"As an oil-producing state, we have no reason to be economically backward."
Another gubernatorial election draws nigh in Ondo State and the Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, in his usual characteristic cosmetic approach to governance known only to the deep, for the masses are largely unaware of this, has signed another Memorandum of Understanding with an American bitumen exploration company called Liquefied Resources LLC.
A quick search of the company on the Internet shows that it has no functional website. There is nothing to show that it has the capacity to do the exploration which requires so much technical know-how coupled with an established track record of completed or ongoing projects in the bitumen exploration process.
The company is based in 107S Beech Springs, Cir Spring, Texas, 77389, United States of America, and was only incorporated in February 2012, according to the Houston-based 75-year old President of the company, Thomas Elard Cooley. Yet, the Managing Director of the Nigerian subsidiary of the company, one Mr. Tony Amechi James, in his LinkedIn says he has been with the company since 2006. Who will reconcile the difference in the dates? Does it mean that the Nigerian subsidiary was created before its American parent? Something appears clumsy there. And who does business with such a company in this 21st century?
Typical of his army of online supporters, as soon as the news of the agreement hit the news wave, they have been trooping out in hundreds celebrating on the Nigerian blogosphere, praising the Governor to high heavens for industrializing the state. Pray, how does signing an MOU with a company whose capacity is in doubt amount to industrialization? It is even more suspicious when one realizes the fact that the Governor has few months to spend in the office as his two-term tenure winds to a close. For how long shall the people remain dogmatic and blind because of partisan leaning? It is even more pathetic seeing people from the southern part of the State, the most backward senatorial district of the State, commending the Governor on this.
As an oil producing state, I state all the time, and I will say it here again, we have no reason to be economically backward and development-atrophied like the way it has been in the State in the last seven years since Governor Mimiko came to power.
The greatest strength of the Governor is his maradonic politics, which is ably fuelled by the poverty (mental and material) of the masses of the people in the State. And this is because he has mastered the transient needs of our people. So he knows how to dangle the carrot before them so he can get what he wants, especially when another election is around the corner.
Of a truth, were we a serious people, Governor Mimiko should not be anywhere near governance in the 21st century in our dear State, a State blessed with well-endowed human resources and material resources beneath its earth. But a people deserve the type of leader they have, as the saying goes. And he is simply giving it out to them, as they rightly deserve so.
Folks who are easily deceived by his non-existent performance point to his 'caring heart revolution' in the health sector. Whatever that means! Yet, when you ask these folks to point to such revolution in their locality, they are quick to refer you to the ‘Mother and Child Hospital’ in Akure or the one in his town, Ondo, where he cited the new Ondo State University of Medical Sciences.
Igbotako, where I come from, in Okitipupa Local Government Area of the State has a General Hospital only on paper. If by tomorrow you go there and get Paracetamol of May and Baker brand, come here and tell the whole world and I will apologise profusely. Our people rely on illiterates and quacks for medical treatment. Recently, the State’s Ministry of Health was there to close a notorious clinic run by an auxiliary, ‘one-okan’ expert who had claimed to be a medical doctor for many years. That is an enough indictment against the so-called landmark achievement of his in the health sector. So, I ask, again: what manner of revolution that does not get to the rural areas where the masses are based?
He has started dribbling them again. Politics is around the corner. He wants to install his successor at all costs so that he can sustain the status quo by the time he exits power soon. He has started promising the people heaven on earth like he did in 2009 and 2012.
Recently, I met a senior citizen of the State in Abuja who was with him in the Labour Party, but refused to defect with him to the PDP on the basis of principle. When the man gave me a graphic detail of the humongous debt profile of the State under Governor Mimiko, I collapsed momentarily on my seat two times!
Every State borrows to fund projects when their internal revenue inflow cannot meet up. But it is also important for the sake of transparency that the projects on ground must commensurate with the money borrowed. So, I ask again: where are the projects? Perhaps the Ondo State University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, created more out of the tribal love he has for his town than the love of Ondo State.
As I write this, workers in the State are being owed six months salaries. No one is even talking about the pensioners. Those ones are a forgotten lot. Then you ask: what were the bailouts for? Remember those bailouts are loans to the State from the federal government. What about the 13% derivation the State gets every month? What about its statutory allocation every month? What about the bonds he sourced through the capital market? Does it mean the State does not generate any revenue internally? What happened to OSOPADEC?
My only worry now is that the dominant opposition party in the State, All Progressives Congress (APC), is practically doing nothing to engage the Governor. By now, a formidable APC would have been taking the Governor up on the cosmetic projects he purports to have initiated in the state.
A serious APC would have taken the Governor to the cleaners on the astronomical debt profile of the State. A prepared APC would have taken the Governor up on the reasons for the non-payment of workers' salary. Six months running now!
A determined APC would have tasked the Governor on what went wrong with the widely-publicized teacher recruitment exercise in the State. Today, most schools in the rural areas rely on PTA teachers to teach their pupils. Any wonder the State has steadily been declining in WAEC and NECO national performance annually. This is a sad development, which runs contrary to the lofty dreams of the founding fathers of the once illustrious State.
Yet, we have a major election coming by November this year. The fireworks are not just there. Perhaps they want to use fire brigade approach when the election is finally around the corner. I worry tonight. Our people are in bondage, but they don't seem to know. Will the sun shine again?
Dayo Williams is a political analyst and commentator who writes from Abuja.