STRIKER: Letting It Be

“LET IT BE” is the title of the immortal classics by The Beatles, a song where Legendary John Lenon and Paul McCartney speak of “Mother Mary” appearing to them and reassuringly speaking “words of wisdom” on the goodness that should be. It is the English Rock band’s 12th and final studio album released on May 8, 1970, and the lead song’s central inspiration is that of positivity.

Letting goodness be has become a recurrent clarion simply because doing the right things has become rocket science not only for governments but most people world over. The assurances that all will be well soon, through repeated change of captains of society, have waned. It continues to amaze how making the majority of the people profitably productive and taxing their earnings to deliver amenities and social conditions that will guarantee life more abundant for all have become impossible. Perhaps not actually impossible but a goal that most ruling elites are unconcerned with; being only interested in the enrichment of a few at the expense of impoverishing the majority.

The transition to a new government happened in Osun at the very beginning of this week. There was as much hope as there were worries about the incoming government, never minding that it rode to power on the gale of a popular demand for the discontinuity of the charade that it replaced. From the inauguration ground and for first few days in government, the actions of the new Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, is a mixed bag of the hopes and worries indeed; the right and the wrong, projecting a seeming lack of grasp of the real goals of governance, and letting be its sweet harvest. Perhaps, this is not the actual characteristics of the new government, perhaps the intentions of the actions are for goodness sake, perhaps these are only the excited counterpunches to an outgone CEO that stage-managed a most malicious exit and an “unwelcoming” welcome for the new government, perhaps all is well and will be well in good times as we listen to the whispers of wisdom; time will tell.

In the meantime, it is worth reminding ourselves and the new government especially, that there is a true essence to governance everywhere, and the expectations are clear in our own locality: people simply want peace, freedom, happiness and prosperity. How can it be delivered to the majority in Osun, as best as possible in the next four year? That should be the focus of the new government. Nothing else. Generally speaking, peace can only be guaranteed sustainably by ensuring equal rights and justice; freedom, by guaranteeing and enforcing the rule of law; happiness and prosperity by guaranteeing that the people are productively engaged and their commonwealth deployed accountably into social protection programmes and developmental projects.

For an underdeveloped state in an underdeveloped country where all that every State CEO does is await money from the Federation Allocation Accounts to even be able to breathe much else do anything, and for Osun being one of the recipients of the lowest amount from that “national cake,” for the unlimited expectation of 4million people of the state for good life in that tenure, and for a tenure that will expire in four short years and need revalidation on the basis of how satisfied or dissatisfied the people are, there is no time to waste on drama and distractions!

Rigorous check and review on state assets and liabilities, ingenious financial calculations, robust strategies and policies to multiply the productivity of the people, and harvest the taxes to multiply the state IGR exponentially – these are the needful of the hour! Once the direction and body language of the government speaks loudly to these, everything and everyone will fall in line and behave themselves: citizens, politicians, everyone, simply because all these are clearly for the common good. It will shape the politics and goodwill of the state in favour of the government in no time at all, and guarantee the delivery of sweet dividends in no distant time. That will be letting it be. For now, the people can only take consolation in Mother Mary’s whispers of words of wisdom that “when all the broken-hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer; let it be.”