My Grievances Against Governor Aregbesola: What An Anti-climax

I find it necessary to once again put to pen to paper at this auspicious moment in the history of our state. I find it very cogent because many people have seen my sincere attempt to struggle for good governance in Osun state as needlessly troublesome. To some, I am working against the interest of a fellow Ijesa man as I will always tell people whatever material gains we acquired will remain here on the mortal plain. No matter how hard we try our legacies be it good or bad will outlive us. Many people will remember that on the 17th of August 2018, I sent a widely published letter to the governor informing him about the deep-seated resentment of Osun people especially Ijesa people and most importantly the legitimate grievances of the people of Ijesa North Federal constituency and Ijebu-jesa town in particular. Efforts will be made to xray some of the grievances that very many Osun people have against the outgoing government that lead to the embarrassing outing we call an election in Osun state.

Osun in General: We don't need a rocket scientist to know that Osun under the administration of Governor Aregbesola could have done better. His emergence after a long legal tussle gave a lot of people a ray of hope. That in our already failing system as a state and as a nation we can be the best. The struggle to classify our schools was needless. The hijab battle between Christians and Muslims could have been avoided. The uniform school uniform for Osun students was pointless. We saw the massive investment in school structures but like I stated in my public letter to the governor last year "Schools are peopled by people" with all these structures many state in North that were in awe of the academic performance of our fathers in WAEC came ahead of us in WAEC ratings. I have it good authority that many schools in Osun are grossly understaffed. Having multi-billion naira schools to litter Osun state will at the end become an albatross on the neck of state because maintenance will not come cheap. It would have made more political, economic and academic sense if half that money was used to renovate all existing dilapidated and decaying educational infrastructure in the state. Our people will say "one rich man in the mist of many poor people is himself poor" likewise, one good mega school in one federal constituency in the midst of many dilapidated and decayed schools is also decayed and dilapidated. His Excellency should have taken a cue from His Excellency Governor Adams Oshiomole Edo State governor as he then was on how he did his red roof revolution. Health institutions and workers received very little attention from the outgoing government. My biggest grievance is the arbitrary loan that might take forever to offset. It is stomach churning to hear the rhetoric that no nation develops without debts. Nothing can be farther from the truth. In Africa no father prays to leave debts for his children, why do we now find it convenient to leave debts for 10 successive governments? I leave this question open, to be answered by the open conscience of all readers.

Ijesa Acrimony: In our clime, we play the politics of he his our son let him do it, this explains why politician no matter how bad get bloc votes from their areas. Ogbeni got to power riding on the wings of the political strength of Ijesa masses and elites alike. In my letter to the Governor last year I asked a rhetorical question, "What have you brought home to your people?" the answer to that question is next to nothing. Aregbe brought next to nothing to Ijesa land. Brewery road, that connects the heart of the capital of Ijesa land to Akure Ibadan expressway is still very narrow and in a terrible shape. No serious state institution or federal institution was attracted to Ijesa land. No signature project in Ijesa land to show that our son was once a governor. This is a saddening development because going by zoning and rotation of offices which we do, it will take Ijesa land another 32 years to produce a governor, even it comes after 32 years it will surely go to Ijesa North federal constituency. That means for the next sixty years Ilesa the capital of Ijesa land might not produce a governor, because the opportunity they had Broda Raufu blew it away. What an anti-climax for the hope of Ijesa people.

Olaniyi Odina
Writes from Oke Oja in Ijebu-jesa