By Ayo Oyoze Baje

“From Akure to Owo, Ilaje to Ifedore, we are beginning to witness development projects taking shape. Road construction, health facilities’ rehabilitation, and improvements in our schools are no longer mere promises but realities” – Abiodum Faleye ( former lawmaker, Ondo North Senatorial District )

Considered from a broad perspective, leadership success and a political one at that encompasses the unfailing principles of a deep understanding of the people’s most pressing needs, prioritizing such and addressing them through well articulated policies, programs and projects. One is talking about processes that are not only people – oriented but are sustainable. It takes not only a vibrant vision but the capacity to assemble like minds who share in such vision, along with pragmatic partnerships to pilot it across the stormy waters of the freaky economic waves to the harbour of the people’s collective hope. Yet, one significant factor which facilitates the dreams to reality is that of such a leader being fully prepared for the onerous tasks ahead, a hitherto elusive factor that has hindered development across some states in the country.

Interestingly, one of such a remarkable leader whose historic emergence in Nigeria’s political landscape has kept him in the public view since he assumed office in 2023 after the demise of former governor Rotimi Akeredolu is none other than Governor Lucky Aiyetadiwa of the Sunshine State, Ondo. But has he brought a sunshine smile to the faces of millions of the good people of the state? That is the million naira question. The answer is an emphatic “yes” in more ways than one. From impactful infrastructural development, quality education and healthcare delivery, fruitful agriculture, tourism to the innovative Ondo Global he has approached the industrialization of the state from a holistic perspective.

In terms of being prepared for the job, Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa comes in as a thoroughbred Nigerianu businessman and politician Unlike most of his predecessors in office who were either teachers, or a lawyer. So, his approach to governance is driven by his wealth of experience garnered from the business sector. Also, he previously served as deputy governor of Ondo State from 2021 to 2023 under Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.

Well aware that whatever physical achievements are made in the absence of security would amount to nothing, Aiyetadiwa has sustained and built upon the Amotekun security initiative of his predecessor, Akeredolu. It is not surprising therefore, that the challenge of insecurity in the state has reduced over the past two years.

With regards to educational development, one of the most commendable achievements is the employment of over 2,000 teachers in both primary and secondary schools.The construction and renovation of schools are also a testament to the governor’s effort in making learning convenient and attractive for learners.This would reduce unemployment by providing jobs for many youths. By this he has demonstrated Bill Bradley ‘s statement that: ” Leadership is by empowering others to become better.

Equally praiseworthy is the payment of 82.6 percent of the state’s debt, which has gone a long way in stabilizing our financial system and restoring confidence in the state’s economy.

On infrastructural development for which he keeps receiving accolades,
his administration’s resolve to revive and complete several abandoned projects left behind by previous governments is praiseworthy. So is the construction of the 7km road at Gbangbalogun axis at Akure stands out. There is also the reconstruction and rehabilitation of over 60 kilometers of roads across various parts of the state. Apart from their even distribution this effort is making transportation easier for the citizens while improving access to economic and social opportunities. This is commendable, is it not? Of course, it is. But there are more reasons to understand why the people of Ondo State are full of praises for one of their own from the backwaters of Ilaje, currently becoming a game-changer in the state’s political history

In a similar vein, in the health sector, the governor’s intervention in upgrading 102 health centres has largely improved access to primary healthcare delivery. Governor Aiyedatiwa’s vision for food security, availability, and rural development are exemplary. As the major cocoa producer in Nigeria, there is growing focus on chocolate processing, with several initiatives aimed at boosting local value addition. The drawback however, is that a large portion of the beans are traditionally exported as raw material, resulting in a missed opportunity for revenue generation. To address this, the state government and private investors have been developing cocoa processing facilities, including the Johnvents Cocoa Processing Factory, to increase the amount of cocoa processed locally.

