By Bamidele Temitope Johnson
I have been following Segun Sowunmi on Facebook. He wants to be governor of Ogun State, he says, on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He is saying all the right things, which is exactly what politicians do best before elections. Of particular interest to me is his supposed plan for those long-neglected communities on the Lagos-Ogun boundary, of which I qualify as a stakeholder.
In a post he made a week or two ago, he gushed about the immense potential of those boundary towns if only someone paid attention to them, built infrastructure and gave the people a sense of belonging. Sweet words. Almost poetic. But here’s the thing: everybody knows that already. Every politician who ever drove through those cratered roads knew it before they ever got to Oke-Mosan. Some even staged elaborate pity-tours; the kind where they furrow their brows, gasp theatrically at the suffering of the people, and vow that help is on the way.
It is over a quarter of a century of democracy and what the people have received is not help but hindrance. They do not have roads but obstacles. They have seen only excuses, not solutions.
I do not know if Sowunmi has ever been to Akute, Lambe, Matogun, Osere, Maidan, Legun, Oke Aro, Adiyan or Ijoko. If he has not, I’m sure he will. It’s election season, after all and the obligatory roadshow of empathy will soon roll through. He’ll come, wave, nod gravely at the gaping potholes, shake hands with weary residents and solemnly swear that he is the “real deal.” Because, well, that is what they all do.
And then, if fortune favours him and he makes it into office, the script changes. The people will be told to wait, to be patient, to understand that they do not pay taxes to Ogun, but to Lagos. The predecessor left an empty treasury. The grandmother of one of the predecessors is a witch who has placed a hex on those communities. The smoother a politician speaks, the less I believe him. If at all.
… Johnson, a PR practitioner wrote in from Lagos.
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