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Politics › How Many Politicians Can Boast Of This? Who Then Is Sina Kawonise, SK Is OK � by princeyemocoded(op): 9:17am On Jul 13, 2018

princeyemocoded:
Mr Yomi Lawal wrote:

Hi everyone.
Most of you I have spoken to, at one time or the other, about the aspiratiion of Mr Sina Kawonise, popularly referred to as "SK", to become the next Governor of Ogun State, Nigeria.

My association with Sina Kawonise spanned almost 40 yrs back, when he was still in high school (equivalent of our grade school here in the U.S). We have interacted very closely throughout. What were glaringly noticeable about him from the onset were his brilliance in communication, his passion for social justice and unmistakable empathy for common people. Little did I know then that those traits would lead him to this life ambition that he is most suited for.

He has since then become a University lecturer of sociology, newspaper columnist, a businessman, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of a major national newspaper, and Commissioner for Information, among others.

Besides being a social scientist and a media guru, Sina is a humanitarian to the core. He is quite articulate, affable, and amiable. His background enables him a profound understanding of the broad spectrum of Nigerian socioeconomic dynamics. These, along with his astute personalty and being deeply God-fearing, are among his qualifications to be the next Ogun State Governor.

What is most unique about him is his razor sharp analytical mind and his uncanny ability to provide practical solution to problems proactively. When you read his manifesto, which has been posted on his website www.sinakawonise.com.ng you will agree with me undoubtedly, that he has already devised a template for effective and inclusive solutions to Ogun State socioeconomic setbacks.

For those of you that know me well enough, I don't say things lightly and I don't endorse easily.

I see a unique opportunity in Sina Kawonise for the people of Ogun State. Personally, I had, more or less, given up on Ogun State, and Nigeria as whole, but the advent of SK's Campaign was so endearing and hard for me to shun.

My several trips back to Nigeria in the recent times were so disheartening and unforgettable, but here is an opportunity to rescue Ogun State from pervasive regression into irreversible abject condition.

I am therefore, calling on everyone to let us join hands together, not just to make Ogun State relevant again, but to make it a model State for Nigeria.

I am unequivocally certain, this will be actualized, not if, but once we get Sina Kawonise to assume the leadership of the Ogun State governing body. Not because I know him, but because he knows exactly what to do and how to do it selflessly and competently.

This call is certainly not about Sina Kawonise, but about electing competent, qualified, committed and willing person as the Governor of Ogun State.

Unequivocally, SK is that person that CAN and WILL deliver.

Let's get work, Ladies and Gents, if you are with me.

This is for everyone that wishes well for Ogun State.

Thank you,

Yomi Lawal, New Jersey, USA

Politics › Intolerant Amosun , Dealt A Heavy Blow On Volunteerism, Misuse Power by princeyemocoded(op): 7:31pm On Jul 08, 2018

princeyemocoded:
https://www.thecable.ng/wanted-oke-mosan-thinking-cap

I had set out for Sagamu early morning of Saturday 30th June 2018, because I’ve not been home in months, and also because I have promised myself to attend the 25th anniversary of our seniors, the 88/93 Set of Remo Secondary School, Sagamu. They had hyped this reunion and it had been the issue of discussion among many old students of the first co-educational school in West Africa. I couldn’t afford to miss it. Not even the tanker fire incident of the days before, which had dampened my plan to drive home could deter me. I headed to the motorpark. Halfway into the journey, I received a call not to bother coming again, as the event had been cancelled. Impossible! With all that hype? Too much had gone into the planning, from what we’ve heard and seen! They’ve spent millions building a multipurpose games court, the like of which you won’t find in any stadium in Nigeria today. What could have happened?

I started to make calls of my own, and in a short while I heaved some sigh of relief, as my earlier caller and a few other contacts informed that the event would still proceed, but at a different venue. The Set have been denied access to mark their 25th anniversary within the school premises. I headed towards the new venue a bit relieved but partly confused. I ran into an old teacher of mine a big uncle of mine. My curiosity made the exchange of pleasantries short, for someone I haven’t seen in many years. So, he gave me an account that would be verified by countless other people I discussed with over the next two days.

