Tag: Southwest

‘Those who aspire to political leadership must on no account be sheltered from the hard knocks which a political career in a democracy inevitably entails’ –AWO. 

While linguists are thematic in explaining phenomena and the scientist advances knowledge by formulating a question, collecting data and then testing a hypothesis, a historian, like me, prefers the use of epochs in analysing historical events.
We therefore proceed to address today’s topic from epoch to epoch in the hope that it will serve as a guide in making our choices in the series of elections that will commence in the region, come 2014, long before the general elections of 2015, God keeping Nigeria intact. I begin then with what I call:
AWO’s GOLDEN ERA
Awo’s golden era in Yoruba land did not come on a platter. And to prove this, we need not re-invent the wheel. Rather, we take sanctuary in AWO -THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHIEF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO, from which we shall quote at some length. He wrote: ‘I fully recognise that the healthy growth of a democratic way of life requires the existence of an enlightened community led by a group of people who are imbued with the all-consuming urge to defend, uphold and protect the human dignity. At the very beginning, wrote the Avatar, ‘ in the region, outside Lagos, democratic practices were unknown. At the local government level, many Obas and Chiefs were autocrats with legislative backing. Native courts, where justice were expected to be administered, were dens of corruption and instruments of tyranny and oppression. ‘As things stood, we knew on which side we should be: the poplar side, the peoples’ side’. But we wanted to try to carry the Obas and Chiefs with us though, for them, it was going to be a sudden transformation from the ancient to the modern. Awo, through tact and great seriousness of purpose, succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in doing precisely that.
‘But,’ he continues: ‘there were the other freedoms –freedom from ignorance, freedom from disease and freedom from want which would, doubtless, encounter towering problems of an intractable character’. But he did not flinch. The government promised to introduce the following people-friendly policies before the end of its five-year term. 1. Free, universal primary education for all children of school age; 2. Free medical treatment for all children up to the age of 18; 3. One hospital each for each of the 24 administrative Divisions in the Region which did not yet possess one; 4. Improvements in agricultural technique and higher returns for farmers; 5. Better wages for the working class; 6. Improvement of existing roads and bridges and the construction of new ones; 7. Water supply to urban and rural areas.’
To accomplish these, Awo and his colleagues were determined to blast their way through whatever problems, and compel the force of any adverse circumstance to serve their will’. This was because, in his words, they ‘had put in long and hard preparations to meet the challenges and they had evolved elaborate plans which they were ready to launch at a moment’s notice. What is more –I quote Awo again –‘we had an abiding, flaming faith in the soundness and practicable-ness of our plans. We regarded ourselves as crusaders in a new cause, and as eminently qualified for the pioneering role which we had imposed on ourselves’. All these, if nothing else, demonstrate that Awo saw governance as serious business; not the same way some gold-chain adorning, skin bleaching governors did in their time.
With such preparations, many times going far into the nights when some of his political opponents were busy carousing with women of easy virtue, his millennial achievements which have continued to make the SouthWest a primus inter pares, should not be a surprise. The fact that, in addition to free and universal primary education, the region had colour television long before some European countries, that the Liberty Stadium was built or that Cocoa House, then arguably Nigeria’s tallest building, erupted, not out of oil, but cocoa money, could only have been expected from such single-mindedness.
THE MILITARY YEARS
The least said of those years of the locust the better. It was a long period during which soldiers, total strangers who had probably never heard of an Awo and what economic miracles he wrought in the region , were foisted on us and did with us as they deemed. As for the few of them, Yoruba, today’s parlous state of Cocoa Industries, Ikeja, remains an unforgettable testimony to their stewardship.
PDP’s STERILE 8 YEARS
One of Obasanjo’s main reasons for railroading the Southwest into the PDP was to compete with, or probably, overshadow Awo, the man he had earlier derided as never achieving the Nigerian presidency which he, in turn, got on a platter of gold. But that chimera fizzled out only after eight years as the people soon banished the pretenders to political Siberia. It was even short-circuited in Ekiti via an inchoate impeachment and declaration of a pre-meditated emergency rule. When I write about the PDP the way I do, it is not out of disrespect. Rather it is because of the laisser-faire, and thoroughly unserious manner in which they take governance. They want power solely for its perquisites but never for its huge responsibilities. While I know, for instance, that both Rauf Aregbesola and Kayode Fayemi are students of Awo and I am aware, on good authority, that Fashola carries Awo’s books he is reading even into his rest room, barring perhaps Gbenga Daniel, which of the then Southwest PDP governors ever opened a rigorous book by Awo? How then could they have been motivated by the man they all love to claim as their own too? How could they have learnt from the many problems which confronted him both from within and without? How could they have realised, like Awo knew then, that the people must be the focus of government policies, indeed, its raison d’être, such that they would not indulge in those things in government which they could not afford through their own personal means? Obviously without reading Awo’s thoughts and getting to know the philosophical underpinning of his socio-economic policies, Regional Integration would never have meant a thing to those gentlemen even if they served as governors for their entire lifetime. I have conscientiously sought, but in vain, for one single mention of Regional Economic Integration during those 8 years.
It never surprises me that all we remember of PDP years in control of the Southwest are decayed infrastructure, run-down education, mayhem, total neglect of the elderly among us and a complete absence of pan-Yoruba peace which the present regime of peace daily brings into bold relief.
THE A C N YEARS OF HEALTHY COMPETITION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
At first glance the above looks like a contradiction in terms. But it is not. While the I’s of Regional Integration are being dotted and the serious work required for its proper formulation are being undertaken by the DAWN Commission under the absolutely patriotic and determined leadership of its chairperson, Hon Wale Oshun, the governors, in turn, are learning from one another and assiduously replicating the good plans they have for the people.
In Education, the governors are equipping pupils and teachers with computer hardware and paraphernalia; schools are being rehabilitated as Ekiti has done for all its 183 schools; Osun is more than doubling up on agriculture, urban renewal and roads are progressing admirably in Oyo and Ogun states respectively while Lagos remains simply unbeatable. I recently listened to Dr Femi Hamzat, Lagos state commissioner for Works, on the Opeyemi Agbaje T.V Programme, and I was completely stupefied at what the Fashola government has done in the area of transportation infrastructure in the state and its plans even for the next 25 years. Such brain work you never found in the PDP which is really what pains any serious observer of our polity and the very reason I always argue that our politicians are not all the same. There is, indeed, a world of difference because, after all, the governor currently making waves in Akwa Ibom is of the PDP. But in the Southest, we never one day saw them rule for the well being of our people. It was all about self. Granted that the tenure of A C N governors is still largely a work in progress, I haven’t a scintilla of doubt that they will all leave their names in gold, since morning, as they say, shows the day.

