All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Senator Babajide Omoworare (Osun East), who reflects on President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to the Southwest to woo traditional rulers, contends that the last-minute clandestine moves will not swing the pendulum of victory towards the direction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the polls.
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan visited Osun East (Ife Ijesa) Senatorial District on Saturday March 7, 2015. By the grace of God Almighty and the support of the good people of Ife Ijesa, I proudly represent that Senatorial District in the 7th Senate. I suppose the essence of Mr. President’s visit was to boost his electoral chances. Less we forget, the week before he visited my Senatorial District, he practically moved the seat of Federal Government from Abuja to State House, Marina, Lagos hosting some youths and was serenaded by pop stars etc. The President hosted General Adeyinka Adebayo, Chief Idowu Sofola SAN, Professor Adebayo Olateju and some other elders of Yoruba Council of Elders. He also visited Alaafin Oyo and Soun Ogbomoso, traditional rulers in South West Nigeria.
The Chairman or President Jonathan’s Southwest Campaign Organization and governor of Ondo State Dr. Rahman Olusegun Mimiko CON has also tried very hard to galvanize support for Mr. President. He hosted Dr. Fredrick Fasheun, Dr. Gani Adams, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Senator Femi Okunrounmu et all; purportedly to appraise the recently concluded National Conference. It should be on record that Mr. President did not do any rally or canvas for votes. All he wants from South West is endorsement. Without being preemptive and imputing motive, I hope the visits to South West will not be justification for electoral malfeasance.
On Saturday August 2, 2014, a week before the State of Osun gubernatorial election, Mr. President visited Osogbo to campaign for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate. The city of Osogbo was locked down. Men from the Directorate of State Securities (DSS) covered their faces with balaclavas and shot sporadically into the air. The highlight of the visit was that when Mr. President was given the microphone to campaign, we expected him to inform us of what he has done in the State of Osun and what his presidency will, in the twilight of his government still has in the offing for the good people of the State of Osun. Alas, Mr. President said when next he comes he would tell us what they have done in Osun.
Since that visit, President Jonathan has visited the State of Osun, by my estimate at least twice. He isnyet to tell us what he has done in my State. The last visit of Saturday March 7, 2015 was to my senatorial district. As usual, the City of Ile-Ife was locked down. Personally, I will remember this visit to my Senatorial District as opportunity for the Thugs of the PDP’s senatorial candidate to destroy APC Billboards. Yet, the President did not come to “turn the sod” for a new project, talk much less of “commissioning” a project. The truth is: there is none to commission. He came to visit our royal fathers, which is in order. What is not in order from my point of view is that one would expect Mr. President to remember the people I proudly represent on the floor of the Senate of the Federal Republic. If he is not starting a new project, he should even complete projects he promised to complete and not to just ask for our votes.
In the past 6 (six) years, the people of South West Nigeria, particularly the people of the State of Osun and most especially, Ifes and Ijesas have not felt the presence and impact of the Federal Govenrment. The Ile-Ife Water Project that was abandoned in 2009 remains abandoned. The sum of about N4,000,000,000 (four billion Naira) is required to complete it and the Budget Office of Mr. President appropriated a paltry N5,000,000 (five million Naira) in this years’s budget, which is not enough to mobilize the Contractor to site. The counter-part fund of the State of Osun for the Ilesa Water Project in Kajola, a project also abandoned in 2009, is already available. The counter-part fund for the Federal Government in the sum of N2,400,000,000 (two billion four hundred million Naira) is not available. The meagre sum of N5,000,000 (five million Naira) is also appropriated in this years budget for this project. The dualization of Osu – Ife Road has been abandoned. The Omiokun Road project in Arubidi, Ile-Ife has just been commenced by the government of the State of Osun when the Federal Government failed to implement same. This same story will be told of the dualization of the Osogbo – Ilesa Road. The Ife Mini Stadium at Ita-Osa has also been abandoned. The President however, kept coming to South West without commissioning a project. The foregoing tales of woes is true about the entire South Western part of this great country. It is on record that His Imperial Majesty Ooni Okunade Sijuwade Olubuse II reminded Mr. President of these outstanding projects and others, when he came last year August to campaign for PDP’s gubernatorial candidate.
It is also unprecedented in the annals of Nigerian contemporary history that a geopolitical zone will be this jettisoned and abandoned like the Federal Government did the South Western part of this country, not only in the area of infrastruture development as gleaned in the foregoing but also in the area of filling political offices. Our supreme law has protected every geopolitical zone in Nigeria by providing for Federal Character in infrastruture development and appointments. Section 14 (3) of the Constitution of Nigeria provides: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies”.
