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The government of Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo State, is in the eye of the storm for its inability to make a meaningful impact in almost three years during which over N270 billion accrued to the state as revenue

The  duo of Olaiya Oni and Yele Omogunwa were two of the strongest pillars of the political machine that brought Rahman Olusegun Mimiko to power as governor of Ondo State on February 24, 2009, after a tortuous two-year legal battle over the April 2007 governorship election. In the April 2011 elections, the leadership acumen of one of the pillars fetched the Labour Party, LP, three senators, eight members of the House of Representatives and 25 House of Assembly legislators in the state. This effectively put LP as one of Nigeria’s six most influential political parties.

 But today, Oni and Omogunwa, state chairman of Labour Party, LP, and former commissioner for works in Ondo State respectively, have parted ways with the state’s helmsman. Omogunwa, a pastor, saw the handwriting on the wall first. Although he was in charge of the Works Ministry considered juiciest as it awards major construction contracts, Omogunwa did not delude himself. He told Newswatch that he knew nothing about the multi-billion Naira jobs awarded. This much, he told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the country’s anti-corruption agency which probed alleged inflation of contract sums by the fledgling state government in 2010.

When he resigned from government on August 26, 2010, the party chairman thought he should have soldiered on and endured the governor’s perceived dictatorial tendencies. A year later, Oni himself threw in the towel. In bailing out of the turbulence-prone LP, Oni, in his resignation letter said that Mimiko was selfish, self-seeking and ready to sacrifice any relationship for his selfish interest and that he was running government like his personal property. “Day-in, day-out, he continued to grow from bad to worse in our relationship,” he said. Victor Kiladejo, the traditional ruler of Ondo where Mimiko hails from, reportedly brokered a truce between the two men following which the elder politician gave Mimiko a 60-day moratorium to mend his ways. At the expiry of the ultimatum, the Iroko, as Mimiko is called by ardent supporters, was not ready to come down from his Olympian height. Oni chose the exit door.

The exit of these two men, who had stood behind Mimiko like the rock of Gibraltar since 2006, when he decided to contest for the highest office in the state until he realised his ambition through a court verdict on February 23, 2009, which said that his victory was stolen in the 2007 governorship election, has shaken the Iroko’s political structure to its foundation. The gathering storm that accompanied Oni’s exit is threatening to fell the big Iroko tree and ensure the collapse of the LP, in Ondo State.

Oni’s departure has opened a floodgate of allegations of non-performance against the Mimiko administration. In motor parks, eateries and even on the roads, a visitor is assailed by complaints over how Ondo’s revenue put at about N270 billion since February 2009 has been allegedly wasted. “Since 2009, all his projects – roads and building renovation – are still ongoing. In most cases, work done is not more than 20 percent,” the erstwhile LP chairman said, adding “these are issues the State House of Assembly should have looked into rather than approve Mimiko’s borrowing spree.”

People are worried about the state’s finances. Last July, the state got N16.3 billion from the federation account, FAC. Barely a month after, Mimiko said he was going to the bond market to raise funds for the state, just like Olusegun Agagu, his predecessor, wanted to raise N30 billion. Oni vehemently opposed Agagu even as he was a staunch member of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP. He wrote the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and notified the Presidency that the profligacy must not be allowed as Ondo State was getting adequate revenue as an oil producing state.

As soon as Mimiko indicated his desire to toe Agagu’s line, Oni wrote the governor and asked what had happened to the hundreds of billions from FAC. “If we opposed Agagu over that issue, we should not do the same thing.” Notwithstanding this opposition, Mimiko is on borrowing binge. Newswatch learnt that following the Assembly’s approval, he has borrowed N10 billion from local banks in Akure, the state capital.

Not a few of the state’s indigenes have complained that the state government in the last two and a half years had spent billions of Naira on projects that have little impact on the economic well-being of the people. The list is endless. Investigations showed that as soon as he became governor, Mimiko announced that he was issuing all citizens Kaadi Igbeayo, a social security card, “to enable holders track down and access easily available opportunities while on the other hand assisting government to plan and provide adequately for residents in the state.”

Sources said the data capturing project was a partnership between the state government on one hand and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, Department for International Development, DFID, and United Nations Development Programme, UNDP. It was estimated to cost N3.7 billion. Ondo State government was to provide One billion Naira counterpart funding. The contract was said to have been awarded to Abass Mimiko, the governor’s brother. Newswatch learnt that the residency card for all citizens in the state has gulped N1.2 billion so far without anything to show for it.

