Open Letter to Governor Olusegun Mimiko. Your Excellency LET THE SLEEPING DOG LIE. I consider myself very fortunate that I am writing you at this period when issues of transparency in elections and leadership renewal are dominating discourses in our country. I feel more excited that in our state particularly, the oncoming April 5th bye- election in the Ilaje/Ese-Odo Federal Constituency is catching the attention, if not working every major politician and political party into high fever. Fever for victory and dominance, as well as fever for relevance at the polls. I believe your share of the high temperature and anxiety must be higher than others because this election, as you must know is perhaps the biggest test of your acceptance and credibility by our people in this part of the state. In actual fact, you may and you may not know that every politician and even the common man on the street understands the sour implications of a loss for you at this election, especially in the light of your perceived friendship with PDPs President Goodluck Jonathan as well as the obvious basis of and stakes for such friendship. For instance, everyone knows that a loss for you will be an indictment, a question mark and an irredeemable blemish on your perceived claims to be the Czar of Ondo state politics, the commander in Chief of Ondo state people and perhaps the most important politician to ever run the state. In other words it will deflate, like the October 20, 2012 election did, your self esteem and expose the vainglory in your so called claim that you are the only person able to deliver Ondo state for President Jonathan in 2015. It goes without saying also that a win for you may bring the vice versa of the foregoing. Your Excellency, I have decided to write this letter to you specifically to draw your attention to the extraordinary circumstances that are most likely going to determine the mood and temperature of this bye election and also to advise that you use your good office to douse the tension and anxiety that are everywhere. These extra ordinary circumstances which are already self evident as campaign issues are not only going to form the premises upon which the success or failure of the candidates and parties are rationalised, they are also going to task your conscience, leadership and confidence. Fortunately for my party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the issues are not what we are doing or what we promised to do, but what we have done in the past and what those achievements have come to mean to the people. For you the issues are: 1. What is the hope of the over 2,500 sons and daughters of Ilaje/Ese-Odo whose appointment into the local government councils were terminated by you in 2012 after working as canvassers for your re-election? 2. What happens to Igbokoda-Ayetoro road which your predecessor awarded and construction work commenced but which you stopped and abandoned? Do you ever imagine the re-occurring agony the people of Ilaje, who are supposed to be the primary users of this road if completed, are daily going through? 3. What happened to the Okitipupa-Irele road, Aboto-Olokola road, Ojuala-Ipoke road,Enikorogha-Oboro road, The Aboto – Olokola Free Trade Zone Road, Igbinsin – Oloto – Ilumeje Road, with a bridge between Oloto and Igboegunrin, The Adagbakuja New Town Development and many others which your Excellency not only met awarded and appreciably progressing but which you unceremoniously stopped and abandoned? 4. What is the offence of the people of Kiribo, Sabome, Igbotu, Arogbo and others that made you to abandon them to their fate in terms of electrification project? Despite the fact that Kiribo township electrification that was awarded by your predecessor had reached 85% completion before he left office in 2009, five years have gone bye you are yet to treat the file that should have given light to a whole community and its people? 5. Where is the Igbokoda township road you promised Ilaje before the 2012 governorship election? Where is the Extension of National Grid from Aboto to Araromi along the Aboto-Olokola Free Trade Zone Road, the Ebute - Ipare – Oke Ipare Link Road, Mini- Mega School Building at Community Grammar School, Zion-Pepe, the Oropo Road, Aboto- Atijere Road, Mini Mega School Building at Community Grammar School, Ori- OkeIwamimo? 6. Where is Igbekebo mega primary school which foundation you layed before 2012 election? The Zion – Pepe – Agerige Link Road, Obinehin- Idigbegbin – Oke Siri Link Road, Araromi – Holy Centre Salem Road, Oke Iwamimo – Alape Junction Roads? 7. Where is Agadagba mega primary school and Agadagba caring heart market? 8. What is the condition of Oluwa Glass factory you promised to revitalized in 2012, which you claimed will give jobs to Ondo state children to which Ilaje and Ese Odo children belong? Instead of your promise of revitalization of it, raw materials and glasses belonging to the company were moved out of Igbokoda in fleet of trucks, over hundred of them, to unknown destinations. Will this exploitation bring jobs to the people? 9. What has become of Olokola Free Trade Zone whose file you claimed you did not see but which you are already celebrating as a redesigned world class and functioning investment haven? 10. What evidence of improvement is observable in the mainland and aquatic farming economy of the people of both local governments? 11. What commensurate evidence is on ground to justify the over N69b check off received by OSOPADEC in the last 5 years? Mr Governor, in the light of all the above issues which others have called failed promises, people are asking you to advance any reason why they should vote for the LP candidate? In any case, as a former representative of the people of this constituency at the Federal House of Representatives and who discharged himself honorably to the peoples cause, I believe I have a duty to draw your attention to these because words are spreading into all the villages and hamlets that on the day of the election, you are planning a well coordinated and well funded mother of all wars to electorally capture and subdue our people, irrespective of their genuine wishes. I am bringing this to your notice because as the candidate for the same position in 2011, I am in better position to recount the ugly details of the illegalities, massive rigging, and daylight intimidation and hooliganism that happened under your watch and control as