When you have something good to showcase, you speak with confidence without rambling. Your achievements present or previous can make your opponents bow for you.
This was the case last Thursday at Imeko, the Headquarter of Imeko-Afon Local Government of Ogun State when Chief Olusegun Osoba was invited to address the crowd of people that gathered together at the APC rally.
Chief Olusegun Osoba was the Governor of Ogun-State firstly in 1992 before the military truncated the civil rule of that period and came back in 1999 -2003.
In a very short but concise speech at the Imeko rally of APC, Chief Osoba reminded the crowd which included the the incumbent Governor Dapo Abiodun and his wife, Deputy Governor Noimot Salako- Oyedele and others jostling for political posts in the forthcoming general elections of how his administration connected Ilara,Afon, Iwoye and Imeko to the national grid. Yes, it was a true story. Chief Osoba was not lying.
The Imeko electrification project was conceived during the regime of Chief Bisi Onabanjo.However the project which was awarded to a company known as Elektrim was abandoned completely after General Buhari and his military junta sent packing the democratically elected administration of Alhaji Shehu Sagari in a coup detat that was staged December 31st,1983.
Chief Olusegun Osoba commenced, and completed many rural electrification projects. When I heard him saying this, I noded in affirmation that the statement was not a fallacy because I witnessed the commissioning.
The anchor men were Prince Segun Adesegun who was then the Commissioner of works and the amiable Engr Wale Bajomo of blessed memory who was the Permanent Secretary Bureau Rural Development and Special Duties.
Myself and Busayo Olaifa were the official masters of ceremony during that period. Commissioning of projects took us to nooks and cranies of Ogun-State. Those were the days when the “SAs,SSAs and Super Consultants” have not been imported to takeover the functions of civil servants.
The rural electrification projects started, completed and commissioned by the administration of Chief Olusegun Osoba in Ogun-West axis included Imeko, Afon, Imala,Anigbado,Idi Emi,Obada,Okeagbede,Iwoye, Abule Maria, Ifonyintedo among many others.
I was also part of the commissioning of electrification projects of Imala,Opeji,Maun,Kajola,Orita J4,Abigi, Ibiade,Efire, Simawa, Idogo and many more.
The younger generations at the Imeko APC rally listened with rapt attention and could not hold themselves back but to acknowledge the landmark achievement with a loud applause. Of course Chief Osoba deserved the applause.
That short but very significant history will definitely add value to the campaign of the APC. What a landmark achievement that had brought desired developments to the places that were connected with electricity then. Those places are growing in leaps and bounds in social and economic activities.
The question is, what lessons are the politicians jostling for votes learning from people like Chief Olusegun Osoba? Any enduring legacy to point to after tenure? We are all men and women of history.
Yemisi Bamgbose writes from Idi-Aba, Abeokuta.
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