The tragedy of Ogun State transcends language. Its lurid narrative of bad roads and commuter deaths, ghostly clinics and industry, resonate casualties of London’s Bubonic plague.
Yet through its miseries, the “Gateway State” heaves to a smorgasbod of political orgasms, because its all that truly matters to vested interests within and outside the state.
Who cares if the citizenry perish on highways turned death corridors? While the state contracted through spasms of its former governor, Ibikunle Amosun’s insipid lusts, for instance, President Muhammadu Buhari honoured him with state visits.
If Ogun people nursed any hope of attaining succour by Buhari’s recent visit to the state, they have been schooled. In a deliberate, measured tenor, Mr. President commended Amosun for his performance and affirmed, that, the governor had prepared very well for governance.
He also said: “I congratulate Amosun for having the foresight and saving enough resources to ensure his footprint remains permanent, very clever person. The infrastructure he took me through, the flyovers, the bridges, the hospitals and this complex are first class. He has done very well for himself and for Ogun State.”
Thus by such pricey words and a patronising smile, Buhari ennobled Amosun’s “legacy projects.” So doing, he ignored the fact, that, the Adire Mall at Itoku market, the Judicial Complex along Kobape road, the amphitheatre at the city centre and the renovated old Governor’s office at Oke-Ilewo, are mere powder blur, Amosun’s esthetic dressing of the gashes and sores inflicted on the state by his ineffectual leadership.
How relevant is the “250-bed ultramodern hospital” at Oke Mosan to poor, helpless mothers and newborns dying by maternal/infant mortality across Ogun State’s rural enclaves, where Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) have been transformed into goat pens and a playground for rodents?
Of what use is the Wasinmi International Airport in Ewekoro Local Government Area(LGA), where rural folk are choking and dying under a vicious cloud of cement dust and poisonous lead, carelessly discharged into their communities, rivers and farms, by LafargeWAPCO Plc, in collusion with government officials?
The purported disbursement of a N500 million compensation to 5,000 farmers in the 20 villages of Wasinmi, affected by the international airport project, reignites echoes of Amosun’s legendary rice pyramids, no doubt.
That Buhari publicly acknowledged the “shrewdness” and “foresight” of the immediate past governor of Ogun State is simply one way to look at the issue.
On the flipside, the president’s carefully chosen words: his allusion to Amosun as a “very clever person,” who “has done very well for himself and the state,” bears shrill, indigestible undertones, perhaps.
The president could have called Amosun “brainy” or “brilliant” but he opted to use “clever” not minding its uncomplimentary synonyms. Whatever the true import of Buhari’s words, Amosun’s contrived accolades hover in an interpretative cloud, the consequence of his fabricated super-self.
Aside the wildly glamourised “legacy projects,” Buhari lacks adequate knowledge of the reality of travelling and living in Ogun State on Amosun’s watch.
The president could, however, be forgiven for failing to see through the smokescreen of Amosun’s “legacy projects.” Having landed in the state via the presidential chopper, NAF 540, Buhari was spared the horror of travel on Ogun State’s death roads.
In a saner clime, Buhari would opt for road travel, from Lagos to Oke Mosan, if only to feel the pulse of the electorate about his leadership. But the presidential cabinet understands the folly of imperiling Buhari via such road travel. How would it seem to expose the president to interminable traffic, on a highway, where containers fall off articulated trucks to crush commuters to death?
Thus when his chopper touched down at the State Secretariat, at exactly 10:30 a.m, Buhari probably kept to time and avoided traffic, unlike thousands of imperiled folk travelling through Ogun State’s deathly corridors, every day.
Were Buhari in Amosun’s shoes, would he become stonily deaf and blind to the transit townships’ grief for eight years?
There used to be a death trap at Owode junction, just before you get to Ifo. Today, that dangerous pothole has birthed numerous craters, incessantly claiming lives and property in ghastly auto accidents.
The gory picture accompanying this article, for instance, shows an accident that reportedly occured at the Techno-Ashimolowo axis of Ifo, on the Lagos/Abeokuta highway, recently.
The lives of poor, helpless residents of Ijoko, Agoro, Ijako, Iyana-Ilogbo, Ilepa, continually expire on Ogun State’s muddy and badly cratered roads. The devastation persists in Alade, Elekunmefa, Imise, Onihale, Singer, to mention a few, and to residents and traders of Lusada, Atan-Ota and Igbesa in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of the state, the roads leading to their communities are nightmarish and inimical to growth.
For the over 70 industries located in the Atan-Agbara region of Ogun State, the distressing road network constitutes a major hindrance to productivity as they lose goods and vehicles worth millions of naira to road accidents.
Ugliness subsists in Lafenwa, Aiyetoro, Olugbode and various communities along Itele road. More roads present an eyesore at Oju-Ore, Ilo-Awela and Oke-Aro, Toll-gate junction, Joju, Temidire and environ, because these hotspots and scenes of multiple deadly accidents were inconsequential to Amosun’s “legacy” venture.
As the eyesore festered, Amosun’s government claimed to have spent about N174 billion on federal road repairs, yet till his tenure expired, neither the governor nor his lieutenants could convincingly articulate, how such expenditure was made.
Was it on the riverine bridge at Alagbole, Akute, where commuters wade through a stagnant river of mud, everyday?
Lest we forget the people of Ewekoro, who are still dying, slowly, from the poisonous fumes persistently discharged into their communities by LafargeWAPCO Plc. A five-part investigative series of the cement giant’s unwholesome activities in the area was fitfully scorned and condemned by Amosun’s government, until it spurred his government to stage a theatrical intervention, which eventually produced a remedy that barely addressed the health and developmental challenges foisted by LafargeWAPCO on its host communities.
A careful reconsideration of Amosun’s antics en route the recently concluded general elections, may leave you marvelling at the absurdities symptomatic of the ex-governor’s tenure. President Buhari, for instance, got pelted with missiles by APM flunkies, on Amosun’s watch. Not quite gubernatorial perhaps. Apology to Omatseye.
The jury is out. Ibikunle Amosun failed to live up to his hyperbolic cant. His radical theatricality, no doubt, extinguished the bright beams of hope radiated by his leadership during his first term.
Notwithstanding, Camp Amosun would crucify this writer as yet another detractor. They will conveniently forget my humble challenge, four years ago, to write glowingly of Amosun’s achievements, if he ever fully matured into a competent administrator and statesman. Did he?
To Amosun’s frantic apologists, I pray, May Almighty God, in His infinite justice, make your lives evolve exactly the way Ogun State evolved under the leadership of Ibikunle Amosun. May He make your twilight become what Ogun State became by the governorship of Ibikunle Amosun. Amen.
Nonetheless, Amosun has earned himself a senate seat and the possibility of reprieve.
Leave a Reply