The state is actively pursuing the development of a deep-sea port at Araromi Seaside, also known as the Ondo Sea Port. This project is considered a key part of the state’s economic development strategy, with plans including a 75-kilometer stretch of unbroken Atlantic coastline and an adjacent Free Trade Zone. The deep-sea port is envisioned to be located two kilometers offshore. The governor has also emphasized the need for synergy among security agencies to protect border communities, which is likely related to the port development and its potential impact on the region.

“We have the longest coastline in Nigeria with the deepest draft. The process began under the last administration, and I’m committed to completing it. The deep seaport will be the first in Nigeria capable of handling modern vessels,” he added.

To bolster the vision of industrialization, Ondo and Bauchi states have partnered to attract $2.6bn investment to Ondo state.The high-level meeting, held recently in Akure, focused on plans to establish a fertilizer production and harmonial plant, alongside a petrochemical facility, all projected for completion within the next 12 months. The investment, is spearheaded by Residents Group Cement, with Dr. Abbas Waziri, Executive Director who accompanied Governor Mohammed on the visit. It is expected to significantly boost the state’s economy to create thousands of jobs, and enhance agricultural and industrial development.

In all of these outstanding achievements what make them impactful are predicated on the factors of being pro-people, employment generating, bearing improvement on the Human Development Index, HDI and sustainable. And as the seasoned journalist, who is the newly appointed Commissioner of Information, Idowu Ajanaku rightly highlighted they are inclusive and open to critical analysis,to bring out the best in them. That reminds us of the saying that: “Leadership is practised not so much in words as in attitude and actions” as aptly stated by Harold Geneen.

Very jittery about the coalition, and it should rightly feel so.

If coordinated properly, they have the capacity and numbers to upstage APC, from national politics.

If they manage to do it, it will be well-deserved.

The neo-liberal economic policies embarked on by BAT has shrunk the economy brutally.

The country has shrunk far more economically after removing fuel subsidy, particularly when electricity is still non-existent, raising production costs infinitely and lowering spending, making it a double-whammy for millions.

Electricity costs have been double even when its generation, distribution and transmission hasn’t improved significantly blunting claims of Nigerians needing to pay humongous amounts if they want electricity, even if several examples exist of Countries in the Global South with far more reasonable electricity charges with even more access to electricity.

Let’s now add devaluation, that skyrocketed costs of goods in an import-dependent economy and ran more millions into penury.

War-level inflation, rising costs of living, food prices off the ceiling.

And what they have been told is that, that is the only way to rejig the economy.

The supposed billions stolen by subsidy thieves hasn’t been retrieved, and perpetrators jailed.

Customs officials that permit fuel smuggling that justified subsidy removal weren’t arrested and jailed.

Yet, the people who weren’t responsible for these lapses were told to stomach these lapses and adjust to “SAP” tightening adjustments.

Minimum wage of 70k has still not been paid, what was done was a cynical 40k wage award across levels. This after fuel went from 185 to over 900 naira in some places, and skyrocketing prices of goods quarter-by-quarter.

In 2000, When Olusegun Obasanjo raised minimum wage from 250naira to 5500 naira, and Federal civil servants pay raised from 3500 to 7500, it triggered the phrase “GBEMU AREMU” (Aremu’s Largesse) that raised national income and subsequent spending across several sectors.

Teachers would buy Opel cars prompting applause when it was announced on assembly grounds, and several civil servants started building houses leading to a construction boom.

Federal contractors are being owed despite government claims of record revenues, and gaslighting statements of more allocations being accrued to Governors.

Let us now go back to pet peeves about allocation of projects.

Gilbert Chagoury’s HITECH got awarded the “Lagos-Calabar coastal road”

The same Chagoury’s HITECH got the Sokoto-Badagry road.

The same HITECH was awarded Benin-Akure-Ilesha road.

Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road was taken from Julius Berger and handed to HITECH.

Chagoury’s ITB also got $700m port revamp contract.

BAT says Alex Zingman who got the $250m contract to bring in tractors from Belarus is his friend.

