Dapo Abiodun/Ibikunle Amosun: The mischief of John Adeoye, by Oladipupo Oseni

If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed – Mark Twain.
 
The old aphorism that says, “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”, aptly captures Prince Dapo Abiodun, MFR, the Governor of Ogun State at the center of its thought.
For Ogun State, the saying rings true as it has recently been a tree blossoming with abundant fruit for which it cannot escape the stones and sticks thrown at it by hungry political children.
The enemies of progress are on the prowl with malevolent gusto. If they are not cyber-attacking the Governor to disrupt his operations and whip up sentiments against him, they are unleashing destructive physical attacks on or causing violence within the state to daub the administration. When they fail, they resort to engaging hungry wolfs to weave lies against the State and the Governor in the media.
 
As days and nights alternate to roll into weeks, the electioneering period draws near. Tensions, in some quarters, have made the atmosphere tense and numerous pieces will permeate the papers and saturate the social media.
From false narratives, petty petitions, and political tittle-tattle to the downplaying of people’s achievements and assassination of character, we are gradually nearing the moment when one will have to cherry-pick what and who they read and listen to in order not to be misinformed and mischoose.
Another bilious, and obviously sponsored, screed has been written by one Mr John Adeoye— obviously a pseudonym— to downplay the diligence and excellence that has marked the hallmark of the administration and personality of Prince Dapo Abiodun and spoke highly of the former governor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun as though he performed well and popular among the people of Ogun State— all of which is a political calculation to make the APC flagbearer Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his team feel he (Amosun) is still powerful in Ogun State.
Laughable. Usually, one shouldn’t wrestle with a pig as the pig gets happy while one gets dirty. Of course, the mud is the most pleasant place where a pig finds unbridled joy. However, if wrestling the pig in the mud is what will put an end to the pig—mud issue, I think it is worth it to do it once and end it there.
For his pathetic piece, as an independent observer of this administration, I would rather counter the writer’s spurious narrative with solid facts. 
Oftentimes, achievement is always the herald of comparison.
Before Senator Ibikunle Amosun’s departure from office as the Governor of Ogun State, he stamped discomforts on the faces and the minds of the people of Ogun State. From the demolition of houses without adequate compensation for the victims, to the abandoned road projects that amounted to a huge N202bn, oh! You shockingly sighed too?!—  a disheartening challenge the current administration inherited from him and is currently solving. It is where Amosun’s government went deficient that Abiodun picked his gauntlet of work from. While Amosun focused on Ogun Central— where I have come from— alone, Abiodun in the last four years has sprinkled his project around the state. Some of the ongoing major projects in the Ogun East Senatorial District include Gateway Agro cargo Airport at Ilisan, road networks and housing estates.
The proposed Cargo Airport which was initiated 10 years ago by the Gbenga Daniel administration is almost 80 per cent completed. This Cargo Airport is the economic deal with the African Development Bank to site an agro testing firm at Sagamu as most of the agricultural products in Nigeria lack certification, which has made their exportation to other countries difficult, this will ease it and put more funds into the state government fund.
While there is also the Molusi road in Ijebu-Igbo, housing projects in Abeokuta and an imposing Gateway City Gate, an eye-catching site at the Sagamu interchange, amongst other projects, the government has worked on major roads in the three senatorial districts, including the much talked about 14-kilometre Ijebu-Ode-Epe road; Sagamu-Siun-Abeokuta road and the Atan-Lusada-Agbara-Marogbo Toll road linking Lagos, which is ongoing.
The wickedness of Senator Ibikunle Amosun would not be forgotten by the people of Agbado, Ijoko down to Ojodu who were managing their roads until Amosun completely tore the road, planted needless bridges there, and abandoned them thereby making many homeless in that part of the state.
