Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
“No government does nothing and no government does everything.” This quote lends credence to the fact that government is a continuum.
But in Oyo State, Governor Seyi Makinde and his immediate past predecessor, Abiola Ajimobi, are trading tackles over some projects awarded by Ajimobi but could not complete. Makinde had said he would not probe Ajimobi, but would focus on “serious business of governance.”
But the game has changed. Makinde is set to probe Ajimobi. The only clue that Makinde gave before the inauguration of his administration on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, was that he would review the appointments and contracts awarded by Ajimobi between March 9, 2019, when he won and May 29, when he took over the reins of government.
But what could have made Makinde to change his mind to probe Ajimobi? Is Makinde ever a promise keeper? What are the projects Ajimobi and could not complete? These are some of the questions agitating the minds of the people.
The state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Kunmi Mustapha, enjoined the governor to meticulously look into the road projects awarded by Ajimobi and review them. Mustapha from Iseyin in Oke-Ogun political division of the state, specifically asked Makinde to probe Ajimobi on the execution of Ibadan-Iseyin Road awarded at about N7billion.
Ajimobi’s administration in February 2018 approved the rehabilitation of the 65-kilometre Moniya-Ojutaye-Iseyin Road for N6,952,565,074.97. It was to be completed within 18 months. Mustapha described the road as important connecting the 10 agrarian local government areas of Oke-Ogun to Ibadan, the state capital.
Ajimobi’s deputy, Otunba Moses Adeyemo, and the incumbent deputy governor, Alhaji Rauf Olaniyan, also hail from Oke-Ogun. Former deputy chief whip of the Senate and Chairman, Oyo State Governor’s Advisory Council, Hosea Agboola; a frontline politician, Chief Michael Koleosho; former Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Dibu Ojerinde and scores of prominent people hail from Oke-Ogun.
Mustapha said: “Governor Seyi Makinde, in his inauguration address, said, though he does not like to step on anybody’s toes, if condition warrants stepping on some people’s toes, he will. So, the Ibadan-Iseyin Road project awarded by the past administration must be looked into.
“If you pass through that place, you will see how they have wasted our money. Even, the little they have spent on it is a waste because anybody that is going to take over that project will have to start all over again. You can imagine how much has been lost.
“When you know this is a project that will last, and you don’t provide money, what do you expect? When your administration is winding up, you don’t award a big project like the Ibadan-Iseyin Road. It should be noted that the project had stopped before the last administration left office.
“The governor should probe the road project. It is being said that N1.2billion was released to the contractor. This is why the project should be probed. It is one of the projects we are going to probe. All the uncompleted projects will be reviewed and viable ones, we shall complete.”
The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mr Taiwo Adisa, to shed more light on why his principal changed his mind: “Those who know Governor Makinde very well know that he’s a promise keeper. When he promises, it could take time to fulfil the words, but once he gives his words, he will not deviate from it. So, he meant it when he said he would not probe, or he would draw a line, as to what has happened before. He meant it.
“But he is like a researcher. When a researcher goes into the field, he will draw hypothetical questions that this is going to be like this and that is going to be like that. He will want to keep an open mind and that is the essence of a researcher or an investigator. You can’t keep you mind close and you want to investigate something, or you want to break new grounds.
“He really wants to break new grounds. The state, as he said, is practically insolvent. But he has told the people that they should not be afraid. He will get the state out of the problem. He wants to get the state working again. So, he will not close his mind because he is like a researcher, who is going to the field. When he gets to the field, it is the situation on the field that will tell you what exactly should happen and what should not happen.
“If you get to the field and you see mind boggling looting, mismanagement, and terrible ways by which previous leaders have undercut the people of the state. You cannot be scratching them on the back just because you said you would not probe. You will want to ask questions, and those are the questions he is asking.
