I read the piece titled ‘ Light Up Oyo ‘: Who Is Sabotaging Makinde’s Pet Project by my brother and friend, Dapo Falade.
The write up is not only timely, it is also revealing.
Some of us have never been impressed with the said project ab initio, not because it is a bad thing to light our streets up but because the said project is a misplaced priority, bereft of transparency and one that could not stand the test of time.
The write up is a brilliant exposure and confirmation of our fears.
Let us start this way. The said project has been seen by many as Governor Makinde’s ‘ pet project ‘ without asking with which funds the said project was executed.
If the project was executed with funds belonging to the 33 Local Governments, as I have reason to believe it was, how could it be seen and perceived as a project executed by the Governor?
Some would like to say it doesn’t matter. I will say it does matter a lot and it goes to the roots of the problems that is currently engulfing the performance of the project in question.
The Light Up Oyo was awarded for an initial sum of a whooping N28B.
N28B of Local Government funds. Let us now ask ourselves the following questions: who brought the contractor that handled the project? Who signed the contract? What were the terms of the contract?
I remember vividly well that there were fixed time to transit from generators to gas powered generators and then to the planned power grid of Oyo state.
What has happened to the transition arrangements?
We all know that the costs of diesel has gone up tremendously and most of the streetlights are still been powered by generators.
The report was silent on whether the generators are still been adequately fuelled by the contractor but good enough, the report referred to a statement made by the then Commissioner for Information, Wasiu Olatunbosun.
Olatunbosun’s statement, as quoted vividly in the report nailed the issues and there is no point to seek for an enemy where there is none.
The totality and a sum up of Olatunbosun’s statement clearly shows whatever issues the ‘Light Up Oyo ‘ is having is from within and not a result of any imaginary saboteur.
I will quote directly from the press release of Olatunbosun as reproduced in the write up:
Olatunbosun ” expressed Oyo state Government’s dissatisfaction with the contractor handling the project, noting that it was facing difficulties”.
He further explained and I quote him ” the output by the contractor was not satisfactory. It has stopped performing it’s expected role in the development of business, economy and tracking of insecurity “.
Further more, he said and once again I quote, ” there is dispute between the Oyo state Government and the contractor “.
Not done, he said, ” Government is not satisfied with the infrastructure provided and it’s specifications. This has been the main cause of the operation and maintenance challenges the project is facing “.
Finally, Olatunbosun said and I quote, ” Oyo Government was auditing the entire infrastructures to determine the level and quality of work done… The process will be completed in six weeks and the public will be updated “.
The following admissions by the Government of Oyo state through the former Commissioner for Information, Wasiu Olatunbosun is self explanatory and unambiguous about the reasons why the ‘ Light Up Oyo ‘ is a failed project.
It is obvious that the contractor defaulted both in the infrastructures provided against the specifications.
It is obvious that the Government of Oyo state had admitted to the fact that the project failed as a result of the above hitches.
Though, the Government of Oyo state promised to audit the entire infrastructures to determine the level of quality of work done and further promised to update the public about its findings at the time.
I am not aware of any updates provided by the Government of Oyo state after the said ” audit”.
So, where is the wolf of ” sabotage” coming from?
Let us even discuss the original concept of the project.
At the time Governor Makinde sanctioned that project, the state of both our Education and Health sectors were in shambles.
Recently, Health workers in the services of Oyo state downed tools for over two months as a result of the poor conditions of service and other issues.
Methinks such an amount of money spent in either of the Education or the Health sectors would have been more reasonable than the cosmetic venture it was deployed to service.
One of the reasons Government wasted the yet to be confirmed amount of money on the street lights project is to ” track insecurity”.
Unfortunately, a project which is supposedly put in place to track insecurity is being alleged to have been sabotaged!
So, if the streetlights could not secure itself, how would it secure anyone on its own?
I said yet to be known amount of billions deliberately because we don’t even know how much that has been wasted further on maintenance.
I think and strongly so, that Governor Seyi Makinde owes the citizens of Oyo state a lot of explanations and apologies on the wastage of such amounts of Oyo state resources that should have been put to better use on a project that has begun to have issues in less than two years!
The Governor needs to tell us who actually awarded the contract and with which funds. Is it funds belonging to the state or the Local Governments?
The identity of the said contractor must also be made public alongside the report of the ” audit” done by the Oyo state Government.
The ‘ Light Up Oyo ‘ project is one which is a complete disaster but expectedly so.
How on earth could anyone expect that streetlights powered by exposed generating sets will not have issues?
The Government of Seyi Makinde should and would be held responsible for the disaster called ‘ Light Up Oyo ‘ and no imaginary ” saboteur”.
I must end this piece by talking about an information going round town now, though unconfirmed.
It has been reported that the Governor is appealing to the 33 Local Government Chairmen to cooperate with him to do whatever he had been doing with the monthly Allocations for the Local Governments.
A carrot of the approval of three months arrears of the security votes for the Chairmen is being dangled.
I have said that I will no longer discuss the activities of the Local Government Chairmen and their relationship with the Governor.
I will however advice all Career Officers who will have one role or the other to play in the mismanagement of Local Government funds to watch their backs.
If any Local Government Chairman is so desirous of serving terms at Abolongo, there is a free ride but I think the Civil servants should seriously consider their careers.
Oko Oba, Ada Oba ko nii sa wa lese o.
SOLA ABEGUNDE
