Intrigues, conspiracy, gang-up, blackmail and cold war have characterized and enveloped the political atmosphere in Osun State after the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lifted the ban on politics and released the time table for the governorship election in the state. INEC had done this at the time it did to ensure that the electoral body meets the deadline stipulated by the Electoral Act, as amended for 2019 general elections. Osun State, relatively, is one of the most politically peaceful state in Nigeria. It is also one of the few states that is emerging as a force to reckon with due particularly to the massive investments by government in the last few years.
Apart from the clamour for zoning where a group of people had agitated that it is the turn of the Osun West Senatorial zone to produce the next governor of the state; another call is by a group of people and their cohorts, who probably due to their pecuniary agenda, is the clamour that only home-based politicians should be allowed to vie for the position of the governor in the state. Surprisingly, this agitation is emanating from groups within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). This is being pursued with some level of vigour, zeal and clever maneuvering to the extent that only people who could reasonably distinguish between personal agenda and overriding public interest would not listen to the call.
The call, to foist a ‘locally made’ governor on the people of the state, apart from being an insult on the collective intelligence of all the well meaning people of the state, it is also a cheap blackmail on the Aregbesola’s administration not to handover to someone who is capable of delivering the dividends of democracy, but instead to those who only believe in massaging the alter ego of few politicians at the expense and detriment of the public which constitute the majority and whose votes are actually required to win an election.
Travelling, according to an adage, is part of education; since it gives people necessary exposure, experience and indirectly expand ones’ horizon and capacity to deal with issues from a broadminded level, it is the same adage which is supposed to be an asset that some feeble – minded individuals and politicians want to capitalize upon and use as a minus to promote their own personal agenda. It is the desire of every right thinking human being to seek for greener pasture at every given opportunity. Besides, it should be recalled that, forty five years ago, when a foremost aspirant, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, completed his secondary education at Ife Oluwa Grammar School Osogbo, there were only few universities in the country and those few were concentrated in the major cities. It would be a great miscalculation for a student who had ability for further study to limit himself or herself to its environment and after the attainment of educational goal, for him or her also to return to his place of birth, more so when the course of study of such a person is a specialized type and the only place where it could secure employment are in the cities. These are the circumstances which made Alhaji Oyetola to be a sojourner in Lagos where he had his university education to pursue a degree in Insurance and also secured employment with one of the foremost insurance company then, the Lead Way Insurance Company.
It is this same asset (traveling) that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the man who could be described as the founder of Nigerian’s modern good governance, had employed and today has had the impact of transforming the entire political landscape of the country. After assuming power in 1999, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, embarked on massive transformation of Lagos State. One of the lofty projects of his administration was the notorious Oregun Road, which he reconstructed, widened and made a dual carriage way. The popular Adeola Odeku, Akin Adesola and Ahmadu Bello way in Victoria Island were reconstructed using interlocking system where necessary which could not be washed away due to the water logged nature of the place. The entire Lagos Island, Marina etc that used to witness serious flood after a little rain was reconstructed with good drainage system. Asiwaju did not stop there, he established some key agencies which are relevant to the enhancement of people’s welfare such as, the Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA), Lagos State Waste Management Agency(LAWMA), High Way Managers, Lagos State Metropolitan Transport Agencies known as the BRT today, (LAMATA), the Drain Duck for clearing the gutters and Lagos State Ambulance Services.
When Aregbesola took over in Osun State, he embarked on massive road construction in the state by directing all the Local Governments in the state to pursue the reconstruction of 10km roads in their areas; this is in addition to opening up of Osogbo township roads to have a befitting look of a state capital. He introduced Osun State Youth Employment Scheme known as OYES to engage the youths in the state by giving them monthly allowance in order to have sense of belonging. Through this, he has been able to reduce thugery, crime rate and unnecessary youth rascality which has now made the state to be rated as the state with lowest crime rate in the country.
Giving the kind of monumental development which the state had witnessed during his tenure, the fear which many are having is how to have someone who would continue in his developmental strides as his successor. The only way to achieve this is to throw open the contest for the governorship election, whereby anybody who feels he is capable and worthy to be Aregbesola’s successor would be given the opportunity to contest through popular democratic process and not by selection through shadow , restrictive or stage managed primary election. So far the person is a bonafide citizen of the state.
Amazingly, instead of people to key into this vision, some fifth columnists have been trying to manipulate and restrict the choice of his successor to not only to a geographical part of the state but also to only those politicians who had not lived outside the state since their birth if this is the meaning of what their home based politicians implies. Instead of embarking on an issue based campaign to sell their candidates to the people, they have embarked on malicious campaign and some character assassination spree against the candidature of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, especially that he is not a home based politician.
Unfortunately for them, taking a cursory look/review of the background and profile of all the former governors of the state, one will be able to see whether their line of argument is reasonable or not. The first Executive Governor of the state, Alhaji Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke, of blessed memory, came from America when he contested and defeated Mr. Dosu Oladipoduring the Social Democratic Party primary election in 1991 and later became the governor. Our highly respected elder in politics, Chief Bisi Akande was based in Ibadan before he contested under the Alliance for Democracy in 1999. The next is Prince Olagunsoye Oyinloa who after being retired from the Nigeria army, contested and took over as governor of the state in 2003. The next is our indefatigable Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, the incumbent, the rest is history. Not only that, if we extend our scanning to other neighboring state, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara and Oyo, it is only former Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo state who was a home based person because he had a flourishing hospital where he was practicing before he became the governor. One therefore, wonders where they had seen this conspiracy theory of politics of home based. Besides, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola had been Chief of Staff to Governor Rauf Aregbesola for an uninterrupted period of seven and half years. What could have made him more home based than for somebody to live in a place for an uninterrupted period of seven and a half years. It therefore implies that the promoter of the agenda of home-based political theory are mischief makers and that they have also forgotten that modern politics has gone digital and no longer the out dated old fashioned type they are used to. If this is the case, why do we want to hoist unqualified and selfish candidates on the people by embarking on campaign of calumny, blackmail, character assassination to attack the personality of some contestants?
In conclusion, holding political positions should be seen as a call to service and not an avenue to promote personal agenda or make money at the expense of the masses. It is purely for promotion of the interest of the public which implies greatest good for the greatest number, a call for selfless service which involves holding it as public trust; and this requires accountability, honesty, dedication rather than for mere personal aggrandizement.
It should be for people who have good vision, the required wisdom; who should be able to live above board and not just people who want to satisfy their personal ego or have personal agenda to pursue. If we look at politics from this perspective, there is no reason whatsoever contesting for political offices should be seen as a do or die affair.