HOW DR. THOMAS COULD NOT DISPEL OUR DOUBTS

HOW DR. THOMAS COULD NOT DISPEL OUR DOUBTS.

Dr Moronkola Thomas, a lawyer, Sociologist and criminologist according to how he confirmed his qualifications on the radio program is a good man in the wrong administration and couldn't justify his professional prowess when he faced the gigantual challenge of showing beyond reasonable doubts that the Ajimobi administration has performed better than abysmal, that it has not been executing contracts at criminal costs and the so called projects have positive sociological impacts on residents of Oyo State. 

Crossfire is a political radio magazine program moderated by Mayor Isaac Brown and yesterday's (30/07/2017)  guests were Hon Kehinde Ayoola of SDP, representing the opposition and Dr. Moronkola Thomas of APC, representing the incumbent government in Oyo State. Despite the matured fraternity displayed by both parties in their introductions, one can't miss the determination and the fact that their guns are loaded. It was a seriocomical exposure to the realities on ground, as perceived by both camps.

My follow up to the program is necessitated by the continuous lyrical ranting of Dr. Thomas that Hon Ayoola is lying with statistics but he couldn't convince the listeners how he arrived at that conclusion. He was not able to provide any statistic to contradict the stated ones. Obviously, Hon Ayoola didn't generate the statistics himself and as a scientist, as he professed himself to be on the program, statistics are crucial to the conclusions and theories but Dr. Thomas as a lawyer was not able to convince us beyond reasonable doubts that this administration is worth any commendation.

Without prejudice, we must acknowledge the mention of agricultural successes of this Administration by Dr Thomas but when Hon Ayoola asked; "where are they, at least you don't practice agriculture in the air?", Dr. Thomas couldn't show us the bleeding hand of conviction. That reminds me of the shear butter business the commissioner for Local Government alluded to in a program about a forthnight ago. "We want to projects, after six solid years of noisy administration ".

No doubt, I have heard some comments that Dr. Moronkola Thomas is a nice man, very cerebral and articulate and he met up to those appraisal during the program but he was met with the onerous task of trying to sell a bad product, trying to upturn rape case caught on live TV; a mission impossible, worse than hoping against hope.

Unfortunately, Dr Thomas believes in this administration which many of us that are not Thomases doubt and it's one of those things; when a great marketer has to sell a bad product, it doesn't show how good a salesman you are. Despite the poor performance of Dr. Thomas on the program, it still doesn't stop him from being a good man, a nice leader and a cerebral politician; just unfortunate to meet Hon Ayoola in a live debate; Crossfire without bulletproof jacket.
Season 2 of this film is 4pm on Sunday, August 6, 2017; you can't afford to miss it.

OmiTitun must flow jare....

APC/BUHARI: WHO HAS BEWITCHED NIGERIANS?

APC/BUHARI: WHO HAS BEWITCHED NIGERIANS?

At first, I was so excited by the visit of the representatives of  Governor's forum to the President and the pictures released, then I thought deeper on why the President refused to address the nation and why there's no audio visual records from these visits if he's not bedridden. Why would a responsible leader who knows his onus and in his right frame of mind because "his sense of humour is intact" find it difficult to communicate with the people and give comforting words and request for their further prayers and understanding? Arrogance and no sense of responsibility at all.

As a PR professional, I have my reservations about how his media aides are handling his health issue but I later comforted my self that they are media aides and not PR aides. Anyone can fall sick, particularly as one gets older but to treat it the way they do either means that their principal is stubbornly irresponsible or they have sold him wrongly to the public. Seriously, our country deserves a better leadership and this is entirely contrary to the expectations of Nigerians from this administration.

To make matters worse, the party has tactically denied all promises made during the election campaigns; pushed the Change back to the people and ask the people to define "Restructuring " which they promised in the party manifesto. The President that promised us to promote made in Nigeria products and local content has left the country for almost 100days without direct communications. Sorry, there was one Hausa broadcast. How pathetic?