When major contracts are given to closet accolytes in a family&friends scheme, how will the economy grow, when fairness is out of the window.
Multi-billion dollar contracts are being handed out attimes with no bidding to preferred contractors whom the President openly calls “His Partner” (Chagoury).

This is the samee Chagoury who returned $66million to Switzerland to get his conviction expunged.

He paid $300million to Nigeria’s government to protect him from prosecution for his role in helping General Sani Abacha loot the country by transferring National funds abroad.

Abacha’s special friend tha helped launder money abroad is BAT’s advisor and confidante whose companies get no-bidding contracts and people are to keep quiet.

Yet, APC stalwarts will attempt to gaslight people by saying “Relax, economy is getting better, BAT knows what he is doing”, even when diaspora Nigerians who come into the country exchange their Pounds and USD into Naira, and still cannot cope with the skyrocketing prices.

People are being told to sacrifice, while they see the Presidency buy yatch, new vehicles and Presidential Jet.

If it’s the ADC that will come and trigger the APC, we are all in for it.

Even if several of the characters in ADC have been in government for years. Distributed stealing is much better for the economy than singular appropriation.

Perhaps, when Nigerians change governments over and over, politicians will sit tight and apportion some efforts towards working for masses and treat people with some level of respect.

And the coalition should watch out for Aregbesola, the main reason that has given the coalition impetus. He is not a man who gives half-measures. And he is coming for revenge.

There is no fight as interesting to watch as tight buddies turn into implacable foes.

Knowing him, Aregbesola would likely have control of Lagos ADC, where he would bring in many elements of APC currently disaffected and angry into the party.

Being more conservative than even Tinubu, he would avoid trap of filling positions with non-Yorubas.

What would ensue in Lagos, with an Aregbesola-controlled ADC will be a fight for the ages, people who knew “Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu” before he became “Asiwaju” or “Jagaban” would be brought into the fray.

Imagine for example, Muiz Banire, as Governorship candidate. Prominent families, in Lagos will be split down the middle, as Aregbesola comes for the jugular.

And woe betide APC, if the North refuses to vote for them and APC loses the Presidential election.

It makes the task of dismantling even Lagos from Tinubu’s hold after 28 years easier.

Tinubu’s current yes-men gaslighting people about economy should continue telling people all is well, even when economy squeezes people out.

In 2 years, they might lose everything. Both Federal and beloved Lagos.

By Ayo Oyoze Baje

“When a leader encourages the culture of impunity, the society is lost and it makes the work harder for the rest of us”
– Prof. Wole Soyinka

One of the bitter facts about striking the delicate balance between criminality and justice is that if the perpetrators of sundry crimes are either treated with kid gloves, or left to walk our streets as free men, some others would view such as the best way to go. Unfortunately, from the persisting challenge of insecurity through the reckless squandering of public funds by some favoured political helmsmen to budget padding, crass impunity has remained the middle name of our democratic dispensation, sad to note.

For instance, recently Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), criticized both the Federal and Benue State Governments for consistently failing to prosecute suspects arrested in connection with violent attacks that have resulted in the killing spree in Benue State. In the statement issued under the platform of the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), of which he is the Chairman Falana lamented that although hundreds of suspects have been arrested over the years for crimes ranging from illegal possession of firearms to mass killings and kidnapping, most of them are never charged.

To him President Bola Tinubu’s recent directive to the Nigeria Police Force to arrest and prosecute all those involved in the latest wave of violence in the state is potentially symbolic.He pointed out that previous arrests had not led to convictions or justice for victims. Falana also berated the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, for alleging that residents of Yelwata community provided shelter for the killers. He described the statement as an attempt to shift blame onto victims instead of addressing the systemic failures of security and governance.

Such a sordid situation triggers the burning questions. Is the life of the voiceless victims not important to humanity in general and the country in particular? Are the perpetrators of the scary insecurity ravaging the country that has sent hundreds of thousands of innocent souls to their early graves more valued than that of the defenceless citizens? What is so difficult in identifying the sponsors, who arm them to kill fellow citizens and bring them to justice?

