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2015: Resurrection of opposition in Ogun

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo
| credits: www.orijoreporters.com

After about two years of inaction, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party in Ogun State appear to have been awakened from their slumber, reports SEGUN OLATUNJI

The main opposition parties in Ogun State appear to have woken from their over two years of lethargic state as they have, of recent, left no one in doubt about their desire to challenge the ruling All Progressive Congress.

The Peoples Democratic Party arguably the biggest opposition party in the state, has launched verbal attacks on the policies of the Governor Ibikunle Amosun-led administration. The media has been awash with criticisms of the state government’s policies and programmes.

For the APC-led government in Ogun State, the holiday period is truly over with the verbal missiles being fired at it by the opposition.

Buoyed by the near-total absence of the opposition in the state due to the perennial crisis rocking the PDP, Amosun had, earlier in the year, stirred up a hornets’ nest when he declared that the PDP in Ogun was “dead and buried.”

The Ogun State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Adebayo Dayo, while addressing aspirants to various elective offices and members of his party from Ogun East Senatorial District, in Ijebu Ode, said it had become imperative for the party to rise up to the challenge of rescuing the state from Amosun’s “misgovernance”.

Dayo also noted that it was only through hard work that the people of the State could free themselves from Amosun’s “bondage”.

The state PDP boss said, “It is only through hard work that we can win the elections and I can assure you that at the end of the day, whether Ibikunle Amosun likes it or not, he’ll vacate that office. In Jesus name, we are going to occupy that office. What we should be struggling to do now is to work so that we can be in government.

“So, let’s work together and make sure we make it a point of duty to rescue ourselves from the bondage of Ibikunle Amosun.  Ibikunle Amosun has spoilt everywhere. Go and ask the market women and the students, teachers and everybody.

 “They know that this man is not performing. This man has no conscience and I can tell you, if we work very hard, at the end of the day, we’ll rejoice.”

Also, the state chapter of the LP has consistently faulted the cost and the rationale behind the on-going road construction projects across the three senatorial districts of the state, describing them as a “systematic means” of siphoning the state’s resources.

Secretary of the LP in the state, Sunday Oginni, described as unthinkable and alarming government’s spending of N260m to construct a pedestrian bridge.

The LP secretary added that the decision of the people of Oke-Sokori and other residents of the Abeokuta metropolis not to use the pedestrian bridge, which the state government claimed was fitted with air-conditioner, signaled the rejection of the “profligate spending” of the Amosun-led APC administration.

He said, “We want to say here that nobody is questioning whether it is good or it is bad; we know that it is one of the duties of government to develop our state. But the question now is, is he doing it in the proper way? Why building a pedestrian bridge with over N260m when nobody is ready to use it? It means you are just building a hideout for criminals.”

The party accused the Amosun-led administration of deceit. It argued that the billions of naira being paid as compensation to the owners of properties affected by ongoing road expansion projects across the state would have served the people better if it was used to develop new towns and create jobs.

Oginni, went further to say that the possibility of fraud was very high because of the likelihood of government officials paying compensation where it was not necessary.

He said, “When you pull down a building, you can say that it is N5m and the next building may not be up to that if it is valued.”

According to him, any government that is ready to misappropriate public funds will device means of doing so using various strategies, including compensation as is being done by the APC-led administration.

The party secretary pointed out that the administration could say it had pulled down 100 houses worth about N150m in a place but the reality on the ground could prove otherwise. He appealed to the people of Ogun State to take a second look at what the state government was doing in that area.

He noted that the money being expended on frivolous ventures was sufficient to create jobs for the people and that new towns could be built for the benefit of the state. “Nobody will criticise him if he is coming with Abeokuta new town; Ilaro new town or Shagamu new town and then opening spaces for people to even exercise their rights and project their business,” he argued.

According to the party, the state government was misplacing priorities in a poverty-stricken economy like the one in Ogun State.

The LP secretary cautioned the state government not to force the people of the state into perpetual slavery by its alleged excessive borrowing and spending on projects that would not be of economic benefits in the long run.

Similarly, an LP governorship aspirant, Mr. Gboyega  Isiaka, said the five cardinal programmes of the Amosun administration were anti-people and had brought untold hardship to citizens and residents of the state.

As expected, Amosun and the state chapter of the APC did not take the allegations levelled against the administration lying low.

Amosun described his critics as bad losers who ordinarily should have been behind bars.

The governor accused those making allegations of a contract scam against his government of lying to the people of the state. He observed that because they were idle, they had made themselves available to the devil by becoming his “workshop.”

Amosun said, “This is Sagamu (road), we started from the Benin/Sagamu expressway to Oba Erinwole Junction. I have heard what people have been saying and writing, saying that nothing is on this road.

“The truth is that it is a shame that people  that ordinarily should be in jail – people that looted the good people of  Ogun State’s money. When they had the opportunity for eight years, what did they do?

“They don’t even know what is happening, they are perplexed. Everyday they ask themselves, how is he doing it? They see what we are doing and they never believe it is possible, but we thank God and the good people of Ogun State for believing in us, unlike them.

Also speaking on a petition written by a group against his administration over the N8bn Sagamu road project, Amosun said, “They are thieves, EFCC is looking for them, they are thieves.

“They are educated, they should come and put figures on what we are doing here. They can’t stop us and I know the good people of Ogun State are ready for them.”

The Publicity Secretary of the APC in the state,  Mr. Sola Lawal, also spoke in defence of the state government. He accused the opposition of desperation. According to him, members of the opposition were desperate to “give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.”

Lawal said the Amosun-led APC administration had been at the vanguard of executing projects that were immensely beneficial to the people of the state.

He said, “Throwing weird allegations of financial indebtedness against the Amosun administration by the PDP and LP is tantamount to committing verbal suicide because no administration in Ogun history has even mortgaged the state the way the last PDP administration under which Gboyega Isiaka served did. The relics of that ignominy as signposted by decaying common patrimony are still being cleared by Amosun two years after.”

Lawal credited the Amosun-led administration with standing up against the misrule which was the lot of the state under the previous PDP-led administration headed by Otunba Gbenga Daniel.

He explained that the Amosun’s professional background as a chartered accountant had served him well, because he had not only followed the money but had ensured the prudent management of the state’s resources.

This, he said, was in contrast to the legacy of profligacy left behind by his predecessor. According to him, local government councils in Ogun State have never been this vibrant.

He also dismissed allegations that the administration was leading the state into bankruptcy.  He noted that opponents of the administration could believe the “dizzying pace of infrastructural revolution now going on in Ogun.”

As the 2015 elections draw near, it is expected that the ruling APC and the group of opposition political parties will continue to trade accusations over performance. However, the least the ordinary citizen of Ogun State expects from government is service delivery and a chance to contribute to the development of the state.