The Emperor has been touched where it pains once again. The ” Abobakus” and ” those who thrives on eye services” have lost the appetite for a peaceful sleep.
For those who consistently rely on eye services to cash out from the Emperor, this is show time.
I enjoy it so much when both the official and unofficial”akedes” of Governor Seyi Makinde begin to show signs of desperation, frustrations and anger each time you have the back of the Governor to the walls. Gotcha!
Interestingly and sadly so but fortunately for me,these funny individuals have refused to take note that in the frenzy and commotions, they always ended up exposing the Governor the more.
One of them for example, out of ignorance, did a story where he gave out extremely damning facts about the Governor regarding the Light Up Oyo project.
I must admit here that the information he ignorantly exposed in his piece were not at my disposal at the time.
Governor Seyi Makinde is another veritable source of inspiration.
With due respect to the Governor of Oyo state, he is a man who loves to see himself as a man of words.
Unfortunately, in his shoes, I will talk less.
Let me give two or three instances in recent times.
Governor Makinde went to Saki for the burial of the late former Secretary to the Government of Oyo state under the late Lam Adesina, Chief Michael Adeniyi Koleosho.
Guess what the Governor did? He chose the privilege of the Pulpit given to him to speak as the Governor of the state to pour out his anger against the people of Saki who he accused of rejecting his preferred candidate during a rerun election some months ago.
To cap the indescretions, Governor Makinde declared there on the Pulpit that he deliberately stopped the rehabilitation of the Road from Saki to Igboho, I think to serve as punishment!
Isn’t that hilariously sad? (Oro buruku toun teerin, Yorubas will call it).
In fact, Governor Makinde went as much as to accuse the good people of Saki for basing their decision to exercise a civic right guaranteed them by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on perceived Religious considerations.
Sadly, if you point out the shortcomings and indescretions of the Governor about this highly condemnable and reckless action of the Governor, his lickspittles will get unnecessarily agitated and begin to call you names.
In another instance and in an attempt to show off and look good to the public, Governor Makinde charged Media practitioners to hold elected officials accountable for the benefits of the public.
Oh! How that looks and sounds good.
Interestingly, Governor Seyi Makinde hates criticisms.
In fact, he abhors it and you will see it from the manner his official and unofficial mouthpieces came at critics of the Governor with blackmail and name calling.
Yours truly have been referred to as ” Beelzebub” , ” Masqurade” and all sorts of names by Governor Makinde’s CPS. That is after I had punctured their narratives that tend to claim that there is no one who goes by the name Sola Abegunde.
The unofficial ones are the most pathetic.
They abound on different WhatsApp platforms.
One common feature of the two camps is that they are extremely poor in substance and very good at trivialities.
They will always abandon the substance of the issues in discussion and come at you with distraction.
It is either they say you were paid to criticize the Governor, or you are a member of the APC or that you’ve never seen anything good in the Governor.
Governor Makinde has a good number of Media Aides.
What is their job? Is it not to tell the public about the good in his Government? How is that my job?
Governor Makinde has bound himself with his public declaration and calls to the Media practitioners to keep holding elected officials accountable.
I am merely following his very brilliant advice.
I don’t know why these wailers who jump up to defend him at every given opportunity failed to realize that the Governor just cleared the coast. Whether he truly believes in the statement or not doesn’t matter.
I have decided these days to ensure that I take care of potential wailers in my articles.
By so doing, anyone who, by choice, elect to still wail will have enough wailing time, enough to fill a bucket.
Having said that. I will say that I pity Governor Makinde.
Any time the Governor feels the heat about a fundamental issue raised against his Government, I have noticed that he, perhaps on the recommendation of his Media Aides quickly make arrangements for some lazy and incompetent bloggers who are always not bold enough to use their names to take over the online Media to spread fake information and propaganda.
My question is, has it ever worked? It hasn’t and it won’t.
The futile attempts by Alex Adetunji or whatever he is called is another wasteful exercise as future attempts would also be.
The Governor has a simple antidote for all this needles prolonged controversies.
Make available necessary documents to reflect that what I have been saying are not correct. ( Lo ba tan).
Your Excellency, the documents are at your disposal. It is your strongest and only defence.
How much have you collected on behalf of the 33 Local Governments since 2919?
How much was left in the JAAC by the Government of Ajimobi?
You placed embargo on the accounts of the Local Governments for a period covering about eight months immediately you became Governor, what happened to the funds thereafter?
Are the 33 Local Governments in Oyo state owing any Bank or Banks? If so, how much? What occassioned the decision to borrow and for what purposes were the Loans taken?
