. Make public your O-Level certificate- Accord Party
. Ladoja’s engineering certificate doubtful – Oyo CAN
The war of attrition and political superiority between
the former Oyo state Governor, Senator Rasheed Ladoja and the current Governor of the State, Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi has assumed a different direction as the two indigenes of Ibadan are now accusing one another of academic mediocrity.
The latest salvo of attack came from Accord Party which has therefore challenged Governor Abiola Ajimobi to make public his O-Level certificate and the Master of Business Administration he claimed to have bagged.
The Party accused Ajimobi of only having three credit passes at his O-Level, a feat; it claimed could not march that of Ladoja, who had three distinctions in his O-Level results.
Accord Party in a statement by its media director, Mr Dotun Oyelade, described the reaction of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the interview granted by Ladoja as bad as the (Mokola) flyover.
“It was unfortunate that the ACN could doubt the genuineness of the Chemical Engineering first degree certificate Ladoja bagged from the almost 200-year-old University of Liege, Belgium”.
According to him, Ladoja finished his secondary school at Ibadan Boys High School in 1963 with three distinctions and had his Higher School Certificate at Olivet Heights, Oyo with distinctions in Pure and Applied Mathematics, as well as Physics and Chemistry.
The statement added: “He got admissions to study Engineering at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and the University of Lagos in 1966, but opted for the University of Liege in Belgium, because he was given a scholarship to study Chemical Engineering, which was unavailable in any Nigerian university at the time.
The Party therefore, challenged Governor Ajimobi to produce his result if it was anywhere near Ladoja’s and also brandish his three credits in his Higher School Certificate result.
Also speaking that the barriers erected at the entrances to the bridge were to minimise road casualties by barring articulated vehicles and other heavy trucks from plying the bridge, the Accord Party wondered why, after more than two years in office, the ACN government had not thought it wise to erect similar barriers at the Molete overhead bridge, which was built 35 years ago.
The Party also queried why a 470-metre two-lane Mokola bridge could cost the state N3 billion, when a 620-metre four-lane bridge in Abeokuta, including adjoining roads, built by the same contractor, cost the Ogun State government N1.5 billion.
It would be recalled that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Oyo State chapter, recently said that it doubted the engineering certificate of former governor of the state and leader of the Accord Party, Senator Rashidi Ladoja.
The Party also in a release issued by its State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Dauda Kolawole, in response to a newspaper interview granted by Ladoja where he had cast aspersion on the recently inaugurated fly-over bridge constructed by the Abiola Ajimobi government.
Ladoja, in the interview, had wondered why barriers were put at the entrances of the bridge and said that it was a reflection of the fact that the bridge was badly constructed.
While reacting, however, the ACN said that the former governor was exhibiting his widely perceived mental limitations and depth. “We wonder which school of engineering Ladoja passed through”.
Was he ever taught Introductory Highway Engineering in school? If he was, even though he claimed to be a Chemical Engineer, this naivety, dressed in the robe of ignorance, would have been addressed at such an elementary level. This naivety is too striking and recommends that his engineering certificate be withdrawn forthwith, said the ACN.
While explaining, the ACN said that, in virtually all cities of the world, articulated vehicles and other heavy trucks were discouraged from highways, so as to minimize road casualties, stating that this was one of the main reasons barriers were placed on the overhead bridge.
This is a usual Ladoja trait. He presents as a yokel, even on matters that demand frankness and forthrightness. But this exhibition of palpable naivety is embarrassing. To imagine that such a person who could not articulate the need for a reduction in highway casualty had been in the governorship saddle for that long in Oyo State is worse than a casualty, the ACN said.
According to the party, one other reason which makes the need to barricade the bridge important was that if an articulated lorry or truck suddenly breaks down on the bridge, it will cause a traffic gridlock that will inflict pain on road users.
Ladoja is simply continuing his interminable dream. He said in that interview that he dreamt to build the Mokola bridge and two others. We have reminded him in the past that, all over the world, no one remembers dreamers.
“Indeed, graveyards are full of them. The world only celebrates achievers and actualizers. He should continue to dream, while Ajimobi actualizes. He also claimed that he had a blueprint which Ajimobi was following. Between Ladoja and Ajimobi, in terms of their mental depth, who should copy the blueprint of the other? It is his usual trait of deceptive politicking aimed at giving him undeserved relevance, the ACN said.
While condemning the former governor for comparing his efforts in government with that of Ajimobi, the ACN said that the people of the state were wiser.
Our people can differentiate who possesses superior mental capability to govern Oyo State between him and Ajimobi. The Iwo Road/Olodo road he claimed to have constructed lasted for barely a year before it began to fall apart.
“How dare Ladoja put that dross of a road beside the world-class road.