The Consistent Inconsistencies of Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State

The Consistent Inconsistencies of Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State

By Oluwaseyi Oduyela

In early 2002 when I started to see Mr. Ibikunle Amosun’s billboards in Ogun State, I thought the man was going to unseat Chief Segun Osoba, but his interest was not the Governor’s seat but the Senate.  One can say that he spent more money on billboards than Gbenga Daniels the man who sent Osoba packing, with the help of Olusegun Obasanjo, from the state house in Abeokuta. Potentially, Amosun had created a large impression in the minds of many people in the State. I wondered why he spent so much money to defeat Femi Okunrounmu for the Senate. Little did we know that Amosun was actually preparing himself for the Ogun state governorship? Amosun ran for the Senate as a candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) just as Gbenga Daniels too; but the two money bags soon became sworn enemies when Amosun began to nurse the ambition to unseat Daniels. Daniels had planned to spend 8 years and Amosun wanted him out. This fight caused many lives on both sides.  Amosun eventually left the PDP to join the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He lost the 2007 election to Daniel, fought it but lost.

Amosun, seized the opportunity of the crisis within the PDP caused by Gbenga Daniels and Olusegun Obasanjo to renew his ambition, he also plotted this by making sure that he has all the State executive officers of Action Congress of Nigeria (ANC) on his pay roll. He knew ANPP will not deliver him the ticket so he negotiated with ACN and they agreed to field him as their candidate. This was beyond what Osoba could handle. Amosun has the money, and he has the Ogun State ACN executive in his pocket. He won the election in Ogun state defeating Gen Olurin and others.

As soon as he took over, his ambition to get even with Daniels beclouded his sense of reasoning and good governance. He began to cancel and undo all of Gbenga Daniel’s projects, stopping almost everything and taking over property. He has forgotten that Nigeria is now under democracy when he took Police to occupy Compass newspaper claiming that it belonged to Ogun state government when he has no court order to do so.  It was so glaring that Amosun hate Gbenga and he did not hide it.

He ran for election as the people’s governor but crossed path with the same people by arbitrarily increasing the taxes of civil servants in Ogun State. Now instead of running after Daniel, Amosun now unjustifiably transferred his aggression on the poor civil servant, illegally and unlawfully deducting their salaries calling it levies. It took an industrial action from the civil servants for Amosun to reverse his unpopular decision. People now began to compare him to the Cult patron Gbenga Daniel and like the people of Israel, lamenting that they fared better under Pharaoh Gbenga Daniel than this Moses.

Amosun, sometimes last year declare that Tai Solarin University of Education would be merged with Faculty of Education, Olabisi Onabanjo University. He argued that the University was a waste. He retained the College of Education. This announcement generated heated debates from both sides. The pro-TASUEd group resisted Amosun’s moves. They challenged him to public debate. While his argument of debt incurred by TASUEd was in Millions of naira almost half a billion naira, to justify this action, he could not follow up on his decision.  Truly, TASUED was political. TASUED does not, to me, look like a University. TASUED is just a glorified college of education. TASUED cannot compete with Adeyemi College of Education that is still affiliated to Obafemi Awolowo University. The College still offers Degree and NCE. The separation of the college and the University in the TASCE case was unwise. The decision was driven by economic gains at the expense of the students.  In fact Tai Solarin College of Education was just fives into offering degree programmes under University of Ibadan when it was awarded the autonomy to be a University. It is also shocking too to know that the School now offers master’s degree programmes.

As ta the time TASUED was born, the college was not ripe for such elevation. How did the NUC approve such autonomy, what was it based on? I know very well that the College does not have enough materials even to teach NCE students and how did it have enough to become a university? I have participated in several Accreditation exercises at Tai Solarin College of Education as a lecturer there in my 8 years of service and I know how we stock the department library with our own books to showcase to the NCE Accreditation Commission.  I was appalled then when Dr. Zacheeus Odumosu had to go to Ijebu Muslim College, Adeola Odutola Comprehensive High School to borrow textbooks to fill the the College library to showcase to the Accreditation Commission. I know for sure that some course in the Technical Depts got partial accreditation and that when TASCE got approval from Uiniversity of Ibadan to start a Degree program in education under the Institute of Education, University of Ibadan, TASCE’s manpower was the major reason it got the approval not on the materials it had. How did Gbenga Daniel transform that within 2 years to get the Approval? If the NUC, a body trusted to govern Nigerian Universities lack moral and good sense of judgment, then what hope does the nation education have? NONE!

Amosun’s decision to back down shows that he was not initially driven by doing the right thing but my undoing everything that Gbenga Daniel did.

It is disheartening to know that while workers of the Tai Solarin College of Education are being denied salaries for many months and still asking for the unpaid salaries to be paid, Amosun and his people in government get paid monthly, they even waste money on trips abroad at the expense of these good and hardworking people.

Soon Amosun’s government will reduce retirement age from 60 to 55years old and cut it from 35years length of service to 30 years. The argument would be to save money. Save money for whom? For them to spend and waste? Why would people work and not get paid and leaders will go home to bed happy when their employees are starving? This raises very strong moral questions.

I was wondering what Amosun’s accomplishments were when he was in the Senate representing Ogun State? I am very sure that his election in 2011 was not based on his public service record but on the size of his pocket.

I am been wondering about why people run for public office until I met the late Major General Abdulkarim Adisa. He told me that once you have money, it gives you economic power but you need political power to support your economic power. Meaning that most of the people we throw into public offices only want to fulfill their political ambition but not to serve.  Amosun is rich, though we don’t know how he made his money; he went to the Senate buying his way through and bought his way to the Governor’s office in Ogun State. That is Amosun’s Nigerian dream.

It is the right of every employee who works to be paid. Every government, employer has the moral responsibility to ensure that their employees are taken care of. How do we ensure development, growth and citizens’ participation if we don’t motivate them?

It is only an irresponsible government that will close its eyes to its citizens’ suffering, turn deaf ears to their crying, and liv eon false hope that come 2015 re-election will be easy.

I have read a lot about this man and his style of governance both from people who like him and people who don’t and I visited Ogun State during my last visit to Nigeria and did not see any sign of development.

I think it is high time people started electing true leaders with a sense of purpose than electing candidates on how much handouts they offer before elections.