I went for a ceremony at Ijebu Ode in Ogun State, a few days ago. I got to the ceremony too early and I decided to go sight seeing before the ceremony commences. The place that first struck my mind to take a look at was the Awujale’s Palace. I thought I should take a glimpse also at the Ojude Oba Pavilion where the fanciful and breathtaking Ojude Oba festival sponsored by Globacom Communications Ltd (Glo) is held annually. I thought I will move around and take some pictures and may be have a meal as my stomach was sending some reverberating signals to me that the worms were forming an alliance of peaceful protest within my intestines. I thought it to obey the everyday periodic order of father hunger before I make my visit to Awujale’s Palace.
After I had a fulfilling meal of amala laced with ewedu, I proceeded. I got to the palace and saw that a renovation was ongoing at Ojude Oba Pavilion. The plastic chairs were changed. In the course of moving around, I also went to the toilet and I saw a sparkly new toilet. I mustn’t forget to mention that the pavilion is also repainted. I began to ruminate that this is such a beautiful act by the people of Ijebu Ode as I learnt before that the building of the Ojude Oba Pavilion was a community act by the enterprising sons and daughters of Ijebu Ode. The pavilions elegance showed part of the good results brought about by the Regberegbe groups of Ijebu Ode. It tells a successful story about what communal efforts can achieve. I was so impressed.
After some look around, I decided to move back to the place of the ceremony I came for, then, I got struck ! It was like being hit by a thunderbolt of seeming impunity. It was wide spread before me. Printed in white and green and standing before me as a signboard that I had not taken note of as I came looking at the Awujale Palace and the pavilion. I was genuinely flabbergasted. And my curiousity started playing around.
What was before me as a signboard is the fact about the Client, Project Title and Contractor handling the Ojude Oba Pavilion that the signboard described as: “Emergency Renovation And Rehabilitation Of Ijebu Ode Township Pavilion Phase 1, Ogun State “. I didn’t feel bad about that until I looked at the client and the whole thing refused to make any sense to me.
The Client that gave out the contract for the “Emergency Renovation and Rehabilitation” of Ojude Oba Pavilion was the “Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security” ! That is, a ministry that oversees agriculture and food security in Nigeria is as an emergency, renovating and rehabilitating a pavilion belonging to Ijebu Ode community. The Contractor is stated as “Creed Vision Ltd , Plot 219, Apo Drive District, Apo, FCT , Abuja”
I started thinking, what has an Ojude Oba Pavilion got to do with the planting of cassava or rice ? What has the pavilion got to do with tractors for farmers in and around Ijebu Ode to till the ground and plant crops for food security ? What has Ojude Oba Pavilion got to do with getting seedlings for farmers in Ijebu Ode, nay Ogun State ? How come the Ojude Oba Pavilion in Ijebu Ode came into the budget of a Federal Ministry in charge of Agriculture and Food Security ? Could it be that the pavilion was about to be turned into the Awujale’s Palace market where farmers can come and sell there farm products ? Are there no markets for such in Ijebu Ode ?
I decided to further make some enquiries and I asked around whether the Pavillion was being changed into another purpose for agriculture or whether an Agriculture Fair was taken place in Ijebu Ode for the year. My enquiries were negative to the fact that the pavilion is about being turned into an avenue for agriculture purposes.
I endeavoured to make further enquiries and came to the knowledge that the contract was awarded for a staggering sum of ₦1 Billon Naira to the contractor ! I became completely deflated. ₦ 1 Billion Naira for the renovation and rehabilitation of the “Phase 1” of a pavilion for Ojude Oba festival or other ceremonies by a Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security ? At this point in time of inflation in the prices of food items ? Pavilion when our farmers are strongly in need of government assistance ?
I then asked myself how exactly did such a project as this, in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, pass through the legislative scrutiny of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, most especially when the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, Yayi, is an indigene of Ogun State ? How did such a serious financial slip pass through the eyeballs of an indigene who have the ambition of ruling Ogun State ? How did the budget that’s supposed to be for seedlings, tractors and help of Ogun State farmers become a financial input to the emergency renovation and rehabilitation of Ojude Oba Pavilion?