The 88/93 Set had invested a lot of resources into their 25th anniversary. They had organized programmes for the students, done a documentary, built the very beautiful, modern games court I earlier mentioned, and had concluded plans to present awards and gifts to over 50 teachers and non-teaching staff who had contributed to the growth of the school. The Commissioners of Education, Youth and Sports among other government functionaries had been briefed and invited, with commitments that they would grace the occasion. Everything looked set, until politics happened.

The way the Old Students Association is set up, as it is in many other places, is that every Set as much as possible, runs autonomously. There is however an umbrella body that coordinates all the old students. Like the Sets, it has its own leadership, recognized in their rights as leaders for their tenure in office, but every Set pulls its own weight according to its capacity. Apparently, the current National President has been nursing a political ambition, and has been mulling which platform would best serve his interest. He settled for the PDP, early in the week leading to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the ‘93 Set. Some have dubbed the timing dumb and insensitive, while others disagree. What is not in doubt though, is that the APC in the state felt slighted. The Governor was reportedly enraged. All of that was Tuesday and by Wednesday morning, there had been summons. The school principals had been issued queries. The celebrating Set was asked to come and explain how it got permission to ‘tamper’ with public property under the guise of renovating the sports ground and beautifying the school. A government official was said to have casually mentioned all possible sanctions, including the demolition of the structures ‘illegally’ erected. That includes a small building beside the court named the 88/93 Set.

Members of that Set, from my little observation on the day, make a politically diverse lot. While some are pro the ruling APC, others are not. Many are simply indifferent. In any case, there are a handful of them who do not reside within Ogun state, or even the country, such that they are sufficiently removed from the daily intrigues of political calculations going on in Sagamu and Ogun state in general. All these arguments could not sway the government. An inquiry will go on. In the meantime, members of the Set are to stay away from the school. Thus began that Wednesday, the search for an alternative venue, and a realignment of the programmes earlier designed to hold on the school premises, for very obvious reasons.

The celebration eventually held at the hall in the palace of Akarigbo, at a great unbudgeted cost as I learnt. It was a huge success, even if one could feel the anger of many attendees who had earlier headed to the school only to be turned back. Memories flooded back. I saw so many teachers in that great school in the 90s, people who by sheer hard work earned that iconic, reputable, though decaying school the identity and brand it has today across the world. Chief Mrs Wilde, a long-serving principal who symbolizes the values of the school for most of those who passed through it in the 80s and 90s, went home with the prized gift of a brand new car! Other teachers and staff got gifts as well. Banters, good music, performances, drinks, all flowed freely. It felt really good to be an old student. I ran into a senior colleague at work whom I never knew to be my senior. It was a pleasant surprise.

I am not a member of the ‘93 Set, and do not know what they make of all that happened, or is still happening, as a group. I therefore do not claim to speak for them. But then, as an old student, indigene and citizen, I feel qualified to express my sadness at how politics came to taint an effort at volunteerism. It is greatly discouraging to see people commit their resources to their Alma mater, only for such efforts to get vitiated through recourse to petty politics by those in authority. I have been to RSS more than a dozen times in the last couple of years. I cannot point to one thing that the state government, under Ibikunle Amosun or his predecessor, did for that school. The dilapidation of public schools, primary and secondary, has continued gradually and steadily under the current government. Classrooms and hostels are falling off, whether it’s in Sagamu, Abeokuta, Ikenne or Sango Ota. The governor continues meanwhile, to build mega schools that have not been put to use, in the middle of nowhere, across the state. Those unoccupied structures I’ve seen in Ikenne, Ago-Iwoye, Abeokuta and a couple of other places are testament to poor planning and profligacy.

When a group of people come together under a non-partisan platform to help an irresponsible government fulfill its obligations, what it ought to show in my view is gratitude. It should not, irrespective of the ‘indiscretion’ of anyone related to the group, send a public signal that selfless service, volunteerism and philanthropy is to be measured by the level and nature of its political undertone. It’s a poor way to appreciate public spiritedness. It is utterly sadistic. I hope, faintly, that the state government will be remorseful enough to offer an apology, and reassure the general public, especially those contemplating one form of assistance or the other for any neglected public institution, of the minimum of indifference, wherever and whenever they step in to fill the gaps created by the government’s ineffectiveness.

