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Tag: Ondo state

  • Philanthropist honours pupils in Ondo

    Philanthropist honours pupils in Ondo

    High-performing secondary school pupils in Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State have been given cash awards by an organisation, the Razak Foundation.

    The foundation owned by an oil businessman, Comrade Razak Obe gave out cash valued in thousands of naira to the best students in all the secondary schools in the council.

    Some of the recipients got N20,000, some N10,000 each depending on which cadre of the secondary school.

    This was done in order to encourage and challenge other students to value education and perform better.

    The beneficiaries were picked from nine schools which included Anglican Grammar Schools in Ijare, Holad High School, Ilara-Mokin, Jooro High School, Ibule, Ayo Grammar School, Ipogun, C.A.C Comprehensive High School, Ijare and among others. All the schools are in Ifedore local Council.

    Speaking at the event, held at Ilara-Mokin, Obe who is also an indigene of the community, said it was high time stakeholders rose up to save the already collapsing educational sector of the country.

    He said he was inspired to help the nation in making some great changes, particularly in the education sector.

    The oil magnate said: “This is a nation where absolutely nothing works. No country can achieve its destiny without education, not just education, qualitative education.

    “We should educate the people and encourage them to be educated; through that you must have started building a block that will deliver a great nation tomorrow. That is why today, we have spent close to millions of naira by rewarding excellent students in our community.

    “This is the third edition of the programme and I hope to do this throughout my lifetime even my children will continue this programme because our progress as a nation depends solely on our progress in education.

    “The human mind is our fundamental resource. Education should occupy the top of our priorities list if we must build a great and prosperous nation from this abyss of physical underdevelopment, wanton governmental malfeasance, cultural polarization, fiscal rascality, moral bankruptcy, ubiquitous corruption, primitive prejudices and counterproductive stereotypes.

    “It is my quest to help midwife the change our nation  needs that informed my decision three years ago to institute this modest reward system that recognizes the hard work and brilliance of the students who distinguish themselves in their studies”

    Obe, who is aspiring to contest  2015 general election for Ifedore/Idanre federal constituency seat, advised the government to build physical infrastructures in education, adding  that this would make people to know that education is what transforms a man for a better future.

    The overall best student, Miss Opeyemi Afolayan who spoke on behalf of other students, commended the initiator of the programme, saying it has created challenges among students in the community.

    She also urged other stakeholders to emulate Obe’s gesture by saving the country education system from total collapse.

  • ‘My husband was not a mysterious man’

    ‘My husband was not a mysterious man’

    Chief Adebanke Fagunwa, the 81-year-old widow of the late Chief Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa relives how he died and where he was buried at St. Luke Church Cemetery in Oke-Igbo, Ondo State. She says she did not marry a mysterious man. Assistant Editor (Arts) OZOLUA UHAKHEME, who was at the conference reports.

    My late husband as a manager with the Heinemann Books travelled to the northern part of the country on November 16, 1963 publicising the books of the publishing firm. On Saturday December 7, 1963, he slept at Bida while returning to Ibadan. He wanted to leave Bida early in order to reach Ibadan on time he decided to take a ferry (Pontu), which was the popular means of transporting both passengers and vehicles across the Niger River. To board the ferry was based on first come first serve. The driver told us the story of how everything happened.

    My late husband left for the River Niger bank at about 6am and walked down the river bank reading a book when suddenly he slipped and fell into the river. He got drowned and rescuers were unable to find him that day until Monday. He was found under a capsized canoe.

     

    Rescuers’ findings

    Searchers found that his dresses were still on him as well as the cap. His remains were brought to Ibadan on Monday December 9. On December 10, his corpse was taken to Oke Igbo, his home town for burial. His funeral was conducted at St. Lukes Church, Oke-Igbo, and there was church publication on the burial. And the church has every evidence about his burial till date. I would love that Nigerians should be shown his burial ground at Oke Igbo. When I saw what was written on the conference programme about the controversy surrounding the death of my husband, I discussed with the Ondo State government officials and promised to put the record straight. The permanent secretary in the Ondo State Ministry of Culture and Tourism promised to visit Oke Igbo to see things for himself.

     

    Resolution

    The family is ready to exhume the remains of my late husband to ascertain that he was actually buried at Oke-Igbo so as to dismiss the rumour that he was never buried because he drowned in River Niger. My late husband was never a mysterious man. I did not marry a mysterious man. In fact, until his death, he never belonged to any cult as he was a devoted Christian. He believed in God till he died.”