As a matter of fact, residents of the area do not only loathe Senator Ibikunle Amosun, but they also do not want to relate with anyone who has an affiliation with him and this is obtainable in YEWA and some other axis of the state— even in his very own Ogun Central. It is that same Agbado— Ojodu he had neglected that Abiodun had promised and started to provide palliative work to fix the craters in Akute, Alagbole. Olambe and Sango-Ota; while also working on permanent construction that will solve the problem once and for all.
Away from the foregoing, it is usually and ignorantly bandied about that Prince Dapo Abiodun does not have a structure, which is false. Should he have ridden on anyone’s structure to emerge—which is a testament to his smartness—it requires a high level of smartness to maintain or rebuild a structure to remain in power. If he could have remained until now, it is an attestation of his organizing and managerial prowess. 
The hatchet writer even extolled the negative virtues of the former governor Senator Ibikunle Amosun for his condemnable anti-party activities in Ogun State an example of which was the attack on President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, February 11, 2019, in a campaign rally during the administration of former Governor Ibikunle Amosun where the President was stoned by loyalist of Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade, the Governor’s candidate as he raised the hand of APC governorship candidate Prince Dapo Abiodun.
Which sane person tries to pull down the rooftop of the house he resides in? Destructive and devilish! If you called your dinnerware a potty, the world would deem it fit only for disgusting shit. Amosun tries to call Ogun State a potty and now he and his scanty infantry are trying everything possible to navigate by the stars of Dapo Abiodun to the dinnerware 
Unarguably, everyone knows wherever the Judas of Ogun APC visits, mayhem visits.
He did it in MKO Stadium. He replicated it in AKE where Ake (axe) flew in the air and butcher the bones and made blood bleed. And this clearly separates the wheat from the chaff. Despite his efforts to both thwart the ambition of Prince Dapo Abiodun and provoke his person during the 2019 campaign, he met a mature trait of character in the Governor who neither had an altercation with him nor vilified him since he has become the Governor of Ogun State.
However, as a power monger that the former Governor is, he would not stop trying to wrestle power with the governor and make the State ungovernable.
The body of concocted lies by Mr John Adeoye provides additional evidence of the piquancy of Mark Twain regarding newspapers.
An American author, journalist and intellectual, Twain submitted that one is at the risk of being misinformed if one reads newspapers and being uninformed if one does not read them.
As neither of the two is desirable, it means that a middle course should be charted by readers. Little wonder lawyers would say, “caveat emptor” or buyers beware. Therefore, you don’t trust or believe all you read in the press.
I have observed Prince Dapo Abiodun since he assumed office as the Governor of Ogun State in 2019, and I can confidently say he has left no one in doubt, including the doubting Thomases, about his prodigious administrative acumen, robust intellect, keen vision, transparent honesty and the sheer capacity to organize men and materials for outstanding results.
In the Nigerian space where public service is largely synonymous with self-service, Prince Abiodun has remained constant as one of the exceptional few who are passionate about their jobs, and conscious of the fact that leadership is a call to service that must be religiously and conscientiously done.
One thing is certain; gold is gold even when it is splashed with mud. To the utter consternation of the dramatic writer and his sponsors, the energy and resources invested in the project amounted to a sheer waste of time.
At best, it was akin to shaking the giant baobab tree to gain dewdrops. To build a state, it requires the joint effort of the people and the government; and as one of the people of the state, I hope the governor and his team remain inattentive to (as they have been) and unscathed by the undiluted lies and half-truths that are strewn throughout the writer’s ineffectual political gymnastics.
Finally, just as the writer mentioned a handful of politicians in Ogun State who had fumed for being neglected (and unable to eat money), it is important to state that good governance should be about visible developments on all fronts that would make both the citizens and residents of a state testify to the dividends of democracy (just as Prince Dapo Abiodun is doing) and not a cabal where some political jobbers gobble up the fund at the expense of the public. The ungainsayable truth, away from the political and pained politicians’ cries, is that Prince Dapo has performed and outperformed his predecessor.
 
Oladipupo Oseni writes in via [email protected]