Those who make the point that the President of RSSOSA, mindful of the toxic nature of our politics, ought to have been more circumspect with the timing of his declaration, which one must say, is his right, do have a point. I agree as well with those who think that going forward, people who want to serve the Old Students Association, given its importance to the school, and the need to insulate it from needless politicking, must be those who harbour no immediate political interest. Yet, the point of what happened must never be lost on anyone. It was a needless abuse of power, wielded to punish a Set of the Old Students for the political ‘sins’ of the President of the larger body, who, as the state government knows, is not a member of the group celebrating its Silver anniversary. The denial of the use of the school premises, stoppage of the commissioning of the games court as well as the prevention of its use by students of the school is a misuse of excessive powers. Partisan politics should not make it too difficult for old boys and girls, now men and women of diverse backgrounds, to gather in their school, celebrate and give back in their own little or very big way.

I am not against the articulation and reiteration of a standard code which guides voluntary interventions, such that it curtails arbitrariness on the part of the executors, as well as highhandedness by those in power. It will likely insulate donors from the drunkenness of power than it regulates scarce negative consequences on the part of the benefiting schools. All of that said, the threats of labelling already completed interventions illegal if true, is a bad joke carried too far. My own group, the 91/97 Set renovated the Music Studio early last year, just as a host of individuals and Sets have done one thing or another for the school to keep it in shape. There will be many structures and contributions to so label if such a threat is followed through.

I wish to congratulate the 88/93 Set for their astounding accomplishments, and wish them many more years of celebration and contributions to our dear school. They have raised the bar of interventions in RSS, and the school can only be the better for it, to the irritation of future meddlsome politicians.

As for governor Amosun and his party people, I offer a prayer of contrition, especially as his administration moves into its final months in office. I pray that within the little time left, he will come to the realization of the need to dispense with that very big revelrous cap on his head, and replace it with a new, thinking one. He can keep it small and modest. Perhaps that will help him become more reflective, and make him see what public education has become, as opposed to what it ought to be, in the state of Awolowo, Tai Solarin, Wole Soyinka and other great minds whose accomplishments more than anything marks out Ogun state as the intellectual capital of the nation. He needs to fix public schools, pay teachers their due entitlements, remit their cooperative deductions which I learnt has been withheld for about 20 months, and also pay gratuities and pensions dating back to 2012.

While at it, he should find better usage for those mega frauds called mega schools – big, isolated structures conceived without any iota of consideration for how best they could serve the communities they are supposed to benefit. He should be more of a patriot in his last days in office than a politician. Politicians render services with benefits in mind. Patriots render services to the glory of God and the benefits of fatherland. The RSS anthem has some relevant messages for him, and other public office holders as well.

Politics › Intolerant Ogun Governor, Dealt A Heavy Blow On Volunteerism, Misuse Power by princeyemocoded(op): 7:22pm On Jul 08, 2018

https://www.thecable.ng/wanted-oke-mosan-thinking-cap

I had set out for Sagamu early morning of Saturday 30th June 2018, because I’ve not been home in months, and also because I have promised myself to attend the 25th anniversary of our seniors, the 88/93 Set of Remo Secondary School, Sagamu. They had hyped this reunion and it had been the issue of discussion among many old students of the first co-educational school in West Africa. I couldn’t afford to miss it. Not even the tanker fire incident of the days before, which had dampened my plan to drive home could deter me. I headed to the motorpark. Halfway into the journey, I received a call not to bother coming again, as the event had been cancelled. Impossible! With all that hype? Too much had gone into the planning, from what we’ve heard and seen! They’ve spent millions building a multipurpose games court, the like of which you won’t find in any stadium in Nigeria today. What could have happened?

I started to make calls of my own, and in a short while I heaved some sigh of relief, as my earlier caller and a few other contacts informed that the event would still proceed, but at a different venue. The Set have been denied access to mark their 25th anniversary within the school premises. I headed towards the new venue a bit relieved but partly confused. I ran into an old teacher of mine a big uncle of mine. My curiosity made the exchange of pleasantries short, for someone I haven’t seen in many years. So, he gave me an account that would be verified by countless other people I discussed with over the next two days.

The 88/93 Set had invested a lot of resources into their 25th anniversary. They had organized programmes for the students, done a documentary, built the very beautiful, modern games court I earlier mentioned, and had concluded plans to present awards and gifts to over 50 teachers and non-teaching staff who had contributed to the growth of the school. The Commissioners of Education, Youth and Sports among other government functionaries had been briefed and invited, with commitments that they would grace the occasion. Everything looked set, until politics happened.

