AC’s gibberish against OGD

By Tunde Oladunjoye and Olusola Omoluabi

Governor Gbenga Daniel

Having been inexplicably inactive for such a long while, the current season of 100 days-in-office celebration by operatives of the current political dispensation, apparently offered the Action Congress (AC), yet another opportunity to return to its usual role of always looking for ways to smear both the personal image of the popular governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and that of his equally widely-acclaimed administration.

In an open letter addressed to His Excellency, President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, and dated Thursday, 6 September 2007 , AC had to return to the issue of the various personal assets Governor Daniel professed to own, according to his public declaration on Sunday, 15 July, this year.

We want to say outright that we are not surprised at all by their latest shenanigan since they need to remind their dwindling number of supporters within Ogun State that AC is still alive afterall, though not strong enough to compete fairly with its more superior rival, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as clearly demonstrated during the last general elections. We are, however, piqued that AC leadership is still enmeshed in collective amnesia even at this stage as there is absolutely nothing new in what it put in the advertorial in question nor have its tactics and strategies changed from the usual primitive, unimpressive and pull-him-down moulds.

We are also surprised that AC as a party has thoroughly debased itself to have taken up the Goebel’s job usually allotted until recently to the Dipo Dina Movement having become a political liability since the April 2007 trouncing of its chief promoter, Otunba Dipo Dina. But collectively, we expect the AC to be wiser, perform better than the DDM while addressing vital public issues even when mischief is intended. Judging by the despondent tone of its petition to Mr. President, it would appear that the AC already smells defeat at the Election Petition Tribunal to which it has ineptly appealed in the first place, hence the recourse to the new Jankara tactics.

To all intents and purposes, there is nothing illogical, irregular or exaggerative about the claims made by Otunba Daniel in his asset declaration. Perhaps, we need to let it be known at this stage that as far back as 1991, the famous and authoritative but now rested Sunday Concord newspaper ranked and featured Otunba Gbenga Daniel among the 50 most successful Nigerian entrepreneurs in the very first edition of that widely-acclaimed newspaper project whose critical listing conditions included, average annual turnover of half-a-billion naira mark, management skill, probity, global focus, marketing drive and ICT-compliance among others.

We are, therefore, amused by the laughable imputation of the AC when it wondered why the declared asset worth of Governor Daniel put at N4.46 billion should be as much as three times higher than those of Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President and Secretary to the Federal Government (SFG), all put together. Isn’t it odd and puerile for anybody or group to attempt to compare the economic worth of somebody coming into politics purely from a sound and successful business pedigree with those who are at best technocrats? And, what legislation forbids an individual Nigerian from being richer not only than Mr. President but even the combination of many of our present rulers? What if Bill Gates has been a Nigerian?

On the insinuation that Otunba Daniel, for merely engaging in sales and repairs of elevators and generators, ought not to be as materially wealthy as he claims, we find such contention as both puerile and laughable. AC and its members ought to know that Otunba Daniel is not only a well-trained and qualified mechanical engineer but one who has put his skills to good professional use.

And being one divinely and highly favoured by God, his enterprising spirit and hardwork have equally led him, expectedly, to quick and big fortune. He won many franchise and sole dealerships of several top-rated and highly lucrative engineering products from Western Europe and America not just in Nigeria but indeed, Africa. How do you expect such a hardworking individual to remain poor?

Concerning the call on Mr. President to publish the report of the EFCC on the activities of Governor Daniel, AC ought to be reminded that the EFCC has indeed once cleared Governor Daniel and all those who served under him between 2003 and 2007 of any malfeasance. Otunba Daniel was subsequently given a clean bill of health by the same EFCC, and was thus able to run for a second term in the last governorship election.

When the governor decided to reveal his assets to the general public through the press, perhaps, unknown to him, he blazed the trail of becoming not only the first governor, whether elected or appointed, in the South-West geo-political zone but the first indeed, in the entire Southern flank of the country since independence in 1960, to voluntarily take the issue of his total economic worth before the public domain for their perusal. Even on a national scale, he ranks fourth among the envious league of elected public officers who are bold enough to exhibit their personal worth before the public glare after the fashion of President Yar’Adua, Governor Ibrahim Idris of Kogi State and Senator Ahmed Yerima Sani, the immediate past governor of Zamfara State in that order. His wife, Yeye Olufunke Daniel, popularly referred to as Iya Alaanu is the only wife of a serving public official in Nigerian history to have declared her assets publicly and voluntarily.

Gbenga Daniel’s bold demand for the urgent revival and passage into law of the hitherto suspended Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) by the National Assembly remains another significant and remarkable feature of the public declaration of his assets. And to underscore his commitment to the demand, the governor also declared that he had already advised the Ogun State caucus in the National Assembly to take the lead in the crusade for the revival of the FOI bill and ensure its quick passage into law in the interest of public probity. What is more?

Could such a demand have come from a coward or somebody who has a skeleton in his cupboard? Certainly, No! Enough of these idle talks.

Oladunjoye and Omoluabi sent this piece from Abeokuta.