Project Oseese and alternative politics
In 2014 I incorporated “The Opeyemi Agbaje Institute Ltd/Gte” as a vehicle for my interest and passion for policy, strategy and leadership. My intention was to launch the institute in 2015 coinciding with my 50th birthday. In the event, I deferred the launch to avoid an overload of activities as I launched two books (“Democracy without Democrats: Travails of Politics and Development in Nigeria 1999-2011” and “Uncomplex Strategy: Making Business Strategy Accessible to Managers, Entrepreneurs and Students”) as well as provided a lecture platform for then Lagos gubernatorial candidate, Jimi Agbaje (my un-related namesake) in April 2015.
In 2016, my major pre-occupation was the publication of my third book, “The BRF Era: Policy and Governance in Lagos State 2007-2015” an expose on the policy underpinnings of the Babatunde
Fashola administration in Lagos State. Once that was done however, my attention returned to the institute and my wish to fulfil my desire to impact policy and leadership in the Nigerian society. I concluded over a period of reflection between May 2016 and September 2017 on a focus on my state of origin, Ogun and a project focused on studying the economy, society and politics of the state, and articulating a policy blueprint for the state’s transformation.
That project now well known as “Project Oseese” commenced in December 2017 with a very clear project plan and successful fund raising effort. I am deeply grateful to those visionary individual(s) who have supported our effort. OSEESE stands for “Ogun State Economic Enablement and Social Emancipation” Project and is founded on our Ogun State Vision 2035 which seeks to transform the state into “a developed, first-world region with human capital, quality of life, infrastructure, economic development, institutions and governance standards comparable to leading regions in developed countries”…the other meaning of “OSEESE” in its Yoruba connotation affirms that “it is possible!”
Project Oseese has taken us round all the 20 local governments in Ogun State consulting and engaging with ordinary citizens; examining the state of resources, roads, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure in the state; and ascertaining directly from our people their welfare and condition. The verdict is overwhelming-outside metropolitan Abeokuta where there has been discernible investment in roads and bridges, most roads are dilapidated across the state; many schools and hospitals are in serious need of repair (while some new schools constructed by the outgoing administration lie unused and increasingly disused!); poverty and unemployment ravage our people; our youths in particular are jobless and angry; our women are in dire need of affordable finance for their trading activities; and the overall conditions of our people are sad and even depressing!
As we toured the state, from Abeokuta South and North, Ado-Odo/Ota, Odeda, Ewekoro, Yewa South and North, Imeko-Afon, Obafemi-Owode, Ifo, Ijebu-Ode, Odogbolu, Ijebu-East, Ogun Waterside, Ijebu North-East, Ipokia, Ijebu North, Ikenne, Remo North and Sagamu, what we met was poverty, hunger, physical devastation, neglect and inequitable development. The question that our respondents frequently confronted us with was how we hoped to implement the development plan we were preparing as we went round, and it was a poser that my team and I wrestled with as well.
Initially we had a multiple implementation strategy that included elite pressure, grassroots mobilisation and consultation with government and politics. We also had the option of direct political action; and the more I pondered the issue, the more I realised we would have to seriously consider our prospects in that direction. Our sense from all our travels and the underdevelopment that confronted us was that the two main political parties had failed our people! To be fair, much of the development in the state capital is attributable to incumbent governor Ibikunle Amosun and that seen in the rest of the state mostly happened under either Olusegun Osoba or Gbenga Daniel. Outside these, our people had basically been left to their own devices, neglected and impoverished!
A reflection on all these left me with the firm conclusion that if we want to earn the trust of our people, our strategy of direct political participation must consider alternative political platforms to those two that had so far disappointed the people of Ogun State. I settled on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) a party with some residual goodwill in the state as well as name recognition. Since June 6, 2018 we have embarked on various levels of consultations at state, senatorial districts and local government basis, and a second round of LG visits to sensitize residents and party members on our Oseese agenda. The conduct of the recent Ekiti elections which was bastardized with open monetary inducement by both main parties seriously challenges our assumptions that free, fair and credible elections may offer our people salvation through alternative political platforms such as SDP, KOWA, Labour or ADC, but we will remain undeterred and continue to evaluate options for offering Ogun State alternatives to PDP and APC!
I am convinced that our current socio-economic and political trajectory is unsustainable-how could political parties continue on a path that involves paying each voter N4,000.00 or N5,000.00 in a general election? How can politicians (and voters!) sustain a system in which elections are an entirely commercial transaction that happens once in four years and leaves the populace thereafter in poverty and misery? Will our voters eventually understand that they will always be the losers in such a transaction? I intend to find definitive answers to these questions and at the very least satisfy my conscience that I tried my best!