As the campaign trains of the various political parties hit the nooks and crannies of Ondo State, canvassing for the people’s votes, attention has been drawn to alleged non-performance by incumbent Governor Segun Mimiko by critical stakeholders in the state who maintain that he does not deserve a second term. AUGUSTINE AVWODE reports.
What should qualify an incumbent for re-election?
Should the electorate critically examine how far he was able to march words with action in terms of the promises he made when asking for their votes the previous time? Should his sense of prudence or profligacy be examined?
Experts are agreed that, the electorate should be more discerning in taking the critical decision. At a recent one-day sensitization workshop for party executives, stakeholders and candidates ahead of the October 20 governorship election in Ondo State organized by the Special Adviser to the President on Inter Party Affairs Senator Ben Ndi Obi, described it as the “moment of truth” and a “nightmare to nonperforming politicians” in his opening remarks.
According to him, “periodic elections remain paramount in a democratic dispensation because it is the moment of truth for both the leader and the led. “While election is a nightmare to nonperforming politicians, a great expectation it is to the people as it affords them the opportunity to choose their leaders as well as drop nonperforming ones”.
This is the yardstick the Concerned Citizens of Ondo State (CCO) want the people to apply at this critical moment. The group, in a detailed and well articulated document, catalogued the many promises which the governor made but has failed to deliver on just as it also listed critical projects started by the previous administration of Dr Olusegun Agagu abandoned by Mimiko.
The group alleged that in the last three and a half years, that the Mimiko administration has been in power, it has been blessed with the good fortune of raking in more than N400 billion as allocation from the Federation Account, in addition to the now well known N38 billion it inherited from the Agagu administration.
The document obtained exclusively by The Nation, gives a detailed analysis of what the administration claimed to have done in the three senatorial districts of the state; what the governor promised to do but failed to i and the projects inherited but abandoned.
In all, while the administration can lay claim to only three verifiable projects it accomplished in Ondo North, it could only boast of six in Ondo Central while in the South senatorial district, it has only three projects to its credit.
These projects are mainly market stalls, town halls, a Mega School, water fountains, bus stops, the much publicized Mother and Child hospital and some uncompleted or abandoned road projects.
In the northern district, the group listed “the construction of markets stalls at some locations in the senatorial district, the construction of town halls at some locations and the only project that could be regarded as the most outstanding of all is the construction of one mini Mega School in Oka Akoko” as all the administration can lay claim to in the last three and a half years.
In Ondo Central, among the six items listed are “uncompleted Mega Schools five uncompleted and abandoned road expansion projects in both Akure and Ondo”, two major towns in the zone. The south senatorial district which does not fare better, has “ market stalls at some locations town halls and the construction of one Mega School in Okitipupa”.
Failed promises
Those who insist that promises are better not made than fail to keep them feel affronted on account of the failed promises allegedly made by Governor Mimiko while seeking for the votes of the people of Ondo three and a half years ago.
The people of Ondo North are worst hit as the list shows important projects that could have impacted positively on their lives. They include the “ dualisation of Owo Township roads, construction of mechanic villages in all the local government areas, dualisation of the township roads in all the local government headquarters , the Construction of Mother and Child Hospital in each local government area, the Arigidi Akoko Tomato Industry on which more than over N200 million has been spent, establishment of the Okeluse Cement Factory, construction of Mega Schools in all the local government areas, Kaadi Igbeayo designed for job creation and empowerment of artisans but abandoned after spending more than N2 billion creation of local government areas after spending about N600 million the promise to resurscitate the Ifon Ceramic Industry and the Alpha 3D Factory in Ikare”.
The list of un- kept promises to the Central senatorial District reads more or less the same with those of other districts but there is also “the Dome which is yet to be delivered after allegedly spending about N4 billion, and the 40,000 capacity Akure New Sports Stadium.”
In the South senatorial district, the failed promises include “ rehabilitation of township roads, reactivation of Okitipupa Oil Factory, reactivation of Oluwa Glass Industry, construction of Mega Schools in all local government areas,” among others.
Among the projects described as “ people oriented” which were on before the Mimiko administration came into office and which he is reported to have abandoned or jettisoned are the Ifon Games Reserves, Ifon Ceramic Inustry, Akungba Township Roads, Imeri Bridge, Owo – Ikare- Ajowa Road, the Igedegede Bridge, water work at Owo, Egbe and Ido Ani. A Cassava Flour processing factory, at Oba Akoko, the Emure- Eporo road, Ikare township roads and Ifira-Sosan asphalting”.
Those abandoned in the Central district include the “Akure township stadium, he multibillion naira Owena multipurpose dam, Idanre Golf Course, Idanre Hill UNESCO World Heritage Project, Akure township roads (asphalting), Ondo township roads (asphalting), and the Ogbese-Igbatoro road.