Governor and leader of the LP. As a responsible party leader and team player who stepped down for Ilaje to produce our candidate and who, like others, is pursuing the election like a personal project, it has also been brought to my notice that one of your cardinal objectives and plan is to unjustifiably order the arrest of key leaders of our party including my humble self as the first on your list. The purpose for this wanton recklessness and brazen use of undemocratic force is to humiliate some of us, demonize our party, score cheap popularity and demoralize the electorate, particularly our supporters. The basis of such rumours include but may not be limited to your strange choice to abdicate state matters and the Government House, Akure, for the neighboiring Okitipupa Local government Area where a whole hotel was allegedly rented for you as operational headquarters for an ordinary Federal constituency election. Perhaps you do not know, but It is also rumoured that quite a big chunk of tax payers money of this state have gone down from your siege headquarters to influence voters, Community leaders, Religious leaders, Security agencies and also unscrupulous INEC officials. I am particularly aware of how much you have allegedly pumped to corrupt and manipulate the invertebrate INEC (Ondo State Office) and a particular security agency. Yet all these are happening while workers, businessmen and critical sectors of our states economy suffer unabatedly. In the event that any or all of these rumours are true, then it would mean the election, by your calculation, is meant not to be free and fair and that there is a deliberate will and plan to subvert the wish of the people. The experience of our people in the 2011 national Assembly election and the 2012 governorship election clearly give credence to this possibility. This time around, this plan, your Excellency, will come at very grave costs and with dire consequences if it is ever implemented. It should also put you on notice that our people are ready and will do anything and everything acceptable to resist the siege, vote peacefully and make their votes count. For avoidance of doubt, let me restate in sequence what is now in public domains and which elements in your own party have rehearsed as some of your partys ABC to victory in the April 5th election. 1. Delay delivery of voting materials to the opponents strongholds. 2. During vote counting, create crisis and violence in the deep waterside villages with a view to destroy ballot boxes and other result materials. 3. Delay transportation of electoral/result materials from hinterland to local government collation centers till nightfall with a view to create fertile ground for manipulation. 4. Use hired thugs and heavily armed militants clothed in Military and Police uniforms to hijack elections at key waterside villages in Arogbo, Ugbo and Mahin, thereby returning stuffed ballots in favour of the LP candidate. 5. Arrest some key leaders of the PDP and frame them for crime in order to humiliate them. 6. In the event of the trend showing a clear loss to the LP, create sponsored violence at collation centres with a view to transferring the final collation to Akure for counting and manipulation. All these the public now know will be backed by a heavily compromised and influenced INEC and Security agencies including the unscrupulous members of the Military. For instance, not a few members of the public now rumour the details of the master -servant relationship between you and the Ondo state INEC. This is personified by the relationship between the headship of the commission in Ondo state who was said to have literarily turned themselves into a mimic midget and a shameless lickspittle for a pittance of state fund which you dangle with scorn. Mr. Governor, I sincerely hope and fervently pray that all these are not true as it will be nothing but a costly mistake that shouldnt have happened. Quite frankly, having learnt all of the above, one is not sure whether to agree with keen watchers of your politics and many of the leaders of your party in Ondo state who have described you as a fervent Machiavellian and a civilian dictator. Otherwise how does one describe the pains of local government workers who campaigned for you and wore Party vests to support your re-election only to, in return, got sack letters or unending screening leading to stoppage of salaries as thank you notes? But your Excellency, though Politics is about Power, Conquest and Territories, Leadership is and should be about Vision, Mission and engineering Change. Election, in all civilised nations is the moderator and final measure of our collective integrity and humanism. In all, the people, I mean the voters must be the king and ultimate decider of how they wish to be governed. It is therefore in the light of all of the above that I urge you with all sense of responsibility to let the sleeping dog lie in the April 5th Ilaje/Ese-Odo election. Let the people freely and fairly and transparently choose their own representative. Do not attempt to force your wish on the people. The costs will be too much to bear. Finally sir and as one politician to another, I know why this election is a do or die for you. I also know you are eager to be seen by Abuja as the single, strongest and most important politician in the South Western Nigeria, it should therefore not be farfetched that a loss for you in this election is a dream shattered, ego deflated and hope withered. It is exactly in order not to be used as pawns or personalized plaything for any individuals personal goal that all of us, both politicians across all parties including yours; and non politicians, who are natives and residents across all communities in the two local government areas have harmonized our thoughts for a free, fair and credible elections governed by peace, tolerance and transparency. After all, all the candidates are our sons and from the same local government area. Your Excellency, having spoken my mind and the minds of the generality of the stakeholders in the two local government areas, I can only wish you the very best of luck as you lead your party out. Please accept the assurances of my best regards for you and your pleasant wife and our First Lady. Yours sincerely, Hon.AgboolaAlfredAjayi. MHR(2007-2011)
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:06:46 +0000
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