The way the Old Students Association is set up, as it is in many other places, is that every Set as much as possible, runs autonomously. There is however an umbrella body that coordinates all the old students. Like the Sets, it has its own leadership, recognized in their rights as leaders for their tenure in office, but every Set pulls its own weight according to its capacity. Apparently, the current National President has been nursing a political ambition, and has been mulling which platform would best serve his interest. He settled for the PDP, early in the week leading to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the ‘93 Set. Some have dubbed the timing dumb and insensitive, while others disagree. What is not in doubt though, is that the APC in the state felt slighted. The Governor was reportedly enraged. All of that was Tuesday and by Wednesday morning, there had been summons. The school principals had been issued queries. The celebrating Set was asked to come and explain how it got permission to ‘tamper’ with public property under the guise of renovating the sports ground and beautifying the school. A government official was said to have casually mentioned all possible sanctions, including the demolition of the structures ‘illegally’ erected. That includes a small building beside the court named the 88/93 Set.

Members of that Set, from my little observation on the day, make a politically diverse lot. While some are pro the ruling APC, others are not. Many are simply indifferent. In any case, there are a handful of them who do not reside within Ogun state, or even the country, such that they are sufficiently removed from the daily intrigues of political calculations going on in Sagamu and Ogun state in general. All these arguments could not sway the government. An inquiry will go on. In the meantime, members of the Set are to stay away from the school. Thus began that Wednesday, the search for an alternative venue, and a realignment of the programmes earlier designed to hold on the school premises, for very obvious reasons.

The celebration eventually held at the hall in the palace of Akarigbo, at a great unbudgeted cost as I learnt. It was a huge success, even if one could feel the anger of many attendees who had earlier headed to the school only to be turned back. Memories flooded back. I saw so many teachers in that great school in the 90s, people who by sheer hard work earned that iconic, reputable, though decaying school the identity and brand it has today across the world. Chief Mrs Wilde, a long-serving principal who symbolizes the values of the school for most of those who passed through it in the 80s and 90s, went home with the prized gift of a brand new car! Other teachers and staff got gifts as well. Banters, good music, performances, drinks, all flowed freely. It felt really good to be an old student. I ran into a senior colleague at work whom I never knew to be my senior. It was a pleasant surprise.

I am not a member of the ‘93 Set, and do not know what they make of all that happened, or is still happening, as a group. I therefore do not claim to speak for them. But then, as an old student, indigene and citizen, I feel qualified to express my sadness at how politics came to taint an effort at volunteerism. It is greatly discouraging to see people commit their resources to their Alma mater, only for such efforts to get vitiated through recourse to petty politics by those in authority. I have been to RSS more than a dozen times in the last couple of years. I cannot point to one thing that the state government, under Ibikunle Amosun or his predecessor, did for that school. The dilapidation of public schools, primary and secondary, has continued gradually and steadily under the current government. Classrooms and hostels are falling off, whether it’s in Sagamu, Abeokuta, Ikenne or Sango Ota. The governor continues meanwhile, to build mega schools that have not been put to use, in the middle of nowhere, across the state. Those unoccupied structures I’ve seen in Ikenne, Ago-Iwoye, Abeokuta and a couple of other places are testament to poor planning and profligacy.

When a group of people come together under a non-partisan platform to help an irresponsible government fulfill its obligations, what it ought to show in my view is gratitude. It should not, irrespective of the ‘indiscretion’ of anyone related to the group, send a public signal that selfless service, volunteerism and philanthropy is to be measured by the level and nature of its political undertone. It’s a poor way to appreciate public spiritedness. It is utterly sadistic. I hope, faintly, that the state government will be remorseful enough to offer an apology, and reassure the general public, especially those contemplating one form of assistance or the other for any neglected public institution, of the minimum of indifference, wherever and whenever they step in to fill the gaps created by the government’s ineffectiveness.

