In my writings, I have always been guided by Alex Haley’s immortal words, which he also modified into his personal motto, “Find the Good and Praise It”. The late Haley, bestselling author of ‘’Roots”” and ‘’Malcolm x”, who lived his life by these six words, profoundly believed that a lot of things could be wrong with something, but, if you look hard enough, you could find the good in it. And the good that you find is what you should comment about and praise it for.
So, for me, as much as I could, I try to find the good and praise it. This encourages people, especially political and corporate leadership, to do more in the quest to uplift the society that we live in.
Two years ago, an obviously elated Senator Abiola Ajimobi, at his inauguration as Governor of Oyo State, declared that the journey to restoration had begun. “Today, we begin the journey to restore efficient infrastructure in place of the year-long decay, restore integrity in our public institutions that have been perennially abused and compromised, restore the faith of our people in government, as against the regime of widespread scepticism and fright in the institution of government… The priorities of this administration shall thus be human capital development, healthcare delivery, infrastructure development, integration revitalization, development of agriculture and the agro-allied industry, improved security and good governance,’’ he had said.
A content analysis of this narrative however revealed nothing new or different from similar promises made and largely unfulfilled by past leaders in Oyo State. Therefore, there was nothing really to be excited about as we had heard even better nourished and sugar-coated words in the past without any concrete corresponding action towards the fulfilment of such promises made to the people.
Often times, elected office holders recognize the need for certain drastic reforms which initially would be a painful and an unpopular measure, but would rather shy away from taking such risks for fear of being defeated when seeking re-election, believing that such suicide move could sound the death knell of their political career.
This was the case with past political leaders in Oyo State, the late Bola Ige administration being an exception. They lacked the political will to face the urgent challenge of transformation. These past leaders did not have the guts to effect change that would have ensured a better and robust life for the citizenry, but were more interested in selfishly sustaining their political relevance. They therefore woefully failed what the Americans call the Political Courage Test.
When Senator Ajimobi came into office, Ibadan, the state capital was like a shanty town, with crudely built shacks littering almost every available space in the ancient city touted to be one of the largest and dirtiest cities in Africa. It therefore became imperative to put in place a transformation agenda that is proactive and at the same time drastic if he was to achieve any meaningful infrastructural development.
Driven by a political will that is resilient and irrepressible, Ajimobi set about the onerous task by putting in place a virile agenda that would correct the ills of the past and strategically reposition Oyo State for greater social and economic prosperity which ultimately benefits the people of all classes in the society.
The uncompromising implementation of the reformation agenda was meant to present an environment that would eventually become a veritable investment destination. This could only mean one thing: that Ibadan, the state capital and its environs must transform from what Prof. J.P. Clark described as a “running splash of rust and gold, flung and scattered among seven hills like a broken china in the sun”.
However, the first six months of the administration was a little on the quiet side as no concrete and visible infrastructural development was in place. This naturally gave the opposition the needed strength to vehemently criticize the administration as incompetent and unfortunately, majority of the people latched onto it.
This was a period when a great deal of unpleasant insinuations about the governor and his government rent the air. Even journalists did not help matters then, so much that at a point, the governor, in response to a question that bordered on ineptitude, pointedly told reporters that he did not sign for 100 days or six months, but for four years.
Twenty four months later, intensive implementation of the agenda has yielded and is still yielding great fruits. Transformation and reformation is now a big reality. Ibadan and its environs are now like one huge construction site. Roads are being constructed, reconstructed, rehabilitated, dualised or expanded all over the state. A flyover, the first to be constructed by any democratically elected government, has been commissioned, while about 10 bridges have been built and well over 40 rivers, canals and streams have been dredged. For a fact, at the last count, over 250 infrastructure development projects covering roads, bridges, health centres, neighbourhood markets, dredging of rivers and canals have been executed by the government, while other neighbourhood markets, an ultra modern business complex expected to accommodate over 4000 shops, 20 warehouses, banks, clinics, etc. at Samonda and other projects, are at various stages of completion.
Two years on, people now sing a new song. Ajimobi has exceeded all expectations. He has achieved the set goals of his administration in two years. No governor before him achieved half of what he has accomplished in two years. These are some of the ‘lyrics’ of the new song.
The shanties, the shacks have all but vanished from the Ibadan environmental space, something hitherto seen as impossible to achieve, and now replaced by a serene and deeply aesthetic environment like never before. The new-look Iwo Road inter-change and other major streets in the metropolis are now neat and beautifully adorned with flowers and functional street lights. If Oyo State in general and Ibadan, the state capital in particular, is looking this good now, one could then imagine how incredible the outlook would be by the end of the governor’s first term in office.
There is no doubt that the reforms must have brought with it a lot of hardship, especially to the masses; they should however be comforted by the reasoning that the gains of reforms are permanent and far outweigh the pains that are very temporary.
Ajimobi and his team may have proved to all and sundry that where there is a political will, there is always a way. The audacity to transform, the boldness to reform, not minding whose ox is gored in the process, could no doubt be politically suicidal, but Ajimobi realised that the penalties for ignoring such challenge are huge and which at some point in the near future may have become unsustainable and unrecoverable.
He must keep up the good work; sustain the good flow of political intelligence and good governance which ultimately brings about social stability, political accountability, effective development and equitable distribution of resources.
• Ogunremi was Chief Press Secretary to Governor Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti State.