You have yourself admitted that you have been spending the monthly Allocations meant for the 33 Local Governments to rehabilitate some Roads in a few Local Governments in Ibadan.
What is the rationale behind this illegal expenditures?
Show us the details of the ” partnership” you entered into with the Local Government Chairmen in Oyo state before embarking on the rehabilitation of the said Roads.
What is the contract sum? Who is the contractor?
How was approval to spend the money gotten? Who approved? Your good self or the Local Government Chairmen in conjunction with the Career Officers?
What roles were played by the Career Officers of the 33 Local Governments? Who will be held accountable for the expenditures since you have usurped the roles of ” accounting officers” for the 33 Local Governments?
These are simple questions and issues that presentation of documents will resolve.
After all, the said documents are public property. Aren’t they?
Now, to the issue for discussion.
When I read about the weak defence of Governor Makinde’s SA on Print Media, Alao and the other Sobolation, Alex to the effects that Governor Makinde has promised to move to other zones after he finishes spending the funds meant for the 33 Local Governments in Ibadan, my thoughts were what weight can I attach to the promises made by Governor Makinde?
That is apart from the legal issues involved.
I will give examples to show that Governor Makinde’s promises carry no weight.
During his first term. An organization which name I have forgotten raised serious issues about a contract for the supply of exercise books.
The said contract was given to a popular Broadcaster in Ibadan and an unrepentant ally of the Governor.
The organization, amongst other issues, raised the allegation that the contract award violated the procurement Laws of Oyo state.
It also raised an alarm about the outrageous cost of the exercise books which I think was in the region of between 2, to 3 thousand Naira per one.
There were a lot of other issues raised by the organization then.
I remember Governor Makinde promising to look into the allegations as if he wasn’t the one who signed the contract ab initio.
I equally remember him promising to resign as the Governor of Oyo state if the allegations were true.
When will the Governor stop looking at the issues raised?
Governor Makinde knows that here, we forget so soon and those he was charging to hold him responsible as an elected officials are in the bag.
In fact, many of them have been paid to be permanently blind to the faults of the Governor.
There is also the issues associated with the Light Up Oyo.
It was one of Governor Makinde’s overzealous unofficial defender, who, as they say, served into my hands.
He did a piece which he thought was to praise the Governor but inadvertently provided information which were not at my disposal at the material time.
I heard the news on the Radio then that Governor Makinde declared that the contract for the #28 billion Light Up Oyo had failed.
Sadly, I just listened to the information on the news without showing interest.
Fortunately for me, the said fellow who I think was on the usual eye service mission, provided me with every dint of materials needed just as Alex Adetunji had provided the rest of Oyo state with the material questions to ask Governor Makinde when he comes campaigning in 2027.
His lyrics of ” tiwa naa lo de e o fara moo” will come handy.
Back to the Light Up Oyo. Governor Makinde invested a whooping #28 billion of Oyo state funds on the project. Some have said it was another product of ” partnership” with the 33 Local Governments
The promise he made then was that at a given point, the source of power would move from generators to Gas and then, to the Independent Power Supply of Oyo state.
Ask, what has happened to the promises?
That is not even the biggest problem here.
Within a year of operation, Governor Makinde who awarded the said contract, declared through his then Commissioner for Information, Wasiu Olatunbosun that the contract had failed and that he would inquire into the circumstances that led to the detected failure.
When will Governor Makinde tell the public the results of his investigations about the Light Up Oyo?
Governor Makinde, by training, is an Engineer.
It is a very big indictment to him that in about a year, he would have issues with specifications about the said contract that has been delivered and certified.
Does that mean that at every stages of the contract, no one on the side of Government was monitoring and evaluating?
Now, #28 billion is gone down the drain. As at today, what is the value of Light Up Oyo to the development of Oyo state?
These are issues the hangers on would not want us to expose and bring to light.
Imagine #28 billion being invested in our primary and secondary schools system.
Would teachers still be writing on chalk boards? Would school Principals be forced to burrow money to run secondary schools while awaiting delayed monthly running costs? Today, in Oyo state, most public secondary schools are having issues with the printing of exam questions and results sheets!
Would our children be lagging behind states like Borno and Kaduna in the WAEC index of states performance?
Anyone who is at doubts should go to our public primary and secondary schools and see the real situation of things beyond the orchestrated noise about ” free Education”.
For Governor Makinde’s wailers, these are my problems with the Government of Seyi Makinde.
Is it not worth it?
SOLA ABEGUNDE.