The Dome, a N1.5 billion 2,500-capacity event centre, is another project that has come under heavy criticism. On one of his foreign tours, Mimiko was said to have fallen in love with a dome he saw. He decided to build one on the National Secretariat Road, just before the State House of Assembly, Akure. The Dome which was to sit atop 34 hectares of land was to be built with fabric (Valmex Mehatop F) instead of bricks. The consultants to the project claimed that the fabric is a “heavy duty membrane made of multi-layer composite material with resistance against high temperature and weather impacts, water and dirt resistance, reduced penetration of fungus and improved cleaning features.”

It also comes with plywood flooring. The main entrance will be of double aluminum/glass door while the exits will have membrane doors. With these structures, the consultants claimed the Dome can last for 40 years even under severe weather conditions. The building to be constructed by German, Canadian, Polish and Chinese engineers would also  have concert and conference halls that can sit 6,000 and 3,000 people respectively and a 2,000 capacity car park. There would be a ramp to aid movement of physically challenged persons. “To keep the place functional, we have outsourced the facility management of the centre,” one consultant to the project promised.

At the ground-breaking ceremony on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, Mimiko was ecstatic. He told his subjects that no other project ranked higher in his priority than the centre. “From the perspective of commercially exploiting a dominant trend for ultra-modern events packaging, the centre would be a veritable source of much needed revenue in its services to international or federal agencies, professional bodies, non-governmental organisations,” he had boasted. But almost two years after, the project is still at foundation level. The site was overgrown with weeds when Newswatch visited three weeks ago.

A source who said that about N1.2 billion has been sunk into the moribund idea also hinted that work might resume on the site soon. However, he revealed that the contract might have been reviewed upward to N1.8 billion. Also, he said Mimiko had jettisoned the fabric idea for bricks to suit Nigeria’s environmental conditions.

There is the award of contract for the renovation of the Akure Township Stadium twice. At its 19th meeting held on August 11, 2010, the State Executive Council considered a memorandum for the upgrading/rehabilitation of the stadium and ultimately awarded the contract for the sum of N483,770,460.52. The following day, the award letter with reference number SG/S.46/8/734 was written to DOJ Construction Nig. Ltd. of 5, Aina Eleko Street, Onigbongbo, Maryland, Ikeja. The job was to be completed within 12 weeks from the date of payment of mobilisation fee of 30 percent of the contract sum. Sources said the job was not done.

Curiously, however, a year later, Mimiko granted an alleged “out-of-council approval” for the award of the same contract for the sum of N416,112,410.95 to the same Ikeja-based company. But this time, the job was couched as “Upgrading/Rehabilitation of Akure Township Stadium (Second Phase).

In his plan to change the face of Akure and make the state capital “21st century-compliant,” Mimiko has embarked on urban renewal projects including rehabilitating the dual carriage Oba Adesida Road. It is barely four kilometres long. But the road is taking too long to complete. It was reportedly awarded for N1.8 billion. Daily, there is heavy traffic on the road due to ongoing work on the reconstruction of the existing median. Oni described the project as “money down the drain” as the road could have been repaired with a lesser sum.

Other road contracts whose costs were allegedly inflated included Ogbese – Owo Road, Fiwasaye – Airport Road and Ondo township road dualisation. Omogunwa, works commissioner for one and a half years, told Newswatch that he was arrested by the EFCC in the early days of the administration thrice over these contracts. “I made statements for hours. I told EFCC that as commissioner, I did not see any of the contractors and none could claim he knew me. At least knowing the company was to ensure the projects did not fail,” he said.

But the Irele – born politician and founding member of LP, is happy that his integrity remains unsoiled. He was commissioner for four years under the Alliance for Democracy, AD, administration of the late Adebayo Adefarati, first as information, youth, sports and culture helmsman and later as boss of education and lands and housing ministries. He joined others to put Mimiko in power and emerged commissioner for works. But given his travails in the hands of anti-corruption investigators when in fact he had been sidelined in the award of contracts, he left Mimiko’s government on August 26, 2010, to pursue his political career in the Senate. However, he claimed he was schemed out of the contest. Consequently, he resigned his membership of LP in September 2010. “Even through the governor blocked my ambition for the Senate, I am happier today,” he told Newwatch.         

Many indigenes of Ondo State are also baffled at the government’s claim to have built a befitting edifice in memory of Gani Fawehinmi, the late Lagos-based human rights crusader. To mark his two years in office last February, Mimiko commissioned the N800 million Gani Fawehinmi Health Diagnostic Centre in Ondo, the late legal icon’s home town. But unknown to praise singers, the state government owned 20 percent of the venture, while MECURE Services located in Isolo, Lagos, owned 80 percent.