“Really, the questions he is asking, I don’t think anybody would say they are out of the way. Somebody has given N2billion to a trading company (name withheld) to do Moniya-Iseyin Road, valued at N7billion. The contractor did some scratching of the road and disappeared. The governor went on that road to see for himself what has really transpired, and to see if he could locate a site office of that company. We didn’t see any site office. But we saw a dilapidated and abandoned road.
“The people of that axis came out by the time the governor was coming back, and practically blocked the way to make sure that the governor spoke to them. They thanked the governor and also prayed for him that he should get money to fix the road.
“If you got N2billion of your money tied down to one company that you cannot see, are you going to close your eyes and say because I promised yesterday that I would not ask questions? That would not happen.
“The governor is an engineer, we asked him, is the N2billion not justifiable that the company collected the money and has done the work? He said what he saw with his engineering knowledge is that the work done is not more than N150million. Then, what happened to N1.850billion that is in his or her kitty?
“Many things are being unearthed and some of them are mind boggling. If you love this state, there is no how you will not ask questions. There is no malice there. The simple thing is just that the governor needs to get to the roots of certain missteps taken before.
“If you have N2billion with one company, that is practically not seen, and you have some other N60billion in the coffers of some other characters that you don’t know what they did with it, are you going to say because you want to draw the line on previous issues, you will not ask them questions?
“Some of the money that found their ways into the private pockets are money that could be used for the development of the state, particularly at this time when the state finances are not too strong. There is no way he would close his eyes to some of those things.
“Coming to the issue of anti-corruption agency, it is not about witch-hunt, it is not about politics, it is about governance. We have got to draw a line between politics and governance – the drama of anti-corruption and the actual fight for anti-corruption. And the actual fight for anti-corruption is what the agency that will be put in place by Oyo State Government would engage in. It will not engage in drama of anti-corruption.
“There are a lot of people that have drawn a razzmatazz about war against corruption just to make some scratches on the surface here and there, or to harass some people, and then turn it to politics. No, we are not going to do that in Oyo State. The anti-corruption agency will be an independent body. That is why it is going through the House of Assembly for them to give teeth to what it should be doing, and what it will do, and the powers that will contain therein.
“It will not conflict with the Federal Government’s anti-corruption drive. It will rather entrench it because when you steal government money here, the apparatus of anti-corruption war will be closer to you, than waiting for somebody to get petition in Abuja and before he can act. And when he acts, he takes you to Abuja for interrogation, takes you to Lagos for interrogation and before you know it, all the back and forth, the case may be badly pursued, and at the end of the day, the person goes scot-free. That will not happen.
“The governor himself has said if he is found wanting, he would wave his immunity to appear before the agency. So, why should anybody be worried? If you are not in the league of those people who looted this state, you won’t be worried? Some of the books that are coming out are showing mind boggling looting really.”
But will Makinde complete the uncompleted projects of Ajimobi? Adisa responded: “A commitee has been set up to look into the books of the local governments. Some of the roads you talk about were done by the local governments and the LCDAs. They were the ones that did some of the palliative jobs, particularly after the elections.
“Some money was released to local governments and agencies to do some hurried jobs. Apparently, we don’t know the intention because you cannot be campaigning after the election. You just lost and election, and that is the time you realised that you should be doing all the roads that you did not do for eight years.
“That committee is backed up by a law passed in 2000. The law empowers the governor to recover funds belonging to the state, whether kept by individual or groups and wherever they may be kept. The law was put in place by the Oyo State House of Assembly. Also, all the roads either done or half done or badly done will come into focus.”
The uncompleted projects by the past administration included 10,000 metric tonnes of silos in Awe, in Oyo and the dualisation of four roads awarded at N28billion in November 2016. The government said then that the fund for the roads’ construction would be sourced from the Federal Government Road Intervention Fund.
