By Kemi Kilani
Our attention has been drawn to spurious and utterly laughable piece on different social media platforms, trying rather fruitlessly to compare the personalities of Prince Dapo Abiodun and that of the former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, out of palpable fear of future political misfortune.
While the intrinsic evaluation of the two politicians and political leaders reflects no logical reason for comparison in the first place, however, the people of Ogun State , particularly the young generation must be informed about characters that constitute the political class in the state for the purpose of putting the political history of the state in proper perspectives above the cheap propaganda of political jobbers.
To start with, the political ideology and philosophy of the two leaders profoundly differ, while deception largely characterised the character of Otunba Gbenga Daniel, making him notorious of pathological lies in policy formulation and implementation, the person of Prince Dapo Abiodun remains a reference point for honesty in power with clarity of purpose.
No one has never come out to accuse the Governor of reneging on any of his promises since 2019. He doesn’t announce what he wouldn’t be able to implement. Dapo Abiodun’s 1600kms of roads is more conspicuously accessible than the fake 6000kmsDaniel claimed he constructed.
Sincerely, the even development across the 20 local governments in Ogun State since 2019 has been widely acknowledged while the development Daniel claimed during his time remains a mirage of monumental dimension.
In terms of political experience and capacity, Prince Dapo Abiodun has been an active political player in Ogun State and Nigeria at large since the aborted third republic in the 90s, and he became a force to reckon with at the dawn of the fourth republic in 1999, in which he was a reliable and dependable aide of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, unlike Gbenga Daniel who came to the political limelight at the dawn of the fourth republic because of his ambition in 2003.
Talking about capacity and temparament for inclusive governance, Prince Dapo Abiodun supercedes Otunba Gbenga Daniel in many folds, while Otunba Gbenga Daniel is notorious of cosmetic projects and bogus policies that have no direct positive impacts on the people of the State, Prince Dapo Abiodun has written his name in gold in the sand of time, with arrays of completed projects and implementation of people-oriented policies that have been widely applauded across the state and beyond.
A critical example is the Gateway International Airport, which Gbenga Daniel announced in 2006, and deceitfully abandoned and left it as thick forest for over a decade before Prince Dapo Abiodun came and made the airport a reality and a pride of the Gateway State; a global standard projects of huge economic value.
Another fundamental difference between Prince Dapo Abiodun and Otunba Gbenga Daniel is capacity to engender political stability and speedy development. Because of his anarchical nature, the administration of Otunba Gbenga Daniel was notorious of violence and gangsterism, as cultists and ritualists went on killing spree almost every week, thereby making the state unsafe for investors, unlike Prince Dapo Abiodun that came with cognitive political engagement and non-violent culture, which gave birth to influx of investors across the world into the state and turning the state to Nigeria’s industrial hub.
Also, while Otunba Gbenga Daniel lacks decency and social consciousness, as many considered him to be desperate for power and money, citing cases of ritual killings across the state during his administration, making the state a laughing stock amongst the federating units, the person of Prince Dapo Abiodun came with total ‘Omoluabi’ ethos. A gentle but calculated politician of rare breed. Since he came on board as the helmsman in Ogun State, there have never been any case of ritual activities.
Finally, for the first time in the history of Ogun State, the state is being adjudged as the best state in Nigeria for Ease of Doing Business. This feat did not come in vacuum, it is as a result of commitment, selflessness, ingenuity and sincerity of a leader, who looks beyond personal aggrandisement and percuniary consideration, but focuses on ensuring legacies of transformation.
Obviously, the difference between the personalities of Prince Dapo Abiodun and Otunba Gbenga Daniel is as long as the difference between the earth and heaven, nothing could have warranted comparison in the first place but for desperate move by political merchants to rewrite history through falsehoods and cheap lies as their stock-in-trade.
While Prince Dapo Abiodun perfectly fits into a decent and democratic setting of egalitarian atmosphere, the character of Otunba Gbenga Daniel comprehensively suggests the opposite.
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