GBENGA DANIEL AND THE BACKWARDNESS OF OGUN STATE

Gbenga Daniel was spotted the other day campaigning with his hand-picked governorship candidate and sidekick. Daniel and his stooge were campaigning for a job the stooge has not been nominated for by the PDP! Strange things happen where Mr. Daniel is concerned. While a lot of people consider it stupid and dumb, I think it is a good sign of gross disrespect for the rule of law and an obsession with self-importance.

Mr. Daniel attended the rally wearing a hat on top of an agbada and a staff of emperorship or rod (a symbol of his empty mien of superiority) in his hands. He promised to fight to the end, but never mentioned the name of the person he is at war with! Who was the fashionista who suggested a hat in place of a cap to Gbenga Daniel? Is Mr. Daniel finally losing it the very same way he lost Ogun State in the race for development?

I will not try to compare Mr. Daniel to the hugely successful governor of Lagos State, Raji Babatunde Fashola. It will be like comparing night and day. Considering the endless challenges in Lagos State and the myriad of problems the Lagos State Governor faced and is still facing since he took over less than four years ago, you will wonder how Fashola has been able to transform Lagos State in three years while Mr. Daniel has nothing to show for eight years of terrible misrule, banditry and hooliganism. The workman's sign in Ogun State in eight years has been the same: "BRIGAND AT WORK - PLEASE PISS OFF". Eight years and the people of Ogun State are still without water, medical care, good schools and colleges.

The monthly federal allocation to Ogun State ran into billions of naira. The money quickly disappears as soon as it is collected and there is nothing to show for it. For sure, Mr. Daniel was never elected by the people of Ogun State; he was chosen and awarded the job by the rigging machinery of his now disorganized and demystified political party, which is primarily why serving the people of Ogun State and putting their funds into good use for the benefit of the indigenes of the state was never on the cards.


With the support of then President Obasanjo and the mutual benefits the two men derive it was possible for Mr. Daniel to begin to develop a false mentality of superiority and pseudo-super star image. How do you make claim to a super star image when you have done practically nothing beside send your wife on endless trips to the United Kingdom and a litany of Owanbes?

The people of Ogun State are the losers of that greedy and selfish arrangement. Mr. Daniel spoke at the self-styled "farewell rally" and gave himself a pass mark with unsubstantiated claims that he has "done everything possible to turn the state economy around." The truth is that in eight years Mr. Daniel has turned Ogun state economy on its head; he has neglected schools and colleges, deprived hospitals of the much needed funds, and mismanaged state funds.

100 billion naira was the state's budget in 2009 and 2010. To what use did Mr. Daniel put more than 200 billion naira in a spate of two years? One road, the Siun-sagamu Road, was awarded for the sum of 1 billion naira. The rehabilitation and annual maintenance of this single road is also costing the state 500 million naira each year! The 100 billion naira bond raised by Mr. Daniel has left the state in a big hole. Ogun State now expends more than 5 billion naira annually to service debts incurred during the years of the locust under Mr. Daniel.

The choice investments Mr. Daniel made for the state such as the stadium projects in Abeokuta, Ijebu-Ode and sagamu, the Sagamu International Market, Yewa International Market, the Olumo Rock project and the Trailer Pack are nothing more than bottomless pits and wasteful projects that have only made millionaires, probably billionaires out of the contractors and those they fronted for.

What is the wisdom and common sense in building an international market in Sagamu and Yewa? What do you need international markets for in towns and localities that are not linked nor served by major roads and highways? Who wants to come to some towns in Ogun state to buy goods with no hope of finding good transportation to move such goods?

At 2 billion naira each the markets are absolutely unnecessary and built for other reasons beside the interests of the people. Who wants to do international trade in Sagamu or Yewa where there are no link roads or an international airport? What was the motivation for wasting billions of naira on gargantuan projects that will only go to ruin, be poorly maintained and eventually abandoned?

I was in Ijebu-Ode in March 2010. The road from Otunba Subomi Balogun's house right to the roundabout by the cemetery was built in the 1980s by the government of Chief Olabisi Onabanjo. That road has lost one side to water and grass. The only side remaining is now shared by vehicles going the opposite directions. The water-logged and grass-invaded side is nothing but a metaphor of the degeneration Ogun State has become under Mr. Daniel.

The schools and colleges in Ijebu-Ode are no better. Ijebu-Ode Grammar School (IOGS) is in a deplorable situation despite the best efforts of the students and staff of the school to put it in good shape. The Assembly Hall at IOGS needs urgent attention. There are so many dilapidated buildings inside the school that obviously pose threats to students and staff, and classrooms are inadequate. The school and many others like it are in urgent need of repairs, new classrooms and laboratory equipment.

