Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state has become a master in the art of plagiarism. The latest of his acts of plagiarism was on the CCTV project done and commissioned by the immediate past administration of late Senator Abiola Ajimobi and which Seyi Makinde showed to Femi Fanikayode as one of his administration’s projects. Femi Fanikayode was in Oyo state last week to inspect projects thought to have been executed by the current administration.
It’s noteworthy to recall how the CCTV project was conceived and birthed by Senator Abiola Ajimobi. As part of the last administration’s efforts at tackling insecurity in the state, he inaugurated Oyo State Security Trust Fund headed by Chief Adebayo Adelabu, the governorship candidate of APC in the last election. The trust fund led by Bayo Adelabu embarked on the installation of CCTV cameras in strategic places across the state. I reproduce below a news story carried by a media house on the commissioning of the CCTV cameras and other gadgets.
Ajimobi Inaugurates N300m CCTV Cameras To Tackle Security
Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi on Tuesday commissioned the Safe City Project comprising the N300 million Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in 10 crime-prone areas to tackle security challenges in Ibadan, the state capital.
The cameras, which feed a control room under a round-the-clock surveillance, monitor activities at major junctions in the city.
Ajimobi while speaking, attributed the influx of blue chip companies and other businesses to the state to the success of his administration’s huge investments in security since he assumed office in 2011.
He said his administration had delivered on good governance which he attributed to the enabling environment brought about by the pervading peace as well as security of lives and property.
The governor said, “I have always said that a good leader will take his people to where they want to be but a great leader will take them to where they ought to be, while he envisions movement to another greater level.
“Our immediate effort in 2011 at stopping crime and criminal activities yielded results as our special joint security outfit which we codenamed “Operation Burst” had done a lot in restoring peace to our otherwise troubled state.
“Today, Oyo State is ranked as one of the most peaceful states in Nigeria and this has reflected in the upsurge of commercial activities in the state. This has led to Oyo State being adjudged as one of the five states with ease of doing business in the country.”
The governor used the occasion to reiterate his call for the establishment of state police as the only panacea to crime in Nigeria.
He said he was the first governor to present the proposal for state police at a national security meeting at Abuja where he gave the details of the advantages inherent in each state having its own police to fight local crimes.
Ajimobi said: “Go round the world and see those advanced democracies; you will see that there is none of them without state police. All the states in the United States of America, France, Canada and other countries have their own respective police.
“The state police will be staffed with people from the local communities where they have deep knowledge about the terrain and the inhabitants therein. That is why no crime goes undiscovered in the Western world.’’#
It’s therefore a thing of sheer shame for Governor Seyi Makinde to count the CCTV project as part of his projects inspected by Femi Fanikayode. This wasn’t the first time Seyi Makinde would plagiarise projects done and commissioned by the immediate past administration as he had unashamedly recommisioned some of the projects already commissioned by the last administration. It’s almost two years now that Seyi Makinde has been inaugurated as the governor of the state, yet, no concrete project has been executed. During his celebration of 100-Day in office, part of the projects he recommissioned were the model schools built and commissioned by Senator Abiola Ajimobi. Gov Makinde also plagiarised Ajimobi’s projects as his achievements during his 1-year in office celebration. Supporters of Seyi Makinde may argue that government is a continuum and that Makinde has statutory right to continue where Ajimobi stopped. However, there is a difference between government of continuity and government of plagiarism. Seyi Makinde’s administration belongs to the latter as he relies on the projects executed by his immediate predecessor as his achievements.
This development is a sad commentary on the type of party PDP is. Apparently, the party is not following events in states where it has governors. PDP is a party that thrives on impunity and this can be seen in the way Femi Fanikayode who was obviously on party assignments to inspect projects in PPD governed states. It’s the same impunity that drove Fanikayode to disappoint himself, his family and his party in Calabar when he lost his cool over an harmless question from Charles Eyo.
Gov Seyi Makinde had better sleeps “three sleeps” that a child of moral would sleep and turn a new leaf. Plagiarism is a type of corruption and it cuts the governor to ridiculing size that plagiarism is his stock-in-trade.