Those who make the point that the President of RSSOSA, mindful of the toxic nature of our politics, ought to have been more circumspect with the timing of his declaration, which one must say, is his right, do have a point. I agree as well with those who think that going forward, people who want to serve the Old Students Association, given its importance to the school, and the need to insulate it from needless politicking, must be those who harbour no immediate political interest. Yet, the point of what happened must never be lost on anyone. It was a needless abuse of power, wielded to punish a Set of the Old Students for the political ‘sins’ of the President of the larger body, who, as the state government knows, is not a member of the group celebrating its Silver anniversary. The denial of the use of the school premises, stoppage of the commissioning of the games court as well as the prevention of its use by students of the school is a misuse of excessive powers. Partisan politics should not make it too difficult for old boys and girls, now men and women of diverse backgrounds, to gather in their school, celebrate and give back in their own little or very big way.

I am not against the articulation and reiteration of a standard code which guides voluntary interventions, such that it curtails arbitrariness on the part of the executors, as well as highhandedness by those in power. It will likely insulate donors from the drunkenness of power than it regulates scarce negative consequences on the part of the benefiting schools. All of that said, the threats of labelling already completed interventions illegal if true, is a bad joke carried too far. My own group, the 91/97 Set renovated the Music Studio early last year, just as a host of individuals and Sets have done one thing or another for the school to keep it in shape. There will be many structures and contributions to so label if such a threat is followed through.

I wish to congratulate the 88/93 Set for their astounding accomplishments, and wish them many more years of celebration and contributions to our dear school. They have raised the bar of interventions in RSS, and the school can only be the better for it, to the irritation of future meddlsome politicians.

As for governor Amosun and his party people, I offer a prayer of contrition, especially as his administration moves into its final months in office. I pray that within the little time left, he will come to the realization of the need to dispense with that very big revelrous cap on his head, and replace it with a new, thinking one. He can keep it small and modest. Perhaps that will help him become more reflective, and make him see what public education has become, as opposed to what it ought to be, in the state of Awolowo, Tai Solarin, Wole Soyinka and other great minds whose accomplishments more than anything marks out Ogun state as the intellectual capital of the nation. He needs to fix public schools, pay teachers their due entitlements, remit their cooperative deductions which I learnt has been withheld for about 20 months, and also pay gratuities and pensions dating back to 2012.

While at it, he should find better usage for those mega frauds called mega schools – big, isolated structures conceived without any iota of consideration for how best they could serve the communities they are supposed to benefit. He should be more of a patriot in his last days in office than a politician. Politicians render services with benefits in mind. Patriots render services to the glory of God and the benefits of fatherland. The RSS anthem has some relevant messages for him, and other public office holders as well.

Politics › Re: Sina Kawonise (SK) : A Possible Ogun Governor In 2019 by princeyemocoded(op): 8:41am On Jul 07, 2018

princeyemocoded:
Sina Kawonise (SK) : A possible Ogun governor in 2019

POLITICS

http://platformtimes.com.ng/index.php/politics/16470-adesina-kawonise-a-possible-ogun-governor-in-2019

Born July 8, 1962, Adesina Kawonise is a former Commissioner for Information and Orientation in Ogun State. Kawonise who hails from Ijebu-North Local Government Area also served as Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of the defunct Nigerian Compass Newspaper and defunct Westerner Magazine. The former lecturer at Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye is currently the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief NewsScroll Newspaper. His post-graduate experiences in both public service and private business as a
journalist, public affairs commentator, columnist, author, media consultant, businessman span over 28 years.

Kawonise attended Ago-Iwoye Secondary School between 1975 and 1980, he then proceeded to Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University), Ago-Iwoye in 1988 to study Sociology and later University of Ibadan in 1990.

He worked as a lecturer at OOU between 1989 and 1998. He also worked as Consulting Editor and Member, Editorial Board of Nigerian Tribune – oldest surviving private newspaper in Nigeria – between 1991 and 2010, an engagement he resumed in 2016. He was the Media Consultant to United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) on HIV-AIDS and the Prevention of Mother-to-Child-Transmission of HIV-AIDS between 2005 and 2007 and Media Consultant to Niger State Government between 2007 and 2010.

He was appointed Member, Governing Council, Olabisi Onabanjo University,Ago-Iwoye in April 2009 and later Honourable Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Ogun State, March in 2010.

Director and Member of the Board of Western Publishing Company Limited, 1st June, 2011 to March, 2014. He also worked as Managing Director/Editor in Chief of Western Publishing Company Limited, Publisher of Nigerian Compass Newspaper between 2011 and 2014.

