Posted by By AKEEB ALARAPE, Ibadan on
People of Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State have risen against the former Minister of State for Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development, Mr. Bamidele Dada, for calling on them to immortalise former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, describing it as 'a cheap image laundering for a disgraced dictator."
People of Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State have risen against the former Minister of State for Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development, Mr. Bamidele Dada, for calling on them to immortalise former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, describing it as 'a cheap image laundering for a disgraced dictator."
Reacting to a recent news report published in one of the national dailies (not Daily Sun) where the former minister called on his people in Oke-Ogun areas to immortalise Obasanjo for addressing the long neglect of the area, the Oke-Ogun people called on the former minister to name any project executed by Obasanjo's administration during its eight years tenure that warranted any honour for the former president.
In a press release signed by Alhaji Musbau Popoola, a community leader from Irepo Local Government area of Oke-Ogun, on behalf of Concerned Indigenes of Oke-Ogun, the aggrieved indigenes took a swipe on the minister for trading with the lives and wellbeing of his people to lobby for a new appointment from the government of the day by looking for undeserved honour for his former master.
'It might be of interest to note that the ex-minister who hails from Sepeteri in Saki East Local Government never for once toured the whole of Oke-Ogun while in office, which now reflects negatively in his general assessment of the place. But we are compelled to state that he acted fraudulently and maliciously.
'But what has Oke-Ogun indigenes done to deserve this blatant lie and falsehood from Otunba Bamidele Dada, whom Oke-Ogun stood by during his four years in office? Even his ministry, which could have facilitated fertilizers for Oke-Ogun farmers, failed to bring one single bag of fertilizers for our farmers, even if the ministry was not going to subsidise it", the statement said in parts.
The aggrieved people, who described the ex-minister's call as a salt on their injuries, stated that none of the 10 local government areas that make up Oke-Ogun could lay claim to any project executed by Obasanjo's administration during his eight years tenure, leaving them with long list of abandoned federal roads, erratic power supply, lack of good water and health facilities.
'In terms of health facility, Oke-Ogun indigenes have to come down to Ibadan and other neighbouring states for good health care services despite the presence of the University College Hospital at Sepeteri, the ex-minister's town, which is now in a very deplorable state.
'The building, which housed the hospital, is almost in ruins with no doctors. The hospital beds are gone. No drugs. The main gist is that the hospital is a shadow of itself.
We make bold to ask what the ex-minister did to assist the hospital throughout his four years in office. We are quite sure that the spirit of Late Prince Afolabi Oyeleke Agboola, a fellow Sepeteri man, who used his influence as the Chairman of U.C.H during Alhaji Shehu Shagari's administration, to establish the hospital will be fuming in anger," the statement added.
Describing the ex-minister's statement as ‘inhuman', the Oke-Ogun people also contended with the ex-minister over the misuse of a laudable occasion of the award of scholarship to Oke-Ogun students in tertiary institutions organized by a New York-based group, Oke-Ogun Progressive (OPA) to launder Obasanjo's battered image.
'We strongly want to advise the ex-minister to face the reality that he is no more in government and settle down as a private citizen instead of further battering his image by turning himself to a praise singer and refrain from further insulting Oke-Ogun with his biased statement. Moreover, we Oke-Ogun indigenes do not need to be appealed to before we immortalize any deserving person least of all a disgraced dictator like Obasanjo", the statement said.