SouthWest Politicians’ Lip Service To Development, by Martins Oloja

I was in Akure this week for a significant colloquium on the power of local government elections in a democracy that should ordinarily trigger development agenda. Specifically, the Chairman of the Ondo State’s Independent Electoral Commission, (ODIEC) Joseph Aremo, PhD, associate professor of Law, invited me to speak on ‘Voter Education, Civic Competence and Role of Stakeholders’ in the Local Government Election, which comes up early next year. The (two-day) sensitisation workshop for political parties and key election stakeholders under the theme: ‘Election Stakeholders, Grassroots Democracy and Good Governance’ afforded us an opportunity to speak some truths to powers. The participants included some scholars in the state. The discussions points were quite unusually pungent and useful from immediate reactions of most of the critical stakeholders including political party leaders, civil society organisations’ activists, political leaders, media practitioners, professionals, local government top officials, top public officers in the state, etc.

I was supposed to share some of the useful talking points and matters arising from the frank talks and revelations from the colloquium on the strategic importance and correlation between sanctity of local elections and development in a federation. Behold, there have arisen weightier matters of political leadership and governance in Western Nigeria, which have taken the steam out commentaries on the colloquium.

I believe that the matters (arising) should be given priority over the points at issue at the seminar, which can be shared later. Here is the thing, I travelled by road from Lagos through Shagamu-Ore axis to Akure and what I saw on the road has provoked these road notes and commentary on the wasters and prominent but insignificant political leaders that have been representing Western Nigeria’s six states in their capitals and Abuja. I have to revisit my 2019 commentary titled: Yoruba: time to speak truth to power (1-4), which serial began on June 16, 2019.

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I think at this unusual time, silence shouldn’t be golden anymore. I don’t know anyone that has travelled by road through the Lagos-Shagamu-Benin axis in the last few months, not just this year. And here is the thing, the Shagamu Inter-change to Ijebu-Ode up to Ajebandele in Ondo state has become a death-trap. I also passed through the road to hell from Ore to Ondo and from Ondo to Akure. It is incredible how motorists daily navigate the deathtraps. On the rocky roads from Lagos to Akure, I reflected on what the iconic Fela really saw in those days when grace propelled him to talk about “suffering and smiling” in one of his classics. I recalled on the road between Shagamu Inter-change and Ijebu-Ode that the axis produced the immediate past Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who was in office for eight years (2015-2023). As I got trapped on the road to Ijebu Ode I saw a signpost of one of the best private universities in Nigeria, Babcock. I saw so many trailers and oil tankers drivers agonising on the craters and some had fallen while trying to escape big potholes that may have driven away many local and foreign direct investors that our dealers called leaders keep inviting every day. I had earlier passed that same axis barely four months ago, when I recalled that it was on the same road that the first Transportation Minister in the Umaru Yar-Ardua’s administration 2007-2010) Diezani Allison Madueke shed crocodile tears in Ore when she saw the effects of the bad road on businesses and health of the people. Sadly, 17 years after the great political tears by the wailer, Diezani, commuters and all users of one of the most important arteries and routes in Nigeria are still weeping for attention to the road.

I experienced the reproach of the same Lagos-Ore axis of the road this week. It is unacceptable as our southwest leaders continue to fly over this tragedy of the commons – 17 years after Diezani wept on and over the same infrastructure blight. How many Ministers of Works of southern and even western extractions have been appointed even before the overrated Babatunde Fashola who was there from 2015-2023?

Yes, on June 16, 2019, I was prepared to write on one of those ‘national topics’ as we often do when I received a post on “whether Ondo State is jinxed”. The terse message was forwarded by one of my big brothers, in the media, Uncle Eric Teniola, who hails from Ondo state too. The thought-provoking brief triggered the four serialised articles on the state of the Yoruba nation I referred to earlier. As I was saying, even before the 2019 serial, since the Westerners have always been in the forefront of advocacy for restoration of federalism we lost to the ‘soldiers of fortune’ in 1966, we should organise to conquer ourselves first, remove the logs in our eyes first before looking at others’. First the alleged jinx in Ondo state, the Sunshine State, fast losing its shine, below is the anonymous post in 2019:
Are we jinxed in Ondo State?
‘All roads to the State capital from Abuja are no longer motorable (1)Ipele/Kabba (2)Owo/Ikare (3)Akure/Ado Ekiti/Ikare (4)Akure/Igbaraoke/Ilawe/Ado Ekiti ..all are so bad that all vehicles hitherto passing through the state to Abuja and the north from Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos and some ECOWAS countries now have to go extra 200 or more kilometres through Benin city or through bush paths to access Lokoja. The bad roads have further exposed travellers to migrant armed robbers and kidnappers thereby giving the state a bad image. An assessment of power outage makes the state the worst hit in Nigeria today. All towns and villages in the South and the North except Owo/Ikare/Akungba have been in darkness between 3 and 6 years… Akure and Ado Ekiti are the only state capitals in southern Nigeria not accessed by Federal dual carriage roads. Where is the Federal government’s presence outside the usual (2) Federal University and Federal Medical Centre? The Akure-Ado Ekiti road is a disgrace… It is a reflection of the self-centered politics played in the two States. A strongly worded joint memo to the Federal Government by the six senators with the two governors could have brought the road to the front burner… Who says we are not jinxed…?

[INSIDE STUFF COLUMN CULLED FROM THE GUARDIAN]