Civil servants and pensioners are lavishing in lacks while the political office holders are passing bills of life pension for all their colleagues. The painful part of the whole thing is the arrogance with which they address the nation on these pathetic issues. They tell us the President determines if he wants to address us or not; yes but what is the responsible thing to do? Corruption in Nigeria is still as potent as ever but the noise of the anti corruption fight only gets louder with not culprits and no possible impact from the claimed retrieved stolen funds.

We are already past the mid term of this administration and what we still hear is the campaign; "we will, we want to". No major commissioning of completed project and everything is slow and the noises have gone louder. Companies are folding up, work force are trimmed down, salaries are not paid regularly, businesses are struggling and the ailing President eats lunch with Okorocha, shakes Ajimobi, Calls Bisi Akande, are the words from the Aso Rock annex in UK.

The willing Acting President has the cabal and the bigger than life national assembly to deal with, where the likes of Dino Melaye are the Principal officers. On occasions like this, I can only ask how come it's so difficult for Nigeria to move forward and make good progress. The so-called progressives have become the Retrogressives by their performances and excuses.

I can only beg that God have mercy on Nigerians, help us to break this curse, annul the bewitchment and make us come to our senses so that we will boldly do that we are supposed to do and stop hoping and waiting for someone from somewhere to come and rescue us somehow. God have mercy on my Nation.

God bless Nigeria.

OYO FIRST: THE POWER OF SYNERGY. By Kehinde Ayoola JP

OYO FIRST: THE POWER OF SYNERGY

You have probably heard in whispers or maybe you have not, that politicians in the opposition in Oyo State are gathering to synergize against the minority APC government in the our state.

Yes , the APC's is a minority government because the out-going Ajimobi Administration was rejected at the polls by about 66% of the electorate having been voted in by just 34% of those that voted.

It stands to reason therefore that if the opposition could just come together, we shall defeat the APC hands down.
The people must speak with one voice next time.
And that is the overriding quest of OYO FIRST, a rainbow coalition of patriotic people across all political divides. (We are even talking to several members of the ruling party - they are fed up too!).
Oyo First, as the name suggests, seeks to put our state first in all things.

Oyo First seeks to reverse the trend whereby we are in 26th position in WAEC.
The people in Oyo First believe a laborer is worthy of his wages and therefore his sweat must not cake up on his skin before he gets paid. Salaries backlog must be a thing of the past
Oyo First seeks a humble administration unlike the out-going Ajimobi government that shut all tertiary institutions at a time without batting an eyelid but decided to open the one at Oyo after the humiliation of forcing the Provost, staff and students to tender an "unreserved" apology.

Oyo First seeks to promote policies that shall unleash the latent economic creativity of our people  unlike the out-going Ajimobi government that drives people away from jobs, demolishes their means of livelihood like shops without providing alternatives etc.
Oyo First seeks to respect the dignity of man by being  champions against poverty unlike the out-going Ajimobi government that has driven people further into poverty in her unfortunate 6 years in power.
Oyo First seeks to put our about 17,000 sq km of arable land into productive use by our people for our people unlike the out-going Ajimobi and APC government that keeps junketing about , wasting scarce resources to look for 'foreign investors' who never come but under whose pretext she put up a rather nebulous PPP arrangement.

"Two are better than one....and a three-way chord is not easily broken" says the Scriptures.

I expect the APC e-rats and e-hyenas to adduce a zillion reasons why they think in their vacuous and warped minds that this may not work but I have a reply for them:

" No amount of force can stop an idea whose time has come"

We have been on this for about 2 years.
We tried this Electoral Synergy and it defeated the APC in the by-election into Oyo State House of Assembly seat for Oorelope Constituency in November , 2016.
We were going to do it again in the LG elections before the out-going governor Ajimobi chickened out in favour of his much-loved  but illegal Caretaker system.
Our people in Osun State, with whom we are in touch, did it in the Osun West senatorial district elections and it worked.
It shall work here too in 2019 by the grace of God.

