICT-driven learning in all facets of education in the State

- e-library for all public schools

- making education available to all children in the State

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

As we all know, Governor Amosun is determined to foist another of his kind on Ogun State as his successor. Parents, teachers at the different educational levels, and students of voting age must resist this sinister move by Amosun. Those who are directly the victims of this government’s assault on education must also not make the mistake of allowing the warlords and money bags in other parties who are throwing money around with the supposition that they could buy our people to get to power to do even worse than Amosun is currently doing. I therefore call on all people of goodwill in Ogun State to come with me as we embark on this RESCUE MISSION to take back our State from the cabal of corrupt, visionless and incompetent politicians. Ogun State must rise again! Omo Ogun Ise ya!!

• For details of alternatives to the current misgovernance, kindly view my Manifesto and that of SDP on: www.sinakawonise.com.ng

Sincerely yours,

‘Sina Kawonise (SK),

Governorship Aspirant,

Social Democratic Party,

Ogun State.

National Chairman of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Olu Falae, said the party was set to re-enact a 1992/1993 victory that saw late Moshood Abiola and Babagana Kingibe emerge victorious in the polls.

SDP then was one of the two authorised political parties by the military. The current SDP has some members of the former one, but both are distinct entities.

Falae was speaking in Yola where he led other national leaders of the party to formally receive a gubernatorial aspirant of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Emmanuel Bello, who defected to SDP with his supporters.

He said that with the series of defection from other parties to SDP, the party has proven that it was the much talked about third force that would rescue Nigerians.

“PDP and APC have failed Nigerians. Nigerians are now looking towards us to make the difference,” Falae said.

Also speaking, a former information minister, Mr Jerry Gana, said the event in Adamawa was the first since he left PDP to SDP, adding that with what he saw, SDP would surprise Nigerians in 2019 general elections.

“The SDP train is now on the move to salvage Nigerians,” Gana said.

In his remarks, Mr Emmanuel Bello said he left APC to SDP with thousands of his supporters because Adamawa APC has been pocketed by some few individuals.

“For instance, since I became a member of APC in Adamawa State, I have never been invited for a meeting of any structure of the party, because there has been no meeting of any of the party’s structures by people authorised to do so.

“In technical terms, the party is dead in Adamawa” and its relics is in the pocket of a few.

“Today, the truth is that what is left of APC lacks cohesion and unity required to present a common front. It’s obvious that we had strange bed mates in APC in Adamawa state,” Bello said.

PT 

INTRODUCTION

In a few weeks, it’ll be seven years since Senator Ibikunle Amosun took over Ogun State as Governor. He came with the slogan “Mission To Rebuild Ogun State” (MITROS). His promise was to ‘rebuild’ the State in all critical sectors - education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, employment generation, community development, empowerment of women, creating enabling environment for business, etc.

Having spent his first term and another three years out of the second and final term in office, all that Governor Amosun has got to offer Ogun State are already manifest. We all have seen Amosun’s very best, we’ve seen his MITROS - warts and all!

WHY THE RESCUE MISSION?: FACTS AND FIGURES

Besides the normal recurrent expenditure, which has been consistently high under the Amosun Administration, about 90 percent of what remained for capital expenditure has been spent on expansion of very few existing urban roads in a few locations in the State. Out of a total of 2,545 kilometers of state (Trunk B) road across the State, Governor Amosun has spent almost N300 billion to expand a total of 347 kilometers. This represents a paltry 13.6 percent of state roads crying for attention. Virtually all internal (Trunk C) roads in every city, town and village in the State have become impassable. This is the case because all federal allocations to Local Governments (LGs), as well as their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) are seized by Amosun using the instrumentality of a law he enacted immediately he got into office for what he described as State/LG Projects Joint Account.

Apart from all other sectors neglected due to this mono-focus on urban road expansion which, in real terms, adds little or nothing to the GDP of Ogun State, the real tragedy is the huge debt Amosun will be leaving for all of us and our children to settle in at least the next 30 years.

The incompetence and irresponsibility of the current government are vividly captured in the 2016 Financial Statement of the State published in some national newspapers on December 28, 2017. In that Statement, Ogun State had a total revenue of N114.8 billion. From this figure, FAAC allocation from Abuja was N32.6 billion, IGR N71.5 billion, and others (not specified - most probably short-term loans from banks) N10.7 billion.

From this revenue of N114.8 billion, N70 billion (or 61 percent) went on recurrent expenditure in 2016. While salaries and emoluments took N39.5 billion, overhead costs consumed a whooping N13.8 billion, with debt servicing taking away N16.7 billion (this amounts to N1.39 billion monthly).

From the figures above, it would be seen that only N44.8 billion was available for capital expenditure. To appreciate the level of incompetence and corruption of the Amosun government, I’ll cite two roads that are typical of the road expansion projects executed by it.

1. OGTV-Brewery junction road with a distance of 8.7 km at a total cost of N17.2 billion and per/km cost of N1.98 billion.

2. Sagamu-Benin Express junction/Oba Erinwole junction road at a total cost of N11.87 billion and per/km cost of N1.7 billion.

If the total amount available for capital expenditure in a typical year (as it was the case in 2016) was N44.8 billion, how does anyone justify spending N1.98 billion to expand one kilometer of an existing road with no strategic importance or the potential to boost the local economy? At that rate, it means the whole N44.8 billion could expand a total of only 22.6 kilometers in a budget year out of the 2,545 km Trunk B roads and tens of thousands Trunk C roads needing attention.

