Amid public suspicion of incompetence against Senator Ademola Adeleke shortly after he took office as the Governor of Osun, his elder brother, Dr. Deji Adeleke, boasted that he would be the first to address a press conference if the governor showed traces of incompetence.
One would wonder what would prompt the business mogul to throw himself a personal challenge in a matter that is not only obvious but publicy verifiable. Yesterday, I raised the issue, reminding the business mogul that two years down the line, we are yet to hear from him. While awaiting his official response, a colleague and Chief spokesperson to the governor and brother of Dr. Adeleke, Mr. Olawale Rasheed came up with what looked like a response to my 11-paragraph article.
In responding, apart from calling me a liar, for the first time since Mr. Olawale took on his new role, his 23-paragraph response was devoid of the usual insults. However, his rejoinder was lacking in hard facts as he poorly deployed the rhetorical approach to communication to bamboozle the reading public.
To start with, he termed his response “Osun Transformation: Dr Deji Adeleke is Proud of His Brother.” If we go by the ordinary meaning of transformation – “a marked change in form, nature, or appearance,” then, the question would be, what are the marked change in form, nature, or appearance of the state capital alone, since the assumption of office of Senator Ademola Adeleke 18 months ago? From Estate to Dele Yesir, on both sides, the roads have become hell for motorists, ditto Ogooluwa area, in Osogbo metropolis. Where is the transformation?
Today, apart from the total darkness that greets you as you enter the state capital at night, the dirts and the bad smell from the wastes on the median separator that greets one in the day time cannot be said to be a positive transformation. Therefore, since the peg upon which his writing is built, is faulty, I should ordinarily discontinue this engagement, but I will attempt to show the public that he, and not me, is the liar here.
First off, Mr Olawale, you claim you were only carrying out
“pothole patching” on the Eda -Akoda road, before the award. Maybe, you don’t know. You can be pardoned if you don’t know because I know how your government operates, but even your party members who live on that stretch of the road know you are being economical with the truth. Houses were already pulled down and clearing were already on before the award of the contract. Can you please provide the exact date in August when the said advert was published? In my first piece, I gave the day, month and year of the only advert the government published as 25/09/23. So, show proper evidence, please.
Two, in February, you issued a statement, quoting the governor as saying “our administration is also working on Small Farmers’ Equipment Lending service. This is to ease the access of small scale farmers to tractors and other needed machineries. We are meeting this week to finalise the plan ahead of the onset ( sic) of the rainy planting season.” Four months later, you told us the governor was setting up an implementation committee after receiving a certain Food Security report.
However, by yesterday, you said “under the
Adeleke administration, tractorization, access to fertilizers, agropreneurs’ Incubation programmes, food security sub-sectoral initiatives, revival of farm settlements, cashew and cocoa seedlings project among others are special programmes the administration is implementing within the agricultural sector.” These are all lies. Show us one Tractor that has been procured since the Adeleke’s administration came on board? All you do each time the government is criticised is to hurriedly come up with a non-existent initiative on paper to buy time. That is why there is never a correlation between what you say most of the time and what is on ground. Recall that on July 7, Hon. Kolapo Alimi, speaking on behalf of government, promised to list the agencies under the Governor’s office that expended N5.2 billion in three months. Yesterday was July 19, 12 clear days after the promise without any headway, and you just reechoed the same lines. Why is it difficult to provide the list, if indeed you are sincere?
When did you begin the teachers’ recruitment, when did we begin issue of minimum wage? When did Mr. Governor sack the O’Yes, and today, you blamed your inability to conclude the recruitment process on minimum wage. Clearly, your administration has shown lack of preparedness for governance with your trial-and-error kind of approach.
On the issue of the palliatives that were looted, the information is in the public domain. With the kind of hostile reception we got from Dr. Deji Adeleke, it defies logic and common sense for us to keep those palliatives in Ede, if indeed the intention was to hoard them. Thankfully, those responsible have since exonerated Oyetola. It is strange that the mouthpiece of the state governor would choose to glorify scoundrels and looters of items reserved for public use all in the name of politics. Discerning members of the public could begin to understand the dirty politics behind the looting of the warehouse in Ede, the home town of the governor. Karma, whether now or in future, shall catch up with the criminals and unscrupulous elements responsible for that dastardly and unpatriotic act.
Regarding your claim of non-performance of my principal, I will advise you allow your data boys to run with this kind of warped narrative. It is beneath you. Every sensible member of the public knows the impact the former governor is making in the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. The agencies under the Oyetola’s ministry are doing wonders, and Oyetola being the driver is providing the required leadership. This is why the tag of a non- performer that your likes are trying to throw at him has refused to stick and it would never stick. Ask around, if Oyetola had not stabilised Osun, your principal would have since run away with his little or no experience about governance before assuming office. Oyetola is one of the disciples of Chief Bisi Akande’s politics of prudent management of scarce resources to deliver positive results that people hardly expect from such a challenged situation. I see Osun’s current situation as a lesson to all and sundry.
Oyetola remains an open book for any public official desirous of selfless service to the people. He paid salaries and pensions as and when due. He did that for four years without borrowing a dime from any bank. Yet, he built infrastructure and revolutionised the Health sector. He introduced the monthly feeding of 30, 000 vulnerable persons. Just imagine if the scheme was sustained by your government. It would have fit in perfectly in this time of food hike to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal. It will be very difficult to get someone as prudent and as sincere as Oyetola. I am sure a lot of people would have expected him to militarise the state because of his second term ambition and unleash violence on the state; but he is not that kind of a politician. This piece is not about Oyetola, I will, therefore, not want to bore my readers with the attributes of the former governor. Suffice to say that, with Oyetola, there is hope and place for decent men and women who want to play politics in Nigeria.
On a final note, I want to remind Mr. Olawale Rasheed and other purveyors of alternative truths, who have romanticed opinion of the mediocre and rudderless government in Osun State, that you can’t fool people all the time.
“We know they are lying.
They know they are lying.
They know that we know they are lying.
We know that they know that we know they are lying.
And still they continue to lie.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Omipidan, a journalist writes from Abuja