Microsoft Encarta defines the word resurgent as: ‘rising or becoming stronger again’. One reason the Yoruba will never forget Chief Obafemi Awolowo, apart from his trail-blazing policies which were far ahead of his time was that people were the focal point, the very epicentre, of all his government’s policies. Rich or poor, but especially those at the lower rungs of the social ladder, were the primary focus of all the programmes and policies of the Action Group. For that reason, and never for propaganda purposes, literally every household in Yoruba land had the redifusion box through which the entire citizenry was kept abreast of every government action.

While it is understandable why the military had no use for such people friendly policies, the absence of such policies in the sterile four years of PDP ascendancy in the region must reckon as the primary reason the party was never loved by the Yoruba people as evidenced by the fact that their leading lights were routinely losing elections right within their homestead.

Commenting recently on ekitipanupo, Wale Adeoye, a brilliant journalist, activist and Senior Special Assistant to governor Fayemi of Ekiti wrote as follows: ‘The new bridge commissioned recently in Ogun state, the about-to be-ready Mokola bridge, the Ikogosi warm water project, the Ire Burnt Brick industry, the new Ijebu-Igbo-Lagos highway being dualised by the Osun state government, the Lagos tram project (first of its kind in Nigeria), the complete rebuilding of Benin city …’ are all targeted at making the various communities more conducive to the peoples’ various occupations as a way of enhancing their well-being. Factor in then the great strides being made by the First Ladies as in Erelu Bisi Fayemi’s multi-sectoral programmes geared towards youth and women empowerment, the Ogun State First Lady’s highly imaginative ‘UPLIFTing the aged’ project by which thousands of very old people are being provided succor and Mrs Ajumobi’s ‘Ajumose Food Bank’ initiative targeted at drastically reducing hunger amongst widows and the elderly. Add to these programmes, Fayemi’s first in Nigeria social security monthly payments to the elderly as well as Aregbesola’s equally heart-warming monthly payment to the same category of people and what you see are leaders who are determined, as Mrs Ajumobi succinctly put it, ‘to ensure the complete restoration of pristine Yoruba values long bastardised by the activities of some unfeeling, past governments. For the current governors the agenda is one of compassion, probity and accountability. If in doubt, then mentally go back some light years and recall, not just the killer gangs habitually over running the entire region; an octogenarian putting the entire Ibadan to the sword with the city emerging the dirtiest and most dangerous city in the country as rival motor park gangs, allegedly under some police protection, spilled blood at will. Interestingly today, the same Ibadan, which Sam Omatseye once dubbed ‘the city of grime and crime’, that city of Baba Adedibu, Tokyo, Auxiliary etc, is being tastefully restored and renewed by the Ajumobi government thereby enhancing the city’s environmental health status.