Kawonise is a member of several professional bodies including Nigerian Association of Sociologists and Anthropologists (NASA), Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Ibadan Socio-Economic Group, International Sociological Association (ISA) and Solid Minerals Association of Nigeria (SMAN).

1 Like

Politics › Sina Kawonise (SK) : A Possible Ogun Governor In 2019 by princeyemocoded(op): 8:40am On Jul 07, 2018

princeyemocoded:
Sina Kawonise (SK) : A possible Ogun governor in 2019

POLITICS

http://platformtimes.com.ng/index.php/politics/16470-adesina-kawonise-a-possible-ogun-governor-in-2019

Born July 8, 1962, Adesina Kawonise is a former Commissioner for Information and Orientation in Ogun State. Kawonise who hails from Ijebu-North Local Government Area also served as Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of the defunct Nigerian Compass Newspaper and defunct Westerner Magazine. The former lecturer at Ogun State University, Ago Iwoye is currently the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief NewsScroll Newspaper. His post-graduate experiences in both public service and private business as a
journalist, public affairs commentator, columnist, author, media consultant, businessman span over 28 years.

Kawonise attended Ago-Iwoye Secondary School between 1975 and 1980, he then proceeded to Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University), Ago-Iwoye in 1988 to study Sociology and later University of Ibadan in 1990.

He worked as a lecturer at OOU between 1989 and 1998. He also worked as Consulting Editor and Member, Editorial Board of Nigerian Tribune – oldest surviving private newspaper in Nigeria – between 1991 and 2010, an engagement he resumed in 2016. He was the Media Consultant to United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) on HIV-AIDS and the Prevention of Mother-to-Child-Transmission of HIV-AIDS between 2005 and 2007 and Media Consultant to Niger State Government between 2007 and 2010.

He was appointed Member, Governing Council, Olabisi Onabanjo University,Ago-Iwoye in April 2009 and later Honourable Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Ogun State, March in 2010.

Director and Member of the Board of Western Publishing Company Limited, 1st June, 2011 to March, 2014. He also worked as Managing Director/Editor in Chief of Western Publishing Company Limited, Publisher of Nigerian Compass Newspaper between 2011 and 2014.

Kawonise is a member of several professional bodies including Nigerian Association of Sociologists and Anthropologists (NASA), Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA), Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Ibadan Socio-Economic Group, International Sociological Association (ISA) and Solid Minerals Association of Nigeria (SMAN).

Politics › Re: Rescuing Ogun State Can Only Be Done, TOGETHER! by princeyemocoded(op): 11:53am On Jun 23, 2018

Sall:
Story from another thief.

You don't even know him, if you do you won't make a careless statement. He who alalleges must try to prove. The man has not said he wants to do it alone, he says he wants you to join him as you do it together. Someone like you who is not a thief should please join and own the process

Politics › Rescuing Ogun State Can Only Be Done, TOGETHER! by princeyemocoded(op): 11:43am On Jun 23, 2018

princeyemocoded:
NOW THE REAL DEAL

We have the capacity to prevent further denudation in the State and it should be our responsibility to ensure that the State is put back on the path of development that was its hallmark under the tutelage of its founding fathers like the late Governor Olabisi Onabanjo.

The time to act is now!

This is why it has become imperative for me to ask all men and women of goodwill in Ogun State to rise up and join me in this onerous task of rescuing our State from the present miasma of hopelessness to which it has been consigned by those currently superintending over its affairs and their ilks who are seeking to perpetuate the hopelessness.

The time to rescue Ogun State is now. We have a duty to rescue the State and I am pledging myself to this task even as we are sure that SUCCESS would be ours. Omo Ogun, ise ya!

• For a well thought-out programme of action on how to effect a new deal for our people in Ogun State, kindly visit: www.sinakawonise.com.ng

‘Sina Kawonise (SK),

Social Democratic Party (SDP),

Ogun State, Nigeria.

Politics › Time To Rescue Ogun State! by princeyemocoded(op): 2:56pm On Jun 22, 2018

http://www.sinakawonise.com.ng/index.php/component/k2/item/23-special-report-time-to-rescue-ogun-state-sina-kawonise

INTRODUCTION

In a few weeks, it’ll be seven years since Senator Ibikunle Amosun took over Ogun State as Governor. He came with the slogan “Mission To Rebuild Ogun State” (MITROS). His promise was to ‘rebuild’ the State in all critical sectors - education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, employment generation, community development, empowerment of women, creating enabling environment for business, etc.

