For all the selling points of democracy, its most admirable attribute is choice. Democracy gives every eligible member of the society the power of choice to decide during an electioneering process. The choices of the electorate are then tallied and, in most cases, the choices of the majority become the elect. Admirable. Having then won the election, it is expected that the winner sees himself as being elected for his entire constituency, not a section of it; governance will therefore be all-embracing, not exclusionary. This is what the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, on the evidence of his continued neglect of Ogun West Senatorial District from his governance largesse, has not been doing.
A consensus shared by most people of the District is that democracy has been nothing but lung-gripping experience for them. In fact, the district has seen less of governance than it saw before commencement of the Fourth Republic. The ascension of Amosun, however, onto the all powerful and could-not-be-questioned (those who have dared to exercise their constitutional freedom of speech have had excruciating consequences as mementoes for their ‘impudence’ to the incumbent governor) seat of governance in Oke-mosan has been an all-time mockery in terms of what governance should be for the district. Perhaps the people of the five local governments that comprised the senatorial district are paying the price for not delivering the majority of their votes to the Governor in the last election. It is a conjecture that suffices if the disdain with which the Governor looks on the district is thought of. The Governor, who has been accused of being vindictive, has not done anything to cast off that spiteful baggage. He has been a governor who has at several times dealt severely with anyone who has dared to question his unwholesome characteristics in governance to the people he governs. It is not far from the truth that Governor Amosun rules with a gnawing iron fist that has been anything but a riling irritant on the people of his state: like a despot.
Ironically, all the economic privileges that Ogun State enjoys and the Governor boasts of have the majority of their presence in Ogun West Senatorial District. Ogun West is unquestionably the economic hub of Ogun State. Agbara and Ota alone house the biggest chunk of the percentage of industries domiciled in the Gateway State, and consequently the source of the Internally Generated Revenue of the state that so much intoxicates the governor for the fact that it is only better by that of Lagos is almost exclusively from Ogun West. And yet what does the district get for being a land that flows with milk and honey from which Ogun State prospers: eyesore infrastructures, limited or no opportunities in governance, nose-hurting stench streaming from dilapidated gutters and so on. Governor Amosun seems not to have any scruples whatsoever whenever the IGR of his state is received; for if he does he will not be so bent on committing the entire income of the State into turning the State capital, his home town, Abeokuta, into ‘post-modern’ city at the expense of equally developing other districts of the State. The current splurge on needless projects in the State capital when other expedient ones beg the unhearing ears of the government is quite unfortunate and betrays insensitivity on the part of the man that calls the shot. One is tempted to ask: how could someone be so insular to the point of disdainful cynicism?
Development should be all welcoming, not restrictive. While other districts, especially the Central district, enjoy construction of new roads, Ogun West roads are developing gaping death holes; while other districts wake up with monument projects sprouting at every corner; Ogun West dozes off in ramshackle and rickety infrastructure; while other districts are happily lit with bulb of modernity, Ogun West has continued to wallow in the darkened canvas of retrogression: all thanks to the affable Governor! Ilaro, compared with other major towns of other districts, needs a lot of miles to cover in the furious sprint of modernity. But how can the ancient town cast off its ancientness when it is virtually disconnected from other regions of the State by the bad roads that lead to it? Agbara, the miserable economic nerve-centre of Ogun State is now synonymous with industrial stench and death-trap roads. The people of the town are daily cursing the luck of their town for being a fertile land for economic prosperity for the State; yet, the Governor seems insulated from the dins of agonies that come from these people.
Unfortunately for the people of Agbara and other towns of Ogun west, they may have to carry their accursed albatrosses for the next two years at least if the trickles of overtures from Oke-mosan are anything to go by. Rumours that have now been taken as facts by the people of district suggest that the Governor is simply punishing the people (the majority of the electorate) for voting for another gubernatorial candidate who is from the district. How sinisterly parochial! There are even insinuations that the Governor feels he can get away with this unpalatable act since he will not need the votes of the district in 2019. This kind of attitude will always raise doubts about the merits of two terms in the political system in Nigeria. Politicians who have been elected for second terms have continuously proved caustic to the destinies of their people. More often than not, these impolitic politicians see their second term as a period to reap the labour of their first term in terms of self-aggrandizements; their second term is seen as a payback period for perceived political opponents; more so, their second term is seen as a period to stock enough financial ammunitions for their other political and economic forays in the future.
Meanwhile, the search for the silver lining in the overwhelming cloud that envelopes Ogun west still continues for the people. It is hoped that the Governor eventually casts his rare benevolent glance to the West of the State. Legacies are the touchstones by which each elected leader is judged by posterity. Ogun West will not be left out of the demographics of that posterity when the legacies of the incumbent governor are measured and compared. There are still yet enough time for the Governor to write himself into the good book of the people of this beleaguered district.
. Idowu is a student of the University of Ibadan and resident of Ogun State.
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