Our people shall be disenthralled from the evil vice grip of this arrogant and unfeeling  outgoing government.

Oyo First is the instrument .

Hon Kehinde Ayoola JP

BARR. OLUMUYIWA MAKINDE SPEAKS ON PRONOUNCEMENT OF MAKARFI BY THE SUPREME COURT

HIGHLIGHTS OF BARR. OLUMUYIWA MAKINDE POINTS ON AM120 OF BCOS ON THE SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT THAT DECLARES MAKARFI AS
AUTHENTIC PDP CHAIRMAN:

*The five justices of the Supreme court were unanimous and the case was well researched into*

*We should not lose confidence in the judiciary*

*The prolongation of the case was an indictment on the political class because there were multiple cases filed by Sheriff in different courts in order to drag or truncate the process*

*The Chief Justice warned the politicians not to drag the judiciary in the mud and they must learn to resolve political crises internally*

*Courts will not shut you out if you file any case anywhere*

*The judgement portends that the conventions of parties have sweeping powers to do and undo and it's the highest decision making level of the party; in fact, it can change the party name overnight*

*If that judgement had favour Sheriff, that would have been the end of PDP in Nigeria*

*If you look at the antecedence of PDP, most of the people in PDP are not comfortable with Sheriff and they have learnt their lessons*

*Sheriff is someone who has personal position and ambition within the PDP*

*There were underneath moves before the judgment and if the judgement had declared Sheriff, Makarfi group would move to a new party*

*In a normal political environment, if there is no vibrant opposition, it can lead to dictatorship and a lot of things*

*When people say PDP ruled for 16yrs, I laugh because the present Senate President was PDP Governor for 8yrs and Senator for 4yrs before joining APC, likewise the Speaker and virtually all the Ministers were part of the 16yrs rule of PDP*

*In Nigeria today, there are no political parties but political platforms, there are no ideologies*

*You need about 35yrs before you start talking of your democracy maturing*

*The saviour of democracy in this country is the Judiciary and they would have learnt that the Judiciary should be weary of politicians; they are full of antics and if the judiciary is not clean when it has to do with pronouncements that have to do with politics, their name will be dragged in the mud*

*I think the judicial process and the judiciary has been so wonderful because they have resolved a lot of issues*

*Thanks*

*OmiTitun must flow....*

*Ojasope*

THE UNGUBERNATORIAL SPEECHES OF AJIMOBI:

THE UNGUBERNATORIAL SPEECHES OF AJIMOBI:

Though it's now a common thing to hear the Oyo state governor make reference to age of people in his speeches, particularly those he believes he's older than but the extent of his unguided utterance at the 10th anniversary public lecture of Splash 105.5 FM was appaling.

At first, I found it so funny that Mr. Governor didn't disappoint me by making reference to how much older he's more than Oloye Lekan Alabi, but he went  on to suggest that whoever is contending his claim can go and spend the months' difference at Agodi prisons. I wondered how relevant the issue of age is to the theme of the lecture.

On the issue of students not speaking Yoruba fluently, Mr Governor said no Ibadan child can't speak Yoruba. Is Uncle Isiaka Oyo state Governor or Ibadan Governor? Moreover, how can his Excellency be ignorant of the fact that he's governor of both indigenes and residents of Oyo state? As a Southwest Governor, Ajimobi has failed to realise the importance of our language in the richness of our culture and the posterity of our heritage.

The last straw was the preference of Governor Isiaka Ajimobi for "pickpockets" to armed robbers. Mr. Governor prefers craftiness of the pickpockets; how deft and surreptitious they are and how they are better than armed robbers. He prefers them because they planned not to be caught. Hmmm! Can we then conclude that His excellency has adopted the method of the pickpockets in his administration and leadership style because I can't fathom how that is relevant to the topic ( ETHNIC NATIONALITY AND PROSPECTS OF MODERN AFRICAN COUNTRY) of discussion except that he wants to remind the public that he can't be caught in the act. Mr Constituted Authority needs to be more reserved and careful with his words.