Other projects on which the state government was alleged to have invested huge sums unproductively include the N5.6 billion Sunshine Cement Factory, Okeluse; N400 million tomato factory at Arigidi Akoko; N1.2 billion Agriculture village, Ore; N600 million renovation of Unity Secondary Schools, and payment of N450,000 each monthly for hiring of 40 Hilux vans when the state could afford outright purchase.

Also, many people condemned the government’s profligacy, especially in the 2010 supplementary budget tagged “Re-ordered Budget.” In it, the office of the governor alone spent N450 million on computer feeders such as ink, cords and paper and N420 million on hotel accommodation. A total of N60 million was spent to prepare the budget while 40 copies of it were printed at a cost of N35 million.

Efforts to speak to Mimiko proved abortive. Eni Akinsola, then senior special assistant (print media) to the governor, said that because of the dissolution of the cabinet by the governor about two months ago, there was no official spokesman for the government. He, however, requested for a questionnaire on all the issues. This was duly submitted. When reminded of the need to provide answer to the questions on October 3, following his appointment as chief press secretary and that of Kayode Akinmade as information commissioner, he replied that he “will get the response across.” He did not by press time on October 6, 2011.

But when Mimiko dissolved the cabinet about two months ago, he asserted that he had lived up to the people’s expectation. “We have been able to deliver on our promises for the people of Ondo State; we have tried our best,” he said.

For Mimiko, it was a tortuous journey to the Government House, Akure. For almost two years, he battled the PDP to recover his mandate which he believed was unjustly given to Olusegun Agagu, the party’s governorship candidate in the April 2007 elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Backed by the LP and leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, especially Bola Tinubu, Mimiko challenged the result at the Elections Petition Tribunal headed by Garuba Nabaruma. On July 25, 2008, the body ruled in his favour but Agagu appealed the decision.

On February 23, 2009, the Appeal Court in Benin headed by Umaru Abdullahi upheld the lower court’s verdict and declared Mimiko the validly elected governor of Ondo State. The appellate body said he scored 25 percent of the votes cast in 12 of 18 local government areas of the state with 195,000 votes as against Agagu’s 135,000 votes.

The following day, at a well attended ceremony, Mimiko was sworn in as governor at the Akure Township stadium. The event was witnessed by Tinubu and some of the ACN governors. The new governor promised to hit the ground running with his remarkable phrase: “I will work for you, I will work for you, I will work for you.” One year after this promise, Ranti Akerele, former commissioner for information, said the government had recorded success in “culture, community-driven city and coastal region renewal, aggressive capitalisation of land resources, roads, industrialisation, education, rural development and tourism.”

He said the government built a new market in NEPA area of the state capital and initiated a N50 million Special Market Women Improvement Loan Scheme, SMILES, through which 200 market women have secured loans at nine percent interest rate. About 700 women got soft loans through Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Programme across the state’s three senatorial zones.

The Mimiko administration also built a state-of-the-art Mother and Child Hospital at Akure to provide free specialised medical care for pregnant women and children from age zero to five. Within his first year in office, about 1,200 people benefited from the government’s free surgery programme while at least 1,000 were given eye glasses.

But these are far below the public expectations that heralded Mimiko’s coming as the governor of Ondo State. Many people are disappointed and are grumbling. His political camp is also in disarray. Supporters of Oni may defect en masse to the ACN even though the former LP chairman has not announced his next destination. However, sources said he and his supporters may opt for the ACN which had reportedly lobbied Mimiko to decamp to its fold to complete its takeover of the old Western Region.

The ACN was believed to have supported his legal battle against Agagu financially. Its members accompanied Mimiko to Benin for the Appeal Court verdict of February 23, 2009. When he was declared winner, they all trooped to the Edo Government House where they were received by Governor Adams Oshiomhole who had secured his own victory through the same channel. Thereafter, Mimiko rode to Akure in a motorcade of LP and ACN supporters.

But since this victory dance, Mimiko has snubbed all overtures to him to dump LP and join the party which won the governorship elections in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Edo states. This has angered the leaders of the opposition party considerably. As the race for 2013 gathers momentum, an array of ACN top shots in the state are set to unseat Mimiko.

But to bring himself back to the people’s reckoning, the embattled governor is wooing LP leaders in Akoko where Oni hails from. He has promised the people some juicy deals and to fix the bad roads in this northern senatorial district. Whether or not these will endear him to the people once again remains to be seen.