In the Gospel of St John, the 8th Chapter is the story of a woman who was brought to Jesus having been caught in adultery. You see Moses, the law giver in Israel, had ordered in the Pentateuch that such a woman be stoned to death.
Jesus would not budge. He ignored them and continued what He was doing.
But they persisted and then He uttered these words: ” let him that is without sin cast the first stone”.
Thereafter, one after the other, they left the scene until only the woman remained behind.
Jesus told her to go and sin no more.
I count myself as not sufficiently lettered so to do against a wordsmith like Festus. I am just trying to perspectivize things.
Makinde has always recognized a bifurcation in the society: the good guys and the bad guys.
Everyone loves to be on the side of the good guys or at least be recognized as one.
There is a judgmental predilection towards the bad guys.
We call fire and brimstone upon them.
People even wish them dead in certain circumstances.
Not many people look out for them to have them reformed and reintegrated back into the society for good causes.
The introduction of the Park Management System by the Government of Oyo State under Engineer Seyi Makinde is a novel idea that should be allowed to work by all and sundry.
Hitherto, the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW ruled the roost.
They were a law unto themselves.
They controlled the Motor Stations aka Garages across the state despite the fact that those Garages were built with people’s money.
They got away with practically blue murder because they usually were on the payroll of politicians to do their dirty jobs for them.
Since the 4th Republic began on May 29th, 1999, in Oyo State, each administration had her own regime of roughnecks:
Lam Adesina – it was Alhaji Akinsola Tokyo
Rashidi Ladoja had late Alhaji Abubakri Tawa
Adebayo Àlàó-Akala had late Abdulateef Salako Eleweomo
Isiaq Ajimobi, in his time empowered late Taofeek Oyerinde Fẹ́lẹ́ who was succeeded by by Alhaji Abideen Olajide Èjìogbè for the rest of his time.
Their chieftains fed fat on daily collections from hapless motorists. This ran into hundreds of millions of naira per diem.
There were scanty to no records at all of any remittances into government coffers.
The struggle for territories among factions of this union always resulted into physical combats where dangerous weapons like knives, swords, guns and grenades were freely used.
This often resulted in fatalities not located among union members but defenceless members of the public whose ‘sins’ were that they happened to be at the Motor Parks during those battles.
In came the Seyi Makinde administration in May 2019.
The government banned the activities of the NURTW in Oyo State.
Then recently she launched the Park Managers initiative.
This idea will put control of Motor Stations firmly in the hands of government and generate revenue for government.
Men who, in the opinion of government, are best-placed to run such ventures were appointed.
However, one appointment which has generated so much furore is that of Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi aka Auxiliary.
His critics say he is a member of the ancien regime of violence. That he is not a fit and proper person to be so appointed and so on ad nauseum.
This takes us back to the story of the woman caught in adultery.
There is no Saint anywhere.
In my own view, Seyi Makinde has appointed Auxiliary in a gesture of second chance, rectitude and firm belief in the universal brotherhood of man.
Take cognisanze also of the need to have someone who understands the terrain.
People who advocate the appointment of a white collar fellow miss this point.
There is a psychology, a disposition and a reading of the situation of the parks that need be done to be able to rein in the cantankerous dispositions of our brothers in the parks.
Mukaila Auxiliary, warts and all, commands a followership among users of parks and so will be able to bring that to bear positively on the parks.
He is a reformed individual. Government has read the riot acts to him and he knows exactly what is expected of him.
That we have not had any upheaval in the parks since his appointment is a testimony to this fact.
I am sure he too has heard all the opposition to his call and will take note going forward.
Governor Seyi Makinde, in taking this step has history behind him.
Governor Bola Ige, in 1979, appointed Alhaji Busari Oloyede Adelakun alias Ẹ̀rùòbodò as Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs for the old Oyo State.
Adelakun was barely literate.
He was a roughneck in his past political life.
Even Chief Ọbáfẹ́mi Awolowo – Bola Ige’s political leader, had his misgivings about Ẹ̀rùòbodò’s appointment whereupon Ige replied his Leader that “ọmọ kii burú kí á le f’ ẹ́kùn pa jẹ”
Adelakun Then went on to acquit himself very well in that office.
Papa Awo attested to this during the great bombshell of a speech he gave in 1982 at Mapo Hall during his last Presidential Campaign on earth.
Those of us that are Christians know that King David gathered together men whom society dubbed as outcasts, outlaws : those in distress, those who were discontented, those who were in debts etc. He formed them into a formidable army who were later known as the Mighty Men of David.
In Auxiliary’s case, Seyi Makinde has not committed an error but he has introduced an aura – the distinctive atmosphere or quality that surrounds and/or is generated by his person.
Let’s give him the chance to work.
Omi Tuntun, Ìgbà Ọ̀tun!
Olatunji K. Ayoola JP,
Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources.
