As Albert Einstein considered the imperative of change, he made the popular statement that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That statement, made decades ago by the renowned scientist, still holds true today.
As the 2015 general elections draw near, this saying should tug at the heart-strings of the people of Oyo State. It should nudge them to wake up from their individual and collective slumber, a slumber so deep that their state, once-so-greatthat it was called the Pacesetter state, is now anything but great.
Oyo, our common heritage had begun that journey to greatness until its course was altered. Altered by its people and their leaders; altered by not-well-thought-out decisions to place it in the hands of leaders with parochial tendencies and without direction. Oyo State has had its fair share of disappointments. It is either those at the helm of affairs are too clueless to recognize the people’s plight, too arrogant to understand the suffering of the common man or too selfish to render genuine service.
We have even seen many who falsely profess Awoism, pretending to be apostles of the immortal Obafemi Awolowo’s ideals.Once they win elections into office, Awo’s ideals are the last things ever found in them and they brazenly advertise a total lack of the servant-leadership spirit of the sage. Under the guidance of the most unsuitable captains of the ship, Oyo State has continued its nosedive and it is only a matter of time before it hits rock bottom. But as the saying goes, omoonilu o nifekotu (a prince cannot have pleasure in the dispersal of his father’s kingdom), we in the Oyo Renaissance Group can no longer siddon look. Afterall,‘Ajise bi oyolaari.’
As the 2015 governorship election approaches, these politicians, across different political parties, have again decided to take Oyo State people for another ride. The same set of people who had fooled the people before with sweet electioneering promises that have gone unfulfilled are angling again to get the people’s votes. Of course, to them, the people of Oyo State are always there to be deceived every election year. They come in different togas and present themselves as interested in the common progress of Oyo State but we know their fruits, and by their fruits Oyo State people must know them. The people of Oyo State are no fools and are better prepared now!
The experience of ‘Idera’under Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja was stagnation wrapped in docility, ‘Oyato’ was nothing more than brigandage and the current ‘Ajumose’ that pledged collective progressivism has become a monumental ‘Asise’, an unparalleled mistakethat sees the state being run as a family business with impunity. In the current government’s warped vision, they even celebrate payment of salaries and irregular pensions as if governors are elected to come and pay salaries. Salary is a statutory right, it is only in the land of the fools among disillusioned workers that such becomes a bargaining factor for the votes of the civil servants and the populace. But for how long more can the people continue to live with this visionlessness?
Though we do not believe in the widely-held assertion that Oyo State cannot elect someone twice as governor, the efforts of the incumbent governor and those before him, who are now seeking the support of our people, at developing the state and restoring its glory, have been discouraging and disappointing. As the words go around, Ladoja and Alao-Akala might be seeking after nothing but vendetta and vain-glory. But the arrogant, garrulous and all-knowing current governor, Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi, calls for even greater caution.
If what they understand governance to mean is to defend a wife’s interests at all costs, just bear the title of Governor, throw parties in the name of ‘oyato’, run the state as a private business, receive instructions from women-friends, marry more wives across nations, wear Ankara fabrics in a show of fake populism or,while they claim ajumose, they turn the state into a personal estate, then the people of Oyo State should declare the trio of Abiola Ajimobi, Rashidi Ladoja and Adebayo Akala unfit for any elective office in 2015. They should also ignore their cronies in whatever guise they may come.
For those who believed that Akala’s emergence as governor was accidental because he is a ‘non-Ibadan’, Oyo State is one and is beyond such divisive opinion. Justice and equity, of course, demand that all zones in the state have good personages who can and must be governor. Besides, Ibadan is a cosmopolitan city that is largely populated by so-called non-indigenes. It is not a taboo, therefore, for non-Ibadan zones to produce a governor in their own state, afterall, no one becomes the governor without the good support of all the zones in Oyo State. Oyo should be more forward-looking and realistic to put behind every primordial sentiment andthe people should search and vote for competence that can bring about a renaissance.
We in the Oyo Renaissance Group believe the right time for change is now. Oyo State needs truly visionary leaders, who will serve them and their interests and not impostors and vain rulers. Governance of Oyo state is beyond a display of riches, and it should be structured beyond emergency interventions to bait the electorate. It’s about servant leadership and sustenabilitythat will reposition the state. We must judge right and vote right by voting for true leaders with the love of the people at heart.
It will be disastrous to rely on the inept experience of governance which some of the candidates now parade to take Oyo on the plane of development.Care must also be taken with any ambitious but dubious generational shift.
With regard to the current dispensation, it is appropriate to say ‘Bi Oyo ti da yi,asisegbogbowanio.’ (Oyo’s fate today is our collective mistake.) And we alone can correct it.
The people ofOyo State people must play the political game better by saying enough to deceit and injustice.
By Ayo Akande (For Oyo Renaissance Group)