Inakoju: Oyo: Between peace and violence

IT is good to appraise the state of peace in Oyo State, as opposed to what it was before now. The world knows that the state was a bedlam before Governor Abiola Ajimobi took over the reins of office on May 29, 2011. Violence of the most horrendous form was in place. The violence that the state witnessed under Rashidi Ladoja and Adebayo Alao-Akala was worse than that of Hiroshima and Nagazaki. The typecast of the state was that of a state of filth and brigandage.

   True to his promise, the governor hit the ground running by proscribing the reactionary NURTW on June 6, 2011 as an aftermath of the violence that erupted at Iwo Road the previous day in which 20 people died. The governor did not allow any of the factions to operate until the national leadership of the union undertook to whip the warlords into line. To further instil sanity in the system, the governor inaugurated a joint security patrol squad on December 9, 2011, codenamed Operation Burst; whose personnel were deployed in the six geo-political zones of the state. Buoyed by the donation of three Armoured Personnel Carriers, 117 operational vehicles and seven power bikes by the state government, the alignment of forces restored peace and security in the state.  To further boost the morale of the police, the governor refurbished grounded police patrol vans. The governor also established the Oyo State Security Trust Fund to engender public-private partnership on security in the state. 

   The concomitant effect of the governor’s efforts became manifest when more than eight industrial giants were attracted to the state. In a bid to further attract local and foreign investors, including in the agriculture sector, the government granted concession of between 70 and 90 per cent on land acquisition. Also, the government granted a substantial tax holiday for up to seven years to eligible industries.

   It is gratifying to know that industries such as Shoprite, Agric Tech, Oriental Foods, Joy Foods, Rahvet International Limited, Sajrom Farm Limited, Palm Royale Farm, Fedkot Nigeria Limited, HaulTrac Nigeria Limited, UPDC, HPC Architecture and Engineering Limited and Kamal Milk have berthed in Ibadan following the congenial environment. None of these giant companies could have come to the state when the previous governments, renowned for unbridled violence, were in place. The bespattered body of a renowned anvil of past governments and their faithful, Eleweomo, whose gory imagery reminds one of allegation of a former Senate Leader’s complicity, is enough for any sane person never to wish for a return to those gory old days.

    According to Ajimobi, the reversal of the old order of violence had generated close to one million direct and indirect employments for citizens of the state. In a similar vein, the National Bureau of Statistics put the capital inflow into the state at approximately $3.49 million in its third quarter report for 2014. This signalled an increase of 697 per cent when compared with the $500,000 recorded between the first and second quarters of the year. 

    That only four murder cases were recorded in 2014 as listed in the State Police Command Crime Rates Statistics for the year says a lot when compared with the 121 cases before 2011. Oyo State was also said to have recorded only four armed robbery incidents in the whole of 2014, with none affecting the banks. The only attempt to rob a new generation bank in Bodija was repelled by men of Operation Burst. Three kidnap cases were recorded as against 45 before 2011. The statistics also indicated that no single case of murder, arson or grievous harm and wounding was reported at any police formation in 2014.   

  In acknowledgment of Governor Ajimobi’s peace-building efforts, the governor bagged an award as the Best Governor on Conflict Resolution in Nigeria from the Security Watch Africa, on October 19, 2012 in Ghana. It is equally not by happenstance that the British Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr. Peter Carter, recognised that: “Ibadan is rapidly developing. It is very pleasant for me to be in the city that is fast looking into the future.” He was reported to have made the comment during a visit to Governor Ajimobi, as reported in the October 10, 2013 edition of the Nation newspaper. During the parley, the governor was quoted to have told his guest that the New York Times listed Oyo State as one of the preferred destinations for investors in Africa due to the ‘peaceful environment, availability of infrastructure and landmass.’

  Also in the June 19, 2013 edition of the Nation newspaper, one of the widows of the deceased enfant terrible, Bose Adedibu, a staunch PDP member, was quoted as saying: “In all honesty, without being biased, Governor Ajimobi is doing well. There is peace and security now compared with the violence and thuggery that used to be perpetrated by street urchins. I remember vividly that at that time, the people of Oyo State lived in perpetual fear of insecurity. But now, everywhere is peaceful and people are going about their businesses without fear of molestation.”

   However, security agents should be commended for curtailing the crisis in the Born Foto and Popoyemoja areas of Ibadan in November/December 2014, which was instigated by street urchins to truncate the pervading peace in Oyo State.

   For us in the state, the story of our horrendous past in the hands of past governments of the state is not a fluke, even though it reads like one from Hammer House of Horror. It was a period of our lives that we will not pray to relive. If Nigeria were a country where statistics were held seriously, by now we would have been overwhelmed by the number of deaths recorded between the two regimes. Hundreds of families who lost their breadwinners in the fracas or the hundred others who were felled by stray bullets are living testimonies of the reign of terror of the past.

   Like Fayose Ayodele did pre-election in Ekiti State, the contenders for Agodi Government House who were principals of the violence, have literally been campaigning that they are now ‘born again’. The tenuousness of such promise can be seen in the state of things in Ekiti now when Fayose beguiled the people to vote for him.

   As the February 28, 2015 governorship election beckons, the choice before the electorate is between the peace and industrial development associated with the Ajimobi’s government and the violence and brigandage that reigned supreme when two of his two major contenders ruled the state as governors. As Jesus said in the holy book, the people of Oyo State would on February 28, 2015, choose whom thou shall vote for: the spirit of dove or Belzeebub and his violence.

• Inakoju teaches in a secondary school in Ibadan.