One dare ask whether the whole of that renovation is for ₦1 Billion Naira and if this is just Phase 1, then where exactly is the Phase 2 located ? How did this sleaze pass the scrutiny of the Chairman of Appropriations in the Senate, who is from Ogun State ?
One dare ask whether this is the same “due diligence” that Yayi will contribute to the finance of Ogun State, if perchance he becomes the Governor of our dear state in 2027 ?
The people I spoke about this with, who are indigenes of Ijebu Ode, proud sons and daughters of the Awujale, Ogbagba Agbotemole, were very appreciative of the Federal Government’s largesse but they were very unhappy and uncomfortable with the appropriation heading of the project. They were unanimous in their verdict that as proud sons and daughters of Ijebu Ode, they’ll not want to be associated with such misapplication of funds for a project that should have been deployed to various agricultural projects such as the revival of the Ijebu farm settlement or the expansion of the World acclaimed Eriwe Fish Farm established by the Awujale under his very successful poverty alleviation scheme. What about tractors and farm harvesters ? What about the revival of the J4 International Forestry project ? What about cassava processing plants for Ijebu farmers to fight food insecurity and feed the people of Ogun State.
As I got curiouser, I decided to stay the night in Ijebu Ode
evening time, I took a stroll to the once famous Dipo Dina Stadium that was formerly named Otunba Mike Adenuga Stadium by the government of OGD with the agreement then that the Guru’s company, Glo, will sponsor the Gateway FC (where’s the football club now ?) and see to the constant renovation of the stadium before the government of Senator Ibikunle Amosun, most unwittingly, decapitated the said agreement and renamed the stadia Dipo Dina Stadium.
On getting to the stadium, what I saw was an eyesore !
It was nothing but a huge and glorified beer parlour joint screaming all around with all kinds of miscreants and inanities not befitting of a stadium of international repute that once hosted matches for the Under 17 World Cup !
It is now decrepit and a shell of it’s former self, though Ogun State is said to be prepared to host the National Sports Festival early 2025. I pray the government can do a good job of an “emergency renovation and rehabilitation” of the moribund stadium before the start of the games, so that Ogun State will not be a shadow of itself .
Recall when Ogun State hosted the 2006 National Sports Festival the three Senatorial districts hosted the games , with the status of the Dipo Dina Stadium it is obvious it can not host any event in 2025.
On further inquiries about the D.D Stadium what I found out is not only shocking but disturbing .
Otunba Mike Adenuga had the intention of taking majority shares in the Arsenal FC of the United Kingdom but on the intervention of OGD, Otunba Adenuga decided to partner with Gateway FC on an annual budget of 100 million naira if the stadium was named after him .
This agreement was struck with the Founder of Glo, with the buy in of the Awujale of Ijebu land. It was seen then as a veritable tool of bringing up our youths in sports instead of cultism.
Otunba Mike Adenuga agreed to the taking over and funding the management of Gateway FC and the facilities per annum and gradually with time change the name of the club to Glo FC with permanent base at the Mike Adenuga Stadium that was then named after him.
All these were documented and passed by the State Executive Council but in one fell swoop at his inauguration speech on the day he was sworn in, Amosun quashed the whole agreement and it was thrown to the dogs . The rest is history.
This heart wrenching scenarios of a decrepit stadium and the misaplication of an appropriation of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security budget of a staggering ₦1 Billion Naira for the “emergency renovation and rehabilitation” of a community pavilion really got me worried and scary of the missapropriation of such sum to what is not really an emergency in the strictest sense of the word.
Once again, let us ask how such huge misapplication in an Appropriation Act evade the scrutiny of our dear Senator Yayi, the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee at the Senate ? Or, the misapplication was done without his knowledge ? Of course, nothing is impossible.
I hope the amiable Senator can provide an answer to this for an Ojude Oba Pavilion project is normally not supposed to be ensconced within the budget of a Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and for a whopping sum of ₦1 Billion Naira.
To some, they asked whether this is what budget padding is all about that while the populace suffer the appropriation masters smile to the Bank ? I really can’t answer that for sure as it remains at the realm of an accusation. But, the question still remains, how exactly did the pavilion renovation become an agriculture and food security project ? That still baffles all.
Alhaji Olayiwola Bamishaye
Writes from Makun Omi in Ogun State
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