Governor Amosun as a trouble-shooter

Since I left my comfort-zone, the newsroom, in June 2011 to start operating as a member of the Ogun State Government, I have never been scared or saddened by any development than by the events of March 5, 2013. Despite the fact that the news had been in the air at the weekend that the state House of Assembly might erupt in crisis, I believed that the 24 gentlemen and the two ladies would always manage their differences and be tamed by the facts of our recent history.

When the legislators again gathered as a Committee of the whole on March 4 to screen our new Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice, Mrs. Abimbola Akeredolu and I watched the news of how the session went unimpeded with the woman getting a handshake from all the legislators, I became more than sure that all was under control. However, when the news came that Tuesday morning, that the House had been divided to two warring camps ready to do battle, I became worried.

At that point, there was little anybody could do but to pray. Though, I am not a politician, I can say that through regular contact with all our legislators at official and unofficial fora convened by my boss, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, I have a good relationship with all or most of them. However, by that Tuesday morning, no relationship would suppress the high-stake power-game that was about to play out. As a member of the executive which, from all indications, was not involved in the bickering in the legislative arm, why was I scared by the events of March 5 in which Ogun State again tested the veracity and functionality of Baron de Montesquieu’s theory of Separation of Powers and the corollary checks and balances?

I knew that with the House of Assembly in crisis, with members damaging their symbol of authority, the mace, and different allegations aimed at drawing attention and currying favour in the public opinion divide, we would be sending danger signals that the state was about to return to the jungle era of 2009 to 2010. Ogun State that has in the last 20 months been making a gradual return to its usual progressive, development-driven state would now be seen to be relapsing into the ugly period when we got unsolicited front-page news mention for the wrong reasons.

When the House of Assembly is not in session because the membership is divided against itself, its leadership is in dispute and its chamber is surrounded by security men who were battle ready to prevent breakdown of law and order, what can the executive achieve? Only an executive arm that wants to play the ostrich or delude itself would revel in being an oasis of peace surrounded by a troubled legislature.

More importantly, the fight in the Legislature makes my own job as a spokesman for the government more difficult. Instead of talking about development projects and life-changing policies and programmes aimed at truly rebuilding our dear state, the information manager becomes a reactionary or propaganda agent who either has to defend an allegation or raise a counter-allegation in defence of the government. In any case, the government will always be drawn into debates about who is playing what role in the House of Assembly.  

By extension, the fight in the House has the potentials to cause an unpleasant distraction and divert public attention from the various on-going development efforts. The hundreds of kilometers of roads being expanded to create room for six-lane ‘Ogun Standard’ roads, the model schools under construction which will redefine infrastructural provision in public secondary schools, the model hospitals which will soon dot the landscapes of each of our nine federal constituencies, various policies aimed at making our state the preferred investors’ destination and the revolutionary projects and programmes aimed at restoring the state’s comparative advantage in agriculture, among other life changing policies, were about to be stalled and dwarfed by the events of last Tuesday.  

Again, it should be noted that many believe any fight in the House of Assembly is a proxy war between key characters in the executive, the ruling party or the political space as a whole. Those who have experienced a similar situation in our state under the previous administration vowed that if the group opposed to the House establishment did not have some money bags already sponsoring their action before the fight broke, they would have several offers within 24 hours.

It is as a result of these considerations that my heart jumped into my mouth as the facts of the fight in the Ogun State House of Assembly unfolded. However, I was very relieved that evening when Governor Amosun chose not to attend the meeting of leaders of the new party, Action Progressive Congress (APC) holding in Abuja. He then assured everybody that the crisis will definitely not last.

It was a good test of his popularity and reputation when he invited the legislators to a meeting in his office the following morning and all of them were present. I remember one of the legislators telling me before the meeting commenced that he cried most of the night because he realized the implication of such a bitter fight on peace and progress in the state. Another one said he was sure that with the governor’s intervention, normalcy will be restored because all of them have utmost respect for the governor, whose programmes, policies, bills and nominees have always got the approval of the legislature after all necessary debates.

It is in the light of all these considerations that one should see the timely intervention of Senator Amosun in nipping in the bud an ugly development which could have consumed the state. The governor’s timely intervention ensured that mischief makers did not capitalize on the situation. The speedy gubernatorial trouble-shooting prevented a situation where combatants embark on ego-trip and get entrenched in their different positions.

By playing the role of a peacemaker in a fight in which one of the groups was already erroneously being touted as having his support while the members of the other were making insinuations against the position of the Governor, Senator Amosun chose to be a statesman rather than a politician. He played the role of the father-figure to the feuding legislators. By putting the interest of our dear state and its good people above political expediency and personal ego, the Governor has shown that he is the father of all.

More importantly, it was the governor who suggested the popular line on which the reconciliation in the House of Assembly is now based. He was the one who said the legislators should go and apologise to the good people of the state who elected all of them into office. While leading the way in tendering apology to the people, he also found the right symbolism in the 106th birthday of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, which coincidentally was that very day the legislators were re-united. I believe Governor Amosun came out of the situation as the typical cultured, progressive and patriotic ‘omo Ogun’.

While I pray that Ogun State should never return to that era when we were a shame to other truly democratic societies, I know that the state governor needs to continue to enjoy the goodwill of all stakeholders so that he can be able to rally all, at all times, for good causes.

• Olaniyonu is Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Ogun State