Olusegun Agagu

The Ondo State Chapter of the Labour Party, (LP) has described the government of Dr Olusegun Agagu as a ‘monumental failure’ and the worst in the 32 year-old history of the State. According to the Director of Publicity of the Party, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, who pooh-poohed the usual assertion of the Agagu’s government that it has brought development to the State as a mere orchestrated media hype meant to deceive those who resides outside Ondo State and the whole world at large, Agagu’s government was a big fraud.

The real situation on ground, according to him, shows an inept and profligate government and an equally desperate governor who would do anything including cutting corners to hang unto a mandate that was not given to him by the people of Ondo State who voted him out on April 14 because he failed woefully to give them the dividends of democracy despite the fact that he collected over N300bn as allocation in his first term in office. This is aside from over N150bn he has collected since May 2007 to date from the Federation Accounts alone which he has not been able to use to impact positively on the life of the people of the State.

According to Olabisi, the Agagu Government has received more allocation from the Federation Account than most of the successive administrations since the creation of the State in 1976.

“For example, whereas the total allocation from the Federation Account from May 1999 and April 2003, when the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati who Agagu is ever wont to vilify at will was the governor, was about N40billion, the corresponding figure for the period between May 2003 and December 2006 is in excess of N120billion. In 1999, just before the advent of civil rule, Ondo State’s total budget was a mere N3.719 billion. For 2006, the Agagu Administration presented a budget of N43.5billion, a growth of 1,170% over the 1999 figure.

“The Ondo State Government in the past five years has had more revenues at its disposal than at any other time in our State’s history. In fact in relative terms, the resources available to the current administration are perhaps more than all the revenues the State had had from 1976 when it was created to 2003 when Agagu came into office. In July 2006 alone, Ondo State received from the Federation Account a total of Nine Billion Naira (N9bn)!  But sadly, what do we have on ground to show that we received these huge sums of money?

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“Nothing! Rather, there is an obvious lack of good governance starring us all in the face. Education, the legacy which our forefathers bequeathed to us is in shambles. An incredible amount of burden is placed on our harried parents to pay more through sundry devices for education that continues to recede in quality. Basic infrastructures continue to collapse as government engages in endless planning that fail to impact on the people and translate into development. We have these past five years in Ondo State plus the seventeen months he stole through rigging in the April14 2007 election been long on planning and paper work but incredibly short on delivery and performance. We have not seen replicated in our State the benefits of the huge sums that kept accruing to the State from the Federation Accounts on a monthly basis. Indeed, never before since the creation of Ondo State has government been farther from the people!”

In concrete terms, Olabisi noted that in spite of over N10 billion allegedly spent by Agagu on the provision of water for the people of Ondo State, the people merely drink water from the screens of their television sets while the taps are dry. “For the harried people, every day is a struggle to get water as they trek long distances to procure water even from questionable sources for their domestic needs: gutters and brackish streams inclusive,” Olabisi added.

Further, he disclosed that: “despite this obvious lack of water, Agagu had in his 2008 budget read to the shocked people of the State on Monday, November 26, 2007 by his deputy, noted with glee that 53% of the people of Ondo State now have access to potable water unlike a mere 4.42% who had access to potable water in 2003 when he came to power. Besides, Agagu stated that he had sunk over 300 solar-powered boreholes all over the state. And, wonders of all wonder, Agagu plans to spend N6 billion on provision of the elusive water this year. And this includes spending a whopping N3.2 billion on the Owena Multipurpose Dam which is a Federal Government project! Indeed, members of the National Assembly on Water Resources, as part of their oversight function, were at the Dam recently to inspect and make provisions for the Dam in the 2008 Federal Budget. This is one of the lies and deceit that has been the hallmark of the Agagu’s government since 2003 when he was elected and no doubt the
reason why he was rejected before he was rigged into office.

“On road projects which he claimed to have spent the bulk of the revenue accruing to the State on, traveling on the so-called Agagu’s road has become a harrowing and costly experience for the longsuffering people of Ondo State. Agagu roads are surface-dressed with stones which are washed off by rain as soon as they are constructed. The loose stones have become a menace for vehicles owners as their windscreens are often cracked by these stones if they move too closely to the vehicle in front of them. That is the Agagu’s wonder in Ondo State. A trip through all the township roads in the State would bring to the fore the deceit in Ondo State. The roads are bad and do not justify the billions of Naira that Agagu claimed to be spending. In this year’s Budget he is going to spend another whopping N8.5 billion, yet the state of the roads in the State leaves much to be desired and obviously begs the question: where are all these billions of Naira actually going into ? Definitely not on these death traps he calls roads.

