By Adekunle Adebayo
One has deliberately refrained from making public comments on governance in Ondo State for a number of personal reasons. Chief among them was the need to allow a young administration the space for stabilization, adjustment, and calibration.
However, with the definitive judgement delivered yesterday by the Federal High Court barring Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa from seeking a third tenure, one hopes the business of governance will now receive the sane, knowledge-driven and focused attention it deserves.
There is a sense in which the motion without movement that the state has witnessed over the past year may be explained — though not excused — by a mixture of inexperience and self-induced hesitation. Even if such a condition was understandable at the outset, it is no longer tenable. The governor must now roll up his sleeves and begin to engineer a government with soul, character and vision.
It is not too late for the administration to become serious about the constitutional duty of government: the provision of real service and security for the people.
Despite the unprecedented flow of public revenues into the state, the prevailing economic stagnation and unimpressive growth indicators suggest not only a deficit of innovative thinking but also a troubling absence of vision, craft and strategic knowledge. The troubling rise of insecurity across the state, coupled with a parade of window-dressed economic and empowerment summits, risks further eroding the credibility and public standing of Governor Aiyedatiwa’s administration.
Now that it is clear he cannot seek another term as governor of Ondo State, this moment should free him from political distractions and compel him to pursue something far more enduring: a legacy worthy of his name and tenure.
He is advised to articulate and execute a coherent plan capable of giving economic oxygen to the lives of the people. He needs to rescue the machinery of government from the suffocating grip of entrenched interests within his own administration who appear to be strangulating its agencies. Government parastatals must be properly funded, and the entire system must be liberated from the culture of tokenism and perfunctory handouts.
Governor Aiyedatiwa must also begin to think of governance beyond the steeze of sartorial elegance and needless flamboyance. The moment calls for a fundamental shift in the philosophy of governance.
There is need for a decisive change of gear that can revive the image of government from its present condition of being a static, soulless effigy, frozen in place and staring into the distance with the sightless stare of a marble bust.
Mr. Kunle Adebayo is the immediate former General Manager of the Ondo State Government owned Ondo State Radiovision Corporation, OSRC
