Politics

Report…The many trials of Ogbeni Aregbe

Published

8 years ago

January 21, 2016

By Olumide Olaoluwa

The honeymoon is over. It started in November 2010. Engineer Rauf Aregbesola was declared governor of Osun State by the Appeal Court sitting in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State. The declaration was a watershed for progressive politics in the South West. Until then, only Lagos State was in the progressive fold.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had won seriously flawed elections across the region. But when Aregbesola was sworn in, progressive politics in the South West received a boost. For indigenes of the state, it was particularly an exhilarating development. Many of them were convinced Aregbesola won the 2007 elections. But federal forces aided by former President Olusegun Obasanjo would have none of this. They installed Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a former Military Administrator, for an undeserved second term. Osun indigenes jumped for joy.

Aregbesola, a former activist, was coming to government with an impeccable record.
He had been a hugely successful Commissioner of Works and Housing in Lagos State for eight uninterrupted years. Lagos State was brimming with new roads across all the local governments with giant infrastructural development. It owed everything to Aregbesola, a man who was reputed as an astute administrator and politician.

So, for many Osun indigenes, his coming to governance was a most welcome development. It would, they reckoned, usher the state into a period of unprecedented infrastructural development. It was a given that Aregbesola would replicate his sterling performances in Lagos. In less than six months after he took over, Aregbesola more than lived up to the billing. He practically turned the nooks and crannies of Osun State to a construction site.

Projects after projects started springing up everywhere. From model schools to hospitals and massive roads, Aregbesola had his hands full of developmental projects. The people leapt for joy. The much-awaited Messiah was here. They practically licked his boots, willing to allow him rule the state for ever.

Beginning of troubles
Developmental projects are good but always come at great costs. Aregbesola apparently didn’t take this into cognizance. He operated like a child which inherited a fortune and proceed on a spending spree. Without additional incomes and backups, he was always going to become bankrupt regardless of the worth of the estate.

The moment oil prices started dwindling, Aregbesola got into troubles. Federal allocations, the state’s mainstay, also became meager. The agricultural potentials of Osun were left untapped. The government was used to free oil money and merely put all his eggs in one basket. Being in an opposition party until 2015 also didn’t help him.

The PDP-led federal government saw him as a political threat that should be emasculated financially. When PDP states were getting several concessions and financial inputs, Osun State had to only make do with federal allocations. They were not only dwindling but also irregular. Aregbesola, ever a fighter, didn’t help either. He kept bombing the federal government on key policies and became the leading opposition governor.

Many PDP figures accused him of sponsoring elections in neighbouring Ekiti and Ondo States with Osun finances. Though unconfirmed, it is not unlikely that Aregbesola showed more than passing interests in those contests. Knowing his passion for anything he believes in, it is not inconceivable that he could have offered a little financial assistance here and there for candidates of his party.

Hard-won second term
By the time he sought reelection in 2014, Aregbesola’s stature as an indomitable politician had taken a serious bashing. Most of the projects had either stopped or were at stagnated level. Civil servants were being owed up to six months cumulatively. The projects he touted so much as his achievements were no longer viable. In short, the state was financially comatose.
Yet, the politician in him took over. He reached into his oratorical prowess, working up the people to give him a second term. The battle was long-drawn. Federal forces took nothing for granted. To win Osun State would be a major achievement for the PDP-led government. It would incapacitate a major strategic powerhouse in progressive politics.

Aregbesola was aware of the odds against him. He worked like he never did. He used every trick in the book to convince people he deserves reelection. At the end, he won with a little over 100,000 votes. His arch-rival, Iyiola Omisore, couldn’t upset him. It was a tribute to his organisational and mobilisation skills that he won reelection despite owing workers, who formed the bulk of voters in the state.

What went wrong?
But since he won re-election, things have gone from bad to worse. Last September, Osun got a paltry N55.8million as federal allocation after servicing of existing loans. He said it cannot even pay the electricity bill of the secretariat. The governor had taken too many bonds and loans to finance his many ambitious projects. Many of them, critics point out, are unnecessary but mere expression of ego trip.
For example, the State, according to them, does not need the size of dual roads the governor embarked on. They wonder how many vehicles ply the roads anyway to warrant such excessive figures committed to their construction.

With the schools, Aregbesola started the innovative Opon Imo concept that received wide applause from even international bodies such as UNESCO. But the innovation was beclouded by an unnecessary religious twist bordering on curious merger of Christian schools with state schools. The controversy cost Aregbesola, a hard-core Muslim, a chunk of his goodwill and placed a tag of fundamentalism on him. His intentions became suspicious as Christian bodies took him to the cleansers, alleging he was on a mission to Islamise Osun State.

In almost two years, he has run the state without commissioners. The implication is he does not have a constituted State Executive Council. Opposition figures have accused him of running the state singlehandedly. Projects were being awarded without inputs from others.

A crumbling political structure
Aregbesola, a certified engineer, according to sources close to him, believes he has more than it takes to run state projects on his own. It is alleged that he does not consult, let alone accept inputs from others in running the state. That systemically ate into his political goodwill. The massive structure he took time to build in the last six years has practically crumbled.

Without political appointments and patronage to dole out based on lack of funds, Aregbesola has been left more or less on his own, even by his staunchest supporters. One of them told our correspondent: “Why keep supporting a man who cannot better your life? We fought for him yet he cannot compensate us. We have left him to his own. He is on his own now.”

Though he is on a second term, Aregbesola, according to investigations, will not install his successor. Cheiftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) confided they will fight whoever he endorses to a standstill. One of them said: “This governor will not have his wish on succession. Whoever he gives us will be worse than him. We have not enjoyed him at all as a party and we cannot afford to lose this state.”

The secretariat, which used to be a beehive of activities, is almost a ghost zone now. Most workers no longer report to the office. Despite accessing a whopping N34.5billion as bailout, the highest in the country, the governor could only offset three months’ arrears of salaries. Most civil servants are owed five to six months salaries, excluding allowances and benefits.

His aides have also abandoned him. Investigations revealed most of them have returned to their previous workplaces or stopped working. One of them, who is being owed 18 months’ salary, said he has moved on. He has since moved with his family to a neighbouring state capital.

In short, the empire he worked so hard to build is crumbling right before his eyes. In Lagos State, he was untouchable and unstoppable. He had unlimited and flowing monies to execute projects. Though a commissioner, he operated like a King, taking advantage of his hold on Alimoso, the largest local government in the state, to win stupendous government patronage. But without the monies in Lagos, Aregbesola is becoming a political leper. He has lost grip of governance and is losing his vast political empire.

An indication to this effect was that Professor Isaac Adewole, the Minister of Health was appointed without his knowledge. Both are from the same local government. Under PDP, that was expected. But with an APC government he helped to install at the federal level, it was a rude shock to Aregbesola such an important appointment could be made without his input.

The governor is squandering his goodwill. He came to power as a beautiful bride but he is ending on all-time low.

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