The emergence of Hon. ‘Debo Ogundoyin as the current speaker of Oyo State House of Assembly last month was greeted with so much media hype by many Nigerians especially the Oyo State indigenes for plethora of reasons.
First, Ogundoyin’s youthful age signified a generational shift or the gradual acceptance of the advocacy on “Not too Young to Run” political mantra Vis a Vis Nigerian youths holding strategic public offices in Nigeria.
This is because ours is a society that rhetorically acknowledges the young as leaders of tomorrow that the old ones have constantly denied them.
Second, was the outright consensus vote given to the young man by all the elected members of the 9th House of Assembly in Oyo State including the few opposition members who have more experience than the young man in matters of legislative involvement, this again is significant and a cheering deviation from the usual ageing politicians who had hitherto led the legislative arm of the state sterilely.
By voting Mr. Debo Ogundoyin, an Eruwa born politician from Ibarapa axis and an hitherto marginalized political zone of Oyo State, the incumbent governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde and his political party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party have made a decisive and desirable departure that Oyo State is set to be a pacesetter.
It is a solid political statement of action for not only the youths in Oyo State but Nigerian youths in general to break into politics and end the tradition of frigid orthodoxy and uncreative governance. Hopefully, our state will indeed be counted as a league member of enlightened, sophisticated, creative and a template for youth inclusiveness in proximate politics in not too distant future.
But beyond the media hype and the consensus endorsement of Mr. Ogundoyin are future-political threatening quandaries that posterity is waiting to judge the young man right or otherwise depending on the way and manner he performs in his new office as the speaker of the state. In his first speech as the new speaker, Mr. Ogundoyin promised he would ensure that there would be smooth executive legislature relationship and that he would be a speaker who would listen to all and be accessible to everyone.
This to me was a great policy statement that has become a ritual declaration by those who had held similar office before him. I concur that a smooth executive legislature relationship is pivotal to meaningful development in any polity but I defer when the legislative arm of government becomes a rubber stamp and stooge of the executive.
This is one of the challenges that sincerely the new speaker will face considering his emergence through a conflagrations of diverse proximate strange bedfellows through a consensus approbation.
Again to me, there is grave danger when a politician listens to all manner of people, including those who have milked the polity, whose brains have been dunk with larceny and made life unbearable for the masses.
What Mr. Speaker needs is to listen to the voice of reason only with “caveat” not the cracked voices of the political merchants and the gluttonous hungry tummies of the corrupt folks who would come in disguise of wanting to make the young speaker succeed but who have the clandestine motive of bleeding our state’s commonwealth to their own advantage.
The young speaker as much as Oyo State indigenes especially the youth demographics are happy that at last that they have a voice and an impression in the governance of Pacesetter state but the young Ogundoyin, must understand that the loads he carries are heap-full and that he needs to bring a paradigm shift to legislative business in the state through a creative tactic to law making that will impart positively the entire people of Oyo State by not being seen as a mere rubber stamp of the incumbent governor.
History has already been made by Mr. Speaker’s emergency but posterity is in the making by the actions and manner in which he will use his office to bring the real change to Oyo State through sound legislative actions!
The speaker needs to play politics and should not forget governance. He needs to win the loyalty of his associates in the house, some of them who in the matter of age, they are far older. This is necessary for the true independent of the legislative arm from not only the Chief Executive Officer of Oyo State but from the conflagrations of strange bedfellows that determined the political outcomes of the last gubernatorial election in the state. We expect a speaker who will be bold and witty to legislate for the truth and turn down policies and actions that are unfair to the generality of Oyo indigenes notwithstanding that he belongs to the same party as the governor.
The outcomes of his future roles in governance of Oyo State especially as the Chief Law Maker of the state will also determine if the youths are indeed capable of delivering good governance in Nigeria and if he performs satisfactorily this may earn him first the continuous loyalty of his immediate constituency for greater political responsibilities and by extension, he may as well be the poster boy for good governance in Nigeria and an exemplary ambassador for the generality of Nigerian youths who have since been clamoring for higher inclusive governance in our polity.
As the incumbent governor marks his first 100 days in office with the legislative arm already inaugurated with its principal officers, I pray Mr. Debo Ogundoyin, our speaker have posterity in his favour!
Femi Ojo is a media communications and public affairs strategist and consults for different brands, former online radio show host on politics and entrepreneurship with Blackface Media, blogger, writer and a nascent public intellectual, a serial entrepreneur with business interests in media communications, auto sales & logistics and agricultural value chain. He is a nascent public intellectual, writes & creates content for many media houses. Above all, he is a loving husband and father who currently lives in Lagos, Nigeria.