  • Staff School wins competition

    The Staff Primary School of the AAUA has emerged the overall winner of this year’s edition of Team Success, an annual competition organised by Macmillan Publishers.

    The 100 participants drawn from 50 schools in Ondo State, were tested in English Language, Mathematics and General Knowledge in the competition, which took place last Monday.

    In a statement, the Head Teacher of the school, Mrs. Dorcas Akinduro, thanked the university for its support to its representatives (King-David Babalola and Oluwatunmise Aseere) in the competition.

    The school was presented with a water dispenser, school bags and text books.

     

  • Ondo riverine community seeks probe of shoreline project

    RESIDENTS of Ayetoro Community in Ilaje coastal area of Ondo State at the weekend protested the alleged poor execution and mismanagement of the shoreline project in the community by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

    The coastal town in Ilaje local government area has lost considerable large portions of land to frequent sea surge and erosion since early 1990s owing to oil exploration.

    The environmental challenges have also led to loss of valuables.

    The principal secretary of the community, Otunba Dele Kudehinbu, told reporters in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, the initial contract awarded to Gallet Nigeria Limited in 2004 at N2.4billion was terminated after four years for alleged non-performance and lack of technical know-how.

    According to him: ‘’In 2009,the new board of NDDC cancelled the earlier contract and re-awarded it to Dredging Atlantic Nigeria Limited at a cost of about N6.5b out of which about N2.5b was paid to the new contractor as mobilisation.

    ‘’It is disheartening to report that about four years after the new contract was awarded and the payment of that work on the project has meaningfully commenced, there was no sign that the job is being done.’’

    Kudehinbu contended there was no adequate planning and preparation for the project before it was awarded, blaming everything on the NDDC management.

    The community urged President Goodluck Jonathan to institute a probe panel to investigate the poor execution of the project to end the traumas of Ayetoro residents.

  • Mimiko sworn-in for second term

    Mimiko sworn-in for second term

    Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State on Sunday took oath of office for his second term.

     The event held at the Democracy Park,Akure,the state capital was performed by the state Chief Judge,Justice Olaseinde Kumuyi.
    Among Dignitaries that attended the colourful event were former Head of State,Gen.Abdulsalam Abubakar,Ekiti State Governor,Dr Kayode Fayemi,Anambra State Governor,Mr Peter Obi,his Abia State Counterpart, Theodore Orji ,Former Minister for Information,Dora Akunyili and Business Tycoon,Alhaji Aligo Dangote.
    Others were Ooni of ife,Oba Okunade Sijuwade,Deji of Akure,Oba Adebiyi Adesida,Osemawe of Ondo,Oba Victor Kiladejo,Former Governors Adebayo Alao Akala,Ayodele Fayose,Chief Olu Falae,Chief Ayo Adebanjo and retired Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi.
    In his speech, Mimiko said he would take governance closer to the people in the next four years by posting greater achievements on all fronts.
    ”We will ensure the completion of all outstanding projects.  We will also, over the next four years, unveil a new stream of programmes directed at enhancing the quality of life of our people.”
    Mimiko called for restructuring of the country to achieve true federalism,stressing that more equity in the revenue sharing formula and the devolution of more powers to the federating units would empower the country.
    Guests were entertained by juju maestro,king Sunny Ade and his African beats and  2 face Idibia
  • Politics and impolitics

    Politics and impolitics

    The Ondo state election has come and gone. It is time to clear the gore on the political battle field. Snooper congratulates the declared winner, Dr Olusegun Rahman Mimiko. It was a tough and hard won victory. There were many fronts and many proxy battles. It was a close run thing. Snooper has never seen Mimiko so rattled and frazzled in his political life. Statistically, it was the political equivalent of a dead heat. But it is a good thing that the ACN has decided to put the election behind it. Democracy is about simple majority, and you cannot win all the time. It is time to retool and refocus.

    It was not a perfect election. But you cannot blame a river for being sluggish in midstream without looking at its source. As the late Dr Abel Goubadia famously noted, it is impossible to have a perfect election in a country where there is no proper record of birth and death; where there is no proper identification of citizens; where there is no valid census; and where public utility bills smack of elaborate forgery and outlandish fiction.