All over the South-West, the people had to rise to put their traducers to shame, and flight, but nowhere in the geo-political zone would this people power equal what happened in Ekiti, an odyssey which has been brilliantly captured in THE LONG WALK – a book authored by some Aides of the Chief Protagonist, Dr Kayode Fayemi.

All these put together, in the words of Wale Adeoye, is the testimony of our history and as if it required legitimisation, the clear electoral supremacy of the progressives reaffirmed that during the 2011 general elections when the people doused the vapours of hate and the afflictions induced by our yesterday men . That soul-renching defeat of the oppressor party has given the entire Southwest a new lease of life made distinct throughout the country by an unprecedented, pan-regional peace except, occasionally, when the rump of their hatchet men attempt to re-enact a recrudescence of their old mayhem.

Most reviews of development in the geo-political zone have concentrated on infrastructural development: roads built to last decades and giant strides in healthcare delivery as exemplified by Lagos, Ekiti , Osun and Ogun States, complete overhaul and revival of dead industries as in Ekiti, giant strides in agriculture as in Osun State; the urban renewal projects that are unerringly transforming Ibadan, Osogbo and Ado-Ekiti, and the single-minded determination of each of these state governments to revive the decrepit educational infrastructure left behind by the departing PDP governments among others. Important as all these are, with Lagos state emerging as the incomparable lodestar even in the entire country, our governors are acutely aware that development is not all about brick and mortar. They know that peace, is a sine qua non for development and the overall well-being of the citizenry which should be the raison d’être of any good government.

Although the federal government has failed dismally in the task of ensuring the safety of lives and properties in the country, governments in the Southwest do put considerable premium on securing the lives and properties of the citizenry.

For the respective governors, therefore, kidnapping, armed robbery and other criminalities like those being daily spewed by the Boko Haram can certainly not be an option though, it must be acknowledged that armed robbery, mostly transborder, is still around and about albeit, on a diminishing scale since the states give maximum support to their police commands which remain curiously underfunded by the federal government as Nigerians saw recently in our decrepit Police Training Colleges.

But it must be said that peace has not come cheap as it has been the result of deep thinking and appropriate, proactive actions on the part of these state governments as a means of driving their commitment to securing the citizenry. This is in the knowledge that only a peaceful atmosphere can guarantee their developmental efforts, even governance itself. A clear example is what we currently see in some states up North where it has been alleged that some governors now run the affairs of government from outside the state capitals though the suggestion has been strenuously denied..

The overwhelming peace in the Southwest owed its genesis to Lagos State governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola who, in 2007 established a Lagos State Security Trust Fund which was passed into Law by the state House of Assembly. This was the outcome of a high- powered committee he set up under the chairmanship of Alhaji Musiliu Smith, about the only Inspector-General of Police to have come out of service with his integrity intact, in recent times. The committee identified logistics, mobility, communications, kitting, and appropriate hardware, in sufficient quantities, as the major challenges inhibiting the police in its determined effort to checkmate violent crimes. To successfully navigate these challenges, it was discovered that huge sums of money would be needed on a recurring basis. The state government therefore rightly decided on a Public/Private partnership which has since generated billions of naira to the great fortune of the Lagos state police command and the state’s overall security. The Lagos example has since gone viral in the entire Southwest and each of the states has poured huge sums of money, in materiel and logistics, into their respective police commands with Osun state actually launching its own security trust fund.

The result is that even transborder gangs, whether from neighbouring countries or from other geo-political zones for which the Southwest was at a time a regular hunting ground have learnt the hard way and had since migrated back to where they came from.

The resultant peace has gelled rather flawlessly with the traditional peaceful nature of the people which has in turn been helped significantly by the fact that no matter in which state you are in the region, you have a government that is earnestly putting its all into the service of the people. The synergy between the state governors in their determined effort to ensure peace and security in the region is a clear evidence of regional integration whose fundamental objective, in the words of the Ogbeni is ‘to harness, effectively and efficiently, the abundant resources of the region and to unleash its collective enterprise towards promoting the well being and quality of lives of the people living in the region’. .