In this area, there has been gross injustice meted out to South Westerners; my geopolitical zone has been crassly short-changed and disgustingly marginalized. Let us even ask ourselves how the Yorubas have faired under President Jonathan’s government. A government that agency facted the afore-sited supposedly inviolable provision of the Constitution is definitely not a friend of Yorubas. This government cannot suddenly wake up from its slumber of almost six years and just fall in love us, because election is lurking. The President is from South South. From Mr. President’s geo-political zone, we also have the following: Petroleum Minister, the Director General (DG) of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), DG Security andExchange Commission, the Chairman Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Managing Director (MD) NDDC, the DG Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, the Speacial Adviser (SA) to Mr. President on Millenium Development Goal (MDG), the Chief Economic Adviser to Mr. President, the SA Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation of Ministries, Depaprtments and Agencies (MDAs), Chairman Nigeria Port Authority, DG Directorate of States Security (DSS), , Chairman Poice Service Commission, the Chairman Federal Inland Revenue Service etc.
The Northwest produced the Vice President as well as the Speaker House of Representatives. This geopolitical zone also prodused the Foreign Affairs Minister, the National Security Adviser, the Inspector General of Police, the Clerk of the National Assembly, the Registrar of Supreme Court, the Comptroller-General of Customs, the Chairman Independent National Electoral Commission. The Senate President is from North Central, the Minister for Internal Affairs, the Comptroller General of Immigration, the DG Nigeria Health Insurance Scheme, the Auditir General of the Federation and the DG national Orientation Agency. The Chief Justice of the Federarion emerged from the North East with the President of the Court of Appeal, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Head of Service, the Chairman NIMASA, MD Nigeria National Petroleum Corporarion (NNPC), SA Political Affairs. The Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker House of Representatives are from the South East, ditto Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Minister of Finance, the Chairman National Population Commision, the DG Budget Office, the DG Soverign Wealth Fund, the DG Debt Management Office, theh Comptoller-General of Prisons, the Chairman and Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission ( NCC), the DG/CEO National Identity Management Commision, the Chairman/CEO National Electricity Reulatory Commision.
When faced with the foregoing, it is ostensible that my geopolitical zone of South West has been abjectly neglected and politically undervalued. We are not unaware of the fact the whole of Nigeria has been grossly underdeveloped; the seemingly deliberate retrogression of the South West is unprecedented in the history of governence both in terms of infrastructure as well as human capital. It is on record that the people of South West voted for Mr. President en masse in 2011. The good people of South West will assess President Goodluck Jonathan on his performance in our region in the last six years; our assessment will not be based on desperate and empty promises. One wonders what these trips cost? It would have been better if such cost had been put to use to develop projects in South West. To enable us assess whether President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had been fair to us in South West, I use this medium to throw a challenge to the President’s handlers, let them reel out their achievements for Nigerians to juxtapose and judge. The Awujale of Ijebuland Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Kayode Adetona was reported as corroborating my foregoing position when Mr. Presdient visited his Palace on Thursday March 12, 2015 by saying that “Ijebuland has not felt the impact of Federal Government and that Ijebu Sons and Daughters have not been given important appointments imto the quota arrangement of Nigeria.”
It is therefore strange and curious that any freeborn Yoruba adult will adopt a President that has not done anything for his or her region. The All Progressive Congress presidential running mate is from this region, it is dubious that our elders who claim to be Awoists will not adopt the grandson-in-law of the late sage. Whether the people pandered as Yoruba Leaders that are endorsing President Jonathan actually have the mandate of Yoruba people to so do is another topic for future debate. Whether they even have the clout to deliver is another topic for intellectual polemic in future. What matters now is whether President Jonathan has reciprocated the over 2,700,000 (two million seven hundred thousand) votes cast for him by the Yoruba nation in 2011. What assurance do we have that the gargantuan maginalizatoion of Yorubaland by President Jonathan will not continue, if he is re-elected? Will the present and coming generation forgive those endorsing Jonathan when accounts are given in future? How will they be remembered by the unborn generation? Anybody campaigning for and endorsing President Goodluck Jonathan in the Southwest is patently on his own.
We can not continue on this perilious path and mortgage the future of the next generation. The die is already cast, effort of this nature of unfruitful and unmeritorious trips to South West by Mr President is an attempt to reap where he did not sow. I sincerely advice Mr President to listen to the street, do away with praise singing and empty promises of shylocks around him whose major interest is financial exploitation. The wind of change (blowing across the Nation) is looming to all except the Court Jesters in the Presidential Palace.
I do not believe in nepotism, ethnic jingoism and tribal chauvinism, in fact I owe full allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I abide by my Oath to protect, preserve and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic. Put siccintly, I am a patriotic nationalist. It is however a matter of duty for me as a Senator of the Federal Republic to protect the interest of those who voted for me in Ife Ijesa senatorial district, and the State of Osun as a whole. I also owe my Yoruba race to protect it from under development, systemic annihilation and calculated extinction. Lastly, as a matter of honour, I must uphold Section 14 (3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which from the foregoing has been serially impugned and successively assailed.