    Whether we like Attahiru Jega or not, the national outfit he leads is also a victim of systemic dysfunction. In the circumstances, one should congratulate Jega and his team for making the best of an impossible situation. It will be grossly partisan and unfair to dismiss the efforts the nation has made to heave away from the electoral chaos of the immediate past.

    In retrospect, the ACN made some strategic and tactical blunders. It allowed itself to be tricked into fighting the wrong battle and probably with the wrong choice of offensive weapons. It was unwise to have allowed the struggle to have been framed or perceived by the public as a contest of political titans. The Yoruba love their political heroes. But they also have profound empathy for the proverbial underdog.

    Better still, then, the heroic underdog. Once Mimiko was allowed to wear the garb of the heroic underdog fighting off the armada from Lagos and fictional imperialists and conquistadors from the metropole, the ACN had its back to the wall. By so doing, he was able to rally the sub-ethnic brotherhood. And by so allowing, the ACN was hoisted on the petard of its most potent weapon.

    There is a subtle dynamics to this politics of identity which goes to the heart of Yoruba character and which is deserving of more scholarly scrutiny. The Yoruba are Republican monarchists if ever there is such a contradiction or paradoxical formulation. They love their kings for the order and stability they bring to society. But they turn swiftly against them once they become overbearing and overreaching.

    For over 300 years, the Yoruba people have been engaged in a war of will and wits with their kings, sometimes reining them in and sometimes deposing or decapitating them. In the same breast, conservative and radical tendencies cohabit and coexist. When the ACN, spearheaded by the then Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu , were embroiled in political warfare with the PDP and the federal might as implacably represented by General Obasanjo, the Yoruba people supported them as heroic underdogs.

    They like the message of hope and redemption they brought. But when they believed they could sniff another hegemony in the making, they gave them an electoral black eye. Only political illiterates would construe this reversal of electoral fortunes as the swan song or the beginning of the end for ACN.

    Political dominance is not a football match to be won and lost overnight. Once the right lessons have been learnt and the right conclusion drawn, the ACN retains the balance of power in the old region. This is even more so in so far as the issues of a misbegotten federalism and a lop-sided structure remain on the top burner.

    This is why the post-election hysteria and alleluia, the shrill denunciation and unremitting demonisation of individuals, remain unhelpful. Rather than a solid analysis of the way forward, what has been on display is vindictive vitriol and crass defamation. Probably unknown to their vendors, these hate-surfeit castigations say more about the character and psychological state of their purveyors than the object of their hatred and fearful loathing.

    But if one can understand the caterwauling of the unenlightened, the ranting of those who have taken up permanent combat position on the social media and their fellow internet interns and internees of cyber caves, what can one say about otherwise respectable intellectuals who also indulge in the habit of fanning the embers of hatred and hostility?

    Surely if their aim is to capture power or to dislodge the ACN party from its regional stronghold, they must know that it takes more than surly diatribe and spiritual grandstanding to found an authentic party. It takes clarity of vision, psychological stamina, organisational discipline and a certain generosity of spirit which conduces to the surrender of self and ego to the collective self-interest.

    No one is saying that either the ACN or its leadership is a collection of saints. There are no saints in politics. In contemporary Nigeria, that will be the shortest suicide note in history. It was not for nothing that Charles de Gaulle described certain exceptional historical figures as “sacred monsters” Yet as we have noted, some of the current imperfections of party formations in Nigeria are traceable to the provenance of the Fourth Republic in military autocracy.

    In 1998 at the onset of party campaigns, General Obasanjo famously transported loyal delegates to the Jos Convention of the PDP all the way from Abeokuta in a sealed train. Appropriately, the wily military strategist bivouacked his democratic troops outside the tin city from whence he established contacts with the forward units of storm troopers already engaged in preliminary skirmishes.

    In a classic textbook military operation, the original founders and owners of the party were muscled out. They fled one by one and sometimes two by two. In an even more historic riposte, Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, upon noticing that the retired senior military officers with whom he had founded the original APP were rapidly absconding, famously asked them whether their new “posting” was out. It was the beginning and end of the PDP as a truly democratic party. Till date, Shinkafi himself remains in a political sanatorium.

    It was these “shock and awe” tactics that the old Afenifere and the AD succumbed to. After mopping up stragglers from his party, the general turned his friendly bearish hug to the AD/Afenifere and the APP. Neither survived. In order not to court summary extinction, the ACN appears to have understudied and mastered the battle order of the PDP while perfecting its own grand initiative.