I have always said it that Gov Ajumobi takes pride in his eloquence but has forgotten about those who are gifted at listening and unravelling hard speeches. Thinking you can talk anyhow, anywhere because you're the leader has led to the disgraceful fall of some and if it is repeated with Gov Ajimobi, it won't be new but only shows he doesn't learn from other's mistakes.

Long live the pacesetter state

Long live Nigeria.

6 YEARS IN OFFICE: SDP SCORES AJIMOBI VERY LOW. By Akeem Azeez

AJIMOBI'S PHANTOM  DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY.

The recent media spotlight on six years of Senator Abiola Ajimobi in all available media have demonstrated once again the believe of this government on sheer propaganda to hoodwink electorate especially the article titled :
Six years of Building Enduring Legacy and published by Punch Newspaper of July 2 is the worst tissues of lies expected from APC government in Oyo state. 
This is not about politics as some people might like to point out and more importantly people of this state are no longer new to usual antics and propaganda of All peoples Congress led Government at both federal and state levels. However, this write-up is set out to put the record straight and set our people free ( The truth shall set you free, So says the holy bible).

From the first to the last paragraph of the article it's lies from pit of hell. 
Senator Ajimobi led government claimed that in the last six years they have constructed or rehabilitated 183 roads covering 590 kilometres. That must have been phantom road projects or for God sake where are those roads located. This government will do itself more good if they could publish the list of those road locations, no need to publish picture, a full page advert stating the location of those roads in one of the national dailies will proof me wrong. Maybe these roads still exist on their manifesto not in our various environs. It is still fresh in our memory, in 2008 -2009 ALGON under the chairmanship of Hon Ademola Ojo, each local government rehabilitated 5 roads in their localities and these we all saw. How can a government claimed to have done over 180 roads and we can not identify 20 locations of such rehabilitated roads.
In another instance, APC led government claimed that Oyo state is number five in investor friendly states by National Bureau Of Statistics which was actually true because the news was published by highly respected Punch newspaper but it was rather  misleading to unsuspecting members of the public that the state had received $61m dollars in foreign Direct investment whereas the National Bureau of statistic revealed unequivocally in the same news story  where oyo state was declared fifth in investor friendly state in Nigeria that out of almost one billion dollars FDI that were brought into Nigeria Oyo state had a patry $500,000 investment, the lowest among the top five investor friendly states in Nigeria.

There were also issues of inconsistency in the number of investments and investors that have started operations in Oyo state. APC government in Oyo state often claim that 36 new companies with 4000 direct employees are already operational in the state. While governor's aides in public outings and publications narrated how 7 out of 157 companies who had agreed to come to invest in Oyo state are here already. Mr Governor and his aides, Which one are we going to believe?

We wonder what will be going through the minds of an average Ibarapa men and women when the ruling government claimed that they have extended the road revolution to Ibarapa at the time journey to that zone of the state from the state capital, Ibadan has become a nightmare everyone dreads to experience. This is  occasioned by terrible and un-motarable road which has increased the journey of less than 40 minutes drive to over two hours(there is God O)

The worst of all these lies was the issue that bothers on life and property. Despite that World Bank provides the state with multi-million Naira intervention fund on urban flood management. However, It is disheartening that flood continue to wreck havoc of unimaginable proportion in the state particularly the state capital, Ibadan. The APC government in the state has witnessed more flood incidents in the state more than any governments in the history of the state. Just three months into the first term of Ajimobi led government, Oyo state witnessed flood that made the popular Omiyale a child's play and just last week we witnessed another flooding which has made it an annual incident where flood ravage the state. This put the blame squarely on the table of government, if for six years you could not tackle perennial flooding in the state we wonder how you will do that in less than two years to expiration of your tenure.

