Ondo at 50: We’ve nothing to show for our resources, group laments
As Ondo State prepares to celebrate its Golden Jubilee, a civil society group, Ondo Redemption Front, has said that the state has nothing to show for the abundant resources it is endowed with.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the Chairman of the group, Ayodeji Ologun, said despite having governments that lack vision over the years, the people of Ondo State will still celebrate their resilience, their history, and their unbreakable hope, as well as their enduring determination to reclaim their state from failure and misrule in pursuit of a better future.
Ologun said: “Milestones demand reflection, and reflection demands courage. At fifty, Ondo State must not pretend that all is well when evidence abounds that governance has lost direction.
“As our dear Sunshine State approaches a historic milestone, 50 years of existence on February 3, 2026, this moment ought to be one of deep reflection, proud stock-taking, and bold recommitment to progress.
“Sadly, what confronts us today is not a state preparing to celebrate achievement, but a government scrambling to decorate failure with empty rhetoric.
“Fifty years is not a small journey. It is long enough for a serious government to point to enduring legacies, projects that changed lives, institutions strengthened, and systems that work.
“Yet, as Ondo State inches toward its golden jubilee, the government of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa cannot point to a single major project it will commission to mark this historic celebration. Not one.
“This alone is a damning verdict on a government that confuses motion with movement and press statements with progress.
“Ondo State is blessed with sophisticated, educated, and resourceful people. Our problem has never been a lack of human capital.
“Our tragedy is a leadership that deliberately surrounds itself with stacked mediocres, men and women without capacity for innovation, vision, or courage, who mistake loyalty for competence and proximity to power for performance.”
Ologun said Ondo State deserves leadership that builds, not leadership that manages decline.
According to him, this failure of governance is nowhere more visible than in the ongoing abnormalities at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, an institution founded to drive technological advancement and development, now reduced to a symbol of administrative chaos and impunity.
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