As the much-anticipated Oyo gubernatorial election beckons, it is expedient to walk the public through the gains and pains of the last four years under the stewardship of governor Seyi Makinde. To most of his digital dingbats, the gentle-looking man has performed incredible wonders and miracles in terms of education, infrastructure, agriculture, grassroots development, workers’ welfare, security, and thus deserves thus deserves another four years in office. But to discerning minds, such exaggeration of the governor’s performance is off-kilter.
It is especially easy to separate the wheat of Makinde’s identity politics and policy frameworks from the chaff of his administrative performance: what the reality is compared to the performance across different critical sectors. In a way, it’s essential to start by appreciating some of the gains of governor Seyi Makinde’s Omituntun 1.0. Many loyalists of the governor are always quick to point to the prompt salary payment of state workers as one of the beautiful gains of the current administration. Such a weak, watery, and inconsequential campaign tactic but that is nonetheless an issue in this election.
That the previous Abiola Ajimobi administration failed in the last few years of governance to promptly paid workers their entitlements making it a significant political weapon in the hands of Makinde’s handlers. Fine. Make no mistake that the state government has ensured workers are paid their dues as at when due – but keep in mind that workers are not being dashed money for work they didn’t do. Of course, Makinde’s gesture and populist ideology have tremendously increased the rating of the governor among civil and public servants.
In any way, there is a weaponization of prompt salary among the public class and leaders of organized labor. Most platforms belonging to the Nigeria Union of Teachers are now hotbeds of political discussion. Many leaders across organized labor unions are working harder to ensure the governor is re-elected while there are some within the same union who think that people should be allowed to choose freely without fear or intimidation and harassment.
Unlike in other states, the governor and his handlers have been clever not to make a mountain out of the molehill of prompt salary payment but you hear from their bootlickers across social media spaces how the governor has transformed the lots of state workers. But one critical piece that has always been missing whenever state workers’ welfare is under the spotlight is this: How has governor Makinde been able to pull that string for the past four years? The answer it turned out is not far-fetched: Makinde killed local government administration to feed state workers. Under his watch, our once vibrant local governments have been reduced to the ground. Their growth and development are now tied to the apron strings of the state governor. Their allocation is now at the fingertips of the man who famously admitted to belonging to a party that supports local government autonomy when he was seeking power!
Unsurprisingly that the governor vehemently rejected the idea of local government autonomy when the issue was raised at Splash FM gubernatorial debate. To please state workers, governor Makinde decided to subject the lives of millions of rural dwellers to untold hardship and suffering. He and his cabals completely starved the local government of their funds and rather diverted what was meant for the grassroots to servicing salary payments.
Simply, the problem isn’t that the Oyo government under GSM diverted local government funds but that the government has no creative, and innovative ways to increasing the state’s internally generated revenue. Under his watch the state government has demonstrated crass ignorance of how to build a viable, sustainable economic model that can lift the state off its dependence on federal allocation. Or is it that local government financial autonomy in the state cannot stand side by side with prompt salary payment of state workers? In Omituntun 1.0, it’s impossible! Omituntun 2.0 won’t be different.
