There is a serious tragedy subsisting in Agodí Government House in the capital of the Pacesetter State. There is a charlatan who now parades the hallowed grounds once walked on by the great patriots of Yorùbá Nation. There is a For Profit Politician, with slavish mentality now trotting the grounds on which the liberty and freedom of the Yorùbá people were consummated.
The malodorous aroma of perfidy oozing out unrestrainedly, from the Office of the Governor in Ibadan, is poisoning the polity and its people. Every time he talks, he stinks. Every step he takes, he teeters. Every move he makes, he flounders. His essence and being has been incinerated by his expectations of 2023. His conscience is seared. His vision is cinctured. His reasoning is calcified. He seems to have been cow-brained.
I have been told that he deserves to be respected as the Executive Governor of Oyo State. I have been told that he is dealing with a difficult situation. That he should be given a “benefit of the doubt.” But how in the world could one give respect to a Governor who does not know how to respect himself, like Seyi Makinde? How does one contemplate a Governor Seyi Makinde reduced to a sullen, spineless, vegetative violaceous man in the palace of an untitled and illicit potentate called Seriki Shasha?
Reduced to a sulking puppy, flailing its tongue and wagging its tail to curry a cuddle, he looked like a derobed masquerade in the market place, bewildered, befuddled and baffled. His facial contortion, pricking your memory of a terrified rat rescued from a surging stream, and like D. O. Fagunwa’s Àràmàndà Okùnrin, shivering from immense cold in the midst of a furnacious heat.
Several pictures of him are circulating all over the place. In one of them, crestfallen like a subdued infant, his inferiority complex was more than conspicuous His self-esteem totally gone, in another picture, stretching his neck like that of a discomforted giraffe from the back row of some men dignifying their heads with different Òshùká in variety of sizes.
With every passing day he spends as a Governor, it is obvious that Seyi Makinde has no serious advisers. Or may be the advisers are derelict in their functions. Or still, they are advising him, he is too arrogant in his ignorance to listen to their advice. Otherwise, how could he go to Shasha and exude an aura of a disheveled puppy, confused and contrite in the presence of a Sheriki, a title and office not recognized by the Laws of Oyo State?
What is he chasing that constricts his ability to act in accordance to the dictates of his office? What is it that has reduced him to a puppy, unable to fend for himself or his people? Why is he afraid to luxuriate in the aspiration of his people and elicit their adoration? What does he hope to accomplish when he is seen repeatedly as a spineless traitor of his people? Does he hope that he become anything without the blessing of his people?
Since his handling of Igangan crises, his acceptance among the people of Oyo State has been dwindling very rapidly. Hitherto perceived to be different and credible, Seyi Makinde is now seen as a traitor to his people. A spineless treacherous coward, enslaved by an ambition diametrically at variance with the aspirations of his people. He has consolidated his image and reputation as someone that could not be trusted in the pursuit of the existential survival of the Yorùbá Nation.
Within two years in office as Governor of Oyo State, he has turned himself to an exemplar of Solomonic tragedy. He has ignored repeatedly the suffering of the people in the hands of the Fulani invaders and criminals. Seyi Makinde turned a blind eye to murders and raping of his people. He cared not a bit about the destruction of Òkè-Ògùn food basket of Oyo State. He gave no commiseration to the victims and the bereaved. He paid no visit to the area.
Seyi Makinde did not and still does not care for the people who voted for him in Oyo State. He is consciously incompetent. He is premeditatedly negligent. He is deliberately indifferent. He is purposefully inefficient. He manifested incapability intentionally. He was deliberately deaf to the wailing of the bereaved. He was calculatedly oblivious to the tears of the people of Oyo State. He pretended he did not hear their cries because he didn’t care about them.
As soon as Prince Sunday Adeyemo picked up the gauntlet to defend his people, Seyi Makinde reminded himself that he was the Governor of Oyo State. He started opening his mouth to expose himself as the enemy of the Oyo State people. He started offending the sensibilities of the people. He reminded himself that there was a police command in Oyo State and asking the police to arrest those who are “criminals” in his own estimation.
Those “criminals” being those who sought to protect themselves from the endless forays of kidnapping, murder, raping, arson and terrorism of the Fulani invaders. Seyi Makinde showed where his loyalty least – against the people of Oyo State and in support of the murderers of his people. Seyi Makinde turned himself to a tribulation for his people. He turned himself to a calamity. He turned himself to catastrophe. He turned himself to a scourge. He became an affliction.
Seyi Makinde became a tragedy in the Agodí Government House.
