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.
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?
Reminiscence..
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…?
I read the post above five times in quick succession and then felt guilty as a journalist and the reasons are not too far to seek. As I had then claimed, first, we always like to win awards with stories and comments on national, federal and international issues. We always curiously avoid ‘federation issues’, solution journalism with subnational governments.
To the brass tacks, the post on the 2019 road debacle in Ondo state and the lamentation notes this week are actually a metaphor to tell the gory tale in today’s Western Nigeria, we now call South West for the purpose of power and revenue sharing. All journalists from the organic Western region have similar lines to write about the six states in the underreported region.
So, it is another time to ask some vital questions about Western Nigeria, once a pacesetter region. But our representatives and leaders should note and answer the questions: Where are the measurable and significant dividends of democracy since 1999? Where are the gains of head start and robust investment in education in Western region? What happened to spirit of the legendary Obafemi Awolowo on education quality as a weapon of country and global competitiveness? What happened to the Africa’s premier stadium in Ibadan?
What happened to the once great state universities governors Adekunle Ajasin, Lateef Jakande and Olabisi Onabanjo set up in 1983 before the fall of Second Republic? Where is the replacement for the Great University of Ife the soldiers of fortune seized since 1975? What happened to the original Oyo State University of Technology (1990) now Ladoke Akintola University of Science and Technology (LAUTEC) set up by Governor Sasaenia Adedeji Oresanya in 1990? Where are the offspring and disciples of the great orators and oracles of the Second Republic’s State and National Assemblies? Where are the replica of Senators Adesanya and Odebiyi? Where are the replacements of the Western Nigeria Television Service (WNTS) Chief Awolowo set up and was seized by the military which is now NTA?
What has become of the Great University of Ife established as global research centres mainly for Agriculture and Tropical Health Sciences? Whatever happened to University College Hospital, (UCH) the late Dr. Samuel Manuwa, one of Nigeria’s first Medical Doctors assisted in establishing when S.L Akintola was Nigeria’s Health Minister?
What happened to the roads to Apapa Ports In Lagos Chief Bode George former Governor of Ondo State and a retired Navy ‘General’ once presided over? What happened to the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) great document launched in Lagos with funfair in March 2012? What happened to the assets of the Oduduwa Group of Companies?
It is time to ask all our leaders who have been presiding over our public affairs from Lagos, Ibadan, Oshogbo, Abeokuta through Ado-Ekiti to Akure since 1999, for instance, the values they have created at home and the benefits they have attracted from the nation’s capital, Abuja? We need to speak truth to power now! We need to reconstruct the questions of where the rains began to beat us in Yoruba land. We should leave Abuja alone, in this regard.
Is it not extremely shameful that a democracy that began with a former head of state as returning president (of Yoruba extraction) in 1999 was not able to reconstruct Lagos-Ibadan Expressway? Was Bode George (who hails from Lagos) a former military governor of Ondo state not a Chairman of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)? Why didn’t he construct a modern road network to the ports? Was Adeseye Ogunlewe who hails from Lagos not a Works Minister under Obasanjo? Who sabotaged Bi-Courtney’s strategic contract to construct the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in a classy way under a PPP deal? Governors of Yoruba states did! Who owns Bi-Courtney? The name of the major investor there is Wale Babalakin, (PhD), a citizen of Osun State.
Do we need any power of attorney to ask why almost 25 uninterrupted years of democracy in Nigeria has not produced good link roads in the Western region? Is there any good road from Lagos state to Ogun state? Is there any good road that links Ogun state to Oyo state? Is there any road we can be proud of between Oyo state and Osun state (carved out of Oyo)? What of Ekiti state taken out of Ondo State?
Is there any good road linking Akure to Ado-Ekiti? In other words, do the state capitals in Western Nigeria have good link roads? Didn’t they wait for the federal government to complete a rail line from Lagos to Ibadan? What of the legendary centre of excellence, Lagos? Are roads in Lagos infrastructure to be proud of? Does Lagos have good roads beyond paved federal roads? Does Lagos maintain its inner city roads? Are the mega potholes everywhere in Lagos not a mega embarrassment to the authorities and the residents? Is Lagos a city the Yoruba people should be proud of? Let’s continue to hold Yoruba leaders to account. They are supposed to be federalism brand ambassadors, not federalism noisemakers!
- Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sundays. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.