By Gbenga Alani
The title above was the first thought that came to mind when I read the interview purportedly granted by Prof. Akin Onigbinde in defence of his long-time friend, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, a former governor of Ogun State and now senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District.
While one should have no issue with Professor Akin Onigbinde defending his friend against the Governor of Ogun state, Prince Dapo Abiodun, and even stoking the fire of the seeming disagreement between the former and current governors, the gaps, half-truths and lies contained in the interview showed that the loquacious professor has forgotten a lot about recent happenings in Ogun state politics.
It was Otunba Gbenga Daniel who told the world in 2019 that as soon as Prince Dapo Abiodun lost the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to him in 2003, he (Abiodun) was the first person to give him money, vehicles and also campaigned vigorously for him. Daniel told the media that his support for Abiodun in 2019 was “a pay back time”. How Onigbinde then got the idea that Abiodun was angry and did not forgive and has not forgiven Daniel for losing the governorship primary of 2003 can only be the invention of the “political professor.”
It is on record that the wishy-washy memoir of the controversial Senator, entitled “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” was hastily authored by Akin Onigbinde and few others towards the twilight of Daniel’s Administration. The book, to the embarrassment of the former governor, contained a lot of errors, misinformation, even self-damaging reports on the activities of the former governor and his wife, to the extent that copies of the book were hastily withdrawn from circulation.
Onigbinde himself parted ways with Daniel as he complained severally to close friends how Daniel not only refused to help him when his child was studying abroad, but also asked him why did he(Onigbinde) send his child abroad for study.
Since then, nothing has been heard of Onigbinde and Daniel and both kept their measured distance. Perhaps, the new political office of Daniel is the latest attraction of the chattered writer and that spurred the recent ridiculous interview that was not expected of a supposedly learned person who also lays claim to being an Afenifere. A genuine Afenifere would have sought resolution of a dispute among supposed friends and not act in a manner that the Yoruba describe as arijenimadaru (profiteer from confusion). Is our Professor’s attitude an indication that he is broke and soliciting patronage?
While Professor reeled out the so-called achievements of his friend as if those were the best thing that ever happened since Adam and Eve were created, he was very silent on the humongous cost of those projects, the poor quality of execution that made most of the roads caved in within 10 months of commissioning and the debt trap which his friend pushed Ogun state into and from which the state is yet to recover from.
Our self-acclaimed Afenifere chieftain, who ditched the progressive group to serve his friend in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was silent on the issues of thuggery, killings, rituals and oath-taking that were rampant during the better forgotten era of his friend. Oath-taking and ritual practices became the order of the day that Professor Wole Soyinka, who Onigbinde also claims to be close to, described Onigbinde’s friend as Daani Elebo (Dan, the ritualist).
In true conscience, Onigbinde and his colleagues then at the state-owned university cannot pretend to be ignorant of how cultism was imported large-scale into Ogun state and spread rapidly around. On the pretext of searching for revenue, various unaccredited courses were introduced in the university while their friend in office as governor, who had denied the institution of much-needed funds, looked away. When the multitude of students who have left their different homes, especially Lagos, later realised that they were shortchanged, they could not return home. They stayed back in Ogun state and bred cultism with the sign posts at Ago Iwoye, Ijebu Ode, Sagamu and Abeokuta. All these happened under the watch of the friend of the professor.
My candid advice is that as an elder, our opportunistic professor should seek peace or keep mute instead of trying to rewrite recent political history of Ogun State, which we all witnessed with our very eyes. He should not make us remember, let alone recall the unpleasantries of his friend’s era, which our dear state has not even fully recovered from. Enough said!
•Views expressed are strictly that of the author and do not in anyway represent the position of this news medium.
