In a dream world, Senator Abiola Ajimobi would have been the best Governor Oyo State ever had, going by the lofty ideals and promises he made before the 2011 elections that brought him to the Agodi Government House. However, while Ajimobi had ample opportunity to shrug off any doubts about his capability to successfully govern Oyo State, all he has done is simply to confirm that he is not good enough. A square peg in a round hole. If he met Oyo State in a risible condition, he has decided to leave it in perplexity as the sun sets on his sorry excuse of a government. Our governor, who before 2011 was an Idealist, has fallen into error.
Under his watch, we have seen a government that is bereft of purpose and belief. A government where mundane achievements are celebrated with pomp and pageantry. Matters such as salaries being paid on time and pensioners receiving their benefits, which ordinarily are taken for granted, are the hallmark of “His Excellency’s” achievements. These are issues the government spends tax payers’ money to publicize in national dailies through a faceless organization. However, these claims are half-true and at times totally false. Everybody knows that civil servants in Oyo State don’t get paid until the 10th or 15th of each new month.
There are scores of projects the administration had embarked upon without knowing how to complete them. It’s a known fact that majority of the ongoing projects can never be completed by April as promised by his Excellency during his 1,000 days celebration recently.
As is common with all the All Progressives Congress-controlled states in the South West, Oyo State is heavily indebted. Key sectors in the state are a far cry from what they should be. The state is governed like a personal fiefdom as executive council meetings have long been abolished. For months now, Oyo State has 11 commissioners with no portfolios. If all these anomalies are not indicative of a leader who has lost it, one wonders what is.
In the almost three years of this administration, there is no source of optimism which points to an improved condition if the APC-led government in Oyo State were to continue beyond 2015. The people are simply disenchanted with a government whose achievements are only on the pages of newspapers with nothing on ground to show.
The most damning part of this monumental mistake of a government is that with little over a year left for it to run, it looks over. One need not stare into a crystal ball to know this obvious fact. The people have had enough. To say that the APC-led government in Oyo State will suffer a disgraceful defeat in the 2015 elections will be putting it mildly. It is now a daily occurrence to hear of politicians who helped Senator Ajimobi win at the last polls defecting to other parties. Most of the governor’s foot soldiers have since ended up in the Accord or the Labour parties. Right now, rumours are rife about the intentions of the two APC senators to follow, having come to the realization that the Ajimobi-led APC government is a sinking ship.
The government has moved into what is termed the “GARBAGE TIME”. In American sports, it is that time in a game when all the significant actions have taken place and the teams are playing out the clock. The Ajimobi-led government has done all it can possibly do. At the moment, it is just drifting like a ship without a rudder, praying for time to end what started as a succour for the masses but now a nightmare to them.
If the governor were to be honest, he would confirm that he is simply serving out his tenure. There can’t possibly be anything he can do now to douse the burning desire of the people of Oyo State to send him into permanent political retirement come 2015. He should be careful of bootlickers and sycophants who have breakfast with him and dine with the suffering masses.
These are the people whose snare the governor must be wary of. They urge him to run in 2015 not for anything tangible he has done but for what they “stand to gain when he loses”.
Olabode is an accountant resident in Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
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