Before I begin, a quick note: this is analysis as it it seems from 6000 miles away from the centre of the action. So make of it what you will.
Pardon the title, but governor Mimiko better steps up to the hard realities of taking over governance from a well known, thieving crook in the brand of Olusegun Agagu.
Else, he accomplishes the ultimate title of a whinging governor.
Its August and he is been in charge of things for nearly 6 months now;
Hear Mimiko:
"At the present level of income, and even without government embarking on any new capital project expenditure, it will take us at least 10 years to meet these commitments. The reality from the foregoing therefore is that the state would have to re-prioritise ongoing capital projects,"
It is very easy to counter-argue that the clearly overdrawn state of the state’s finances, as brazenly and effortlessly done by the doomed Agagu led disaster ties the government’s hands but then, no one has been put into prison for economic mismanagement of a people’s funds yet; Permit me to be that naive in the most basal state of Politics in Ondo state, a la Nigeria.
The reality is, if he does not take conscious efforts to balance the states’ books and demarcate, where he starts off, there is the hanging potential, that the Agagu people would find a way to make him take the responsibility for their heinous waste of public resources so I get that.
But the reading one gets from the little snippet published on the frontpage of the Guardian – I believe there will be fuller details in the papers tomorrow – is that of a Governor that doesn’t quite appreciate the weight of responsibility, and ultimately the challenge of vision and leadership, carrying on.
Here is my fundamental contention: If it is going to take you 6 months to to have a firm grip on the state of you finances, then you had better be prepared to spell out, in more detail, how you intend to lead people out of the mess.
What you are going to do!
Essentially, telling us about the reality that stares your people in the face, amounts to one thing. Whinging.
Leadership is more, far more, demanding than that….
However, it is incredibly commendable that the governor, recognises the need to communicate directly to the people of the state – not sure how many citizens can be bothered to listen this days – on such critically important issue.
That, I am sure, we can have more of.
