Oyo no more a Pace Setter State – Olaosebikan

Erstwhile journalist turned politician, Alhaji Kehinde Olaosebikan is a leading member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Oyo State. In this interview centered on developments in Oyo State, Olaosebikan asserts that the Abiola Ajimobi administration in the State has failed in its promises and performance. Excerpts:

How would you assess the present administration in Oyo State?
It is a very difficult task. Difficult in the sense that a government is best assessed based on its vision and goals for the state. With the vision one can benchmark the governor against the set vision or match him with his colleagues to see how well, he is doing. Unfortunately, the present government in Oyo State does not have a clear cut vision. No blueprint! No agenda.

You cannot believe this, 15 months after inauguration, the governor is still engaging his predecessor. Up till now, rather than informing the world on its activities, plan and so on,  it is still talks of Akala! Akala!  That “Akala did this. Akala did not do that. We are more educated. We are older. We are more handsome. We became MD…” and all those entire unnecessary ego tripping.

Till date, the government has not even come up with anything outstanding in terms of concept not to talk of accomplishments. Imagine the hype and noise they made before the construction of their  so called “ultra modern world class motor park” on New Ife Road, commissioned as the major achievement of the administration so far. Check the motor park and compare it to the one done before it in Akure, you will be ashamed that you are from the pace setter state.

Olaosebikan

A year after the flood disaster of last year, none of the damaged bridges has been fixed. They just left the bridges virtually unattended to as if they do not mean anything to the daily activities of the  people of the areas.  Go to Apete, Ogbere, Ayegun, you will not meet more than one or two persons loitering around in the name of working on the bridges which lives of millions of Oyo State people depend on.

All what they are doing is duplicating what Governor Fashola did in his first term in office. Instead of fixing the roads and providing people with immediately needed amenities; our government is busy searching for people who did the planting of flowers for Governor Fashola in Lagos about 6 years ago.

If our governor had made time and consulted Governor Fashola, I am sure the action governor of Lagos would have advised Senator Ajimobi  to place emphasis on providing basic amenities like chalks and dusters in our almost hopeless public schools, drugs, reagents and other essentials in hospitals, water for the taps that had become dry since the last governor left, repair the bridges to link up people of Apete, Ayete, Ogbere , Oniyangi who are at  present going  through hell.

His is a case of how not to copy!  For this government, the major character or achievement one can attribute to it is in oppressive, abrasive, vindictive and heartless governance. Pouring venom, insults and outright acts of cruelty on the populace.

Do you think the performance of the administration would diminish its chances of re-election?
His pitiable performance has seriously diminished ACN’s chances of returning to government in 2015. This is known to all. The leaders of his party even up to Lagos are not happy with his abysmal performance. They are very disappointed with his meager acceptance by virtually all the sections of the state including the religious and traditional leaders and even up to his kinsmen. They are all by now expressing deep regret for putting him there.

Rather than improving on the quality of governance set since 1999, the government of the day has brought us backward, turning us to a state lacking in ingenuity. Since his first day in office, copying has become the order of the day. The government is so bereft of ideas that it is even copying very poorly, duplicating up to names.

When we told the world that the man did not have any idea, capacity or competence to generate 20,000 jobs in his first 100 days in office, as he had promised, people thought we were merely playing politics. What happened at the end of the day? Our governor was not able to generate a single job in 100 days in office.

Months after, he had to secretly creep into Osun to photocopy their youths empowerment programme. Sadly, when they brought the photocopy here, his team of “more educated people and MDs “could not get a better name. It is O YES in Osun, YES O  in Oyo. I am sure, Oyo State will soon launch its  ‘ELDERS O’ too. They have spoilt our name.

What factors do you think led to your defeat in the last round of elections- Do you believe those issues are still with you in the PDP?

We lost basically as a result of internal wrangling. A number of our leaders felt that they were not carried along sufficiently and this made them to leave the party and worked for the Action Congress of Nigeria, particularly.

Incidentally, these leaders who felt they were not treated well in PDP met a worse form of leadership in ACN. When one had expected that they would at least stayed a while with the government they helped to form, they beat a retreat to PDP in just weeks when they got to know the draconian nature of the man they put in government.

Let me say this too. You know the governor is seriously scared of conducting local government elections. He knows that the PDP people that helped him win and even real political leaders in their party are now totally against him and will not support his candidates if local government elections are held now.  If he likes, he can shift it till 2014, any time it is held , ACN will be disgraced.

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