By Agbaje Wale
The Greek gift of the Joju – Ojuore road measuring 1.3km is a slap on our collective face as a people. It is a shame that while Ado-Odo / Ota Local Government got 1.3km road, Ijebu- Ode North got 7km and Abeokuta that already has several good roads got additional 3.41km.
Ado-Odo / Ota Local Government has never been fortunate in the scheme of things either politically or otherwise in Ogun State, the happenings within the political circles of our dear state in the last 17 months of the administration of Prince Dapo Abiodun confirms this recurrence.
The irony of the whole scenario is that our daughter was invited to a party whose drummers are unwilling to drum, and our political correctness at having her in the saddle as the Deputy Governor of the state may end up being an experimental disaster whose damage politically may be hard to contain.
“While I find it hard that our daughter can’t find the courage to remind his master of his promise, it seems she too is satisfied with being the extra tyre tag appointed only to represent the Governor for photoshoots at events with no relevant administrative roles when compared to other southwestern state Deputies,.. ”
Let me dispassionately begin to treat some of the issues pointing to the fact that as much as the government of Prince Dapo Abiodun is trying to paint the picture of ‘the people’s Governor’, whereas the reality paints the picture of a ‘consciously selective Governor’ with an agenda against the Aworis. The writing is clearly on the wall for the blind to see and the deaf to hear loudly that the professed love by our Governor towards Ado-Odo / Ota is clearly no love.
COVID 19 as a case study. Our Local Government has the highest incidence rate of COVID-19 infection yet our Governor did not find it important to open an isolation centre in or around the Local Government, a decision that defiles logic.
We cannot continue to play politics of isolation and discrimination at the expense of the good people of our Local Government, this is a joke taken too far.
More worrisome is the government’s disposition towards the issue of education in Ado-Odo / Ota Local Government, despite the high number of public primary schools within our Local Government with a corresponding high number of students, no singular rehabilitation or project not to talk of construction is being embarked upon in our Local Government either by SUBEB or by the Ministry of Housing except the dress rehearsal carried out at Sango-Ota High School after it became an embarrassment too big for the government to stomach.
Furthermore, one of the greatest pointers to the insensitivity of the government of Prince Dapo Abiodun is the total abandonment of the roads in our Local Government. The Governor seems to have read the operations manual of his immediate predecessor on the need and reasons to abandon all the roads within our Local Government.
The Greek gift of the Joju – Ojuore road measuring 1.3km is a slap on our collective face as a people. It is a shame that while Ado-Odo / Ota Local Government got 1.3km road, Ijebu- Ode North got 7km and Abeokuta that already has several good roads got additional 3.41km.
Also, no visible repair works have been carried out at the Tollgate end of the Lagos-Abeokuta road where our Governor promised immediate repair works during his visit to the scene of the accident that happened earlier this year. It is now a public knowledge that bad roads within our Local Government kills more people in Ogun State than the dreaded COVID-19 and SARS atrocities combined.
Our Local Government is the economic heartbeat of the state, yet they keep milking us dry without any corresponding developmental plans, political watchers are now increasingly finding it difficult to differentiate between the government of Dapo Abiodun and Former Governor Ibikunle Amosun.
In fact to put it mildly; it seems the current government is hell-bent at surpassing his predecessor’s record of intentionally neglecting Ogun West. If this is not evidence of discrimination, I don’t know the best way to qualify this intentional act of wickedness.
“One outstanding trademark of Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s government of eight years is that he didn’t pretend to dislike us, he was bold enough to manifest his strong dislike for us and anything relating to us publicly…“
The strategy of sending our daughter to us to pacify us with sweet words will no longer be accepted and we shall begin to call out our political leaders who are comfortably keeping quiet in the face of disrespect and disregard for the people of Ado-Odo / Ota Local Government.
Prince Dapo Abiodun’s government is now increasingly becoming an ‘audio government’. One of the biggest audio promises of our Governor during his campaign tours is that our daughter (who by the way is an Engineer) will be assigned the portfolio of works and infrastructure. It is a pity that our Governor who professes to be a gentleman cannot honour a gentleman’s agreement.
While I find it hard that our daughter can’t find the courage to remind his master of his promise, it seems she too is satisfied with being the extra tyre tag appointed only to represent the Governor for photoshoots at events with no relevant administrative roles when compared to other southwestern state Deputies, more annoying is the fact that the Deputy Governor goes about in her husband’s car as evidently revealed in the court charge against those who vandalized her vehicle during one of her outings to represent the Governor, is it that she is too big to ride in the state provided official vehicle or the non-availability of such is part of the humiliation plot to deny her the basic operational tool?
I don’t know of any female Deputy Governor in the history of Nigeria that had to rely on her husband to provide private vehicles for ‘official use’.
“This government is a master of deceit, we cannot afford to wait any longer as it is now crystal clear that the Governor and his people are hell-bent at deflating his extra tyre who happens to be our daughter. “
Another slap on our face is the refusal of our Governor to give us more than two slots in the Executive Chambers despite our high population and voting strength while Ijebu Ode can boast of more than five Exco members. One outstanding trademark of Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s government of eight years is that he didn’t pretend to dislike us, he was bold enough to manifest his strong dislike for us and anything relating to us publicly.
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Even up to the Governorship level, his slogan was ‘Ogun West for Governor excluding Ota’. What is obtainable under Prince Dapo Abiodun’s government has been described as a ‘Chameleonic love’ for the Aworis which is gradually manifesting itself in the form of mutual suspicion and disguised abandonment, our hope of ever getting the Awori Traditional Council under this government is gradually fading away, therefore, it will not be out of place to say we have been scammed by those who profess to have our interest at heart, our interest (if any) is at the deepest bottom of their heart.
One of the cheeky defenses of this government is that they are at their infancy but the Yorubas’ will say ‘if it takes twenty years to rehearse lunacy, how many years will be left to display such lunacy?’ The essence of this write up is to awaken the consciousness of our people to our hopelessness and helplessness in this current administration.
This government is a master of deceit, we cannot afford to wait any longer as it is now crystal clear that the Governor and his people are hell-bent at deflating his extra tyre who happens to be our daughter. The earlier we as a people accept our fate and align with a genuine agitation for an Ogun West person as the Governor, the better. The neglect, rape and abuse of our people has never before now become more pronounced.
Therefore I am using this medium to appeal to all Ogun West elected and appointed members of this government to know when to call it quit in order to save their heads from the imminent political embarrassments that awaits them under this present administration for it is obvious that Ijoba Dapo Abiodun is determined to send most of them into political oblivion. Can our Deputy Governor be bold enough to resign her position before the Governor deflates her tyre totally?
*Agbaje Wale writes from Dalemo, Ota, Ogun State.
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