By Ireoluwa J. Alalade
Politics, especially the Nigerian brand of it, requires a great degree of audacity and grit, if indeed an actor in the space will ever make people-impacting changes. But the genre of unpreparedness displayed by Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke and his handlers on the topic of his first month in office contends for the honours of an unbeatable ludicrousness the world has ever seen.
I do not envy the image handlers of the current governor of Osun. When they are not squirming in their seats each time a drum sounds because Oga would most likely jump and spin, they must be dreading how they will spin the next witch-hunting expedition. It can’t be a walk in the park being given a ride by a driver whose eyes are fixed on the rear view mirror. Poor guys, they are left with only flowery words and high sounding terminologies to patch the potholes in their paths.
Cloaking an emptiness of governance ideas to the public
as ‘housekeeping and clearing’ is to say the least embarrassing. The question that comes to mind is: does the 100 days marked to touch on critical sectors of the society exclude the first 30 days already wasted playing hide-and-seek games? If it takes two decades to set the plot of lunacy, when exactly will the display begin?
Besides, if my memory and media reports serve me well, part of the terms of reference for the star-studded 37-man Transition Committee set up by Adeleke as far back as the week after July 16 election in Osun was to propose actionable agenda for his administration in the first 100 days, one year and subsequent years. To still be hearing about a 100 days agenda in future tense is not only an indictment of the campaign promises the governor made to the people, but to the professional pedigree and moral rectitude of all the men that made up the committee. But in fairness to them, ‘Alaba’ is only an addendum to the twin.
Osun people await the said manifestation of the 100 days programmes, but in the spirit of being our brother’s keeper, Governor Adeleke need be reminded that his first 30 days in office was devoid of relatable actions in the areas of the policy direction he claimed he would pursue with a sense of urgency.
The situation on ground is beginning to have the appearance of the proverbial indolent man who regards his fart as a mark of hardwork, claiming it takes effort to flare the gas. For Adeleke, announcing Osun’s debt profile, which is a Google search away, is an unprecedented achievement. Perhaps, what is unprecedented in the said disclosure is that Governor Adeleke is either incapable of reading financial records or they are single minded about character assassination. Either way, it is expedient to submit for the sake of the undiscerning, that whatever loan profile is attributed to Osun today is part of the many problems Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola plunged Osun into in his eight tortuous years as governor. Oyetola inherited an ocean-deep debt back in 2018, but being a measured gentleman who is a thorough progressive and a proven wealth creation genius, he did well in four years to push back the frontiers of the State’s debt profile while also picking all his bills without borrowing a dime.
The privilege of seeing the efforts, the creativity and resources that go into the building of a house is enough to ruin one’s emotions if that same house gradually gets destroyed in one’s presence. It is funny that Adeleke considers the politics of vendetta he is playing with the solid mineral sector of the state as an achievement just to score a cheap political point, but those who know what critical actions translated Osun from the realm of “blood diamond” to that of responsible mining where the state hosts Nigeria’s first and largest industrial-scale gold mine, will definitely have their hearts bleed seeing how the arrogance of Adeleke and PDP’s misadventures in the solid mineral sector.
Governor Adeleke and his handlers must however be lauded for staying silent on the issue of security in their high-sounding praise report, because the security landscape of the state has been such a mess since November 27. Aside the increasing extrajudicial killings and attacks on members and perceived members of the opposition APC by political thugs of the ruling party, the cracks in the security formation of the state is also disturbing. It will be recalled that the Department of State Security withdrew its men from the detail of Governor Adeleke over what close sources described as abuse of the agency’s personnel, although the governor managed to sell a claim to the public that it was caused by a minor disagreement between the men of DSS and their counterparts in the Police Force.
Even if the withdrawal was caused by a minor disagreement between the security formations, as claimed by the governor, there is need to remind the public that between November 2018 and November 2022, Osun’s security profile skyrocketed to its highest possible point under the Oyetola’s watch, thanks to the brilliant consolidation and synergy that existed between the different security formations at the time. Less than a month into the administration of the self-acclaimed expert in criminology and security, the house is already divided under his watch, with episodes of abuse and fracas in the formation. How on earth will a divided security architecture work for the common good of Osun people?
Perhaps for Governor Adeleke, there is so much to celebrate after one month in office despite the fact that there has been practically nothing to point to as tangible derivative of governance. But of course, a jinxed dancer will always find an occasion to ball even when a metal makes a sound from falling to the ground. As the traditional rulers have counselled during his sympathy-seeking sessions with them, if truly you have something to offer the good people of Osun, then face governance. Politics of vendetta and victimisation at the expense of serving the people, will earn you nothing but shame, I mean shame sanctioned by the gods.
