Ogun: Men Without Balls

Comfort Obi

If the interview was not as nauseating as it was shameful, I would have had a lot of fun reading it. But it is an interview which exposed the collective rot in Ogun State. It confirmed – in case anybody was in doubt – that the state is clearly in the hands of men and women who carry the Holy books – the Bible and the Koran - in the day, but dance naked before idols and other fetish gods in the night.
For the records, this is not the first time the alleged fetishness which holds the state’s leaders captive are coming to the public domain. A few weeks ago, the Ogun State government, led by Otunba Gbenga Daniel, had treated us to a bizarre spectacle. It published the nude photograph of a member of the House of Assembly in the front page of a Lagos-based newspaper, Nigerian Compass. Daniel is the main motivator of the paper. The story which accompanied the photograph indicated that it was taken where the House of Assembly member and others opposed to Daniel had gone to swear to a blood oath to deal with the governor. When he recovered from the initial shock of seeing his nude photograph splashed on the pages of newspapers, the lawmaker, Wale Alausa, shamelessly admitted that yes, he is the nude man, but no, the photograph was taken when he and others were taken to a shrine by Daniel to swear to a blood oath of allegiance to him (Daniel). Governor Daniel, he said, also took the oath, nude. He and members of his group had threatened to publish Daniel’s nude photograph. I don’t know now why they changed their minds. They disappointed many who were looking forward to seeing an executive nakedness, including that of a woman who the group described as big-bottomed! Yet, nothing compares to the interview granted by Waliu Olayiwola Taiwo, Daniel’s former Commissioner for Agriculture. It made the front page of the National Life newspaper of Saturday, October 24.
Entitled OGD’s Coffin Oath, it had a rider, Our Covenant with Ogun Governor. And to make it more dramatic, the paper supported the caption with the photograph of a coffin. For the purpose of this write-up, I will quote copiously Taiwo, who was Daniel’s Commissioner, and right-hand man until his sack in March. I am not, here, concerned with his allegation that Daniel has a killer squad. Taiwo was one of those who, before his sack, vigorously denied that any such squad existed. Nor am I concerned with his assertion that he was the only member of the state executive council who usually told Daniel the truth behind closed doors. Na lie. Who is his witness? What type of truth was he telling Daniel? He dared not. My impression is that state commissioners, and other such aides, shake as if they have been afflicted with Parkinson disease before their governors. They take all sorts of insults from them, and from even their wives, in order to keep their jobs. And Taiwo confirmed this. “I had not been attending the Exco (state executive council meeting) because it was a place where we deceived ourselves. When I watched the type of discussions we normally have there, I felt concerned”.
Question: When did Taiwo start feeling concerned? Before, or after he was sacked? But here is the clincher. Taiwo: “Daniel was always dictating the tone of discussions. When he starts a discussion, everybody will follow and believe”.
But there is this small bit before I talk about the Taiwo – Daniel coffin story. Taiwo says he rejected the idea when Daniel told him to be his successor in office. According to Taiwo, Daniel told him: “I know you, and I know what you can do…. He asked me to come out for the governorship race. He said if I can’t make governor, he would clear the way for Senate for me. But I know that Daniel alone cannot make me governor. I will need other stakeholders like former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Senator Iyabo Obasanjo – Bello, Speaker Dimeji Bankole, Senator Martins Kuye and others.” Good.
This man thinks he is clever. But he is only clever by half. Deliberately, he reels out the names of all those who Daniel is having problems with. He wants to belong. I submit that Daniel offered him nothing. If he did, he would have jumped at it, and killed for it. He rejected an offer to be governor? False. That is a position serving Senators target, forgetting their status, and grovel to be given a chance. But the limit of Taiwo’s shamelessness is his allegation that Ogun state politicians swear to an oath by entering into a coffin, and lying down there.Read this.
National Life: Okay, how about the allegations that there have been oath- takings among politicians in Ogun?
Taiwo: Oh! It is not Ogun State politicians that initiated oath- taking. It is Governor Daniel. For you to work for him, he will take you to Osasa. There, you will be given N20,000 inducement and asked to sleep inside a coffin where you will swear to an oath of allegiance to Daniel. And you know that it is a serious ritual. Many politicians in the state were made to sleep in the coffin and swear. So it is not a new thing.
Question then: Did Taiwo partake in the oath – taking? Was he given the N20,000 inducement? And did he take? For answers to these, he provides a one-liner. Here it goes:
National Life: Did you also swear inside the coffin?
Taiwo: My brother, let’s leave that.
Why should it be left? From his answer, it is obvious that he took the oath inside the coffin. And for what? Forget the paltry N20,000. That money is diabolical. It is ritual money. Otherwise, would N20,000 make a man sleep inside a coffin? He did that to become a commissioner .Only the dead sleep in coffins.
I pity the wives of these politicians. If what Taiwo said is anything to go by, then they have been living with ritualists and sleeping with ghosts. These are men without balls. None of them had the courage to talk at the time. They only talk when they are sacked. Ogun people are cursed with these people. They should sweep them out, and cleanse their state.
And finally, I cannot resist asking Daniel a question I wanted to ask him when Kayode Samuel quit as his Commissioner for Information and Strategy. What is wrong with you? Everybody cannot be lying against you all the time. There, indeed, must be a problem somewhere.