Kogi State government’s delegation to Ondo State to copy the Governor Olusegun Mimiko administration has attracted criticism from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The party’s chapter in Ondo State said Governor Yahaya Bello was emulating a failed administration.
A statement yesterday by the Publicity Secretary, Omo’ba Abayomi Adesanya, reads: “Our attention has been drawn to the ill-visit by the Kogi State government team, led by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Folashade Arike Ayoade, to study what Governor Bello described as ‘impressive feats of development in infrastructure, health education, new ventures – job creation and prudent fiscal management’ under the administration of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.
“Our question to Governor Bello is what does he really want to emulate from Governor Mimiko?
“Is it the eradication of Owena Motels (a legacy) built by the former governor, the late Pa Adekunle Ajasin, which has been converted for the benefit of Mimiko and his cohorts?
“Or the building of an event centre popularly called ‘dome’, of which he has wasted N10 billion of the people’s money without benefit for the masses?
“Or the over-hyped and valueless residency card, called ‘Card Igbe Ayo’, which he squandered over N4 billion of tax payers’ money on with no commensurate benefit?
“May be it’s the 10 mega schools Dr. Mimiko built at the cost of N600 million each. A project that is not meant to serve the interest of the common man or the state, but that of the contractor, reasons best known to the governor.
“It’s irrational for one mega school to serve the interest of one local government, while other schools in the rural areas are in a dilapidated condition.
“Let Kogi people and Nigerians ask Governor Bello if he wants to plant 100 flowers at the cost of N300 million annually as Mimiko did in Ondo.
“Is it the so-called cocoa revolution that has gulped a whopping N5 billion in the last four years without any visible cocoa farm in any location across Ondo State that the Kogi government wants to copy?
“We are not so sure may be Bello is planning to abandon the bad roads in Kogi as his new-found friend, Mimiko, did in Ondo (especially Akoko roads).
“We ask Governor Bello, may be it is the debt profile of the Mimiko administration of over N130 billion that he wants to incur for Kogi people?
“The visit of the Kogi team is being celebrated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on the pages of newspapers and in the social media as an endorsement by the APC governor, thereby portraying the party in the state in bad light.
“Any loyal APC governor interested in the well-being of his people and seeking help or the right mentor should go to Lagos, Ogun, Kano, Edo among other APC-governed-states to study their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) system to expand the revenue base and meet the people’s expectations, not a state like Ondo under Mimiko, who has not paid workers’ salary and has turned governance into a family business.”
Credit: The Nation
