Governor Makinde’s Rearrangements And Olanrewaju’s January 1st Amusement || Sola Abegunde
One of the perceived high points of Governor Seyi Makinde’s last and only Media Chat for the year ended 2024 was a statement made by the Governor regarding the Education sector in Oyo state.
The headline, ” We Will Rearrange Resources To Reposition Education In Oyo State” trended seriously.
I must admit that I have been struggling without success to understand what the Governor meant by that particular statement and the positives those who chose to make News out of it saw in that rather confusing statement.
The Education sector in Oyo state is in shambles and I’m happy that Governor Seyi Makinde was humble enough to admit that much, even though, he tried to make it look like Tertiary Education in Oyo state is faring well under his Administration.
I do not know how someone would claim that a Building which is sitting on a faulty foundation is praiseworthy.
Before I go into the main issues, there was an incident in the course of the Governor’s Media Chat which served as an eye opener.
I was shocked to see that Governor Makinde could allow bitterness to becloud his judgement to the extent that he would make vague and unsubstantiated accusations against someone he claimed was always abusing him all around.
I am sure the person concerned, Alhaji Kunle Sanni must have been critical of some of the Governor’s policies.
I was terribly embarrassed to see Governor Seyi Makinde fighting with words and gasping for breath while trying to eat his words regarding the accusations that Kunle Sanni got some contracts which he failed to deliver on.
Sadly and unfortunately for the Governor, he was corrected via a message from the SUBEB Chairman that the gentleman had indeed done the job.
There are two things deductable from that unfortunate incident.
One, it exposed the Governor as someone who is not in tune with the state of things within his Government.
I am surprised that prior to the Media Chat, Governor Makinde did not take briefings from Heads of Parastatals and Agencies in his Government.
Only God knows how much of guesses he made on the day regarding important Government Policies.
Secondly, the Governor obviously fell for pettiness because, it was obvious he made the statements just to rubbish the personality concerned and make him look bad in the eyes of the public just because the Governor said the affected individual used to abuse him.
Edmund Obilo asked him what he did to ensure that Kunle Sanni was punished for failing to deliver on the contract and it was there and then that the Governor started telling stories about how Buhari got distracted when he decided to be chasing those who were alleged to be fraudulent in Jonathan’s Government.
The question is, since you decided to overlook it, why bring it up at all?
I do not know that Governor Makinde has since decided to look away from those he himself and others have raised allegations of fraud and embezzlement of public funds against.
No wonder we no longer hear about those he alleged to have embezzled the funds meant for the rehabilitation of the Eleyele-Ido-Eruwa Road.
The money involved is not chicken change and Governor Makinde threatened fire and brimstones in 2019.
” I will collect every last Kobo of Oyo state money from them” were his exact words.
I think Governor Makinde has to tell the public if indeed he has overlooked this alleged embezzled funds because the money allegedly embezzled are public funds and not his private funds.
Unfortunately, since he became Governor in 2019 till today, the Road in question has been neglected by him.
It is also not a surprise that Governor Seyi Makinde has refused to tell us exactly what went wrong with the Contract for the Light Up Oyo which he himself declared to have failed within a year it was delivered.
That the Governor declared a Contract that gulped billions of Naira failed within a year is an indictment enough.
What is more damaging is the fact that the Governor has refused to tell the public the outcome of the investigation he ordered to unravel the circumstances that led to the failure of the project.
I am surprised that those who celebrated Governor Makinde’s Media Chat also saw the promise by the Governor that the Project will ” work fully soon” as worthy of celebrating while overlooking the failure of the Governor to come clean about why a project that gulped 28 billion Naira, initial sum, should fail within a year of its delivery and why the Governor would refuse to tell the public the outcome of his promised investigation about the project.
When I read the story that Governor Makinde said Light Up Oyo would work soon, I asked myself, at what further costs?
I think Governor Makinde also needs to tell the public if he had also decided to move on, forgetting about the investigation so as to avoid ” distractions”.
I am sure that he had also decided to avoid getting distracted by investigating further into the allegations against his friend or what should I call him, he claims to be a stakeholder in Governor Makinde’s Government, whatever that means.
His name is Oriyomi Hazmat. The one who was allegedly awarded a contract for the procurement of exercise books at the cost of #2,100 per exercise book.
It is very good for Governor Makinde and his Government to try as much as possible to avoid distractions but what about transparency?
Can there be good governance without transparency?
I will now go back to the issue of Education.
I read the piece by Governor Seyi Makinde’s Chief Press Secretary this morning.
He was talking about the Governor’s recruitment drive and how he thinks it is taking Oyo state out of the woods.
I have said it several times that a good Education sector requires more than recruitment of Teachers and I am vindicated by the fact that despite Governor Makinde’s recruitments of Teachers, Oyo state has not improved in performance, rather, we have been retrogressing.
That is not by mistake.
What Oyo state requires now is a perfect Education policy that is dedicated to taking care of the lack of infrastructures in our public schools, a system that brings together all stakeholders to be directly involved in promoting quality Education and a perfect system carefully designed to take care of the smooth running of the public schools in terms of funding and Administration.
Governor Makinde is merely concerned about numbers without working on the quality.
The number of Teachers employed, the number of out of school children and the likes.
That will not guarantee quality Education.
That is why Governor Makinde and his Aides will never take their children to those schools they are employing Teachers to run.
Like I said, I do not know what Governor Makinde means by saying he is rearranging resources to reposition education in Oyo state.
For me, the Governor himself needs to rearrange himself moving forward.
If his policy is now to overlook every allegations of fraud within his Government, he should let us know and we will take him as one who is running a Government that is lacking in transparency.
That certainly will not be good governance.
He also needs to rearrange himself when next he is having to face the public to talk about issues.
What he did with Kunle Sanni is shameful and does portray both himself and his Government in bad light.
If he is not familiar with developments in a Government Agency like SUBEB, how could he possibly convince anyone of his genuine intentions in the Education sector?
He was merely concerned about his beef with a particular individual and even at that, he was not in tune.
I am surprised that Dr. Olanrewaju did not talk about the series of allegations of Land grabbing and forceful takeover of people’s Land by Governor Makinde in his January 1st article.
Or, that is not part of the Governor’s method of thinking outside the box to take the state out of the woods?
Dr. Olanrewaju would have done very well by documenting all the public spaces the Governor has taken over and handed over to all manner of Developers and tell us how that is helping to take Oyo state out of the woods.
I am also surprised that he didn’t talk about his Principal’s position about the Agbowo shopping complex.
Isn’t that also not thinking outside the box?
Only God knows the number of appointments Governor Makinde has approved per Local Government as we speak.
Just this yesterday, he approved another set of Supervisors and Advisers to join the already existing jamboree across the 33 Local Governments.
Sadly, the Local Government Chairmen have been docile as usual except for the fact that the Governor has approved meaningless foreign trips for some of the Council Chairmen, their Vice, Secretaries, Councilors and Supervisors, sponsored with public funds.
That certainly is another way by which the Governor has been thinking outside the box!
It’s been a while since Dr. Olanrewaju amused me.
He did provide me with some amusement on January 1st.
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