Desperation is a silent killer. I have been carefully listening to Governor Seyi Makinde’s public outbursts recently and I can see someone who is under a severe pressure and an imminent total depression. Let me reference a few of such uncoordinated utterances, unguarded outbursts and ungubernatorial jabs. I watched with consternation when the governor of our dear state became an emergency Master of Ceremony at a church programme organised to mark the impactful 70th birthday of Bishop Francis Wale Oke.
The Governor was called to give his goodwill message as the number one citizen of Oyo State. Instead of presenting a tribute in honour of the celebrant, Archbishop Wale Oke, he ridiculously turned himself to an MC à l’improviste. And he abandoned the protocol which was the hallmark of every public event/ceremony and began to introduce his surrogate nay his APM’s gubernatorial candidate! His argument for so doing, which he immediately betrayed, out of desperation, depression and unnecessary pressure, by not only introducing Bimbo Adekambi as a candidate for the forthcoming governorship election but by adding that “you can choose between the two of them”, apparently referring to Senator Sharafadeen Alli, PhD, the governorship candidate of All Progressives’ Congress (APC) who had probably been earlier introduced to the gathering by the authentic or authorized Director of Progrmmes at the event. The fact that Gov Makinde had to personally introduce his party’s gubernatorial candidate showed the candidate is not popular and not a household name in Oyo State. The pressure that mounts daily on the governor is so enormous that he has become consistently uncoordinated at every event. I doubt if this is not seriously and negatively impacting the governance of our pacesetter state.
Gov Makinde’s conduct at Archbishop Wale Oke event was so embarrassing that one could read it on the faces of the dignitaries and audience at the event. Our former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo stared in disbelief at the governor’s action, and Baba’s facial and body language are suggestive of what the Yoruba will describe as “níbo la tún jásí báyìí”.
Another instance that I will underscore is the governor’s reference to Senator Sharafadeen Alli’s legal profession. These comments are too pedestrian to be associated with someone who occupies the number one position in a state like ours. The governor can however be excused because he looks like someone who is being traumatized by the thought of an imminent electoral defeat.
If he has not lost his sense of reasoning, Gov Makinde should have known or been tutored by his so called “team” that the functions of a lawyer are not restricted to litigation and court appearances. Lawyers perform many other functions which may not even necessitate their going before a judge. Such functions include Legal Officers, administrative officers, Company Secretaries, Sports Lawyers, etc. Senator Alli has been working diligently and delivering robustly in these areas as a former Chairman of Local Council, Secretary of the State Government, Chief of Staff to the governor, Chairman of Oodua Group of Companies under whose leadership the Heritage Mall (which housed Shoprite) was created and a sitting Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The outgoing Governor also referred to his SSG as not being just a Professor. Is being a Professor of Economics a sign of seniority to other Professors? Should a man who claims to be an expert in a field not know that an academic professorship is not ranked by specialisation? Should he not know that professorship is conferred by one’s expertise in his area of specialization? Or what is our Engineer governor trying to insinuate?
The forced-gathering organised to welcome the President of Ikolaba Landlords Association was put up by his foot soldiers in the administration. Civil servants were subtly coersed to abandon their duty posts to attend the forced-welcome-back-home meeting where Gov Makinde, as usual, threw unintelligent insults and jabs at people including his audience.
It is surprising to see the Governor boast of his “first-eleven”, the team which he said was assembled to govern Oyo state in the last seven years. It is quite strange that none of the so called “first-eleven” is competent enough to succeed him as the executive governor of Oyo State. The fact that Mr Bimbo Adekambi was picked from outside of the team clearly affirmed that Gov Seyi Makinde’s “first-eleven” is grossly incompetent, ridiculously ineffective, embarrassingly uncoordinated and overwhelmingly defective. A first-eleven team is often a product of teamplay with common objectives. It is a system where any member of the “first-eleven team” can naturally assume the driver’s seat without any prompting nay injury. Outsourcing Bimbo Adekambi shows that Gov Makinde has no reliable succession plans.
One may also need to tell our governor that speeches are always context-sensitive. That a democratically elected governor would turn an address to the gathering of intellectually inclined, hardworking civil and public servants of the pacesetter state into a political rally (sic) motor park address is indeed a pity. I personally struggled to hear from the governor anything that is statesmanship in that address other than jabs, verbal attacks, and dry jokes not only against the oppositions in the state but also against the President of the Federal Republic.
I also took note of the jabs he sent to the royal fathers in Oyo State at a function at the palace of Eleruwa where he unsmartly boasted that he was going to be abusive and insulting our revered monarchs who choose to support any political parties of their choice. This statement shows the governor as someone who lacks the ingredients of the Yoruba concept of Omoluabi and also most importantly underscores the Yoruba proverb which says “Oore pé. asiwèrè gbágbé”. The same royal and traditional heritage being desecrated today was the one that paved the way for Seyi Makinde’s emergence as the governor of Oyo State in 2019 when former governor Rashidi Ladoja (now Olubadan of Ibadanland) brokered a peaceful agreement among the opposition parties who eventually withdrew their candidature and supported Seyi Makinde to defeat the then APC led by late Gov Abiola Ajimobi. Makinde did not realize that Oba Rashidi Ladoja, then Ekerin Olubadan was a royal father and a member of Olubadan-in-Council. How can a governor with the title, “His Excellency” be involving in such a gutter and uncouth utterances.
The concept of Omoluabi is a very rare commodity in the baggage of Seyi Makinde. From Olubadan of Ibadanland to Alaafin of Oyo and to Soun of Ogbomoso, Makinde had insulted and openly abused almost all the First Class monarchs in the state.
I really pitied the governor when I watched the Kokoro Alate on Agidigbo FM where the two young co-presenters engaged in satire of the governor’s Agodi address. Governor Makinde, while trying to make a dry joke of the intent of one of his erstwhile political allies turned opponent, Oriyomi Hamzat, derogatorily called the programme Kòkòrò Aláte instead of Kókóró Aláte. It is indeed a pity that a governor who used the same Agidigbo-Kokoro Aláte platform for his gubernatorial ambition will soon hypocritically forget the correct title of the programme that has done a lot for him and for the teeming grassroot men and women of our darling state. Well, this is what desperation can reduce a man to. It can make one to become “Àwàdà keríkerì”.
Ingratitude is obviously not alien to Seyi Makinde because of his penchant for use and dump style. He exploited and betrayed people and trusts without any signs of remorse. From former Governor Rashidi Ladoja (now the Imperial Majesty, Olubadan of Ibadanland) to Olufemi Lanlehin, to Sharafadeen Alli and their supporters who made his ascendancy to governorship in 2019 possible, he had betrayed countless contributors to his journey to power.
It is apposite to advise the good people of Oyo State not to reward this ingrate and his team with a third term through the backdoor, otherwise the entire state will be irredeemably doomed. Oyo State voters should reject all candidates linked to Seyi Makinde in the forthcoming 2027 general elections at all levels.