No doubt, it will be difficult for the APC government to stop peddling lies and deception but we as opposition party hold it as a duty to inform general public the true situation of governance in oyo state so that  together we can truly move the state forward. 
Retrospectively, it would serve us good to have a holistic view at the six years of this government as an opposition and leave the good people of this state to form their opinion about the six years of misrule of APC in Oyo state with facts but not fiction.

Every PPP project promised by Ajimobi has failed e.g. 4 - star hotel at Mokola, even the TechU. The flurry of activities witnessed there recently was to justify a N2b intervention fund granted by CBN about 2 years ago which the govt did nothing about until recently.
Most capital projects are uncompleted or abandoned. E.g. Model Secondary Schools started with an 18-month completion period which has stretched to almost two years without any sign of completion soon. The claim of government to complete the road revolution project will not happen in 18 months.
Even the circular road. Experience has shown in cities with circular road e.g. Houston Texas , United States, that circular road are meant to impact the local economy positively by connecting a number if metropolis., So the circular road that will have effect should connect major cities in Oyo State like Ibadan, Ogbomosho, Oyo, Iseyin, Shaki, Ibarapa zine and back to Ibadan so that people coming from those part of this state and going outside Ibadan would not have reasons to pass through Ibadan.
For the sum the government mooted (N70b) government can do a lot more than that.

The last 6 years have been 6 years of hell for workers and pensioners who are being owed between 4 months (state civil servants and teachers) and 12 months salary (for College of Education staff and Polytechnic staff)
Education is at its worst ever. Dilapidated schools , unmotivated teachers, poor performance (we are number 26 out of 36 in the last WAEC), frequent closure of schools in both secondary and tertiary. As we speak, ALL state owned higher institutions are under lock and key!
So the last 6 years have been mystery for the people.

Our people are engaged in commerce. They are ardent shop owners. But the last 6 years have seen Ajimobi demolish shops indiscriminately in the name of a nebulous city beautification without providing alternatives . This has shattered hopes, dislocated homes, caused serious health issues for those traumatised this way and some have even died. We have conviction that the good people of oyo state are wiser now and will definitely give people with fresh ideas and better equipped to usher the change they desire in Oyo state in 2019. 

Omititun a RU ni'pinle Oyo

Akeem Azeez
State publicity secretary
Social Democratic Party Oyo state

RE: OPERATION OF CCTV IN OYO STATE

RE: OPERATION OF CCTV IN OYO STATE:

I have read many antagonistic comments and write-ups on this issue and I understand the position of my colleagues in the opposition but nevertheless, I beg to defer on this; this is a necessary crime preventive and prosecution technology that should be encouraged by all but not another whimsical adventure.

The installation of closed circuit television around the major cities will prevent some crimes and give evidence of committed crimes, tenable in any court of law. Crimes such as robbery, kidnapping, arson, ballot snatching and such other crimes in public places will reduce. Also, activities of overbearing law enforcement officers can be captured by the CCTV too. In essence, the installations reduces the freedom of criminals and suspects to commit crimes.

Well, beyond the installations, the maintenance and synchronization with other data base (if they exist) is very important. All law enforcement agencies must know the procedures of acquiring the information from this CCTV database and which analyst they required to further processing. That is, beyond installations, the state government must put other infrastructure and logistics in place for the workability of this project. It shouldn't be another whimsical adventure like the proposed Technical university and 5 star hotel that are yet to materialize.

Prevention of crime is expensive but how ready are we to take on this long overdue technology. Are our law enforcement agencies and the judiciary ready? This question is because suspects caught red-handed are left off the hook, how much those captured on cameras that can be easily erased?

Mr. Governor, this is a good project even though we know it's one of your elitist programs but please know it needs serious planning and logistics that are beyond playing to the gallery, just because you want the applause of elites in Oyo state.

Long live the Pacesetter state.

OmiTitun must flow in 2019...