Mimiko has failed the people, says Boroffice By Joseph Jibueze, Ayodeji Olaosun and Damisi Ojo
•’Agagu’ll work for ACN’
A governorship aspirant of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ondo State, Senator Ajayi Boroffice, yesterday delivered a damning verdict on the Olusegun Mimiko administration. It is a failure, he said.
He said the Mimiko administration is wasting public funds on projects that should be executed by local governments, such as the building of markets and town halls.
Boroffice spoke at the Lagos headquarters of The Nation during a visit to commiserate with the company on the fire, which razed its photo and cartoon sections.
He was received by the company’s management.
Boroffice said the Mimiko administration has spent over N3 billion on an events centre called “the Dome” and it is still uncompleted, adding that “the dome has become a doom”.
Boroffice faulted an alleged plan by the government to have its Sunshine Football Club partner Arsenal Football Club of England, saying the government is confused and does not know the right thing to do.
He said the government ought to concentrate on building viable industries and institutions that will create jobs for thousands of youths.
“Our people lack potable water and the government is busy building a fountain in the middle of a road. We have had enough; our people are tired,” he added.
The senator representing Ondo North District said he has a vision to transform Ondo into an industrialised and socially secure state, where people can fully exploit their potentials.
Boroffice said he would focus on the development of infrastructure; ensure good governance, justice and equity; ensure transparency in institutions and harness other natural resources in the state, such as coal, by building an industrial cluster around its location and generating energy from it.
He said: “If we are talking of Vision 20:20, we must begin to work towards it. The ceramic industry established by the late Chief Adekunle Ajasin, the cocoa and glass industries are foundations that should be built on.”
The senator said he would move the state away from being an agrarian economy to an industrialised one and would provide affordable housing.
Boroffice said the integration of the Southwest will speed up development in the region. He said: “A good transportation system is one of the ways to facilitate economic development. Southwest states can collaborate, as well as partner investors to develop a rail system and other shared infrastructure. That way, rich states can help the poor ones. States will not lose their autonomy and they will all gain a lot.”
On his transition from science to politics, Boroffice said it is a continuation of his service to the nation and a way of giving back to the society and humanity.
He said he dumped the Labour Party (LP) on December 28, 2011, for the ACN when he discovered that LP’s machinery had become personalised. The senator said: “With many chieftains resigning and many factions emerging in the LP, I needed to join a truly progressive party. I found it difficult to operate as a senator in a party divided against itself.”
He said his conscience could not allow him remain in a party where the leaders have been accused of looting the treasury and cited the example of the chairman of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC), who has been accused of mismanaging the commission’s funds.
Boroffice said the Nigerian Constitution allows him to switch parties.
He said: “It is a matter of conscience for me, not a moral one. After due consultation, I feel satisfied that I have taken the right step. People are defecting from the LP in their thousands. LP is gradually going into a coma and it will soon go into extinction.”
Boroffice said contesting against an incumbent governor is not a problem for him, nor is he fazed by the high number of ACN aspirants.
According to him, historically, no governor has ever won a second term in the state.
He said: “There is a pattern already, so I am so confident we are going to win, because the LP has not performed very well. No governor has gone two terms in Ondo State. If it is warfare, we will fight it.
“Ondo is not the first state where a party has many aspirants. All aspirants will rally round him whoever gets the party’s ticket.”
Boroffice said he has spent over 15 years in public service and understands the bureaucracy involved in governance.
He said his qualifications and experience as a university lecturer, acting vice-chancellor, head of the national space agency and member of various international organisations give him an edge over other aspirants.
Boroffice said he has no personal problems with Mimiko, except ideological differences.
He said: “We are friends and Christian brothers, but I think Mimiko has been avoiding me cleverly. We have not met in a while, but I will love to meet him and register my disappointment on some issues. One of them is the presence of LP thugs at the Fifth Adebayo Adefarati Memorial Lecture.”
At the weekend, when former OSOPADEC Chairman Chief Adewale Omojuwa defected to the ACN at Igbokoda, Ilaje Local Government Area, Boroffice said former Governor Olusegun Agagu would align with the party to unseat Mimiko in the October election.
He said Omojuwa’s entry into the ACN would compel Agagu to support the party to rescue his administration’s legacies.
-The Nation
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