Olawale Rasheed, the spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke, has described the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ajibola Basiru, as an abandoned politician seeking relevance.
Rasheed said Basiru, who is aspiring to clinch the governorship ticket of the APC to contest next year’s gubernatorial election against Adeleke, has already been ditched by members of his party.
Rasheed stated this in his reaction to some statements made by the APC National Secretary against the governor during an interview on TVC’s Breakfast programme on Saturday.
Basiru had during the programme said Adeleke has not done well as a governor, describing his administration as a failure.
According to Basiru, “Governor Adeleke is a jolly good fellow but he is not doing well as a governor. His government has been a failure. This is a person who sacked teachers appointed by former governor Gboyega Oyetola and has refused to replace those sacked teachers. Education is a cardinal area that any government should be serious about.
“He also sacked health workers without replacement, and when you see the quantum of allocation coming to the state, you will see that we are not seeing what the funds are meant to be used for.”
However, Rasheed, in a statement made available to OSUN DEFENDER, said Basiru is suffering from ‘Adelekephobia syndrome’, a political disease he claimed is now afflicting many within the rank and file of the opposition party in Osun State.
He noted that Basiru, like other opposition members, is blinded to the good work of Governor Adeleke, adding that the state will continue to thrive with the PDP at the helm of affairs.
He said, “Adelekephobia is ravaging the opposition camp so deeply that when they see white, they call it black; it makes patients incapable of telling the truth even when their nuclear families point it out to them.
“Osun was recently ranked 7th out of 36 states in the national examination ranking. Under Mr Bashiru’s government between 2018 to 2022, Osun was placed 33rd. Because of Adelekephobia, Mr Bashiru must still condemn Governor Adeleke’s records on education.
“Some few months back, Osun came first on primary health access in the South West with a prize of $500,000. But the opposition secretary cannot see it because, under a government where he served, Osun was ranked 28th in primary health care access.
“Also recently, the federal Debt Management Office commended Osun for reducing state inherited debt by 40 percent. Mr Bashiru cannot acknowledge such a high level of financial engineering and discipline even without borrowing a kobo, unlike the financial recklessness under a government in which he was then a leading figure.
“Not that alone, this disease affected everything. Imagine the audacity of an Adeleke who tarred the road leading to Mr Bashiru’s house, thereby shaming a big man in the previous government who rode daily on potholes-filled roads.
“Osogbo, where Mr Bashiru hails from, enjoys an unprecedented level of infrastructural upgrade in just two years. When the secretary will drive on the Okefia flyover, he will still deny the existence of the bridge because of Adelekephobia”, the Spokesperson noted.
While pitying the National Secretary for his being ditched by the “Amunbo” caucus of his party, Mr Rasheed posited that the disease has no cure, submitting that the more the disease spread within the APC, the more Osun people accepted the Adeleke administration.
“We are not praying for any cure for that disease, Osun people are not infected. Our people are not blind to good governance, to workers” welfare, to pensioners’ better lives, to infra revolution, to new five-star stadium coming up at Osogbo, to tractors now plowing our farms, to our universities that are thriving, to accessible primary health care among others”, the statement concluded.
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
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