    In the process, it was almost inevitable that ascendant party in Yoruba land would pick the same virus that has infected its much loathed bete noire. The symptoms include militarisation, monetisation, regimentation, the use of camouflage and deception and the tight leash on party internal democratic procedure in order to ward off infiltration and mole-planting. Ironically, it was the last two that would prove fatal to the party’s aspiration in Ondo. As internal and external pressures for genuine democracy grow, as the PDP is forced by failure to relax its vice-like grip on the nation, the other parties will also find themselves forcibly democratising and liberalising their internal procedures.

    Once again, and in as much as one regrets the political demise of revered elders, it is the old Afenifere that appears set to become the principal casualty of the unfurling dynamics. Perhaps this is just as well since there is time for everything. You cannot continue to invoke the name and sacred memory of a man in whose political ideals you know longer believe in. It is not what you say that matters, but what you do and are seen and perceived to be doing. Politics is too serious a business to be left in the hands of clergy men and retired bishops.

    Unable to grasp and comprehend the strange irrational dynamics of new political developments, fighting a new war with old weapons, the Afenifere has in the last decade been outsmarted twice from opposite ends of the political spectrum. First by Obasanjo and the PDP which infiltrated and destroyed their party, and then by the better-organised and better focused ACN that stole their ideological thunder.

    Now in a political development that will put their political twilight in acute jeopardy, they are set, bound and trussed, to deliver themselves as political hostages to the same reactionary forces they have heroically battled all their life. Snooper is personally aware that not all the old men are in tune with the retrogressive antics of their old comrades. But they cannot break ranks publicly.

    God forbid, if any of these great men were to answer the last call at this moment, will it be governor Mimiko’s lot to serve as the solitary pall bearer? Mimiko himself is too wily and wary a politician to serve as lone chief mourner in turbulent and adversarial circumstances. This is the major danger of the Masada complex, of fighting to the last man. There will be no one left to serve as a mourner.

    If it is not impudent and impolitic to advise our political patriarchs, the way forward is not to further alienate the ACN and its leadership. With five core Yoruba states under its control, ACN looms large in the old region. Politics of bitterness and hatred only compound and aggravate errors of judgement. The Afenifere grandees should seek out leading luminaries in the old region who still admire them but who also have leverage with the ACN leadership to broker a truce between them and their estranged younger comrades. As the late Chief S.O Gbadamosi famously rued at Ile-Ife during the June !2 crisis, what will they tell the late sage when they finally meet up?

  • Ondo State under the radar (1)

    Ondo State under the radar (1)

    The battle for the soul of Nigeria is on in deadly earnest. Let no mistake be made about it. The much advocated sovereign national conference, a veritable dialogue of the swamp dwelling ‘tribes’ of a much abused stunted nation is in full swing. No, as Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, subtly insinuated in his characteristically perspicacious keynote address at the last South-South Regional Summit in Asaba, Delta State, it may be time to forgo the rather romantic idea of a grand, once for all dialogue to resolve all national contradictions. There is unlikely to be any such thing. In reality, a nation is a sustained enterprise in perpetual dialogue. The national discourse that shapes the terms and texture of communal co-existence within a given territorial jurisdiction takes place daily in the media, academia, think-tanks, social clubs, religious communions, market places, beer parlours, board rooms, party caucuses and sundry other locations. At times, the exchange is verbal, peaceful and conciliatory. At times it degenerates into fisticuffs, belligerent militancy or even booming bombs exploding in the name of God! If, in the final analysis, the beleaguered nation is to survive as a going concern, some amicable compromises must be reached among contending forces or else the state must overwhelm the challengers of its authority through the monopoly of superior legitimate force.

    Edo State provided the last critical theatre of conflict in the ongoing titanic struggle to either sustain Nigeria in her present highly incendiary and alarmingly precarious condition or fundamentally transform her in the direction of greater stability, cohesion and prosperity. The last governorship election in the state was another phase in the ongoing informal national conference. The Edo polls were a veritable referendum on the state of the nation. In the aftermath of his emphatic victory in the contest, the comrade governor, Adams Oshiomhole, was surprisingly effusive in showering fulsome praise on President Goodluck Jonathan for allowing the polls to be free and fair. I think the encomiums were totally misplaced. Jonathan did Oshiomhole no favours in that election. The latter won clean and square, on the basis of his track record and wily political instincts.

