₦airaland Forum

There are days in people’s lives that are memorable to them. It could either be birthday, wedding day or even graduation day, among others. Largely, the celebrants’ means, status and resources go a long way in determining how such events are celebrated.

But before rolling out the drums, celebrants are expected to be sensitive to their immediate environment. You look inward and outward, asking yourself what is there to celebrate and how to go about it without appearing to be unreasonable or insensitive. It is particularly so for political office holders who are supposed to hold the office in trust for the people.

For, if they appreciate the fact that the office is being held in trust for the people, their ears will always resonate with their successes and strides, failures and foibles, pains and pangs.

It is in this light that I, as a citizen of Ogun State and a stakeholder in the "Project for a Better Ogun State", view the flurry of activities lined up for the 54th birthday celebration of the governor in Ogun State, with reservation. Activities marking the birthday began Thursday last week in Abeokuta, the state capital, with a lecture.

I was also informed that millions of Naira was spent on buying specially ordered ankara for various categories of public servants.

While I mulled over my precarious situation as a youth, I asked: what is there to celebrate? Yes, there is life. So, what? I would not want to bore you with my long list of regrets occasioned largely by inconsistent government policies and visionless leaders.

But as my friend suggested, perhaps, I should also pose some questions to the governor as he marks his own birthday. What has he done with the hope we invested in him almost seven years ago? What is there to celebrate where teachers and doctors are being owed salaries? What is there to be happy about where judicial workers have been on strike for over two months? What is heart-warming where people in the state capital do not have access to potable water? Why would anyone want to clink glasses when our dear state is always in the news for the wrong reasons? Is Daniel happy that his party is so fragmented and his relevance diminishing that none of his nominees for minister was accepted in spite of his protestations, advertorials and threats?

The level of insecurity in the Gateway State in the last three and half years has been alarming. Perhaps, more than any other state in the federation, it has arguably witnessed the highest rate of politically-motivated killings. A few examples would do. A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Dele Arojo, was killed in cold blood in the build up to the 2003 general elections. Age Omo Lemomu was murdered and his remains are yet to be found till date. Perhaps, the most gruesome was the assassination of Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate and a well-known critic of the governor’s misgovernance, Otunba Dipo Dina, in Sango Otta, Ogun State. As if that was not already too much, about three weeks after Dina was assassinated, another prominent businessman, Busari, was killed in the same area.

Many credible national dailies have drawn attention to the growing spate of insecurity in the state yet the governor seems not care a hoot. Oh no, he cares only about his own safety. May be that explains the manhandling of a lawyer, Mr. Greg Otsu, aboard an IRS flight from Abuja to Lagos . Otsu was denied his Business Class seat, next to the Emperor’s, because he was considered a "security risk" to him (the Emperor).

Not done, the governor has been fighting everybody who is somebody in Ogun State . From ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to his daughter, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello; Chief Alani Bankole to his son, Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole; Senator Lekan Mustapha; the Alake of Egbaland; Alhaji Sule Onabiyi; Hon. Waliu Taiwo; the Chairman of Ijebu North Local Government, Chief Tele Ogunjobi ; the Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government, Mr. Tunde Oladunjoye; billionaire businessman and Ogun State PDP financier, Prince Buruji Kashamu, and most recently, the Moyegeso of Ijebu-Itele, Oba Muftau Kasali (Iboriaran 1).

Is the governor happy that Ogun State which owed less than N1.5 billion naira, including salaries as at when Aremo Olusegun Osoba left office, is now owing, according to the conservative figures given by the Commissioner for Finance, Kehinde Sogunle, N22 billion? Is he happy that a state that has a wage bill of about N1 billion and gets an average of N2.6 billion every month spends N1.2 billion monthly to service debts?

Pray, what does the future hold for our dear state? My candid advice is that as the governor and all well-meaning citizens of Ogun State should seek the face of God for divine intervention, after all, we know that His ears are not heavy that He cannot hear us, neither are His hands short that He cannot deliver us.

The Ogun governor, after the celebration, he should retire to the innermost part of his closet and ask himself if he is truly a happy man. Or put differently, he should ask himself if majority of the people – the people on behalf of whom he is supposed to have held the office he is occupying in trust – are happy with him. He should ask himself if his popularity rating is the same as when he came into office in 2003. He should ponder on what is the way out of the self-inflicted cesspool of woes that he has found himself. He should reflect genuinely on how to salvage whatever is left of his badly battered image and reputation.

Since the governor prides himself as a student of history and politics, he should be reminded, in case he has forgotten, of the fate that befell rulers who lost touch with the people.

These and many other issues which time and space will not permit me to expatiate on ran through my mind as my friend and I cogitate on the probable reasons that could make a man forget his birthday.

We figured various probabilities that translated into one thing: despondency!

Yet, we cannot afford to live without hope, for it has been said that man can live 40 days without food, four days without water, four minutes without air, but only four seconds without hope. So, we cannot afford to lose hope.

The task is for all well-meaning sons and daughters of Ogun State to gird their loins for the task of rescuing the state from the suffocating grip of Daniel and his tiny clique, and bring back the good old days. My innermost man tells me that our dear state shall be great again!

thenationonlineng.net/web2/articles/42057/1/2011-Insecurity-in-Ogun-/Page1.html

my state, my state. i cry for my beloved state. OGD. shame on you.