ONDO AT 50: A GOLDEN JUBILEE OF SPEECHES, SERMONS… AND ZERO PROJECTS Olaitan Adesina
ONDO AT 50: A GOLDEN JUBILEE OF SPEECHES, SERMONS… AND ZERO PROJECTS
Olaitan Adesina
If bad governance were an Olympic sport, Ondo State would be standing on the podium by now, draped in gold medals for press releases and photo ops. Sadly, bad roads do not respond to grammar, hospitals are not furnished by rhetoric, and unpaid workers cannot feed on anniversary programmes.
The Ondo State Government’s grand plan for its 50th anniversary reads like the product of unimaginative minds. Lectures. Sermons. Carnivals. Galas. Awards. Panels. Speeches stacked on speeches. What the programme does not contain is more interesting than what it does. There is no project commissioning. Not a single road. Not a renovated school. Not a hospital ward. Not even a miserable symbolic ribbon waiting to be cut.
For a state marking half a century of existence, one would expect the government to say, “Here is what we have built.” Instead, the message is, “Come and hear what will be said.” Professors will theorise, SANs will moderate, advisers will advise, clerics will pray, but the governor will commission nothing, because there is apparently nothing to commission. Lucky is still going about, making campaign promises, an entire year after his re-election.
The centrepiece of the celebration is a lecture titled “Ondo State: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Yesterday speaks for itself. Today is visible to anyone who owns a shock absorber or has visited a public hospital. Tomorrow, judging by the programme, will be handled by keynote speakers, PowerPoint slides and the usual Biripo dance steps.
Even the carnival and gala night feel less like celebrations and more like distraction therapy. After two years of bad roads, unpaid salaries in the state-owned tertiary institutions, fragile healthcare, and an economy surviving on slogans and promises, citizens are invited to dance, eat small chops, and applaud faux excellence. Awards will be handed to “outstanding sons and daughters” while the average Ondo son and daughter continues to perfect the art of endurance.
A golden jubilee without project commissioning is a housewarming without a house. There is music, there is lighting, there is catering, but there is no structure. It reveals an administration that prefers optics to outcomes, and ceremonies to service delivery.
Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa had an open goal but he pulled a Yakubu Ayegbeni on us. Fifty years is a rare moment to pause, show results, and define a legacy. Instead, the choice was made to celebrate governance as performance art. Speeches have replaced capital projects. Sermons now stand in for services. Lectures are now offered where leadership should be demonstrated in practical terms.
Ondo State is 50. Unfortunately, governance under this administration still sounds like it is clearing its throat for mic check.
Happy Anniversary to Ondo State! The people will keep waiting. For roads, jobs and development. And one day, perhaps, for a government that does more than just talk.
———————
Olaitan Adesina is a poet and social critic. He writes from Akure.
