Dapo Abiodun & Ibikunle Amosun. |
The
comments credited to Architect Segun Abiodun, the immediate past Commissioner
for Housing in Ogun State, made my gorge rise. Abiodun, in a press statement on
the controversial Ogun Judicial Complex, accused the current governor, Prince
Dapo Abiodun, of “chasing shadows.”
The
Amosun government misled the public one too many times. For instance, in early
April this year, the media was awash with the news of Amosun saying that 3,000
students had completed admission processes at Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia
and would matriculate in May. But subsequent findings showed that the former
governor deliberately deceived the public as no such admission procedure took
place not to talk of matriculation. Thank God Amosun himself said to newsmen
that the new polytechnic would take off in May as everything, according to him,
was ready. Otherwise he would have blamed Governor Dapo Abiodun for his
“abandoned project” at Ipokia.
Again,
a few days to his exit from power, we read in the press that Amosun had paid
the severance gratuity of all his political office holders and did not owe the
civil servants. But the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress debunked
the news report at a press conference, listing all the entitlements being owed
by Amosun.
The
NLC chair spoke of the “discomfort, pain and irreparable damages the outgoing
administration has inflicted on the public servants and their families in the
state are unbearable.
“Some
homes have been broken, lives have been lost to common ailments due to lack of
money for medications and treatment; wards and children admission to higher
institution lost, personal project abandoned, professional training and
development programme abandoned and predisposition of workers to many
embarrassing situations making many chronic debtors as a result of non-payment
of salaries and other entitlements due to them.”
One
was shocked to the marrow to discover that apart from Segun Abiodun and a few
others, the majority of Amosun political office holders suffered untold
financial hardship. Some of them, who are friends and relatives, confirmed that
Amosun paid them half salaries throughout their tenure and denied them the most
basic of their entitlements. Undenied reports in the social media have it that
contrary to the widely circulated rumours that the Amosun government paid the
severance of all the political office holders that served between 2015 and
2019, his own special assistants and senior special advisers were not paid and
have appealed to the Abiodun government to offset the severance in order to
encourage sacrificial service by public office holders.
Last
but not the least, whereas ex-governor Amosun consistently claimed in the newspapers
that workers’ wage bill was N9.2 billion per month, the government of Dapo
Abiodun discovered the wage bill was actually N7 billion per month, prompting
stakeholders in Ogun to demand from Amosun to explain the whereabouts of the
monthly balance of N2.2 billion for eight solid years.
Given
this background, the comments by Segun Abiodun, the Commissioner for Housing,
came to one as most insensitive, as it rubs pepper on the wounds of majority of
past political office holders that served with him in the Amosun government and
the civil servants. Hear Segun Abiodun, in the widely circulated press release:
“The
comments of Prince Dapo Abiodun so far on projects inherited from the Amosun
Administration have indeed confirmed fears that many of them would be denied of
funding to frustrate their completion so as to label them as abandoned projects
of the Amosun Administration. Thankfully the Amosun-led administration foresaw
this and ensured that on-going projects were either fully paid for or advance
payments of between 80 – 90% were made. But for this pro-activeness, all the
projects would have been truncated.”
The
pertinent questions are: Where did Amosun get the fund to pay contractors 100
per cent or 90 per cent in advance, for projects not yet executed at the time
when Ogun public and civil workers were being owed billions of naira
entitlements and consequently being turned into beggars by the Amosun
administration?
And
where has it ever happened in Nigeria that a governor would pay 100 per cent or
90 per cent upfront for multi-billion naira projects in our well-known system
notorious for corruption and where contractors often play pranks with public
funds in collusion with some unpatriotic government functionaries? Is it not
surprising that despite the untold financial suffering imposed on its workers,
the Amosun government surreptitiously went ahead to pay 100 per cent for a
judicial complex that was launched when it was just about 35 per cent
completed? Now, the contractors want to renegotiate with the Abiodun government
just six weeks after Amosun left government with a view to increasing the
contract value! What audacity? What an attempted rip-off? This, certainly,
demands a judicial probe.
One
must commend Governor Dapo Abiodun for resisting the pressure to part with the
scarce resources of the state on some of the self-serving projects of the
Amosun administration.
However,
the coup de grace in Segun Abiodun’s vacuous press statement was his
unsolicited advice to the new governor: “We implore Prince Dapo Abiodun to roll
up his sleeves and begin to work for the people of Ogun State rather than
chasing shadows, trying to find fault in every project of the Amosun
Administration.”
Well,
one wonders why this advice was not made available to Amosun when he was in
power. Out of the 20 or 25 model schools built by Amosun, only one was said to
be partly functioning before he left office on May 29. Yet he spent about N1
billion on each school before abandoning them to rodents, reptiles and area
boys. Virtually all the uncompleted model schools were overgrown with bush
years before Amosun left office. Did Amosun also pay 100 per cent ahead for the
model schools and then abandoned them by himself three clear years before he
left government? Are the multi-billion naira model schools not abandoned
projects of the Amosun administration? And why would the former governor
abandon the model school project that was said to be dear to his heart mid-way
into completion only to go ahead to pay 100 per cent upfront for new projects,
shockingly, on the eve of his departure from power? If this action of Amosun is
not treated as manifestly suspicious, as to warrant a judicial probe, then I
wonder if we will ever get it right in this country.
At
least I know the model schools in Owode Ofada, Kemta in Abeokuta, Ilaro and one
in Ijebu. They were abandoned by Amosun since 2014, five clear years before he
left government after spending billions of naira on them. We await Segun
Abiodun’s response to this and the fantasy 250-bedroom specialist hospital that
Amosun began on the eve of his exit while the state hospital Ijaye in Abeokuta
and OOUTH, the only teaching hospital in the state, were completely in ruins.
Barr
Oladele, public policy commentator, writes from Akute, Ogun State.
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