Having spent his first term and another three years out of the second and final term in office, all that Governor Amosun has got to offer Ogun State are already manifest. We all have seen Amosun’s very best, we’ve seen his MITROS - warts and all!

WHY THE RESCUE MISSION?: FACTS AND FIGURES

Besides the normal recurrent expenditure, which has been consistently high under the Amosun Administration, about 90 percent of what remained for capital expenditure has been spent on expansion of very few existing urban roads in a few locations in the State. Out of a total of 2,545 kilometers of state (Trunk B) road across the State, Governor Amosun has spent almost N300 billion to expand a total of 347 kilometers. This represents a paltry 13.6 percent of state roads crying for attention. Virtually all internal (Trunk C) roads in every city, town and village in the State have become impassable. This is the case because all federal allocations to Local Governments (LGs), as well as their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) are seized by Amosun using the instrumentality of a law he enacted immediately he got into office for what he described as State/LG Projects Joint Account.

Apart from all other sectors neglected due to this mono-focus on urban road expansion which, in real terms, adds little or nothing to the GDP of Ogun State, the real tragedy is the huge debt Amosun will be leaving for all of us and our children to settle in at least the next 30 years.

The incompetence and irresponsibility of the current government are vividly captured in the 2016 Financial Statement of the State published in some national newspapers on December 28, 2017. In that Statement, Ogun State had a total revenue of N114.8 billion. From this figure, FAAC allocation from Abuja was N32.6 billion, IGR N71.5 billion, and others (not specified - most probably short-term loans from banks) N10.7 billion.

From this revenue of N114.8 billion, N70 billion (or 61 percent) went on recurrent expenditure in 2016. While salaries and emoluments took N39.5 billion, overhead costs consumed a whooping N13.8 billion, with debt servicing taking away N16.7 billion (this amounts to N1.39 billion monthly).

From the figures above, it would be seen that only N44.8 billion was available for capital expenditure. To appreciate the level of incompetence and corruption of the Amosun government, I’ll cite two roads that are typical of the road expansion projects executed by it.

1. OGTV-Brewery junction road with a distance of 8.7 km at a total cost of N17.2 billion and per/km cost of N1.98 billion.

2. Sagamu-Benin Express junction/Oba Erinwole junction road at a total cost of N11.87 billion and per/km cost of N1.7 billion.

If the total amount available for capital expenditure in a typical year (as it was the case in 2016) was N44.8 billion, how does anyone justify spending N1.98 billion to expand one kilometer of an existing road with no strategic importance or the potential to boost the local economy? At that rate, it means the whole N44.8 billion could expand a total of only 22.6 kilometers in a budget year out of the 2,545 km Trunk B roads and tens of thousands Trunk C roads needing attention.

Now, the reported costs of the road projects are another matter entirely. The Lagos-Ibadan express road being executed by the Federal Government is 124 km at a cost of N167 billion, which translates to N1.35 billion/per kilometer. While the Sagamu-Lagos end is 8 lanes, the Sagamu-Ibadan portion is 6 lanes. Apart from the width of the FG’s road, the construction is a total overhaul of existing road with massive excavation and very thick concrete and asphalt overlay that are several times the volume and dimension of any of Amosun’s roads. Yet, the FG’s road is far cheaper than what is delivered to us in Ogun state.

The foregoing is the very reason there are no passable roads in the towns and villages of Ogun State outside of the 300+ km in the few urban locations. It is the reason the education and health sectors have deteriorated so badly. It is the reason unemployment is at its worst in the history of the state. It is the reason the 7,334 CDAs and 55,000 cooperative societies in the State receive no attention whatsoever from the government. It is the reason only one out of the 22 so-called Model Schools started 6 years ago is operational. It is the reason the government is owing civil servants 18 months salary deductions and 4 years of backlog in gratuities and pension. It is the reason so many manufacturing concerns in Sango Otta, Agbara, Igbesa, Akute, Ogijo, Mowe and Ibafo axis have shut down and retrenched thousands of workers because there are no motorable roads to their factories. It is the reason agriculture receives no tangible government support and it is the basis of the lie and fraud called MITROS rice. It is the reason all the taps hitherto serviced by public pipe-borne water are dry. It is the reason the whole economic environment of Ogun State is so dreary and mournful.

