How is it that in politics integrity is expensive ? How is it that men who swore on oath to protect the sanctity of the constitution are the ones who consistently ridicule it? How is it that in our country, certain unscrupulous governors and the governments they lead deliberately take the masses for a ride? To these governors, the people are too psychologically traumatised to tell the difference between common sense realities and political fallacy as a result of the hardship brought upon them by the endeavours of their state governments and her agencies.
These and many more questions are begging for answers. Some politicians with poor upbringing who are incapable of acting honourably are at it again. As the next general elections draw closer, they are gearing up to fool the people once again. They forget that times have changed and the electorate have grown wiser.
In every way, the above epitomizes the current situation in Oyo state under the leadership of Senator Abiola Ajimobi. Otherwise how can one explain the self-aggrandizing charade that took place at the Asejire water plant recently ? Following what the governor and his administration would have the people of Oyo State believe is another ‘unprecedented achievement’ by his lackluster administration. A government that is stunted by ineptitude, excessive and absurd abuse of power and an unparalled desire to impoverish the state through unusually high contract costs.
Winston Churchill said that “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on”. With due respect, one might however disagree with this. Maybe in the 19th century it was possible but not anymore. The truth no longer waits for a lie to travel halfway around the world before catching up. When the records are set straight in the face of falsehood, lies usually lose the race against the truth.
Following the commissioning of the said water treatment plant at Asejire, a faceless organisation called “The Oyo Professionals for Developmental Politics”, alias “OYO PDP”. placed an advertorial in some national newspapers. This organization, in an attempt to peddle falsehood, claimed that water taps had been dry for almost two decades, that the Ajimobi-led government waved its magic wand and water started running in the city of Ibadan ! They even took the deceit further by claiming that some communities in nearby Osun state benefit from the running water. What a blatant lie! it is pertinent to note that these communities in Osun state have always benefited from the Asejire water project from inception.
The group asserted in the mischievous advertorial that the Senator Abiola Ajimobi-led government, through this water project, increased water production capacity in the state from about 10 per cent to 80 per cent. At best, this is an uneducated use of statistics. Plenty of questions arise from this claim. At what capacity in terms of gallons per day was the plant operating before this “laudable expansion”? How many people were being supplied? With this imaginary increase capacity of the plant to 80 per cent, how many gallons is produced a day to cater to the water needs of more than two million people in the city of Ibadan and the neighboring Osun communities?, Who awarded this contract and when was it awarded?. Laughably, days after this “commissioning”, the taps are still DRY as they were.
I challenge this group to persuade the governor to open this water plant to the scrutiny of independent engineers to prove these spurious claims. I dare say they won’t because they know they are a mile off the truth lane. This is just another diabolical concoction to deceive the people to perpetuate incompetence through their votes as 2015 beckons.
A simple investigation of “OYO PDP’s” assertion will show that the city still lacks potable water. The truth is that the citizens of Oyo state and Ibadan are in dire need of good drinking water ! Everyday you see women and children wandering about in search of this life-saving liquid, yet on newspapers and electronic media, we read and hear of the abundance of water. How insensitive can a government be ? With sheer lack of compassion, the Senator Ajimobi-led government looks the people in the eye and lie to them all in the name of politics. This is how low the government has descended. Equating deceit with politics.
Why does the government think the people will believe this hoax? How can a government that could not keep a simple fountain it constructed at a princely sum functional for lack of water claim it was providing over two million people with water? And they have the temerity to sponsor, with public funds, a faceless organisation to celebrate this fallacy?
If this group had taken time to execute a diligent research or were truthful, they would have noted that between 2003 and 2007, potable drinking water was running in Oyo state and Ibadan especially. How else did they think the Guinea Worm epidemic that used to ravage some parts of the state before that period was overcome?
In a crass display of elementary politics, the type you would not see even on campuses amongst aspiring student politicians, this group attempted, in the said advertorial, to hoodwink the people into believing that “OYO PDP” is the People’s Democratic Party (intending to give the impression that PDP, Oyo state chapter endorsed the deceit). While in a barely readable lettering it wrote: “Oyo Professionals for Developmental Politics” aka “Oyo PDP”! This was not only laughable and lacking in creativity, but an infantile display of political dis-ingenuity by a failing government who, in its usual bid to deceive the people again, are peddling falsehood as truth.
There was once a time in Oyo state when provision of potable pipe-borne water and other social- infrastructural developments were taken for granted. A time when we had a leader who knew the needs of the people and set about accomplishing those needs with minimal fuss. Such times are in the horizon again as we approach 2015. I urge the ever vibrant people of Oyo state to be of good cheer and be prepared with their votes, to render the judgment due the dimming light of this failing government. Let us bring back the “Brightness of Idera” that we all are so used to and have come to miss.
Omolere Omoetan is a social commentator resident in Awotan, Ibadan, Oyo State.
Trending
- Nigeria’s former Education Minister dies, Dafinone, others mourn
- IPOB to EEDC: Provide power or leave South East
- Husband’s family denounces actress Wofai Ewa’s marriage
- Zenith Bank records 189% growth in Q1 earnings
- Why we demolished Maryland buildings — Lagos
- 2023 polls: Why INEC servers did not work — Peter Obi
- Benue orders warring communities to keep off disputed river
- Why I initiated forensic audit — Gov. Otti