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For many Nigerians who are not very familiar with the politics and recent happenings in Oyo State, it is very easy to regard the defeat of the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) in the recent senatorial and governorship elections in the state as a no-confidence vote on the eight-year administration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi. The governor had lost his bid for the Oyo South senatorial seat to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while the PDP governorship candidate, Seyi Makinde, also beat the APC candidate to win the key to the Oyo Government House.
However, contrary to the opinion that the losses of the APC in the polls are a result of Ajimobi’s supposed poor performance in office, my recent interactions with some natives of the ancient capital city, Ibadan, surprisingly threw up widespread acknowledgements of the remarkable impact of his administration on the infrastructural and social development of the state.
The factors that caused the governor and the APC the painful losses in the polls are all too clear. They, largely, have to do with the politicization of three issues. First, is the governor’s insistence on fidelity to the Ibadan master plan, which led to the demolition of parts of eight buildings, especially the one owned by the popular but physically challenged musician, Yinka Ayefele, with its attendant uproar and backlash. The governor’s long running altercation with the Olubadan of Ibadan over his insistence on the installation of lower obas, and his failure to resolve the crisis at the Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho, are other issues that the governor tackled on the basis of principles in which he apparently strongly believed, but which, unfortunately, drew the anger of the electorate.
Beyond these issues, however, is the fact that his tenure, which will be rounded off next month, witnessed an unarguable transformation of the state from one mainly noted for civil unrest, lawlessness and brigandage occasioned by warring transport union warlords to one of the most peaceful states in the country. Many of the natives, while loathing the governor’s unbending and oftentimes loquacious defence of his stance on all issues, are quick to appreciate his success in restoring peace to the state through a series of initiatives such as the establishment of a security outfit named Operation Burst, the Oyo State Security Trust Fund and the Oyo State Inter-Religious/Inter-Ethnic Committee, which meets regularly to resolve potentially volatile issues in the state.
Other initiatives include the purchase of patrol/security communication equipment and installation of CCTV cameras in certain areas of the state capital. The result is that the state, in the last few years, has been free of the mayhem and violence that was once its hallmark, while efforts are on to expand aspects of the Safe City initiatives to other parts of the state.
The governor’s three-pronged agenda of Restoration, Transformation and Repositioning is also reflected in the giant strides in the transportation sector where the government provided 90 units of 63-seater buses at subsidized rates with the result that the state has one of the lowest transportation fare rates in the country, at N50 even for the longest distances in the buses. Some 100 units of 18-seater buses were also facilitated by the Industrial Development Bank. Knowledgeable Oyo citizens are also able to point to the increase in the states Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from about N800 million per month to about N2 billion. Many tractors were also procured for farmers, while hospitals were equipped, leading to a reduction in HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality.
Driving through Ibadan recently, it was easy for me to see how clean and organised the streets are. Some major roads in the city that had hitherto been taken over by street traders and garbage are now clean and free of filth and traders. Flooding used to be a serious problem in Ibadan with the perennial flooding of the Ogunpa River which, a few years ago, claimed several lives. It appears that this is now part of history as such massive loss of lives to flooding has become a thing of the past in the state. This was said to have been achieved through a World Bank Intervention project facilitated by the state government.
The administration also reportedly instituted Schools Governing Boards comprising parents, old students associations, principals etc to the effect that the performance of Oyo State SSCE students improved drastically from being among the worst to among the top ten in the country. Also, the state’s students recently posted the best result the state has recorded in the last 18 years with the best Male and Female WAEC candidates also emerging from the state in 2017. Other impressive achievements of the state in the last few years include the construction of at least four housing estates, establishment of Government Reservation Areas (GRA) and the construction of three Model Schools and many blocks of classrooms in many schools.
With all these achievements that very few states in the country can boast of, and the testimonies of many of the state’s residents, it is clear that the grouse of the people is not with the performance of the governor but what they perceive to be his inability to compromise his stance on whatever he believes to be in the best interest of the state. Also, his penchant for speaking his mind at all times, no matter whose ox is gored.
It would appear that the governor’s habit of baring his mind on all issues and sticking to his guns without minding the consequences drew the ire of his constituents. His defences of his positions are, however, plausible. He has reportedly said that his decision to establish the Oyo State Technical University is to bridge the skills gap in products of graduates of many existing universities. He claims not to have been able to achieve this in the jointly owned LAUTECH where his appeal to students to respect constituted authority, even if they would not respect him as a father figure, earned him the sobriquet, “Constituted Authority”, for which he was much vilified by the people.
On the Olubadan debacle, he has described the revered monarch as a close friend and father figure with whom he relates very well even till today, even though his decision to bow to the demands of many interests in the town to install younger, lower grade obas to assist the ageing Olubadan in his duties, was politicized and twisted to make it look like a personal confrontation or a disregard of the great king by some people in the state. He has also explained that the demolition of a part of Ayefele’s Music House was not a personal vendetta but because the structure was built on a setback like seven other structures in Ibadan, such as portions of the Globacom regional office, and even his own father-in-law’s house, which also suffered the same fate as Ayefele’s structure. He, however, ensured the rebuilding and slight relocation of the part of Ayefele’s structure that was demolished.
With the good news now coming out of Ibadan on Ajimobi’s legacies, one impression that I have come away with is that he is a reformer in office and exactly the kind of leader needed to achieve the transformation of any society. He is a leader that is not afraid to challenge the status quo and has no regrets for his actions. The future of the country, indeed, belongs to those few leaders like him who can identify the ills of the country and go all out to redress them, without counting the personal cost.