    Let Oshiomhole be under no illusions. Jonathan and his tendency within the PDP needed to ‘capture’ Edo State badly. Only the politically blind and the perceptually bland cannot discern Jonathan’s obvious ambition to contest for a second term in 2015. Jonathan and his strategic ‘fixers’ of unlamented political memory thus badly needed Edo State in the PDP bag as a major pro-Jonathan South-South statement. It was not for nothing that Jonathan visited Edo twice to campaign for the PDP candidate. It was not for fun that troops were deployed in the state for the election. But neither appeal to primordial sentiments nor scare tactics could work any electoral magic for the PDP. Oshiomhole’s victory dealt a resounding blow to the PDP mainstream philosophy of elite cake sharing. It was an emphatic statement by the people that the current situation in Nigeria is unacceptable.

    Like the Edo governorship polls, next month’s election in Ondo will have implications far beyond the confines of the Sunshine state. Once again, that election will be a referendum on the Nigerian condition. As they make the voting decision, the electorate in Ondo State must ask themselves: Are we better off today than we were in 1999? Can Nigeria and by implication our state survive and prosper as currently led without vision or dynamism? Will the outcome of the election be an endorsement for continuity or for change in Nigeria? The stark truth is that a vote for Governor Segun Mimiko’s Labour Party (LP) will be a declaration of confidence and support for the current underdevelopment-generating status quo in Nigeria. Dr. Mimiko is in many ways an interesting, even charismatic, politician. But his political philosophy, if any such thing exists, has been exceedingly eclectic and syncretic as to lack any discernible concrete content. In this political dispensation, Mimiko has at various times been at home in the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now the Labour Party.

    The LP is today only a shell for an assortment of strange bedfellows to contest for power. The party is ideologically vacuous and programmatically famished. It is difficult to know the LP’s vision and action plan for the structural and functional efficiency of the Nigerian state at a time when contending power blocs are embroiled in a bitter struggle to refashion the country in their desired images. Yet, the actualization of the potentials and well being of the component states of Nigeria will depend fundamentally on a workable and clear strategy to transform the character of power at the centre and the structure of the relationship between the centre and the states. How can a party without any such serious strategic vision be entrusted with the destiny of a state like Ondo at this critical juncture of the country’s evolution? The ever blunt former President Olusegun Obasanjo once said, during a visit to Ondo State, that even though Mimiko is in the LP, the Governor’s spirit remains in the PDP. Mimiko’s silence on this claim was deafening implying consent. Any supposedly progressive politician who is amenable to helping the PDP consolidate its hold on power after 14 years of plunging the nation into abysmal depths of misery is a clear obstacle to progress at a time when the primacy of change has never been more urgent in a country tottering on the edge of state failure.

    In Edo State, Oshiomhole carefully and deftly balanced his membership of the ACN with the sensitivities and imperatives of South-South regionalism where all the other states are PDP. In Ondo State, Mimiko assumes a most curious position. The governor is not ideologically or philosophically opposed to an overbearing, visionless, unproductive and exploitative centre that has been systematically ‘under-developing’ every part of the country. Indeed, his body language suggests that if he gets a second term, he may be a willing tool in any PDP attempt to try to re-impose its vanquished ‘mainstream’ hegemony on the South-West. At the same time, Mimiko is at best lukewarm and at worst completely indifferent to the imperative of South-West developmental integration. Yet, the South-West in particular is well placed to demonstrate to the entire country how integrated developmental regionalism can be a powerful vehicle for stimulating path-breaking national development. The region already has Lagos as a huge resource – a global Megacity of immense cultural diversity, commercial dynamism, innovative creativity, emergent first class infrastructure and entrepreneurial energy.

    How then can Lagos as a Megacity serve as the centre of gravity for the transformation of the South-West into what development experts envision as a ‘Mega-region’? As Richard Florida, Tim Gulden and Charlotta Mellander explain the concept, “Mega regions are more than just a bigger version of a city or a metropolitan region. As a city is composed of separate neighbourhoods, and as a metropolitan region is made up of a central city and its suburbs, a mega region is a polycentric agglomeration of cities and their lower-density hinterlands. It represents the new, natural economic unit that emerges as metropolitan regions not only grow upward and become denser but grow outward and into one another.” Can Ondo State afford to be left out of a process that promises the unleashing of such tremendous developmental energy and transformation of the South-West into a magnet for international capital and labour flows for greater global economic competitiveness? Can the rest of the South-West allow Ondo to pursue a collectively ruinous path of autarchic isolation? Do the projects on ground in Ondo State relative to its substantial receipts as the only oil producing state in the South-West justify the triumphal chest beating that has characterized the Mimiko re-election campaign? We will, God willing, examine these issues next week.

