Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) is one of the highest and most reputable National Honours that can be awarded any highly-deserving Nigerian and friends of Nigeria. Today, the immediate past governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola will be one of the recipients of this award of National Honours by the outgoing President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.
Obviously, this highly covetous Honour did not just come on a platter of gold; it’s definitely an honour for Oyetola’s candour, especially as exemplified in his sincere administration and stewardship of public utility and welfare as governor of Osun State between 2018 and 2022.
The President should be commended for not allowing prejudice, politicking and sychophancy becloud his judgement and selection, for priotizing substance in lieu of nuisance, and for listening to the voice of reason and not to the noise and cacophony of critics, as overtly expressed in his preference of a person of virtues like Oyetola over political vultures who only take advantage of others.
The new Commander of the Order of the Niger only served a single four-year term as governor of Osun State. However, his records of achievements, especially as reflected in his valour and candour which earned him the National Honour, are unprecedentedly unbeatable; posterity remains Oyetola’s lawyer against his naysayers. As he was building roads and bridges in Osun, his intra-party critics continued to keep grudges against him.
Unfortunately, one of the problems retarding our progress in Nigeria in the area of party politics and leadership is that predecessors don’t always want their successors’ achievements surpass theirs. No gainsaying, this was one of Oyetola’s offences. For instance, some elements within the All Progressives Congress (APC) party in the state would not forgive Oyetola for disparaging his predecessor, Aregbesola, by paying full salaries of workers, when his predecessor, with whom he served as Chief of Staff for eight years, did not, or better put, could not.
To ensure they become handicapped and unable to beat their records coupled with their greed and lust for wealth, some governors would mortgage their states with throat-cancerous loans thereby thwarting fiscal strengths of their successors. This was exactly the scenario in Osun which Oyetola grappled with throughout his four-year term, as he met over #154 billion debt on assumption of office on November 27, 2018.
But for Oyetola’s prudence, expertise, financial acumen and administrative technocracy, every sector of the state’s economy would have stagnated, and Osun would have further been mortgaged for obvious reasons of inability to pay workers’ salaries and the necessity of the fulfilment of other monthly statutory expenditure obligations of government.
Surprisingly, however, Oyetola drastically reduced the humongous debt strangling the fiscal throat of the state, and by November 27, 2022, he left over fourteen billion naira in the treasury of Osun. More than a couple of times when Osun received zero allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) because of the huge debt incurred by Aregbesola led administration which Oyetola inherited and continued to repay, he (Oyetola) still didn’t resort to borrowing.
Congratulations to Osun State on having Oyetola’s four-year term as an interventionist salvage which prevented the state from a wreck that could have consumed it. Yes, Oyetola’s successor, governor Ademola Adeleke, can dance, being his hobby, as his predecessor has enhanced the fiscal strengths of the state. But I urge Adeleke to dance while working for the progress of the state and striving to beat Oyetola’s records, and not playing or gyrating to the tunes of music.
As I commend the outgoing President, Muhammadu Buhari over his sound judgement of Oyetola’s qualifications for the National Honour, and congratulate him on the successful completion of his eight-year tenure, I also congratulate the incoming President, Bola Tinubu, not only because of his swearing-in and assumption of Presidency, but also because of the availability of this Machinery, the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), Adegboyega Oyetola, who, by all standards and his rich credentials, remains a resourcefully dependable and reliable arsenal for appointment in his front team of government.
*Dr. Jimoh Olorede* _(Dip. Journ., ND, HND, B.Sc., MNIPR, M.Sc., Ph.D)_ is Communication Scholar, Researcher and college Don; he can be reached via [email protected].
