By Lanre Aminu
Failed politicians of every hue still get undue attention today in Nigeria to air thier views, because the rotten system has not been able to put them in their proper place in history. The poor masses are in bondage because the “TRUTH” is in prison.
The foregoing explains what we have seen in Osun state chapter of APC; criticism upon criticism of Governor Ademola Adeleke. The political party has taken undue criticism to mean opposition. It is always lending its voice, scavenging whatever Adeleke led PDP government has done without setting its priorities on how it feels it should be done as expected of a constructive opposition political party, even though they were in government for 12 years with nothing to show for it.
We make bold to say that the two successive APC governments in Osun left a legacy of poor vision, huge unjustifiable debts, shocking mismanagement and waste of public funds on white-elephant projects, over inflated and unexecuted contracts, out right corruption and abysmal failure to invest heavily on human capital development, the only sin qua non for the greatness of any nation in this 21st century knowledge-based world economy.
A scrutiny of the objectionable nature of how successive APC governments superintended over public funds revealed horrendous and unbelievable rot. The two Osun APC’s governors pretence to transparency and accountability is a hollow mockery of those virtues and the height of hypocrisy.
A full probe of their tenure will disgrace a nation of savages. Their abysmal record in education is a crying shame to their posture today. The abject poverty of Osun people under successive APC’s government’s watch shows the tragedy and hypocrisy of the fake progressives.
To some of us, discerning minds of Osun state politics, there is reason to wonder on which moral tripod the Osun state chapter of the APC stands to criticize the affairs of Osun state under Adeleke led PDP government’s watch. How can it justify trying to con unsuspecting Osun masses to buy into this harangue in a bid to see it as a saving voice for their plight?
Does is not take absolute morality to expose absolute immorality? It is very sad that this dinosaur of a party is applying every thing possible to come back to public embrace through calculated media war and abracadabra! It keeps changing appearances in order to either deceive or to project a phoney identity of what a genuine opposition political party should mean and stand for.
The party’s disgruntled politics in Osun is appalling, as it disguises its failure under a cloak of cheerfulness; that is pretending to appear cheerful while disguising the fact that can never be concealed. From what could be observed so far of the party, what is left of it is its public relations desk which has been tirelessly using the media to sell the party’s ‘hard to sell’ image.
But observers are not deceived because it is obvious that its main stakeholders are responsible for the political mishap it has suffered in the recent pass elections in the state. The party is today donating its voice to the public even when the voice has crass tones and cracked rythms and rhymes. As a matter of fact, the party, including its affairs is heading into oblivion.
With the way and manner Osun APC is operating in the state, its activities are causing most people to feel that everything is turning against it and the party cannot stand firm. And to that extent the party has become an object of ridicule and scorn. Yet, it is still fighting to see the evening twilight, but oblivious that it is gloating over its own ruins.
As it stands today, Osun APC is twisted and rough covered with knobs leaving its dwindling adherents wailing and gnashing thier teeth. Yet the party is growling, like a famished dog, at every attempt of Adeleke led PDP government of Osun state. Its major undoing is lack of desire to take a firm stand in reasoning and in opposing.
There is no gainsaying that a non- performing and visionless party like the APC forfeits the moral highground to criticize a widely acknowledge performing administration like that of Ademola Adeleke. Every impartial observer of political events in Osun knew incessant criticism of Adeleke administration by the opposition party in Osun, APC is mischievous, destructive and lack integrity.
It is not only laughable, puerile and infantile for Osun APC to say Adeleke’s government is the worst government in Osun. We judge the performance of a government, either positively or negatively by what that government had been able to achieve in the area of adding value to human existence.
The good people of Osun can now compare two eras: The APC better forgotten era when they were pauperized and the Adeleke led PDP government era when they are been empowered. It is on record that when Adeleke assumed office, a suffocating debt, including humongous areas of workers salaries and pensions was hanging on the neck of the state like a sword of Damocles due to fiscal recklessness, misplacement of priorities and poverty of ideas of successive APC governments.
Rather than fold his arms, bemoaning the plight of the state, Adeleke immediately deployed his thinking cap in his avowed determination to bring the state out of the woods. The result is what we are seeing in all sectors today. Adeleke has sufficiently proved to be a quintessence of the political class in a number of emerging societies across the world steeped in what modern theorists call developmentalism, that is, the kind of politics obsessed with radically increasing the standards of living of the people so that they could, within just a generation, compare favourably with those of the citizens of developed nations.
Such societies include Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia and in the recent time, Vietnam. “The difference between a good and a bad government sometimes lies in the number of obstacles we can remove from the path of our citizen or put before them”- Al-Makhtoum. I have yet to see any civil servant, artisan, market women who can pray or work for a party like APC that makes thier lives miserable to come back and rule the state.
●Lanre Aminu, Convener, Oodua Youth for Good Governance write from Ilobu, Osun state.
