Obasanjo's Hypocrisy, A Cover-Up For Pen Robbers In Our Country

By

Dr. Wunmi Akintide

WUMIONE@aol.com

 

    

The revelation that Governor Olusegun Agagu and Governorship candidate, Adebayo Akala of the PDP in Oyo State and his political god father, the so-called strong man of Ibadan Politics could not have come at a worse time for our "President Do Good" who wants his kleptomaniac Vice President impeached for an offence he was more than head and shoulders guilty of. "Allahu Akbar" that the Muslims never stop chanting in their daily prayers, is truly a statement of affirmation about the greatness of God Almighty. God is truly great. Those who know Governor Olusegun Agagu very well and he operates, would know that God is truly great.

   

Some of my readers would recall that I was one of the fervent supporters of Olusegun Agagu when he ran in Ondo State against Governor Adebayo Adefarati of the AD in 2003. I had thought Adefarati was a rogue and that Agagu was a saint. Without anyone soliciting my help, I had contributed 50,000.00 Naira to Agagu's campaign and another 50,000.00 to his Deputy, Omolade Oluwateru's campaign. I was doing so, to copy the American tradition of political supporters contributing money to the campaigns of candidates they support or admire. I think 10,000.00 dollars or much less are the amounts legally allowed by the Law in the United States. The idea is not to let a few money bags bankroll the campaigns of their candidates in return for favors which might come in multiples of what is donated thereby encouraging corruption at all levels of Government.

    

I donated the 50,000.00 to Olusegun Agagu who was my junior boy at Ibadan Grammar School in the early 60s. I donated the 50,000 to Omolade Oluwateru who has emerged from my constituency of Irowo Quarters in Akure Central Local Government, and because I had thought, at the time, that his choice, as Deputy Governor, was a right pick. Omolade was a qualified Accountant by profession and for some reason, I was optimistic, he was going to be a perfect fit for Dr. Agagu who was a Senior Lecturer before going into politics. Omolade was the first Akure civilian politician ever to be nominated for that kind of position in our history, and I thought he deserved our moral and financial support.

 

Within three years in office, however, I have painfully discovered I could not have made a worse mistake. Ondo State was earning from Federal Revenues, every month, more than the total subvention that late Governor Adekunle Ajasin had earned for his entire six years in office. Yet Ondo State under Agagu and Oluwateru was not able to pay teachers and civil servants salaries on time, and pensions due to retired teachers and civil servants as well as retired officers of the parastatals were never paid when due.

  

I knew there and then that something had to be seriously wrong. What was wrong was that our state had elected two pen robbers whose priority was self before others. Their clarion call is self first and duty last. It should have been the other way round. The two leaders were more interested in stealing the state dry than working for the benefit of the masses. Ondo State is, without any doubt, one of the richest states in Nigeria today, but if you look at the reality on the ground, you will be convinced that much of that wealth had been diverted to a few private pockets by Agagu and his gang.

  

Gone are the days when Ondo State was considered the poorest of the poor. Many candidates would kill today to be given a chance to rule Ondo State because money is no longer our problem but how to spend it wisely and how to manage it for the greater benefit of our people. 

    

The chicken is now coming home to roost. Nemesis has now caught up with Agagu at long last. If he had stolen money from the Nigerian Airways, you can multiply by 100 times the amount he has already stolen as Executive Governor. And yet Emperor Obasanjo wants him re-elected to a second term while some of the best of all the candidates in Ondo State, like Mimiko,  Architect Olu Agbesua and Dr, Bada and my good friend Solomon Oladunni, are being sidelined or written off as no good by a naked Emperor.

    

It is simply unbelievable that President Obasanjo, in an effort to impose Agagu on Ondo state by all means, would publicly blackmail  and announce that Minister Mimiko was  corrupt and that the EFCC would soon be coming after him. It was the most foolish statement ever to be made by a president who prides himself in fighting Corruption in our country. If the President could utter such a silly statement on Mimiko, you can be sure he would say worse things about his Vice President who has so far shown he is not a pushover to Obasanjo in strategic terms.

  

As a matter of fact, I would rate Atiku smarter and more organized and more polished than his boss. For your information, Atiku has beaten the President in the Law Court on every count. Call Atiku by any name you like. I think he has been foolishly underrated by his boss. He is a fighter. Nigerians ought not to take hook, line, and sinker everything that Obasanjo is saying about him. He sure knows what he is doing, and must be given credit for that. 

  

If our country is governed by the Rule of Law, and not sentiments, there is no way that Obasanjo will be able to completely bury Atiku. I know he has damaged Atiku beyond redemption, but in doing so, the President has also opened up his terrible weaknesses as a leader and he has destroyed much of the credibility his twelve years as Head of State and General and a leading African statesman may have given him.

 

I thank God and Nigeria must thank God once again that this fumbling President did not make it to the position of Secretary-general of the United Nations in 1996 when he nearly beat Kofi Annan to the punch. He would have been a disaster. Those who are already flying a kite that he deserves a Nobel Peace prize, must think again. Obasanjo should be judged by the totality of his record and legacies in office. If this is the kind of Democracy he wants to leave behind in Nigeria. his legacies would be worse than that of General Abacha, and in the fullness of time, I guarantee you that, that record would be consigned to the garbage heap of history as one of the worse leaders to ever rule our country.

  

As for the voters of Ondo State, I think they would be crazy to let Obasanjo choose for them who their next Governor must be.. The Governor we need is a proven administrator with a track record of honesty and purposeful leadership who could harness Ondo State's limitless resources and put them to good use for the benefit of the great majority of our people and not for their own selfish interest. Ondo State has only seen the tip of the iceberg in the kind of damage that Agagu and his Government has done to our state. If the election would ever take place, Ondo State must not take chances and return the current occupants of their Government House at Oke Eda.

   

The opposition must get organized to ensure that their victory is not stolen away from them like Omoboriowo once tried to do to Adekunle Ajasin. They cannot afford to splinter their votes and thus give the PDP's political machine and rigging plans a chance to roll over them. They would be stupid to allow that kind of scenario to take hold in a State as intellectually-gifted as our State. I was horrified to learn that no less than nine candidates from Akure town alone are running to be Governor in Ondo State. That, to me, was the height of idiocy. If the Akure candidates cannot rally round behind one candidate, they should all step aside and rally round Mimiko whose candidacy has now been validated and uplifted by an attempt by a fumbling President to pull him down. I honestly believe that Mimiko will give Agagu a run for his money.

    

If Mimiko was good enough to be appointed a Federal Minster by Obasanjo, he is surely good enough to be our next Governor by acclamation.. Let us put Obasanjo to shame on this just like Shagari was put to shame in 1983. We have done it before, and can do it again. Long live Mimiko and long live Ondo State. On to victory in 2007.

Dr. Wunmi Akintide