  • ‘Ondo people want change’

    ‘Ondo people want change’

    What has been the response of the people to your aspiration since you started your campaigns?

    The response, by my own assessment, has been wonderful; it is very encouraging. With the massive reception, I am convinced that the people of Ondo State are truly yearning for a change.

    You said the people want a change. But many people have continued to endorse the incumbent.

    When you talk about endorsement by individuals, this does not in any way translate to votes. When you talk about what you read in newspapers, these are bought articles. These are articles that are skewed towards a particular candidate. This does not bother me; my concern is about what happens in the field. I talked to the people and I got their feelings.

    Two deputy governorship candidates are coming from the Akoko, which is part of your senatorial district, does this not suggest that you have no hope there?

    Let’s wait and see what will happen, but I can assure you that ACN will sweep the votes in Akoko, notwithstanding that two deputy governorship candidates are from the area. By the way, who are these deputies, is it the one picked by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a weightless candidate; or is it Ali Olanusi, the old and tired horse that would be changed before the election? I can assure that the people of Akoko are not looking for deputy, what they are looking for is governor. The people are happy that ACN zoned the governor to the North. So I am very sure that my people in Akoko would naturally prefer having a governor from their senatorial district to having a deputy that carries no authority to do anything for them.

    Your manner of emergence has created acrimony. How is your party containing this?

    It is a well-known fact that all primaries throw up what could be called opposition. Every political party has devised what they consider the best option to pick their candidate; ACN is no exception. So, I don’t see what ACN has done that is not right or that is not democratic. Having submitted yourself to a process, you cannot approbate and reprobate. Everybody was part of the process. But because of the number (of aspirants), we are bound to have people who would probably not agree with the decision and who were never party men, who were only in the party to pursue their personal ambition, and would want to pull back when this personal ambition is not realisable. All we can do is to wish them well. Ambition can make people do many reprehensible things. It can make you lose your party, it can make you lose your ideology, and it can make you lose everything. The party has been reaching out to many of them and a good number of them are now with us, they have reconciled with the party and are working hard on the field to ensure our victory. Those that are yet to return, we wish them good luck wherever they go, but we are sure that, sooner than later, they will return to us.

    What is the nature of the reconciliation?

    A lot of reconciliation has been done. That is why I said that what we have done really is that immediately after the exercise, a lot of meetings were held where aggrieved aspirants were reconciled with the party and a lot of them now are in support of my candidacy. Yes, one or two decided to opt out. That is not something that is strange; it happens everywhere, it happens every time. When I say everywhere, I am not saying all over the world, what I am saying is that it happens everywhere in Nigeria. If out of about 27 aspirants, about two or three decided to go, I don’t think we have done badly. So, reconciliation has been done, we have gone round, if one or two people are still sitting on the fence, we will continue to talk to them.

    Are you saying for instance, that Dr. Tunji Abayomi, who was very bitter, is now supportive of your candidacy?

    I don’t know of Dr. Tunji Abayomi being bitter. He is my respected egbon (senior), a highly principled man, who is never out for personal ambition, but the collective good of our people all the time; he is a chronic party loyalist. What he did was to express his feelings; he didn’t do this to bring down the roof of the house. He made it known clearly that he was opposed to a few things the party did, but at the end of the day, he is with us, a true democrat and a strong party man. It was right of him to say he felt hurt by the decision of the party. I concede that to him. He is a true progressive, of course, he cannot be in any other place except among the progressives and we are matching on together.

    How true is the report that you did not register in Ondo State?

    Anybody can say whatever he or she likes. I don’t have to be registered in Ondo State. It is not a legal requirement for me to contest election. They can say whatever they like. It is part of Labour Party propaganda. All I can say is that I am a registered voter at Ijebu II Ward 5 in Owo.

    Violence has suddenly crept into the election process with reported clashes involving the three main political parties. Is this not of concern to you?

