Insecurity in Oyo State: Towards a safer Oyo State.

Blame game/Opposition game

A wise man once said, "When you keep blaming others for every situation you're in, someday you’ll begin to look like you’re the mistake all along". This holds true of our politicians in Nigeria. When a new government spend a good portion of its administration to point fingers on the failures or bad gimmicks of the old/displaced government instead of thinking outside the box to proffer solutions to the dilemma at hand, soon they will start to appear incompetent and an excuse seeker.

Blame game has been a sad trend in our polity in this country. The APC government at the federal level elected in 2015 spent their entire first term blaming the deposed PDP government for insurgency and insecurity. Yeah, this state of insecurity ended the PDP reign of 16 years and the same is about to end the APC reign because they've also failed to keep the nation secured. They are now a victim of the situation that brought them to be. I hope this same trend  won't be the case in Oyo state. 

Verily, if the old government hadn't been bad the people wouldn't have voted them out. If situations in the state wasn't unpleasant, a new government wouldn't have be voted in to rectify/redeem it. However if all the supposed REDEEMER can do is to keep blaming the old order, instead of solving the problem, it's only a matter of time before the problem will also take them out. 

Secondly, The current GSM administration needs to wake up from seeing every ills in the society as handiwork of the oppositions or of having political undertone. This is an act of weakness. The government should be on top of the game and not hide under a blame game (whether they are genuine or not). The essence of your existence in that position is to make a difference and not to raise fingers of blame. The governor is expected to be on top of every undertone, whether political or not.

And please, the GSM administration should stop seeing every contrary opinions to theirs as opposition. I personally stopped commenting on their social posts because my contrary suggestions are being viewed as "opposition".

Lack of proactive steps

The difference between a sitting governor and the average citizen is the control and access to powerful state apparatus. The governor is at a vantage position of top level intelligence briefing to act upon either to prevent unwholesome situations before they happen or to do some good. This is what being proactive is all about. In short, the governor should see things coming because the capacity and apparatus to do so is at his disposal.

However, this has not been the case with the current administration. This government scores low on taking proactive steps/policies and I attribute this to the populist agenda of HE. If much good  will be done within the short time left of your administration, then you need to move from  reactionary leadership to proactiveness.

You can still take proactive steps in a populist agenda, it only takes creativity and innovation. Imagine the number of properties lost to the Sasa market mayhem because the governor wanted to look out for the average market woman who survives on the gains from her stall. What became of the woman when her shop, wares and properties went up in flames?

Speaking about proactiveness, even as we speak, no policies or schemes has been put in place to forestall a recurrence. Are we waiting for another of such incidence before we act again. I believe by now the government should be launching creative community schemes that will foster the unity of the different ethnic groups existing in that community and such other flash communities with convergence of different ethnic groups in the state. We should also be implementing security programs that will ensure such tensions are nibbed in the bud before they germinate into violence. Well, I'll leave the rest to the governor and his "team of advisers".

Restless and Unengaged youths

Times over, I've raised the issue about youth engagement in the state. It is illogical for the Government to keep spending millions on infrastructures while idle youths roam its streets. This is a waste of the millions because these idle youths will someday destroy the facilities. Similarly, idle youths become CHEAP weapons in the hands of evil minded individuals.

Youth engagement isn't rocket science or goldmine budget.. it's as simple as organising local sports competitions, regional skills acquisition hubs, state social and tech hubs, among other creative ideas. The state government can utilize  sponsorship partnership with corporate bodies who's CSR's have aligning objectives with the goals of these projects.

Let's keep our youths actively engaged and you will see a great reduction in crime or violence instead of blaming "political undertone" for idle youths excesses. We already have seen what idle youths are capable of doing in the state during the hijacked EndSars Protest. Yet, the state failed to work towards their engagement. Now it has happened again in Sasa, will that be enough for the state to start investing in youth engagement? A question for the governor and his cabinet.

At this juncture, I rest my pen for a while. 

Tayo Okanlawon