The Owo-Ikare road which he constructed for the Federal Government for a ‘mere’ N1.7bn, to quote him became a death trap within a week after he constructed it. Travelers to Kogi and Abuja plying this all important road that link Lagos and the North always do so at great risks as accidents are common place on this road.

“In the area of Health, Agagu has also failed. His so-called Critical Care Unit (CCU) which he launched with so much fanfare during the visit of the former President, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo in June 2006 is today a mere CCU without any function. The staff complains of lack of equipment as most of the state-of-the-art equipment commissioned by Obasanjo then were borrowed from other hospitals and had since been returned. Indeed, when Agagu suffered a tendon injury in October last year, he had to be rushed to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi-Yaba, Lagos as well as the UCH, Ibadan for the corrective operations as against his CCU which he had boasted then was one of the best in Nigeria. Also, his free health service for under 18, the aged and pregnant women is a mirage. You have to pay for drugs, bed and other services while operations are now done with candles and lanterns at the State Specialist Hospitals! Yet Agagu claimed to have spent close to
N10 billion on health facilities in the last 4years. A visit to any of the government-owned hospitals in Ondo State will reveal the series of lies of the administration.

In his so-called poverty alleviation scheme in which Agagu claimed to have expended N2.4billion through his Micro-Credit scheme as loans to28, 628 beneficiaries since 2004, Olabisi challenged Agagu to list the names and amount given to these so-called beneficiaries “the reality on ground is that N2.4 billion cannot be in circulation in the hands of petty traders and market women and there will still be this very high level of poverty in Ondo State. The truth is that Agagu gave the money to banks who are charging as much as 20% on the loans thus bringing it way over the capacities of these low-income earners who cannot afford the loans with its high collaterals. So who is Agagu fooling?”

On Agriculture, the farmers and the harried people have not fared better. There are only policy formulations only on paper which has not impacted positively on the lives of the people. Has he given any farmers loans, what about faming implements and chemicals?

“About four years ago, Dr. Agagu, his brother, Femi Agagu who is the Chief of Staff (COS) and a whole retinue of top government officials in the State jetted out to Thailand and China in search of the secrets of the Asians in rice growing. To further hoodwink the people, the secret of Cassava growing of the Asians was to be studied and experts brought in.  When they came back from the junketing, the people of the State were told that very soon, Ondo State would be able to feed Nigeria in rice and Cassava in a few years time as the State would embark on massive cultivation of lowland rice in the riverine area of the State using the Asian techniques. The long suffering people applauded. In no time, funny characters, who looked anything but rice and cassava experts, came to the State made a show of studying the State’s terrains and left. End of story.

And despite over N20billion purportedly spent on the health sector and the series of the media hypes by Agagu spin doctors in the mass media and in form of paid advertorials, this is what two renowned World Bank Consultants, Nicole Dionne and A. Edward Elmendorf who also consult for Ondo State Ministry of Health had to say in their report entitled “Status of the Ondo State Health Plan and Future Issues” of July 31, 2007. Theirs words: “What is happening in Ondo State? Ondo’s overall status is reported to be low. Life expectancy at birth is 51 years. The state is burdened with high infectious disease rates including malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. Maternal and child health is a notable concern. Infant mortality is high, at 75/1,000. Furthermore, access to care is reported to be limited by unequal distribution of public sector health facilities, unequal distribution of healthcare workers, and inability to pay for services and pharmaceuticals.” Need one say more on this when the experts had spoken?

 So from the foregoing, the simple truth of the whole matter is that Agagu is merely justifying his illegal mandate with media hypes and the people of the State have seen through his tricks. But to the people outside Ondo State, he is trying to give the impression that he is performing. All these are in a manner of talking, campaigns after election and a desperate attempt at hoodwinking the people to buy into his lackluster performance despite huge resources at his disposal.

The LP Spokesman also criticized Agagu over the award of a 2.5-kilometre rehabilitation of Akure roads for a whopping N1.5billion describing it as another in the systematic plundering of the State’s resources.

He expressed dismay that aside from the unusually high price for which the contracts for the roads were awarded, it wondered how Agagu, a geologist, against any grain of sound reasoning, could flag-off the construction of the said roads on May 29 this year, at the height of the raining season.

LP disclosed that already, works on these contracts had been suspended till the dry season by the contractors who have moved out of sites owing to the heavy rains while harried residents of Akure whose houses and properties had been demolished by the contractors’ bulldozers are now counting their losses having not received any compensation from government.