Mr. Daniel appeared to have left the schools to the care of God while he is taking very good care of himself with generous budget allocation to the Governor's Office. Most of the roads in Ijebu-Ode and it's environ are far from being worthy. Seeing Ijebu-Ode, the second largest city in Ogun State, and seven years into Mr. Daniel's governorship left me bewildered and shocked. Is Ogun state getting its own share of the national cake and revenue allocation? If the answer is yes, then where is all the money going to? Why is there so much poverty and unemployment in Ogun State?

Who owns Conference Hotel in Ijebu-Ode? Conference Hotel sits on the very site where the Judges' Quarters in Ijebu-Ode were located. How did that landed property that used to provide official accommodation to jurists in Ijebu-Ode changed hands? It has been rumoured that Conference Hotel is a business concern of Mr. Gbanga Daniel. I was unable to confirm this, but this is not the only state property purported to have been diverted to personal ownership by Mr. Daniel. There is the land on which Mr. Daniel built his mansion in Sagamu, which was also said to be the property of the state judiciary.

Ghana-must-go bags have done far better than the people of Ogun State, and the EFCC should wake up to its responsibility and hold Mr. Daniel accountable for the billions spent in Ogun state with little to show for it. Ogun State has never had it this bad. The arrogance of a failed governor who sees himself as an emperor just tick you off and makes everyone wonder who he thinks he is. Who do you think you are, Mr. Daniel?

Even Chief Obafemi Awolowo never regarded himself as an emperor, so you wonder why a poor performer like Mr. Gbenga Daniel would think so highly of himself despite his below par performance.

Chief Awolowo who made free education, free health care, social services, road networks and economic development possible never for one moment thrust his nose at anyone or considered himself larger than life; it was the people who saw unusual and outstanding attributes of leadership and good governance in him who made him a sage, a nationalist and their hero.

But Mr. Daniel who made hunger possible and poverty available as a sole option in the lives of the people of Ogun State is so full of himself, so drunk on self and emptiness that he wants everyone to see him as a modern day emperor! Where is Mr. Daniel coming from that he has no rope around his neck? This man lacks humility and is devoid of honour and respect for the people and taxpayers of Ogun State. He is either on something or drunk on empty pride.

Does it surprise anyone that Mr. Daniel prefers to handover to his stooge? I just cannot stop laughing when I read what he said in Imeko. "God is telling me that I will hand over to Isiaka as the next governor of Ogun State"! Isiaka who? I do not know the god Mr. Daniel is referring to, but I know it is not the God who hates failure, arrogance, greed, selfishness, chaos, blood letting, blunder and monstrosity.

Leaders like Chief Awolowo and the "rascal" in Lagos State, Governor Raji Babatunde Fashola made very striking contributions to social, economic, educational and civic development and earned the respect, applause, and submission cum devotion of their people and followers. But a self-appointed leader such as Mr. Gbenga Daniel who has nothing meaningful to show for eight years of selfish service will only earn the contempt, disdain and hisses of the people, not even his hugely amassed wealth will find him peace.

He will be lucky if he is not stoned by the masses of Ogun State, or he will need the protection of security forces to escape stones and shoes being flung at him every where he turns. Mr. Daniel will never be able to walk along Ibara Road in Abeokuta with Raji Babatunde Fashola - Fashola on this side, Daniel on the other side of the street - without Mr. Daniel being stoned by men and women, young and old, students and tradesmen.

They will stone Mr. Gbenga Daniel for the terrible way he mismanaged the funds of the state, the poverty he brought with him, the dilapidation of their schools, the white elephant projects he initiated in the state, and the debts he piled up for Ogun State.

Do you know Emperor Daniel actually zoned the governorship of Ogun State to Yewa? He said that much at his farewell rally and thumbed his chest as a kingmaker. Mr. Daniel a Kingmaker? A political upstart, a neophyte is suddenly seeing himself as a kingmaker! What kind of king will a leper make? The emperor of Ogun State!

This is how much Mr. Daniel sees himself, and how banal and empty he is. Ogun State has been a one man show for eight years, and, unfortunately, that one man lacked wisdom, humility, integrity, fairness and the selflessness demanded of good leadership. He came to be served and to rule.

He chose to rule as a rod-wielding, all-powerful autocratic emperor of Ogun State. Now the emperor wants to relocate to the Nigerian Senate. Unfortunately, the Nigerian Senate has no room for emperors and totalitarian powers. The emperor who has vowed to defect to another political party is now ready to fight till the end. This is an emperor who rants from both sides of his mouth. He will be disgraced and be brought to earth.