By Kola Animasun
Most programmes and plans, you get to hear only when they want to embark on them. You never get to hear their completion. They are so many that one loses count of them and you wonder if they have finished with them or not.

The truth is that you never hear about them. That means they have been abandoned or that the funds have been shared.

I did not hear anything more about the Ogun State bond of N100 billion. They surely would not have done the abracadabra with it. It was a huge portfolio of
debt for now and the future generations will have to bear part of the burden.

Bonds are not such a payback thing. Particularly where they are well managed and used for things that will bear fruits and lead to other developments.

But if they mismanage the bond, we would still have to pay back – and with interest – and we may have to use some of our budgets or all of them to service our obligations.

So I was not surprised that the State’s House of Assembly has to approve the bond request. This after an open debate with members of the executive on the propriety of the bond.

No one will have a quarrel with that but on the contrary: mud is being spattered all over.

“Allow a single debate on all the issues in contention on the bond and I can assure them that we will move straight from the venue of the debate to plenary and pass it if we are convinced. Let them sit with us and we will bow to superior argument, but in the absence of superior argument, the executive should bow,” the Speaker of the House of Assembly submitted.

The House doubts the executive and that may be the reason why it wants to debate the bond. For instance, some of the projects listed to be financed or refinanced by the bond had been given to the House before as to have been financed by Federal Allocation and Internally Generated Revenue in 2010 budget.

This is according to Job Akintan, who presented the Finance Committee report.
Akintan continued: the bond was broken down to 2010, N26 billion; 2011, N34 billion and 2012, N40 billion.

But then, he said: we got debt cancellation of N26 billion and just three years later, Ogun State is landed with N28 billion debt. The state is going to pay N28 billion plus N12 billion interest totalling N40 billion in five years!

This was fair. But the executive turned the matter to more than an argument. There was talk of a bribery. And you do not want to contemplate the mind bugling sum they mentioned. Of course, someone has his mind on history: how much history would regard him. History can be damning or very beholden.

The Ogun State executive wanted the Ogun State House of Assembly to substantiate the bribery allegation and that can be a tall order!

It says the State Water Corporation and payment to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Group Life Assurance for Ogun State employees and Team Ogun will be affected if they did not get the bond.

The Ogun State House of Assembly stuck to its guns: in the absence of the approval of the House the 2010 supplementary budget and the N100 billion bond proposal of the government, the House will reject the proposals.

The money was too attractive to let go. Rather than forget about it, Ogun State Government had another idea. Since there is no shortage of set of ‘patriots’, it went to town to dredge them up.

Let us forget for a moment that somebody offered N1 billion bribe. Or that another had an offer of N12 million. But let the government people answer the fact whether the projects projected under the N100 billion bond have been financed by the Federal Allocation and the Internally Generated Revenue in 2010 budget.

So, there is a brand new speaker and brand new principal officers and they will together nail us for God knows how long. Of course, that is our Ogun State and Nigeria for you.

Hail Nigeria!

… Ogun State robbers have gone nuclear
This is what Yoruba call Eran Ije. It is a stop gap to disallow livestock getting into the house particularly goats or sheep.

That was what the robbers, who raided Ogun State on 27th August, 2011 could be described with.

The bank building is not what you will call ‘Eran Ije’ but it was treated as nothing. They came in daylight – 9.30am – and set to the demolition of their target. They faced two banks at Oju Ore area of Sango-Ota.

They used dynamite to blow up the building one after the other. No-one hindered them for the period of the operation. But our reporter said that nobody confronted the robbers before they escaped (or leisurely went their way?).

What beats me most was when the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) was contacted and he said he was not in town when the reporter called and so could not confirm or deny the incident.

Hear him: “I’m not in town. I’m on my way to another place. Immediately I heard of the attack, I tried to get in touch with the DPO and the Area Commander, but I couldn’t reach them on their telephones,” said the Assistant Superintendent of Police.

Barely 48 hours before the robbery, the government donated one Armoured Personnel Carrier to the police. They say a bad workman quarrels with his tools.