On July 25 2008, Governor Olusegun Mimiko emerged the winner in Ondo state's elections that had to finish at the Courts.
On July 25 2008, Governor Olusegun Mimiko emerged the winner in Ondo state's elections that had to finish at the Courts.
Governor Mimiko has less than 365 days to the next election in Ondo state. He does not need anyone to remind him how mercilessly unforgiving the people of Ondo state are when called for judgement.
But in the intervening 360 or so days, Dr. Mimiko will do well to focus on the assured way to guarantee a second term, if he wants one, as it would seem.
First of all, he is going to have to stop listening to the voice of "second term" from within. The next governor of Ondo state will not take office until July 2012.
The next governor of Ondo state, will have to demonstrate that he can outdo Governor Mimiko over a four year period, to have any chance of displacing Gov. Mimiko from Alagbaka.
In that sense, the ace, the ball, the tactics, is all in the Governor's court.
This is a time to run.
What will matter is the cumulative sense of progress, that the collective feels they have achieved by the time they need to compare what is on offer by July to 2012 to what's been offered until then.
The governor has just dissolved his 22 men cabinet. To say those people were uninspiring is saying the least.
But when a football coach opts for substitution in the last quarter of a match, there must be a tactical reason. This is crunch time, for Governon Mimiko, and he better know as to find crunch people for the last haul.
A football coach, who needs to turn around a losing score, needs strategic team replacement. You take out the dead tired legs, and send in fresh - and fully briefed substitutes. And then you cross your fingers that they do as you have told them.
Two, does he really need a 22 men cabinet ?
The governor needs his best people, working for him and Ondo state, and no more.
There are too many people in the public sector in Ondo state, who merely work either for themselves, or for self-serving needs.
This is why the recent repeated strike actions by so called organised labour in the state seems almost senseless in its seeming coluration of politics, not to mention the self-delusional interpretations being given to it by the people of the PDP.
The governor's former friends in the ACN, and their counterparts in the Labour are already making so much of a loud noise, the illusionary electioneering process of 2011. Yet, the governor has no pact with these people. As governor, let alone one that needs to run, there is only one voice to seek and listen to, and it is the voice of the people.
The question is, has the governor got the moral backbone to confront this reality starting from himself ?
The albatross of people in the governor's height of position in Nigeria, is that you are invariably surrounded by a constant stream of elite sycophants.
It is almost organised crime, when you observe it from afar. And the problem of Nigeria is not the poor, overly abused masses, it is the elites. But governor Mimiko's fate will be decided by the poor masses. This is a time for the governor to choose, and re-choose his friends.
Three, the governor needs to stay inside Alagbaka, and just stay there.
If he is in short supply of things to review, how about address the lingering reality that the civil service in Nigeria is dead, by methodically identifying all the root of dysfunction at Alagbaka and sending for cutlasses for them ? The joke that passes for government work in Nigeria has travelled too far.
And in the scheme of things, there are always elite resistance to things like this. But governor Mimiko is not the elite Governor, he is charge of Ondo state. And this is his time to run...
How about a review of the reasons, some of the township roads his government flaggged off months ago, still feature as incomplete ?
And speaking of roads, lying with road development is one of the most disastrous things a governor can do in Ondo state. The people see.
And the elites who are the ones that colluded with the construction companies not to mention the complex chain of corruption that mark contract money allowance in government places are the ones that will be first to use it against you when the time is right. During Governor Agagu's first term the other year, the quality of the roads so constructed was so pathetic, they were essentially branded erukutu-Agagu.
What has happened to the 5000 hectares of land for Tomato production & "Perfect Food Processing Factory" ? (http://yrn.me/e7h8d)
Or, to invite Samuel Ademola who put it brilliantly on 234next:
Where is the dualization project of Oyemekn road about two years after it was reawarded? The dualization of Ita-Nla /Ife road is at what stage is at what stage two years after it was awarded? Can you tell the people of Ondo State one town or village that has started enjoying tap water other than those that were done before the governor came to power? Two years after the primary health center at Igbotako was pronuonced general hospital in a multi-million naira celebration, can you tell the people over there that a new eqipment or structure has been added to the facility? Yes, the governor built motor park for the tugs and so what? Where are the mega schools, multi million naira doom (dome)? Where is the auto assembly plant the state government spent million naira to celebrate and broke ground?
Someone who needs to run takes no recess.
How about taking another peep at "A caring Heart" - a speech he delivered in 2007 promising to offer "a government that is selfless, transparent, forthright and committed to the generation of wealth for the good of all. It is a government in which every citizen is taken as a critical stakeholder in the true meaning of the concept, a government that is a catalyst of development and is committed to the deployment of the resources of Ondo State for the development of Ondo State citizens, an all-inclusive platform for individual well-being, corporate harmony and progressive politics" as found at http://yrn.me/0eim1 ?
In a nutshell, The people of Ondo state will ultimately resolve the 2nd term issue, based on how well they are able to find answers to simplicitas as above.
Governor Mimiko has a choice. Accept defeat and take a stroll towards the runners up trophy and waste no one's time.
Or, declare executive surgery on all the malignant tumours that afflict the concept of governance in Ondo state and then see who triumphs come July 2012. The thing about tumours is that they are hard to treat; Surgically removing them is the easiest part. You will only need properly sharpened knife.
But you want to make sure you have identified the root of their growth before mercilessly pulling on the knife.
This is going to be governor Mimiko's biggest surgery ever. Will this patient die ?
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'Dapo Osewa.
[email protected]
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