    I am concerned about violence, but I’m not surprised. Even before now, I had raised the alarm that Governor Olusegun Mimiko is keeping a ‘thugdom.’ His own idea is that he would get this thing (election) by force. But I make bold to tell the governor himself and his party that they are fooling themselves. We would win this election fair and squarely, in spite of the thugs he is breeding. His thugs are all over the state. What is however of greater concern to me is that we have never had a fair deal from the Police. Not until when the DIG (Deputy Inspector-General of Police) came and held a stakeholders meeting, my belief was that that meeting would have put things in its proper stead, but after he left, the incidents that happened thereafter have continued to show us that the Police Command here is biased and is willing to do the bidding of Governor Mimiko and his party. The Police Command here is under the influence of Labour, whether it is monetary influence or whatever it is, but it can be otherwise anyway. The Police have been bought; it has demonstrated a total bias. We urge the Inspector-General of Police to look at the case of the Ondo State Command and do a surgical operation. The command that is parading the likes of Tunji Fadairo who has been in and out over five times, cannot be trusted. The police have showed tremendous bias that, if care and urgent steps are not taken, might increase violence in the state. Because when people cannot find protection in the police, they might protect themselves and the leaders would not be in control of such situations. I have been preaching to our supporters to remain calm, not to be violent but if they are faced with a police that is now an arm of Labour Party, then they may have no choice than to protect themselves. One day, they may react and they may not be under my control.

    But the police have openly indicted your party as the aggressor?

    You don’t expect anything different from people who have shown bias. What do you expect the police that is under heavy monetary influence to say? They are writing a script for Labour; the (Police) Commissioner is a Labour (Party), his deputy, Tunji Fadairo is a Labour (Party) person, everybody knows, so they are writing a script for Labour. On the day of the incident, all of us were in joyous mood, having elected our candidate, so you don’t expect us to be unruly. If Labour Party men had not driven into our convoy, nothing would have happened.

    The important message to the police is that it would do well to remain unbiased. They should know that we are not people that are afraid, we leave our fate in their hands, we leave our protection for them, but if they fail to do so, we will protect ourselves.

    Would a resort to self-help not lead us to the type of crisis we witnessed in 1983?

    I don’t know where it would lead us to. We are in 2012, we cannot go back to 1983, but all I know is that if the Police refuse to protect us, we will protect ourselves. When the DIG came, he appealed to all the political parties to conduct their affairs in a peaceful manner, he appealed to the police not to be biased, but, unfortunately, all his appeal fell on deaf ears as unfolding violent events have now shown.

    How far has the incumbent administration provided a level playing ground for all?

    We are not expecting the incumbent governor to provide a level playing ground because he is not interested in it; what we expect is a police that is unbiased, a police that should and must not take side. It is the police that should give a level playing ground to everybody, if there is any attack, the police should do its lawful duty by arresting whoever is involved. So, I never expect this government to give a level playing ground; that is a suicidal expectation.

    But people say the previous administration of Dr. Olusegun Agagu gave a level playing field; they wonder why the same cannot be expected from Dr. Mimiko.

    You can’t talk about Dr. Agagu and compare him with Dr. Mimiko. Agagu is an urbane gentleman. Agagu is not someone you can compare to Mimiko. Mimiko believes in thuggery, he lives on it, his life depends on it, and his electoral aspiration depends on it. Agagu is a disciplined democrat, he allowed campaigns, he allowed billboards to be erected, he allowed posters to be pasted, and he allowed a level playing ground for all the parties. It is not the same thing with Mimiko, who is the exact opposite of Agagu when it comes to democratic tolerance. But he has to be very careful because these thugs he is rearing would sooner than later turn on him, so he has to be very careful.

    But it sounds incredible that you are saying all that about Mimiko, the same man you defended four years ago at the election tribunal?

    When you talked about defending him, remember that I am a lawyer. If I were convinced that there were election malpractices and they bring the matter to me, I would prosecute the case. But I will not support thuggery. The matter that went to court was not for me to defend his thuggery. All I was there to do was to plead his case that his votes were manipulated, that votes were not cast and there were multiple thumb printing. All these we successfully proved. But if the case was pleaded that he used thugs, I won’t go there to defend him. I guessed he probably did not use thugs because Agagu gave him a level playing ground to operate.

    Some observers have adjudged Mimiko as doing well; why change a winning horse?

