Oyetola must not allow the ugly side of history repeat itself
That a huge relief! That was what the July 5 judgment of the Supreme Court on the last governorship election in Osun State offered those of us who had been livid with fears on what would become of the state should it be handed over to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the election, Senator Ademola Adeleke. Although some people felt the court judgment was predictable; and that it was certain to go in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the truth is that, nothing can be left to chances where our judiciary is concerned. As they say, the law is an ass. Even though I have always believed that Law is predictable, but then, I could not sleep with my two eyes closed until it was really over. That is, until the apex court had pronounced on the matter. Well, did the judiciary do well in this matter? That is a question I would not like to be dragged into because I would, and quite rightly too, be accused of taking whatever stand I take because it went the way it did. I therefore leave that to the students of Law and jurisprudence.
The only point many people who are averse to Adeleke becoming governor in Osun State has against him is that he knows nothing but dancing and that he is not likely to bring anything of value to governance in the state. They believe the state would, under him, be entertainment headquarters for the years he would be in the office as governor. For me, this argument is neither here nor there. I guess that was part of the reasons the result of the governorship election was so close as to necessitate the ruling party now requiring crutches from the judiciary to retain power in the state.
But Governor Adegboyega Oyetola whose victory has been upheld by the apex court should be humbled by the court victory. This is because judicial intervention in the result of the election should have been uncalled for if the right things had been done by the APC and the immediate past government in the state. Some of us saw some of these things coming and we did say so long before the elections. Unfortunately, no one seemed interested in those early warning signals until our worst fears were confirmed. Anyway, all that is history.
Governor Oyetola should proceed immediately to appoint commissioners to run the state. The only reason I would excuse his inability to form a cabinet since November 27, 2018, when he was sworn in is the fact that his victory was contested by his opponent and the matter required judicial adjudication. This whole argument of not appointing commissioners for the sake of saving money, to me, is bunkum. Even a Yoruba saying says ‘owo la fi’n peni owo’ (we spend money to make money). Osun State cannot be lamenting that it does not have money because it is a civil servant state. Whenever I hear such argument, not only from Osun, but also some other southwest states, I keep asking myself whether this problem was not there (if it was a problem) in the days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo as premier of the Western Region. I now wonder since when did civil servants become leeches that governments would now be lamenting that their states are dominated by them. Governors do not have to be regretting having a surfeit of civil servants the same way some parents were crying in those days in the country when their wives gave birth to twins. Twins, like other children, are a blessing, at least thanks to Mary Mitchell Slessor who put an end to the infanticide of twins.
Cabinets have to be formed because governments need people to think for them; people who can think out of the box. The problem in forming of cabinets often is because many extraneous considerations come into play; oftentimes making it impossible to have round pegs in round holes. Otherwise, it should be a blessing when the right people are put in the right places to advise government and execute government’s programmes for the benefit of the people. Anyway, now that it has come from the most authoritative source that Oyetola is the authentic governor of Osun State, and the governor’s heart no longer skips when he remembers that his fate is still hanging outside there, he should go ahead and appoint commissioners with whom he can now reason together to gift the people of Osun State the dividend of democracy. Those who aspire to rule south west states with a preponderance of civil servants already knew before they contested elections. So, they should not get in only to be wringing their hands and looking as if they have been confronted with leprosy. How do they change the narrative, if they think it is a curse? This should be their concern, instead of bemoaning their plight.
I read Femi Ojudu’s piece in which he reacted to Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s lamentation about two ‘Nigerias’ – the backward north and the developing south. I think I had written something along this line of thought; and if I haven’t, then it should come someday. Titled (or to be titled) ‘My fears for the south west’, the whole idea is to remind the south westerners of the dangers ahead, especially as we seem to be living on old glory. There is an agrarian revolution going on in the north that those of us down south seem to be ignoring. Today, we rely more on the north for pepper, onions, rice, tomatoes, etc. I doubt the ability of the southwest to feed itself in case something happens today. Yet, we say once hunger is out of the poverty question, then there is no more poverty. May be this is one of the things those who want to force Ruga on us see that we are not seeing. They see we are that vulnerable as to want to jump at the offer of Fulani herdsmen living in our backyard so we can have easy access to cow meat (beef). Yet, we delude ourselves that we won’t call cow brother just because we want to eat cow. I pray we don’t call cow father the way we are going. There is a lot to do to wean some of these so-called civil servant states from their people’s dependence on government’s job for a living.
Interestingly, it is only in the southwest that this kind of excuse is rampant. I hardly hear any such complaint from outside the region. Let the governors in the region move from the level of just talking about issues at symposia and workshops to the level of concrete implementation of policies that would return the region to the level that Chief Awolowo envisaged we should be by now. Today, we are worried that we are being dragged back by the north; I hope we do not suffer a role reversal the way we are going. What we have to our advantage is that the north has suffered too much degradation such that it would take ages for it to recover from it. But let no one in the southwest tell me that it is not easy. It can never be easy. It was not easy even in the days of Chief Awolowo. Yet, the man made all the difference with his ‘first this, first that’. Where has that ingenuity gone to? The region’s civil servants that we are now complaining about I hear were better paid than some other workers back then in the Western Region. So, what is the problem?
So, now that Governor Oyetola is fully in charge in Osun, what we expect is the changing of the narrative. Governor Rauf Aregbesola, in spite of his political foibles did some things in the agricultural sector that can be built upon. He also recorded impressive performances in education, infrastructure and so on until the bubble burst when income could no longer sustain expenditure, due to the state’s heavy reliance on the federal purse, like many other states.
The people of Osun State are now looking towards the Oyetola government for a new lease of life. It is needless asking if the governor has learnt a few lessons about the Yoruba people; particularly his Osun people. When last week I saw people milling around him in a picture after an event, what dawned on me was: such is life. But Governor Oyetola must remember where he is coming from; he must remember the price he paid to be governor. The sleepless nights he kept waiting for the courts’ final verdict, and all. The Yoruba people are a proud people. They can sing ‘hosanna’ today and shout ‘crucify him’ tomorrow. They detest emperor-governors. Good governance/performance must go with humility. Where the latter is missing, they would not hesitate to put their caps on their navel, instead of their heads. They’ve done it before and they are capable of doing it again and again..I have had cause to repeat this parable in the course of my writings on the southwest several times. Oyetola’s watchword should be: come, let us reason together.
If the governor does, and is indeed guided by all of these suggestions throughout his first term, then, he would have learnt the trick of returning for second term, stress-free. A word is enough for the wise.
Welcome on board.