They are Saki Township Road from Oke-Ogun Polytechnic to Ilesa-Baruba Road, 11.0km road at N8,239,875,839.47 and Idi Ape-Basorun-Akobo-Odogbo Barracks Junction, seven km, including overhead bridge across Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at N7,177,375,941.46 for 18 months duration. Others are Agodi Gate- Old Ife Road-Adegbayi Junction, 7.3km, with limited rehabilitation of spur to Alakia-Ibadan Airport, 3.3km, including an underpass bridge across Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at N8,535,343,916.16 within 18 months duration, and expansion of Oke Adu-Agodi Gate-Idi Ape-Iwo Road Interchange, 3.2km, at N3, 630,924,756.52. The projects are to be completed between 12 and 18 months. 
In an apparent response, Ajimobi said: “My admonition is that the new government succeeds. It is in our best interest that he succeeds. If he succeeds, he would have taken Oyo State higher than he met it.
“I am advising him that he should not try to be perfect. But he must build on our successes. He must build and not demolish. He must build and not destroy. We have raised the bar of governance in this state and can’t afford to see it go down again. We must not return to the days of brigandage and days of locust where chaos or disorder was the norm in Ibadan.
“Let him face the job and not look at mundane issues. There was a time I heard he said our government officials took cars away, which vehicles is he talking about among all the issues on ground in the state?
“He must know that all journeys begin with one step and end with one step. He must start now to correct wherever we were wrong. I don’t profess to be perfect but he must build on our successes.”
The state Publicity Secretary of the all Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olatunde, reacted: “If Seyi Makinde’s underwhelming attitude is laughable, his party, PDP, is better kept in the realm of fearful dreams of imagination. However, the slipshod or slippery words of Makinde is also traceable to the gargantuan achievements of his predecessor, Ajimobi.
“On the allegation of APC government plunging Oyo State to N150billion debt, which, Makinde embellished to sensationalise its public presentation as ‘technical bankruptcy,’ here is the Debt Management Office official position of top 10 indebted states: Lagos – N530billion, Delta – N228 billion, Rivers – N225 billion, Akwa Ibom – N198 billion, Cross River-N167 billion, FCT – N167 billion, Osun – N148 billion, Bayelsa-N130 billion, Ekiti – N118 billion, Kano-N117 billion.
“While we are not disputing that Oyo State is indebted to state pensioners and also took Paris Club bail-out palliative to augment Federal Allocation shortfall between 2014 and 2017, which set the state to owe civil servants which at some point got to six months. In fact, the debt is a pile-up from former governors Rashidi Ladoja (2003-2007) and Adebayo Alao-Akala (2007-2011) era.
“Meanwhile, Makinde has also taken last tranche of N9billion Paris Club Loan in June 2019, just a month of being sworn-in, yet without the workers of the state in arrears of salary. We are surprised that Makinde still took the loan to add to his ‘technically bankrupt’ headache.
“Furthermore, it is ironic to learn that, the governor that declared his state ‘technically bankrupt’ is sending the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) board packing with the promise to monetise their remaining two years tenure.
“The questions concerned patriots are asking is, why is the governor desperate to bring another set of people to OYSIEC? Why is Makinde finding it difficult to work with the OYSIEC board, after all, President Muhammadu Buhari met the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, who has ever been returned for the second term?
“The state anti-corruption agency of Makinde is the fall-out of the advice of his co-PDP governors in Rivers State and former Ekiti governor, Ayodele Fayose. Makinde has already let the ‘cat out of the bag’ of his intention to set up the Oyo State Anti-corruption Agency.
“When he addressed the state High Court judges on July 4, 2019, he stated as quoted; ‘I am saying before you that, don’t listen to us if we send anybody to you that we want you to help us persecute this individual.’ But we know that somebody who promised to pay N30,000 minimum wage if signed to law by the Federal Government, but later reneged, who stated on inauguration day not to probe his predecessor, will renege on what he told the judges publicly and result to persecute his predecessor.
“Let Makinde know that Ajimobi has etched his name on the sand of time for posterity to appreciate. If Makinde feels persecuting Ajimobi will profit him, let him go ahead, we are ready for him. We can surely tell Makinde’s witch-hunting and shadow chasing persecution adventure, will certainly achieve nothing.”