    I don’t know if that is your own judgment. Anybody who says Mimiko has performed well must be seeing governance through a jaundiced eye. Mimiko has done nothing. What you see are cosmetic projects. If you want to say he has performed well, go to our local areas, go into the interior, not a single life-supporting or promoting project is there. When you travel round the state and you go to the interior, you will weep for the people of this state. No light in the whole of the Southern Senatorial District, most communities in the state are not accessible, most of our farmers are living in abject poverty. The fact that he is asphalting and building fountains in Akure is not a measure of good performance. Here is a man who in his four years has not commissioned any tangible project except markets, which are supposed to be local government affairs, here is a man who, four years down the lane, has not employed one teacher, yet we have schools where you have over 100 pupils in a class, we have schools of about 2000 students with only two English teachers. Here is a man who, in his four years, no industry built by him or by private investors has been commissioned.

    But the same man has been endorsed by prominent Yoruba leaders?

    Chief Ayo Adebayo and co. were park-lane politicians, they never knew how the works were being done on the field. What Chief Adebanjo and co. are doing is that they are still fighting a war that has ended. Their support for Mimiko has no scientific base. It is simply, ‘yes this is ACN being led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, so we oppose him, no more no less. A party being led by Tinubu and headed by Baba Bisi Akande is an offshoot of Bola Ige, our enemy, therefore we must oppose it, and we must never allow any good thing to be seen in Yoruba land that has to do with Bola Ige.’

    What they are saying is that in life and death, we are against Bola Ige. My appeal is that that battle should have ended with the death of Chief Bola Ige, let all of us match together for the greater interest and development of Yoruba-land. The Yoruba will forge ahead with or without them, it is in their own interest to return to the fold, they cannot be against Yoruba interest.

    Are you saying they are misleading the people?

    With due respect to them, they are generals without troops, so they have no one to mislead.

  • Mimiko: I deserve another term

    Mimiko: I deserve another term

    Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko yesterday said he deserved another four-year term in office.

    The governor spoke at Igbara-Oke in Ifedore Local Government Area during his re-election campaign tour.

    He rated himself high, saying his administration has fulfilled its promises to the people.

    Mimiko said: “We are in government for the people and to ensure that the lives of our people are better for it. Any government, which does not do anything about the children’s and mothers’ health, is not a good government. Cases of children dying were rampant because of inadequate health care services. But in Ondo State today, there are no more kokumos (ogbanje).”

    According to him, the LP has performed well in various sectors.

    The governor listed these as rural development, education, agriculture, infrastructural development and industry.

    He said: “We are running again for governorship on the basis of our record. And let me assure you that I am still psychologically, physically, mentally and spiritually ready to be your governor. With your vote, I will continue to work for you and, together, we shall lift our state higher.”

     

  • Group begins SMS voting on candidates

    Gallop Polls Nigeria Limited yesterday began an empirical opinion poll to sample the popularity of the 12 governorship candidates participating in the October 20 election in Ondo State.

    The opinion poll is based on Short Messaging Service (SMS).

    Three most popular political parties in the state; the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), will be represented by Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), Chief Olusola Oke and Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
    The opinion poll allows registered voters to participate.

    Addressing reporters in Akure, the state capital, the Principal Consultant of Gallop Polls, Chief Anthony Chigbo, said the voting began yesterday and ends on Friday.
    He said the organiser would announce the result on September 28.

    Chigbo said the goal of the poll is to use eligible registered voters to generate data and develop the content that enables empirical prediction of voter leaning and behaviour on Election Day.

    He said voters on MTN network would be allowed to vote, adding that they would be charged N10 per SMS.

    The consultant explained that the organiser pitched its tent with MTN because it accounted for 60 per cent of registered phone users in the state.

    Chigbo said: “We have created different alphabetical codes for the four most popular parties in the state. The other eight parties will share one code. Anyone who wants to vote for ACN will text “ONDO AK” and send it to 31077; PDP, “ONDO OK” to 31077; CPC, “ONDO HE” to 31077; LP “ONDO OM” to 31077″ and others political parties “ONDO AA” to 31077.

    “Already the 12 political parties are aware of the event. Though the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not collaborating with us, but it is aware of the opinion poll.

    We did same thing in Edo State (during the July governorship election) and during the fuel subsidy crisis in January. All these were successful.

    “We are promising to be fear to all parties. There will not be multiple voting from a single person. Underage children will not be allowed to vote, because we have a data base that originated from Ondo State and which provided us with the total number of voters in the state and all registered MTN SIM cards.”