I take as a starting point in this essay, a potent reaction by Tunji Obawole to the essay 'South-West: The Conspiracy against development (3)' (see page 18 of Nigerian Tribune, 11 April, 2012): 'Dr Olusegun Mimiko is the most brilliant, most cultured, most unassuming, most focused, and most performing governor in the South-West today. He truly has the Awo spirit in him, and deserves all the accolades he is getting now. A honest development agenda for the South-West must anchor on those qualities such as manifested in Segun. Propaganda will not get us anywhere; demonstrated high-level performance will.' In this essay, I look at the ideological locus of Mimiko's political engagement, submitting that even though a consistent ideological framework and commitment to excellence are germane, the personality matrix suggested by Obawole may prove to be an invaluable key to unlocking revolutionary governance.But first, some initial observations. In response to the commentator who said, elsewhere, that 'Mimiko and others are looking up to Fashola' let me say right away that there is no basis for comparing Mimiko's globally acknowledged excellence with Fashola's average performance and, indeed in the educational sector, outright mediocrity. Anyone boasting a basic familiarity with the Awoist credo of 'Life more abundant' cannot fail to notice that the sage made education the bedrock of social transformation, a domain where Mimiko has no equal anywhere in Africa. While public schools are rotting away in Lagos and state polytechnic land has been reportedly seized by private individuals, Mimiko has completed 30 mega schools, with another 24 in various stages of completion, with free school uniforms, free shoes, free school bags and even free buses provided for the students. If care is not taken to replicate the Mimiko programme elsewhere, Ondo will become, in the nearest future, another South-West within the South-West whose indigenes will be the target of official envy reminiscent of the military days.While education has suffered a bitter neglect by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)'s Lagos, with damning results over the years ( for 2010, as documented by the Federal Ministry of Education, the pass rate for students in public schools in Lagos was 9.1 per cent, Ondo 31.2 per cent ; Lagos 9.1 Oyo 5 per cent; Osun 5 per cent), it is being placed, in Ondo, right at the same spot where the sage placed it. Notice that, for private schools in the year under reference, the pass rate was 62 per cent in Lagos, meaning that the children of the masses are doomed. In any case, I cannot compare a man who puts hawkers in Black Maria with a man who builds free state-of-the-art markets for the masses. As for the man who made graduates plate washers during parties and roadside cutters of grass, advertising modern day slavery to the whole world, I have nothing to say. Indeed, minus media propaganda, many would contend that the following Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors easily dwarf Fashola, namely Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State. Fashola should, however, be commended for the much that he has been able to do in the Lekki axis in the face of crippling, fiscal godfatherism, his traffic management skills, beatification efforts and, especially, road construction efforts across the state.The sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was acknowledged as a philosopher, thinker, educationist and culture exponent, recording milestones in all sectors of the economy. I submit, however, that even though Awo was ideologically committed and culturally liberated, his revolution in governance is more appropriately placed within the quality of his heart rather than his ideology, for there were comparable theorists like the legendary Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere who nevertheless did not achieve half of what he did. Nkrumah's fascist leaning notwithstanding, he is recognised as a great Black visionary, but socialism in Ghana was a total mess, prompting rebuke by Ghana's topmost intellectuals, including the literary writers (Remember Ayi Kwei Armah's 'socialism chop make I chop' in The Beautiful Ones are not yet born' As noted by a writer, 'Nkrumah gave little importance to developing agriculture, equating agriculture with bondage. He wanted to a great leap for his country to a modern, industrial economy. '' Within the current Republic, few theorists will match Chimaroke Nnamani's sophistication, yet he remains, to many, just another figure in the country's long list of mediocrity. In this connection, one recalls Chief Segun Oni's submission that 'most of the time, the schools of ism are schools of subterfuge.' The point being made here is that revolutionary governance is not all about a professed ideology; certain traits of a compassionate personality are key. Put it another way: you can read up all that Awo ever said or did, but unless you have a similar passion for the poor and downtrodden, you will end up making a total fool of yourself. If in doubt, look at the clones who today claim that they are reincarnations of Awo.Mimiko's ideological locus is anchored in the Awo socialism which, unlike classical Marxist-Leninist theory, places religion and belief in God at the centre of the human essence. In Return of Greatness (2012: 27), Mimiko provides an insight into his government's ideological underpinning as follows: 'The Labour Party is a social democratic party and in the ideological spectrum, we belong to the left. We believe that government has a responsibility to the people. We believe that government has to make the private sector to thrive so that private profit can motivate people to grow the economy but we also believe that government has the responsibility to ensure that equitable opportunity is given to people in the society as much as possible, what is known as carrying everybody along. We've seen the marginalised in the society, the downtrodden, people who exist as statistics in government ministries; we must give them opportunity to be able to actualise themselves. On the social democratic platform, providing free bus services, free and qualitative health care to the most vulnerable in the society and democratising access to quality education all fit into the mantra, which is the progressive mantra.' This people-centred project (which has spawned global acclaim in virtually all sectors) must be seen in terms of a compassionate personality as much as it is seen in terms of ideological commitment, particularly as mere verbal progressivism lacking in basic parameters dominates the Nigerian space.The last point about verbal progressivism is worth a moment's consideration, if only because of the intellectual dishonesty that pervades most of the current critical engagement by the nation's top-flight intellectuals. In Niyi Osundare's treatise 'Why we no longer blush' as a nation, I notice the familiar theorising about national maladies which is sadly limited by prejudiced politics. For one , nearly all the examples that Osundare cites in buttressing his theme of the lack of an active moral consciousness are members/deeds of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but the question of emergency millionaires and national corruption is definitely not a matter of partisanship: if I were to be in that audience, I would ask Osundare to probe where the leaders of his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)-dominated audience got their stupendous wealth by which they desecrate the memory of the sage, Chief Awolowo. In short, then, in situating Mimiko's ideology and personality matrix, what I have tried to point out is simply that a head full of ideology/theory does not bring about revolutionary governance: what does is a compassionate heart. Remarkably, Mimiko's unparalleled revolutionary agenda is appropriately tagged 'A CARING HEART.' That was what Awo had before anything else, and that is what sets Dr Mimiko apart from all the noisemakers. 58 hearty cheers to the Iroko.Awolaja is on the Politics Desk of the Nigerian Tribune.
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