It is a similar situation when it comes to profligacy with regards to the way and manner some politicians squander public funds. Only recently there was disagreement between the National Assembly and the BudgIT over the issue of budget padding to the stupendous amount of N6.93 trillion in the 2025 federal government’s budget. Yet, some Nigerian contractors have remained unpaid for about a year! And there are allegations about some of them awarded contracts without going through the fiscal policy relating to the budget. That runs against Section 5 (b) of the Public Procurement Act. That is impunity, is it not? Yes, it is. But the pain in all of these is that the culture of impunity in places high and low has been with us for eons.

As yours truly highlighted through an opinion essay back in April 2017 all the hue and cry that trailed the probe into the $10billion(or is it $16 billion) sleaze in the power sector years back has long suffered from what physicists call the Doppler Effect, or died a Nigerian “natural death”. And as one warned back then that “was not the first time and it may not likely be the last unless government musters the much needed political will to bring the perpetrators to book.” But is the situation any better today? The answer is patently obvious.

These days we read about the humungous amounts, even in dollars found stashed in the private vaults of some former public office holders. From local government council chairmen to senators and governors, it is a recurring ugly decimal of national shame. But some hungry and disenfranchised poor citizens caught for stealing fowls and goats are either sent behind bars or hounded to hell!

It speaks volume about how those in government interpret words such as accountability, probity and transparency. It demeans us all as a people that those vested with the sacred trust of holding the destiny of men and materials of a country as vast as Nigeria are allowed to go Scot-free after committing various heinous crimes against the state. No one talks about the $12 billion Gulf War windfall again because some people are above the law. Not a few former state governors were once paraded by the EFCC as suspected to have siphoned state funds for self-aggrandizement.But years later some of them have the audacity to want to go back to their former offices, or find their ways to the hallowed Red chamber to make laws for you and yours truly. All these happen because of the insidious culture of impunity

As it was between 2015-2023, one is not surprised, therefore, that some corrupt politicians who defected from the PDP to the ruling APC are surreptitiously enjoying some ignoble immunity. It has happened before. All of these make a mockery of our judiciary process. Many of the proceedings are centuries away from the Information Technology and Communication(ICT) age as obsolete type – writers are still used for recording purpose. Series of laughable injunctions take over the well scripted drama of the absurd, characterized by the shameless display of former politicians suspected of grievous financial crimes, raising their hands in bravado as their paid praise worshippers fan their battered and bruised ego.

It is little of a surprise therefore, that virtually all notable institutions of government; from ministries to departments and agencies have in the past years of our democratic experience been probed for one fraud or the other. But after years of turning their searchlight to unveil the rattling skeletons in their cupboards, nothing meaningful comes out of it.
To several of those accused of such financial misdemeanor Nigeria is one big, slumbering elephant to be milked dry. And the easiest way to have a piece of the national cake is to get elected or appointed into any plum political post. But for how long can we go on this way? Not much longer, I dare say.

Corruption, which is a debasement of set moral values and a violation of standard professional ethics is like a two – edged sword that cuts both the victim and the misguided beneficiary. When those who have short changed the system are not brought to speedy justice it emboldens others with similar criminal inclinations to commit worse crimes.

It is responsible, as in the Nigerian politico-economic situation for the countless pot hole – riddled roads, the epileptic power supply, pervasive preventable diseases and mass youth employment that have turned into daylight monsters haunting us all.

As one admonished the then President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in 2017 so I do now to the President Bola Tinubu-led government. To shame all critics he must muster the political will, backed with the enabling laws by the National Assembly to transform both the EFCC and the ICPC into well toothed bulldogs that bark and bite. And no one, no matter his political persuasion, must be above the rule of law. As Isabel Allende aptly stated: ” Nothing is as dangerous as power with impunity”.