http://dailypost.com.ng/2012/12/09/dimeji-daniels-is-state-ekiti-nigeria/

Is there any State called Ekiti in Nigeria? If there is, I doubt if President Jonathan and his cabinet members know it. What played out on Wednesday (5th December, 2012) at the budget defence by the Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) before the Senate Committee of Works called to question the knowledge of President Jonathan and his cabinet members about States and their capitals in Nigeria. States and capitals are one of those things pupils are taught and as one grows up, it naturally sticks without having to stand up and recite them to mum and dad at home or the teacher at school. However, the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, seemed to forget his States and Capitals and needed to be nudged by the Senate Committee of Works.

Just as it is done every year when ministries, departments and agencies of government come before the federal legislature to defend their budgets, the Ministry of Works and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency took the stage before the Senate Committee of Works on Wednesday, but what played out was nauseous, so much so that one begins to wonder whether President Jonathan knows there is any State called Ekiti in Nigeria, or probably the President and his cabinet cannot draw a line between governance and politics. It could also be that there is a sinister plot to intentionally under-develop Ekiti State which his party, the PDP, lost at the Appeal Court.

Although events since that loss at the appellate court have shown the President and his party members as bad losers, trying fruitlessly to discredit Justice Ayo Salami and smear the judiciary, the events of Wednesday at the Senate dwarfed the earlier ones.

In the Federal Ministry of Works budget for 2013, Ekiti has the least number of roads to be constructed. While some States were “lucky” to get 25, 15 and 10 respectively, only 4 were listed for the Land of Honour and all 4 are fake. The four “roads” to be constructed in Ekiti are Ogbomoso/Oko-Ologbo/Osogbo road (Osun), Ikorodu/Imota road (Lagos), Ido Ani/Idogun/Imeri/Ayegunle road (Ondo) and Lafia/Doma road (Nassarawa). These are the roads the Honourable Minister Mike Onolememen listed as roads to be constructed in Ekiti State. Unfortunately, none of these roads are in Ekiti. They are probably drain-pipes, like the subsidy malaise.

This is not a first. Year in year out similar frauds have been perpetrated in the name of Ekiti State. Even when projects are undertaken in Ekiti, it is either they are underfunded or not funded at all. This year for instance, critical roads in the State were listed for repairs in the FERMA budget, but what is on ground is a far cry from what is on paper. N280 million was budgeted for the repairs of critical failed sections of Akure/Ado and Ekiti/Omuaran roads, but only N83million was released. Maintenance repairs of Ifaki/Ikole, Omuo/Oyin/Ondo roads should have gulped N386million, but only N57 million made it out of government coffers. N334 million was budgeted for the general maintenance, repairs and pavement strengthening of Ado/Aramoko/Itawure/Osun border roads, but like the others, N50 million was released. Also, N25 million was budgeted for the special repairs of critical sessions along Ado/Ikere/Ondo State border road;nothing was, however, released. The special repairs of critical sessions along Ifaki/Odo road should have gulped N24 million; also, nothing was released.

Had Senator Babafemi Ojudu (Ekiti Central), who is a member of the Senate Committee of Works, not raised objections to the fake roads listed in the name of Ekiti State in the 2013 budget, it would probably have been the same old song.

If this is the type of people who surround Jonathan, what is the fate of Nigeria, or probably the Southwest?

Were it not for the intervention of the Vice Chairman of the Works Committee, Senator Mohammed Bashir Garba, who chaired the session, it could probably have become uglier. The Vice Chairman ended the open session and directed that it go into a close session where the Minster of Works allegedly apologised and promised to correct the fraud they could have committed in the name of Ekiti State.

Onolememen and his ministry are not the only ones involved in this deliberate attempt to consign Ekiti to the background, there are others. Sometimes, I wonder if Caleb Olubolade (Jonathan’s Police Affairs Minister, who some say is interested in the governorship seat of the State) is from Ekiti. Is this the kind of records he intends brandishing on his CV to garner votes of Ekiti indigenes come 2014?

Like I earlier said, the deliberate marginalisation of Ekiti State goes beyond the Ministry of Works. Stories abound of how indigenes of other Yoruba-speaking States are tutored to claim Ekiti in the recruitment into the armed forces. Some of these impostors allegedly became army generals.

Recently, I drew the attention of Nigerians to the anomalies in the Federal Civil Service recruitment. While 2, 230 were shortlisted from Benue State, 1, 600 from Anambra, 1, 300 from Edo, out of the 1, 500 who applied from Ekiti, only 199 were shortlisted.

With events like these, one wonders whether Nigeria belongs to us all and if Ekiti is indeed part of Nigeria. Even if federal character is no longer in effect, the qualification of Ekiti indigenes for these jobs can never be in doubt. What then is the problem? What I think is that there is a deliberate effort by Goodluck Jonathan administration to sideline Ekiti. For whatever offence, I don’t know.

One is also tempted to ask whether President Jonathan has launched a battle against the Southwest, as the Southwest, with its deadly pothole-adorned roads, has the least number of roads to be constructed and repaired in the 2013 budget. Is there more to this anomaly? Is it a war between the PDP and the ACN, or rather between Jonathan and Tinubu and recently, between Jonathan and Obasanjo? If so, should the ordinary Southwest people who ply these roads suffer for what they know not?

I think these are the questions Goodluck Jonathan and his cabinet members should answer. These are the questions all Ekiti and Southwest people should ask him and his cabinet. Senator Babafemi Ojudu has unmasked the masquerade; other Ekiti federal lawmakers should follow suit in their respective committees. This way, crooks in government will stop using the name of Ekiti as a drainpipe.

‘Dimeji Daniels writes from Ado in Ekiti State

Not just GEJ should be blamed, I think Ekiti representatives at all federal level also need to be questioned. Ekiti has representatives as minister, senators, house of rep members but still can't make the state development their priority as elected or selected leader, by persuading the FG for attention needed by the state.
This is how it has been for years, may be Senator babafemi's objection that has brought the FG's notice to the constant negligence of the state would put an halt to this.
Drove through Ekiti(the capital not inclusive) some months back, the state has the worst road in S/West with absence of any FG's project.

Stop weeping beloved. Call on ur sleeping legislators to be active or u recall them back

fitzkenny: Stop weeping beloved. Call on ur sleeping legislators to be active or u recall them back

God bless This Senator.

Where is Eketi state..?