Ogun Commissioners And Gov. Abiodun’s Albatross

Opinion:

By: Balogun Ibrahim

The Ogun state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun as the candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC) in just concluded guber poll struck the wrong cord when he said: “Those of the people I thought they are friends proved not to be a friends, as they disappointed me in the last election” though, it will find it difficult to establish and maintain just government throughout the state. But in politics all is fair and just, the ultimate objective being to grab power be it at the stratum of government or party. It is the Machiavellian way.

However, the bigwigs in APC in the State would be deceiving themselves, the governor and not the public if they hang on to the lie that the State Commissioners being chose by the governor in last four years were up to the task of governance, be it lies or fabrications, most of them could not win their respective polling units at the last gubernatorial election, which means that the governor were surrounded by incompetents, mediocres, non-challant, unfaithful and unsupported Commissioners.

Mr. Governor, it is no more news that you won the election narrowly and the merging been recorded to have won the poll was nothing to right home about, it is recorded that it was not happened in the history of Ogun state that an incumbent governor could win the opposition by mistake not the it is won convincingly, mind you it is observed, your won the election not by chance but by force, while other governors won their second terms bid by wider merging. All efforts to make them see the danger and demagoguery that then-candidate and incumbent governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun might not win the election proved futile.

Most of your Commissioners were deaf to reason and blind to the red flags. Indeed, that of the almost 50 media aides could not perform any magic to win the election with a lot of figures, most of your aides were not listening to the people and they were not media and people’s friendly, it is better to sack them with immediate effect, in fact, Mr. Governor you don’t need to be told before showing them a red card, they were appointed based of local government areas which stands as their catchment areas in an election, once they could not delivered as you are expected, then let them leave and appoint friendly, oriented and peoples’ friendly Commissioners in that capacity. Most of your Commissioners, Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants and others aides were found wanting on the election day.

Today, we are all experiencing the consequences of incompetence dressed in borrowed robes as Commissioners, SAs, SSAs and many others. See the mess that Ogun State has become – a tragedy of monumental proportions. In just four years, Dapo Abiodun and his All Progressives Congress (APC) have turned Ogun State upside down, a land flowing with milk and honey, has been turned into a famished land. They say once bitten, twice shy, but strangely, many are at it again, eager to repeat their foolery, foolishness and non-challant, it is now left for you to chose between the rights and wrongs, the Yoruba adage says: Won ba eniyan wa ise ni, won’kinba eniyan se, meaning, they help people find job, but they do not partake in the job.

As I have consistently stated, Ogun State indigenes are incredibly smart people, with a history of foolish choices. Is it not baffling that despite the damage done to this state by the APC in nearly twelve years of staggering misrule that is palpable even to the blind, that some people still support it to remain in power, from top to the bottom of the social class?

Really, I don’t know what to make of such people. I have argued in many private discussions that a lot more people need psychiatric examinations than I had previously thought. Because I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone in their right senses is promoting APC to retain power, how much more still leaving someone with a reputation for dirty dealing like Waheed Odusile, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, a somebody that could not manage the state image, I have never stumble to any of his article on the governor in the national dailies ever since appointed as the Commissioner in the State, he could not even win his Ijebu-East local government for the governor, why still in that office till date. How? Is this what our state has become?

I find it very ridiculous and shameful that some aides of governor Dapo Abiodun are crying all over social media about the result that they got in the just concluded governorship election. While, it is a known fact that being in power blinds one from seeing reality, being drunk in the utopia has always been a recipe for disaster. I don’t know how Dapo got so confident that he is loved across the state so much that if he gave a ticket to anyone, such person would win. The illusion of success and love his aides and close associates built upon him to milk him blinded his eyes from reality.

The election result in Ogun state is the worst report card any governor in the history of Nigeria has ever gotten. An incumbent governor whose party convincingly won the presidential and senatorial elections just three weeks ago, securing three senatorial and nine House of Representatives seats yet had to scheme violence across the state only to come out with a meagre 13,915 difference is an absolute declaration of rejection.

Rather than accepting the reality and finding a way to get back to the good books of the people, his political friends and aides who failed to deliver their individual areas are all over social media talking about betrayal. The concept of betrayal is that someone you trust and have favour over worked against you when you were helpless.

None of these applies to the governor. He was neither helpless nor did he have favour hanging over anyone. Dapo Abiodun went around town boasting that he was a brand in Ogun state and had total control of the state. He was on several tapes saying he was so confident of victory, but he is only campaigning to ensure the difference is one of highest in the state’s history.

He was basing his popularity on the result of the Feb. 18 election and tales of deception his friends and aides were using to massage his ego. Governor Abiodun is in dire need of new friends. The set of friends every politician should have. They do not enjoy patronage from the government and are bold and courageous to tell the home truth when it is mostly not pleasant. They are the realists and pragmatists around the corridors of power.

When aides and political appointees start the cosmetic garment of honour, the friends will shut it down and tell the governor the public’s feelings towards him. No one betrayed Governor Abiodun. If there was any betrayal, it was from his aides who placed him on a pedestal he was not fit for. The betrayal came from aides and associates who got money to ensure victory but diverted it; they only shared N1,000 from the N5,000 governors Abiodun gave them to pay for votes at the polling units.

If I were the governor, these individuals would be in different cells explaining how they spent the money.

*Ibrahim Balogun, a journalist and political analyst writes in from Imobi Road, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. balogunibrahim1777@gmail.com, or 08060799328.