Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has revealed the condition that his elder brother, Deji Adeleke gave to him before supporting and bankrolling his governorship ambition during the 2022 governorship election.
Adeleke who defeated the incumbent governor, Adegboyega Oyetola on July 16, 2022, disclosed that after he lost his election in 2018, he went on self-exile to equip and prepare himself for governance.
The governor, while speaking at the 9th undergraduate convocation ceremony of Adeleke University in Ede on Sunday, September 3, said his elder brother, Deji Adeleke gave him a condition shortly after the 2018 governorship election that he should go back to school, else he would not support his (Governor Adeleke) governorship ambition in 2022.
He said: “Education makes a major difference in what and how we become anything in life. It is a tool we cannot do without; interestingly, getting well-educated is not time-bound. We all must have read several stories of people at advanced age enrolling and graduating from universities. You all know I am a living example of how best to pursue an educational degree despite my age.
“Today marks a year since my election as the governor of Osun State. Four years before then, in 2018, I was rigged out and our mandate was stolen. I was subjected to the worst personality attacks and assaults in Osun’s political history.
“Dr Deji Adeleke encouraged me to move ahead, before I went for self-exile, he called me to a meeting where we talked. He said I have been subjected to a lot of things that I am not educated. He advised that I should go to America for schooling. He said the only thing I could do for the Osun people if I was ready to be governor, I must get educated, I must complete my education. Without completing it, he said I should forget my governorship ambition.
I said: “Se wahala o wa de bayi” (—hope this is not problem?). At my age, 60. It was not an easy task but I did it.
He added: “I went on self-exile for two major reasons. Firstly, to escape the evil plot of enemies who were not satisfied with stealing the people’s mandate. Secondly, to complete my degree programmes especially as my educational qualifications dominated the 2018 campaigns. Our age must never be a barrier to educational pursuit. What we need is commitment and passion to succeed.”
The Pro-Chancellor of the institution, Deji Adeleke said his younger brother wouldn’t have been governor if the rigging plot by corps members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) had been successful.
He explained: “Today is July 16th 2023, last year was Election Day in Osun State, on that very day, 40 polling units manned by ad-hoc staff of INEC, they are not the permanent staff but corps members, they were nowhere to be found with the intention of just writing the results because of N100,000 without thinking. Only one of them said no to it. If they had succeeded, Governor Ademola Adeleke wouldn’t have become governor today.
“So we started looking for them, luckily we have the corporation of INEC on that day, so we started calling from our situation room to report the matter. They called the NYSC corps members to threaten them that if they fail to show up they will end up in jail. Some of them did not show up at the polling unit until 1 p.m.
“So the 40 units with 3 corps members each totaling, 120 corps members would have tampered with the will of Osun people. These 120 young people will have come around to criticize Nigeria to say they are tired of Nigeria, tired of leadership when they contributed to pulling Nigeria down.”
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Professor Solomon Adebola disclosed that 537 bagged their first degree while the school produced 75 graduands for postgraduate degrees.