THE DEBT OVERHANG

In the 2016 Financial Statement referred to earlier, the government reported a total debt stock of N113.2 billion, being internal and external loans. This is partial reporting and concealment of facts. Non-flow debts of liabilities to workers and pensioners, outstanding payments to contractors and suppliers are not included. Informal estimates have it that total non-flow debts are about N150 billion. With the interest-based debt of N113.2 billion, the $300 million (= N109 billion) World Bank loan recently and dubiously approved for Amosun by the National Assembly, the current government will be leaving a whooping N372 billion debt overhang for Ogun residents to sort out for the next two generations. For, if the debt repayment rate remains at the N1.39 billion per month level of 2016, it’ll take a minimum of 30 years to settle the debt at a conservative single-digit interest rate of 9 percent.

‘THIRD TERM’ FOR AMOSUN?
It is ironic, therefore, that the man and his government that promised to rebuild Ogun State at the inception, through their own publicly presented records, which obviously must have been doctored - suggesting that the reality would be worse than presented - have only succeeded in effecting monumental destruction and degradation on the State. This makes it imperative that conscious and concrete efforts be made to retrieve our State from him and halt its decline. Yet, this is the Governor that has been boasting that he’ll foist on us a successor to continue the pillage and cover his back. Evidently, this man has no worthwhile interest or plan for the State beyond dominating and cornering its resources. For, it is certain that anyone from his camp would definitely continue along his line of bad governance.

It should be obvious to all right thinking observers that Ogun State cannot and should not be allowed to continue under the tutelage of Governor Amosun and his ilks in All Progressive Congress (APC), as the party and its standard bearer have shown themselves as incapable of rebuilding Ogun State as promised. And in the light of the stark evidence staring us in the face about the level of denudation that the State has been subjected to under the APC government, it should be the responsibility of all Ogun State indigenes and residents to work assiduously to see that APC is prevented from further mounting the saddle of governance in the State. The case against APC cannot be made better than the way the current government has misused its mandate.

NEITHER APC NOR PDP

Incidentally, it is not only APC that should be consciously prevented from governance in Ogun State. Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, in his celebrated open letter on the current APC-led government at the federal level has this to say on the two leading political parties in the country at the moment: “I have had occasion in the past to say that the two main political parties - APC and PDP - were wobbling. I must reiterate that nothing has happened to convince me otherwise. If anything, I am reinforced in my view. The recent show of PDP must give grave and great concern to lovers of Nigeria … If neither APC nor PDP is a worthy horse to ride to lead Nigeria (and we must painfully add Ogun State here) at this crucial and critical time, what then do we do?” We know all men and women of goodwill in Ogun State want the best for the State and would want to stop in its tracks the bad governance which the former President has remarked as basic characteristics of both APC and PDP. The former President, has of course, recommended the urgent need for people of goodwill across Nigeria to come together and present an alternative to both discredited parties which have woefully failed our people and pauperised them. I offer myself to be part of this new crop of leaders in Ogun State.

I believe we in Ogun State, having been witnesses and victims of the deleterious effect of the high-handed and pernicious rule of the APC-led government in the State in the last seven years, have an abiding duty to come together to rescue the State from falling further into morass or getting into the hands of those who only know how to prey on the State or those who are so poor in everything that the only thing they have is money with which they think they could lord it over the good people of the State.

NOW THE REAL DEAL

We have the capacity to prevent further denudation in the State and it should be our responsibility to ensure that the State is put back on the path of development that was its hallmark under the tutelage of its founding fathers like the late Governor Olabisi Onabanjo. The time to act is now! This is why it has become imperative for me to ask all men and women of goodwill in Ogun State to rise up and join me in this onerous task of rescuing our State from the present miasma of hopelessness to which it has been consigned by those currently superintending over its affairs and their ilks who are seeking to perpetuate the hopelessness. The time to rescue Ogun State is now. We have a duty to rescue the State and I am pledging myself to this task even as we are sure that SUCCESS would be ours. Omo Ogun, ise ya!

• For a well thought-out programme of action on how to effect a new deal for our people in Ogun State, kindly visit: www.sinakawonise.com.ng

‘Sina Kawonise (SK),

Social Democratic Party (SDP),

Ogun State, Nigeria.

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