"Dr. Mimiko, [the former Governor of Ondo State] in his own remark, noted that the biggest legacy of the late sage was the free access to quality education. He added that the legacy would live forever." Punch Newspaper, March 07,2018
"However, a former governor of Ekiti State and current Minister of Solid Minerals and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has said the All Progressives Congress will bring back the legacies of the late sage after winning the July 14 governorship poll in the state. Fayemi said the four cardinal programmes: free education, free healthcare for children, pregnant, old and disabled; job creation and rural development, had been adopted as the APC’s manifestoes." Punch Newspaper, March 07, 2018
No, doubt. But how authentic are these gentlemen as followers of the sage?
Fact Check:
Dr. Mimiko was the Governor of Ondo State for eight years. During his time, there was no free access to quality education in Ondo State. Dr. Kayode Fayemi on his part was a colossal failure during his stewardship at Ekiti State. He did not remember any of the four cardinal programs that he alluded to (free education, free healthcare for children, pregnant, old and disabled; job creation and rural development) in his speech at the forum. Rather, he went about squandering Millions of Naira rehabilitating and furnishing his official residence.
They had the opportunity to consolidate on the Awo Philosophy and escalate it to the next generations, but they failed woefully. To them, the concept of pragmatism is an aberration. And the spirit of a welfare state reputed of Papa Awo, his Action Groups, and his Unity Party of Nigeria belongs to the past. Now, they are lecturing us about Awoism and on what Awo stood for. It took Chief Obafemi Awolowo only fours years to turn the Western Region around and put it on the global scale as an emerging economy.
If I may add, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, supposedly, is the intellectual powerhouse of the Buhari's Administration. Yet, under his watch, President Buhari reneges on his promise (the APC campaign promise) to pay N5,000.00 monthly stipend to unemployed Nigerian youths. Awo was greater than that, buddy.
The Governorship race in Ekiti State is coming up shortly, and none of the candidates in the race is campaigning on a free education and free healthcare platform for children, pregnant women, as well as the old and the disabled as former Governor Fayemi stated in his speech. And in the next four years, the same people are likely to be the special guests at the Awo Forum and to lecture us all over again about the Awo Legacies - Legacies they had a plethora of opportunities to improve upon and consolidate for the future generations, but they squandered them. That's the way it has been since the passing to the eternity of the sage.
I would like at this juncture to suggest to the Head of the Awo Foundation to look beyond the Lagos/Ibadan intellectual and political axis in picking or choosing guest speakers during the yearly Awo Posthumous Birthday Celebration. Afterall, the late Professor Claude Ake who introduced "Awo" as Course/Subject at the University of Port Harcourt was from the Niger Delta. In a similar vein, my late Mother who did not have the Western education had a better understanding of Awo and what he stood for than all you Awoists wannabe.
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