In the South senatorial district, the administration is said to have abandoned the following: “Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUSTECH), Okitipupa, Adagbakuja New Town for land strapped Ilajes, Olokola Free Trade Zone and Sea Port Project, Oluwa Industrial Park, Omotosho, Oluwa Bridge linking Okitipupa to Irele, Igbokoda-Igbonla Road, Aboto-Olokola road, Ajagba-Iyansan road, Ajagba-Ijuosun road, Ode-Aye Igbotako road, Akinfosile-Ayede road, Inikorogha-Oboro road, Atijere-Aboto and Ayetumara-Itebukunmi road.”
Of the three major parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have consistently accused Mimiko of non-performance and held that he does not deserve the votes of Ondo people for a second term in office.
Agagu reacts
In a recent interview, former Governor Agagu described Mimiko as a failure. In his review of the three and a half years of the administration, Agagu, who is leading the charge for the PDP campaign, reckoned that the people are not happy because of the “downturn in their economic well being”.
His words: “From my interaction with the people, they are not happy as their economic well-being has taken a down-turn. They cannot see any hope in the horizon. Infrastructure around them is beginning to decay from the level where it was before. Those who had good roads no longer have them because they have depreciated. You know every road needs to be maintained. The road projects started by my administration were discontinued. Those who had good water supply, especially through the network of solar powered-bore holes, don’t have them anymore because the maintenance culture that was put in place was jettisoned. The expectations of the people to have pipe-borne water in their homes in the entire central senatorial district of six local government areas; which was about to happen by the time the PDP administration left, has been dashed because the government jettisoned the Owena multi-purpose dam project. “It a very comprehensive agricultural revival programme that goes through farm settlement centres in every local government, horticulture farm, hatchery in each of the three senatorial districts to produce 5 million fingerlings each to help our people in aquaculture.
“The one that is in Akure is not running very well; the one in Okitipupa, though completed, has not been commissioned by the government and the one in Owo has been jettisoned. The oil palm company that was working before is nowhere, the Ifon Ceramic and the Oluwa Glass companies that were about to be revived through injection of new capitals by well-established companies were jettisoned, the Omotosho/Oluwa Industrial Park has been jettisoned, the Olokola Free Trade Zone, which was meant to energize industrial development, not only in Ondo State or Nigeria, but in the West African context has been jettisoned. “We can go on and on. Enlightened people understand these things. They also understand why the economy is on the downturn, and therefore, they all think this administration must change. Those who are not literate enough to know why the economic downturn is there can feel it, and they all believe that the administration must change. But it won’t come on a platter of gold. There is not going to be a fight, it is going to be tough. But we have the best product on offer, a good candidate and a past that the people now know is better than the present.”
Akeredolu: No more room for deception
In the same vein, the candidate of the ACN in the October 20 election, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, said he harbours not the least doubt that Mimiko would be rejected by the people because he has failed to live up to expectation. He said that the people of the state are not foolish.
“ But I don’t have any doubt in my mind that he is going to lose. And if we are to look at it critically again, are the people of Ondo State foolish? They are not.”
On the much-orchestrated Oba Adesida road, Akeredolu said: “I mean we are talking about Oba Adesida Road. The road has been there all the while, with street lights on it and then you remove them and put other ones. At what cost? There is no project today he can commission except for the markets which are responsibilities of the local governments. And this is someone who has refused to conduct election at local government levels. And the markets, nobody is even going there. Just drive through Ondo state and you will see that there are no people in those markets. Some people have refused to go to the markets because they believe they are more or less rituals stuff. Of course, I don’t believe in such any way because they don’t mean anything to me.
“The other one, you force people to go and be building town halls. What has the state government got to do with the building of town halls? What are the people there to do? These are what people could raise money among themselves to build. And in fact some of these town halls are already collapsing. In Opete for instance, a side of the town hall wall has collapsed. So for a government that has not achieved anything, except hardship. The economy is grounded. How do you expect people to retain it? You need to go to Ondo state, the whole place is dry. There is no money. That is the reality people of Ondo state are facing and many people who are not there don’t know. And that’s the reason we are confident we are going to win.”
Mimiko’s defence
But in apparent defence of his tenure and justification of his actions so far in office, Mimiko told a campaign rally in the state last week that he would continue to work for the people as he has been working since day one when he stepped into office.
“In 2007, we promised to work for you; we promised that your concern shall be our concern; that in all seasons, we would work for you; that we shall unleash our incredible creative ingenuity to develop the state. In the last three and half years, there are empirical facts on the ground that we have delivered on our promises and Ondo State is working again and we are happier. We have in place over 350 projects in all our rural communities dictated by our people themselves”
Given the claims and the counter claims, the fact that the people of the state are enlightened, the October 20 election would be a veritable opportunity for them to demonstrate to the world that indeed, like Akeredolu described them, they are ready to take control of their collective destiny.