“For Dr. Agagu, it is really Harvest Time, to borrow from his oft-quoted phrase, going by the ways and manners in which he had been plundering the resources of the State in recent times.  For a mere less than three kilometer road rehabilitation and extension which is being done not in the marshy area but on high grounds like Akure, the Ondo State capital, Agagu is spending N1.5bn. this in itself will enter the Guinness Book of World Record as the most expensive road every constructed on high grounds at the fullness of time.”

Accoding to Olabisi, the simple truth why Agagu is rushing the said project was to ensure that he takes as much money as he can from the peoples purse since he is aware that his time as governor was over. Agagu had early this year disclosed that he had put in place what he termed “2008 monumental projects” which he boasted would showcase other visible achievements of his administration, we challenge Agagu to name the actual spots in which any of these so-called monumental projects had commenced ten (10) months since his 2008 budget was presented and approved aside from this expensive roads contract which has already stalled by rain.

“Can His Excellency tell the whole world how much he had spent out of his phantom N34bn set aside for projects this year? Can he also look the longsuffering people of Ondo State  in the face and tell them that he has released N3.2bn to Owena Dam which itself is a Federal Government project while his much vaunted transmission and distribution of potable water is still a mirage in the State?

 “And if we may ask, isn’t it a disservice to the people who he vowed to serve for Agagu to propose a whooping N5bn for the construction of primary school blocks which we all know is supposed to be local government councils affairs while his newly founded University of Science and Technology and the cash-strapped Adekunle Ajasin University both have a paltry N3bn allocated to them by Agagu? And how much has he released for these universities this year out of this so-called 3bn? Even a visit to Okitipupa where the new varsity was sited, nothing is on ground to justify the over N2.5bn so far expended on the institution.”

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Also speaking on the N36bn supplementary budget Agagu got approved for himself by the State house of Assembly three weeks ago, Olabis noted that the whole essence of the budget was not to carry out any developmental projects but for Agagu to line his private pockets thereby putting the State in financial straight for it’s the governor Elect of the State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, who was recently declared as the winner of the April 14, 2007 governorship election by the Justice Garba Nabaruma led Election petitions Tribunal.

He regretted that despite the N82.3bn that was approved for the 2008 budget last year, Agagu by February this year demanded and got a whopping N67bn as Supplementary budget for 2007 adding that in 2007, he sought and got N11.5 bn as Supplementary budget for 2006.

His words: “Up till now, there are no capital projects to show for all these billions of naira he claimed to have spent on his phantom projects only known to him, and now, Agagu, in this transition period when a competent court of law has declared his occupancy of the Government House as illegal, has come up with this N36bn Supplementary budget when we still have four clear months to go in the year and when he has not fully expended the 2008 budget. The obvious reason why he is doing this is to use this money to cover his monumental and massive withdrawal of government funds into his political and family machinery.”

Olabisi buttressed his point by pointing to the obvious lies contained on page 29 of the Supplementary budget in which Agagu having claimed to have spent N4.2bn on certain road projects which to anybody in Ondo State had not been worked on in the last two years instead of the N3.5bn initially approved for them in the 2008 budget “only for him now to be asking for another whopping N8bn to carry out further rehabilitation of these same roads which were never rehabilitated in the first place! This is the height of profligacy and unacceptable.

To him, “it is obvious that what Agagu is targeting is the sum of N31.3bn being expected as windfall to the State from Excess crude oil fund (N17.1bn), Mineral Derivation fund (N2bn), Special power intervention fund (N8.5bn), Statutory allocation (N1bn), Value Added tax (N1.1bn) among others so that by the time Dr Mimiko is sworn in as the Governor of Ondo State, his government would be incapacitated by financial constraints as Agagu.”

He, therefore, enjoined Mr. President and all other people of goodwill in the country to prevail on Agagu to stop this systematic plundering of the State resources under sundry guises.

“In Ondo State, the quantum of money that Agagu has collected in the last five years is not commensurate with the capital projects on ground. What the harried people are daily inundated with are orchestrated media blights of phantom projects purportedly done for the State while the reality on ground states otherwise.

“This was the reason why he lost the April 14, 2007 election as the longsuffering people of the State who had seen through his deceit and his profligacy voted him out and gave their mandate to Dr Mimiko before Agagu stole it through the barrel of gun. The tribunal in its wisdom retrieved this mandate from him and gave it to its rightful owner, Olusegun Mimiko. Agagu demurred and appealed. Rather than waiting for the outcome of the appeal, he has continued to commit the State to multi-billion naira projects at a breakneck speed all in his bid to line his pockets and cover the tracks of his monumental fleecing of the people’s commonwealth, Olabisi Stated.