The other day, Oyo’s new governor made a pitch: he was targeting supersonic performance, in his first 100 days, to dwarf the two terms of some other governors.
He didn’t quite name names. Neither did he state the state of reference. But since only Abiola Ajimobi, his immediate predecessor, ever earned a second term of all Oyo governors, and since there appears no political love lost between the two, it is safe to assume the jab was Ajimobi-specific!
Well, a bit of contextual backgrounding, on when that statement of intent was made.
The governor was unleashing his prime “supersonic” tool, in new secretary to the Oyo Government, Olubamiwo Adeosun, 43; and the governor, via his media spokesperson, tried to grab some PR mileage — no crime.
He played the usual technocrat-versus-politician card, showing off Mrs Adeosun, a seasoned pharmacist and former high-flying private sector player as his new ace — a “ technocrat” come to pull the magic. Well, again, no crime. The fact that Mrs Adeosun is female, perhaps Oyo’s first female SSG since 1999, enriched the spin — and why not? If you have it, you can certainly flaunt it!
But the over-drive came with the 100 days question, when the governor waxed lyrical and decreed he wanted to out-perform the eight-year record of his predecessor in 100 days. Now, that was the stuff pure fantasies are made of!
Forget politics and the often blind emotion that comes with playing partisan politics: Ajimobi is as formidable as they come; both in the quantum of work and sheer style of performance. Compared with his rather limited predecessors, Ajimobi was the real McCoy, bristling with cosmopolitan style and substance, in an Oyo hitherto condemned to gubernatorial yokels, in spite of their undoubted education.
Now, that is the man Makinde wants to outshine in 100 days! Well, it could well mean creative hyperbole to spice up the boys; and pump up political adrenalin. If it were well thought out, the Oyo electorate would have been the better for it.
Still, subjected to the nitty-gritty, it’s what folks would dismiss as “talk is cheap”. Besides, if the morning shows the day, the omens are not so good.
If the new Oyo governor is not whining about newly discovered debts, he is hollering about commandeered vehicles by the ancien regime, real or imagined, lamenting how bankrupt his state has suddenly become, or scuttling towards the Delta, hankering after gubernatorial worst practices, under the guise of tutorials.
Who knows, when push comes to shove, he might have picked up a potent manual on how to wipe out your people, at election time, so you could rule over ghosts; or at most, pacified zombies! That would be all hot, fresh and smoking from the land of the masters, of that potent stratagem!
All of these call for serious concern about self-distraction. That itself could be a convenient cloak for culpable lack of ideas; or flighty thinking, a manifestation of an airy mind that struggles to retain serious and rigorous thinking. If that were so, how would Makinde deliver on his supersonic “threat”?
But Hardball genuinely hopes not — nay prays not! For the sake of the Oyo electorate, it would be splendid were Makinde to trump Ajimobi, for all his achievements. But you don’t do that by becoming the dreamer-farmer in the Yoruba proverb, who enthused about mowing the bushy farmland by the wild and comical swing of his arms — only to find out the reality was of sterner stuff. That is what Makinde’s 100 days lullaby is all about!
Let Makinde go trump Ajimobi on solid performance. Oyo — and all of Yorubaland — would be better for it. But that can’t be achieved by colourful day-dreaming. Let Makinde think hard, talk less and get to work.
He may yet concretize his dreams!
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