Mimiko and poverty of leadership in Ondo -By Bayo Olupohunda

Bayo Olupohunda

Every time I ponder on the rudderless and visionless leadership that has been the lot of Ondo State and its people in this democracy, I cannot help but weep for my Sunshine State. For those familiar with Ondo, the state since its creation has been the beacon of progressive politics and development. But since democracy berth in its shores at the turn of the millennium, the state has endured one incompetent leadership to another. For 16 years, there has not been any respite for the people. It is sad that a land blessed with abundant resources can be held back by a reign of inept leadership.

It also beats the imagination how a state that once dictated the pace of development in the South-West has now receded into the backwaters. How has Ondo come to this sorry pass? The people must look back to where the rain began to beat them. Can they continue to be governed by the same set of selfish politicians? Today, the social, economic and development indices look grim. It seems politicians are more concerned with appropriating the resources for their own selfish ends.

It is a sad development that today Ondo has become the face of backwardness. It is even sadder still that a state which once produced great leaders and progressives now has politicians masquerading as leaders and whose only claim to leadership is the feathering of their own nest. As an indigene of Ondo from the southern part, as a dispassionate observer, who had his childhood years in Okitipupa, who visits the state frequently, one can easily spot the difference between Ondo State of yesteryears and the present. It is saddening that tokenism is now being passed for development.

It is also an irony that our past is better than our present with a future that remains bleak no thanks to the band of selfish leaders. The question I have often asked is: Why have the people become so docile? Why has the land of the Gani Fawehinmis left their state in the hand of buccaneer politicians? How can a state that was once governed by Adekunle Ajasin, the renowned progressive and Obafemi Awolowo protégé now degenerate into the abyss of incompetent and visionless leadership?

Where exactly is Ondo State going?

Where is the future? Regrettably, there is no development plan for the state? All that has happened since 1999 is a state governed by confused administrations. Ondo has had three dispensations since 1999, but regrettably, none of the governors have had any plan in place to put the state on the path of growth and sustainability. In 16 years, successive administrations just come to execute cosmetic and ill-thought programmes that have not changed the lives of the people.

Everywhere you turn; there are gaping developmental challenges that are the direct result of poverty of leadership. Yet, as oil-producing state, Ondo has collected trillions in allocation with the people feeding from crumbs left by their leaders. Talking about leadership, there has been a manifest poverty of leadership in the current dispensation. Never before in the history of Ondo, has the Sunshine State has the misfortune of being governed by a visionless and incompetent administration than the current leadership under Governor Olusegun Mimiko. I stand to be corrected. I have seen enough to make me conclude that the Mimiko administration may yet turn out to be the worst government since 1999. The poverty of leadership engendered by a governor who plays politics with development is regrettable.

Do not get me wrong. Not that the people have ever enjoyed good leadership. The late Governor Adebayo Adefarati did not achieve anything significant in his four years. Governor Olusegun Agagu’s years were unfocused and wasted. But Mimiko is now in a class of his own. For many Ondo indigenes, that the disappointing Mimiko’s tenure will soon expire is particularly sad given the manner of his emergence.

Hiding under the Awolowo School of progressive politics, the governor swept into office with the hope he would re-enact the glorious years of the state. Unfortunately, he has proved to be one of the same – and even worse. Given the resources that have accrued to Ondo as an oil producing state, we should be doing much better. But development has been sacrificed on the altar of cronyism, propaganda and tokenism.

What is the state of development in Ondo today? Let’s take education. A state that used to be the pride in educational achievement is now a shadow of its past. Public education is in a state of disrepair. The administration has touted its millennium schools as proof of investment in education. Meanwhile, all the state schools and higher education institutions are begging for infrastructural and instructional upgrade. Does it not show poverty of leadership when you build new schools and neglect the old ones that gave the state its enviable position in education?

In healthcare, the governor showcases a paltry child hospital while all the state specialist hospitals and primary healthcare facilities are worse than mere consulting clinic. Who is fooling who? Ondo State is in dire need of pragmatic leadership with concrete plans to revamp its broken infrastructure and moribund industries. Virtually all the industries built in the First and Second Republic has suffered total collapse. In cases where they have been resuscitated, they are allegedly put under skewed privatisation arrangement that will further impoverish the people. Ondo has been turned into the private estate of politicians.

What can we point to as the achievements of Governor Mimiko? I have travelled around to know that his tenure is a metaphor for the poverty of leadership that has been the lot of the state since the return to democracy. In my own view, the governor seems to have the capacity to do much better but has been too distracted with playing politics at the expense of governance. He has taken the state for granted and betrayed the trust reposed in him. When a politician is too absorbed with playing politics of self-preservation, it becomes detrimental to the task of serving the common good of his people.

Rather than concentrate on running the affairs of the state, the governor preferred to play federal politics in the name of aligning the state with Abuja. Pray what dividends have that brought Ondo and its people? When a leader has a grand delusion of his role, governance will suffer. Throughout his stewardship, Mimiko perceived himself as the antithesis of South-West political establishment while allegedly using the resources of the state and his time to pursue his dream of aligning Ondo and South-West with Abuja while his people bore the brunt of such misadventure.

In his quest to mainstream Ondo State under a federal umbrella, Mimiko neglected his primary role to provide development at home. It is a distraction that has blighted his administration. Now he barely has nothing to justify his time in office. I have written on this page how the people of Ondo must never again vote politicians who will use the resources and the state as the theatre to wage personal and political battles in the name of mainstream politics. Ondo people want development, not mainstream politics.

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