Comrade, you’ve taken the wrong path

I like explaining my titles, particularly when they are borrowed. And this one is not any different. It is the title of one of a set of four act plays in Chinese literature. And it deals with issues relating to revolution, change and ‘errors in rendering.’ In Osun State, Nigeria today, we may very well be on such a page.


The coming into office of the incumbent Governor of Osun State was truly the stuff of which heroic revolutionary epics are made. Doggedly, he took on foes that at a first glance, could be said to be immovable. Olagunsoye Oyinlola, the man he ousted was not just a retired army General, he was also a fiery no-nonsense one to boot. And then he was equally an incumbent, in addition to the fact that he also had the then most awesome PDP machine at his behest.


But he was worsted by the dogged Comrade in a battle that had all the trappings of the classic ‘David and Goliath’ saga. Indeed, so humbling was the eventual outcome that the supreme lesson of Oyinlola’s defeat even then was a repeat of that oft stated truism: gods do have clay feet. You only need to take the right aim and they will tumble down.


Today however, a lot has changed. Unlike the situation when he came into power, a slew of economic reversals have since come to expose the shallowness of many a state economy. And Osun is high up on the ladder. With very little to contribute in the arena of Internally Generated Revenue, the state is then regularly constrained to wait on the federation account for whatever it will disburse. And with that ‘ATM’ being presently stymied, Osun bleeds.


To be sure, when the going was good, Aregbesola rode on a dizzyingly populist wave of welfarism. Free meals and uniforms for students, creation of public sector jobs in the thousands, free train rides for Osun indigenes resident in Lagos…the cash was rolling, the man was spending.


Now the bubble has burst and salaries are no longer coming. Pensions are not being paid. Workers are on strike. And Comrade continues to wait for bailouts from the centre to get his groove going on once again. And this indeed is the bigger challenge: that in waiting to simply return to grooving mode, Comrade may not have learnt the first lesson of the Osun challenge that he is enmeshed in today.


Evidence of this can be seen in his own rhetoric on the crisis, the unhelpful comments of his aides, and associated diatribes from the state chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress. And there is no better evidence of this than in the instance of how the entire machinery has presently being laid out against the hapless judge of the Osun High Court who dared to look the king squarely in the face and proclaim that indeed, His Excellency was no longer wearing any clothes!


Now this is not to say that the learned justice may have indeed got all of her facts right. But hunger really excites anger. And non-payment of public service wages in a nominal civil service state is indeed an invitation to anger. And by the way, as chief executive of the on-going concern that is ‘the state of Osun,’ Comrade’s primary order of business is to manage its resources and affairs in such a way that it meets its existing contractual obligations in a timely manner (wages and pensions included) and provide the greater good for the greatest number of the citizenry.


And we do not think that it is mature and responsible when the governor continues to shift the blame for the current state of affairs to dwindled receipts from the federation account. Yes, there have been dwindled receipts; and so what? Did we all not see it coming? When every other nation in our backyard and beyond began to strike oil, did we not know that there were going to be fewer buyers of the crude which provides the bulk of the federation account receipts that we are bewailing now? The truth of the matter, dear comrade is that, by omission and commission, the administration which you lead has brought in the proverbial ant-infested faggots; you cannot therefore be so hypocritically self-righteous in responding to the consequent arrival of the delegation of lizards! Were you not expecting them? It will indeed be a greater pity if you were not.


So my dear Comrade, the learned justice is not the issue; you dug yourself into this ditch, you will do well to get yourself out. And please do everything to be humble and contrite while doing so.