Now, the reported costs of the road projects are another matter entirely. The Lagos-Ibadan express road being executed by the Federal Government is 124 km at a cost of N167 billion, which translates to N1.35 billion/per kilometer. While the Sagamu-Lagos end is 8 lanes, the Sagamu-Ibadan portion is 6 lanes. Apart from the width of the FG’s road, the construction is a total overhaul of existing road with massive excavation and very thick concrete and asphalt overlay that are several times the volume and dimension of any of Amosun’s roads. Yet, the FG’s road is far cheaper than what is delivered to us in Ogun state.

The foregoing is the very reason there are no passable roads in the towns and villages of Ogun State outside of the 300+ km in the few urban locations. It is the reason the education and health sectors have deteriorated so badly. It is the reason unemployment is at its worst in the history of the state. It is the reason the 7,334 CDAs and 55,000 cooperative societies in the State receive no attention whatsoever from the government. It is the reason only one out of the 22 so-called Model Schools started 6 years ago is operational. It is the reason the government is owing civil servants 18 months salary deductions and 4 years of backlog in gratuities and pension. It is the reason so many manufacturing concerns in Sango Otta, Agbara, Igbesa, Akute, Ogijo, Mowe and Ibafo axis have shut down and retrenched thousands of workers because there are no motorable roads to their factories. It is the reason agriculture receives no tangible government support and it is the basis of the lie and fraud called MITROS rice. It is the reason all the taps hitherto serviced by public pipe-borne water are dry. It is the reason the whole economic environment of Ogun State is so dreary and mournful.

THE DEBT OVERHANG 

In the 2016 Financial Statement referred to earlier, the government reported a total debt stock of N113.2 billion, being internal and external loans. This is partial reporting and concealment of facts. Non-flow debts of liabilities to workers and pensioners, outstanding payments to contractors and suppliers are not included. Informal estimates have it that total non-flow debts are about N150 billion. With the interest-based debt of N113.2 billion, the $300 million (= N109 billion) World Bank loan recently and dubiously approved for Amosun by the National Assembly, the current government will be leaving a whooping N372 billion debt overhang for Ogun residents to sort out for the next two generations. For, if the debt repayment rate remains at the N1.39 billion per month level of 2016, it’ll take a minimum of 30 years to settle the debt at a conservative single-digit interest rate of 9 percent.

‘THIRD TERM’ FOR AMOSUN?

It is ironic, therefore, that the man and his government that promised to rebuild Ogun State at the inception, through their own publicly presented records, which obviously must have been doctored - suggesting that the reality would be worse than presented -  have only succeeded in effecting monumental destruction and degradation on the State. This makes it imperative that conscious and concrete efforts be made to retrieve our State from him and halt its decline. Yet, this is the Governor that has been boasting that he’ll foist on us a successor to continue the pillage and cover his back. Evidently, this man has no worthwhile interest or plan for the State beyond dominating and cornering its resources. For, it is certain that anyone from his camp would definitely continue along his line of bad governance.

It should be obvious to all right thinking observers that Ogun State cannot and should not be allowed to continue under the tutelage of Governor Amosun and his ilks in All Progressive Congress (APC), as the party and its standard bearer have shown themselves as incapable of rebuilding Ogun State as promised. And in the light of the stark evidence staring us in the face about the level of denudation that the State has been subjected to under the APC government, it should be the responsibility of all Ogun State indigenes and residents to work assiduously to see that APC is prevented from further mounting the saddle of governance in the State. The case against APC cannot be made better than the way the current government has misused its mandate.

NEITHER APC NOR PDP

Incidentally, it is not only APC that should be consciously prevented from governance in Ogun State. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, in his celebrated open letter on the current APC-led government at the federal level has this to say on the two leading political parties in the country at the moment: “I have had occasion in the past to say that the two main political parties - APC and PDP - were wobbling. I must reiterate that nothing has happened to convince me otherwise. If anything, I am reinforced in my view. The recent show of PDP must give grave and great concern to lovers of Nigeria … If neither APC nor PDP is a worthy horse to ride to lead Nigeria (and we must painfully add Ogun State here) at this crucial and critical time, what then do we do?” We know all men and women of goodwill in Ogun State want the best for the State and would want to stop in its tracks the bad governance which the former President has remarked as basic characteristics of both APC and PDP. The former President, has of course, recommended the urgent need for people of goodwill across Nigeria to come together and present an alternative to both discredited parties which have woefully failed our people and pauperised them. I offer myself to be part of this new crop of leaders in Ogun State.

I believe we in Ogun State, having been witnesses and victims of the deleterious effect of the high-handed and pernicious rule of the APC-led government in the State in the last seven years, have an abiding duty to come together to rescue the State from falling further into morass or getting into the hands of those who only know how to prey on the State or those who are so poor in everything that the only thing they have is money with which they think they could lord it over the good people of the State. 

NOW THE REAL DEAL

We have the capacity to prevent further denudation in the State and it should be our responsibility to ensure that the State is put back on the path of development that was its hallmark under the tutelage of its founding fathers like the late Governor Olabisi Onabanjo. The time to act is now! This is why it has become imperative for me to ask all men and women of goodwill in Ogun State to rise up and join me in this onerous task of rescuing our State from the present miasma of hopelessness to which it has been consigned by those currently superintending over its affairs and their ilks who are seeking to perpetuate the hopelessness. The time to rescue Ogun State is now. We have a duty to rescue the State and I am pledging myself to this task even as we are sure that SUCCESS would be ours. Omo Ogun, ise ya!

• For a well thought-out programme of action on how to effect a new deal for our people in Ogun State, kindly visit: www.sinakawonise.com.ng

‘Sina Kawonise (SK),

Social Democratic Party (SDP),

Ogun State, Nigeria.