Of the governors currently ruling the South-West, none can lay claim to the ideological depth and vision that Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the governor of Ondo State, has brought into governance. Beyond demolition of buildings, planting of flowers, celebrating every 100 days in office and vile propaganda, progressivism inhabits a space that is culturally refined, ideologically established, politically sound and socially transformative. Rightism or critically realistic aesthetics could be progressive in a sense even though progressivism as originally initiated by Awo in the South-West was on a revolutionary aesthetic, socialist dimension. Currently, however, what we have in the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)-governed states is morbid capitalism anchored on pretences to progressivism, lacking in the basic ideological components of well articulated programmes targeted at placing the masses right at the helm of socio-economic rejuvenation, and defined essentially by negative propaganda, abuse of resources, erosion of human dignity through slave programmes, including the nebulous Youth Empowerment Schemes (YES) schemes put forward as viable solutions to unemployment but in reality merely promoting disguised unemployment, turning graduates to grass cutters and hewers of wood, plate washers during parties, and so on. But the real crime lies in trumpeting to the nation that the Obafemi Awolowo days are here again, that the South-West is on a progressive momentum, and that some integration which would take the zone to El Dorado is being forged. If the Obafemi Awolowo days are here again, where are the new architecturally seductive universities, the agricultural estates, the new towns' Not even Babatunde Fashola, the over-celebrated leading ACN governor, has been building new universities in spite of the huge resources available to his state. But at least, the performing governor has been planting flowers around, constructing new roads and maintaining the monstrous traffic of Lagos. However, judged strictly by the position of schools in his domain or the treatment of the masses, Fashola comes across as an average performer with a massive celebratory media, a formidable, so far unmatched propaganda machine, in a region/nation populated by castrated columnists working for irredeemably corrupt politicians and hoodwinking the uncritical public. Still, Fashola represents something of a model along the Right, not the Left as the great columnists would have everyone believe, and if you look back at the Bola Iges or Adekunle Ajasins, the point I have made should be sufficiently clear. And, well, I am from Lagos State, you see.Lately, one has heard of a Development Agenda for South-West (DAWN) proposed as a manifesto for the South-West 'revival''. The constant use of the word revival is in itself an insult and I find it utterly amusing that the South-West can be so cheaply overrun by charlatans proclaiming unqualified sainthood, and that supposedly Leftist scholars would project such a malady. Now, the DAWN document is a baby of the Afenifere Renewal Group(ARG), the same group which has been unabashedly canvassing the reinstatement of Isa Ayo Salami, as President of the Court of Appeal. So where do we go from here' Can the South-West advance under such a cloud of doubt, treachery and underhand dealings' If the ARG were a patriotic group, it would have taken the weighty allegations against Salami as enough reason to keep silent, even if it would not push for his trial. These are the people who want to develop the South-West, the new Awos, the agents of change, the Mimiko-must-go revolutionaries who want to take over Ondo and experiment their malady with multi-million lives. But the election riggers built new universities and if the progressives cannot match their performance, why scrap those universities' One progressive governor even said the entire South-West should have only one university! Truly, the Awo days are here. The South-West is marching on to glory.Indeed the integration mantra, lacking in basic literacy and anchored on the platform of a perennially acquisitive and illiterate platform, appropriately captures the mindset of the university scrappers. In Ondo, however, a massive university is not only in the offing, the state government has, in fact, scored another goal by building Africa's first court in prison, a powerful machine for prison decongestion and for quick dispensation of justice. As Dr Mimiko himself said: 'We are not only committing serious miscarriage of justice, but violating the principles of fundamental human rights, especially when some of them may be found innocent of the offence for which they are being charged at the end of the day.'We are undisputedly shooting ourselves in the foot when violent criminals are arrested and kept interminably under remand without any hope of conclusion of their trials.'This project is important because of the implications of a grossly defective criminal justice system on security, prison management and the rights of persons and very soon, other complimentary measures that would assist the system in the state will be put in place.'Revolutionary action/ discourse necessarily has to be transgressive, exploding boastful barriers and humbling tin gods. It must be consistent and unapologetic, based on a clear vision and without any patience for status quo elements who strive to keep their expired places. Any writer who wants to make a mark should obey his own mind and not allow anyone to dictate to him what to write. Such a person will be called names and tagged with amusing appellations but those who engage in that exercise are going to turn out the eventual losers.In rounding off this discourse on the South-West and giving the 'progressives' some respite, it is necessary to recall that my intervention has been deliberately fashioned as an alternative discourse, as a response to the intellectual dishonesty that pervades most media commentaries, and to state clearly that the South-West is, contrary to the claims of the 'progressives,' not experiencing any 'progressive momentum,'' but is in fact experiencing a recession. For if you do not want election riggers, neither should you welcome court riggers, noisemakers and deceivers. In everyday language, what I have tried to show in the last one year at least is that those who come to equity must come with clean hands. And the response has been overwhelmingly positive and encouraging, although I will not be printing any text messages here.Awolaja is on the staff of the Nigerian Tribune.
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