Source:- http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/ayo-akinfe/mimiko-must-get-ondo-state-off-her-knees.html
RIGHT now, the whole of Nigeria is celebrating the recent judgement by the
Justice Garba Nabaruma-led Election Petitions Tribunal in Akure, which rightly
declared that Dr Olusegun Mimiko won the 2007 gubernatorial election in Ondo
State and should be immediately sworn in as governor.
In a clear-cut case, the tribunal easily came to the conclusion that Dr
Mimiko won the election and there was no dissenting judgment from any member of
the five-man panel. Having studied the evidence before it, the tribunal stated
that Dr Mimiko was able to prove his petition that Dr Olusegun Agagu did not
score the highest number of lawful votes cast nor did he meet the constitutional
requirements of scoring 25% in at least two-thirds of the state’s local
government areas.
In a 70-minute verdict, the tribunal declared Dr Mimiko the winner of
the April 14,2007 governorship election with a total number of 198,269 votes
while Dr Agagu, who was declared the winner by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (Inec), only scored 128,669 votes. Justice Nabaruma also
ordered Inec to issue a certificate of return to Dr Mimiko.
Across the length and breadth of Nigeria, the verdict is being hailed
as not only a victory for democracy but also a relief that there is still hope
for our judicial system. After the recent verdicts involving David Mark and
Olagundoye Oyinlola, many Nigerians had begun the question the independence of
the judiciary, so this Mimiko victory was a welcome relief.
While the rest of
Nigeria celebrates and the likes of Afenifere, the Conference of Nigerian
Political Parties all issued statements hailing the verdict, the people of Ondo
State have no time to join in the celebrations. Yes, it is nice to get your vote
counted and the candidate you elected named as your governor but that is only
the first step in a journey of thousands of miles.
For starters, even Dr Agagu knows that he did not win that election, so
he should please do the honourable thing and stand down. Ondo State probably had
the most clear cut election in 2007, in which Dr Mimiko won by a landslide, so
taking the matter to appeal is only going to prolong the agony for the Ondo
State people.
If Dr Segun Agagu wants to redeem himself for his mismanagement of Ondo
State and occupy the moral high ground, he should do the unthinkable and refuse
to appeal. Imagine how he will go down in the annals of Nigerian history if he
accepts the verdict and refuses to challenge it.
I also wonder if those
around Dr Agagu ever tell him that he did absolutely nothing during his first
four years as governor and that in an ideal democracy, his party would not have
renominated him in 2007. By my estimation, Segun Agagu was by far the worst
governor in Nigeria between 2003 and 2007 and I challenge him to point to one
single solid achievement he can boast of during his first tenure.
For those who do not know, Ondo State receives the fifth largest oil
allocation in Nigeria. It has everything a state could wish for including cocoa,
palm oil, kolanuts, rubber, timber, cassava, maize, bitumen, tourism potential
at Idanre Hills, a massive transport industry at Ore, one of the highest number
of skilled and graduate workers and the potential or a high-tech economy.
I have spent the last 10 years working in commodity trading in the UK
and know for a fact that similar regions to Ondo State in other parts of the
world generate at least $50bn in foreign exchange earnings. I wonder is Segun
Agagu has ever been to Bahia in Brazil, Sumatra in Indonesia, Borneo in
Malaysia, Entre Rios in Argentina, India’s Uttar Pradesh or Punjab in
Pakistan.
Does he know that Malaysia makes $10bn from palm oil exports alone? I
take it that Dr Agagu is aware of the fact that Malaysia originally got their
palm oil seedlings from Nigeria.
Is Dr Agagu also aware of the fact that
every commercial survey so far has shown that Ondo State is sitting on $10bn
worth of annual bitumen exports? I find it hard to understand how Dr Agagu, a
professor of geology from my alma mata UI, cannot come up with a means to make
bitumen a cash cow for Ondo State.
Even if the Nigerian economy is bad and in a terrible state, Ondo State
should be immune by simple virtue of its natural resources. Economic
regeneration aside, what has Dr Agagu done when it comes to the provision of
basic social and physical amenities?
Just cross the border in neighbouring Ekiti State and you will think
you are in another country when you see how Ayo Fayose kept the street clean,
installed public bins, put in street lights, etc. For all his faults and his
corruption, Fayose at least appreciated the need to keep people motivated by
providing a few signs of government presence in his state.
If you want to go further, cross the border westwards and see how
Gbenga Daniels turned Olumo Rock into a tourist attraction. What stopped Agagu
from doing the same at Idanre? Do you know that Idanre has more potential than
Obudu?
Given all this and the lamentable fact that Ondo State has simply
refused to make any use of its natural resources, now is not a time for
celebration but one for sober reflection. Dr Segun Mimiko has got to show that
he will make a difference, or replacing one hapless governor with another
represents nothing more than a beauty contest.
I for one will be keeping a close eye on Dr Mimiko’s cabinet. His
appointments will give us an indication of what direction he intends to take our
beloved state. Will we see radical changes or the typical chop-make-I-chop
politics of the status quo?
Dr Mimiko also has to come up with tough targets for his commissioners.
For instance, the education commissioner has to cut class sizes to 35 within a
year or lose his job, the works commissioner must tar 500km of road a year or
lose his job, the health commissioner must cut infant deaths by 10% a year or
lose his job, the water resources commissioner must give 5,000 people potable
water a year or get kicked out.
Dr Mimiko must also come up with revenue generating programmes designed
to make Ondo State self-sufficient without any federal allocation. He should
have projections that look like this: cocoa - $10bn; bitumen - $10bn; tourism -
$10bn, palm oil - $5bn, timber - $5bn; transport - $5bn; kolanuts - $5bn;
cassava - $5bn.
In Nigeria, we are very good are sharing revenue in Nigeria but poor at
generating it. Mimiko should stand up and say: “Ondo State will be different. We
do not want Abuja handouts.”
What we need to do here is put together
programmes to make Ondo State the agro-industrial powerhouse of Nigeria. For
starters, how do we get the Ile-Oluji cocoa processing plant, the Okitipupa oil
mill, the Ondo Nirowi timber plant and Idanre Hills earning Ondo State
money?
Dr Mimiko, enough of the jubilation now. Let us get on with the serious
business of turning Ondo State around. We need to get cocoa, timber, palm oil,
cassava, kolanut, bitumen, etc processing up and running. We need to get Idanre
Hills turned into a tourist attraction and the unique status of Ore as a major
transportation hub needs to be exploited.
Ondo State should easily generate $20bn a year in foreign export
earnings a year by the end of your tenure. Only time will tell if the man
nicknamed Iroko is as sturdy a character as his name suggests.
