A Catalog of Deception Surrounding Ogbeni’s Legacy

Fake news, which often masquerades as misinformation and disinformation, is a recognized menace to global peace and the journalism profession. In simple terms, fake news involves the dissemination of a false narrative presented as truth. This can occur in three distinct ways: disseminating incorrect information without the intent to deceive (misinformation), intentionally promoting misleading, biased, and manipulative information (disinformation), and spreading true information with malicious intent, often taken out of context (malinformation). These issues have plagued the world at large.

Fake information is especially troubling in the realm of politics and government. Individuals sometimes present inaccurate, false, or incomplete information to the public without factual basis. Before anyone can blink, this false information spreads like wildfire.

Regrettably, there are instances where individuals, especially in the field of journalism, share reports without the necessary factual support. Osun State is not immune to the scourge of fake news. In my assessment, one individual who has consistently fallen victim to agents of misinformation and disinformation is Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the former governor of Osun State and the current Minister of Interior.

One of the most recent instances of fake news involves the mischievous and erroneous claim that Aregbesola collected his full salary for eight years after serving, while publicly stating he had not collected a salary during his tenure. This falsehood is as malicious as other claims that I will discuss here. Aregbesola’s principled stance is simply that he did not need a salary, as all his needs were adequately met by the government during his time in office, including his children’s education.

Additionally, there was the unfounded allegation regarding the Opon-Imo (Tablet of Knowledge). It was maliciously spread that Aregbesola’s son, Kabir Aregbesola, was the sole implementer of the project. This was entirely false. Kabir had an academic background in informatics and contributed his knowledge to address unprecedented IT challenges in creating the valuable Tablet. However, falsely attributing the entire project to him based on his involvement in offering intelligent IT advice is a blatant and malicious misrepresentation.

Another malicious falsehood centered on the idea that Aregbesola wanted to secede from Nigeria, an utterly implausible notion for a landlocked state with limited federal allocation and IGR. This baseless claim had real-world consequences, including attempts by security agencies and the then-PDP federal government to disrupt the Cuban pilgrimage policy of Ogbeni, which aimed to connect Yoruba heritage constituencies in Osun with the Afro-Cuban experience. This false narrative led to the detention of some individuals at MM2 Airport, Ikeja, Lagos State, under the fabricated pretense that Ogbeni was sending people to Cuba for armed training.

During the previous administration, deliberate misinformation sought to undermine the integrity of several model schools constructed by Aregbesola. False claims asserted that these schools failed integrity tests and were on the verge of collapse, warranting demolition. A milder but still groundless claim also circulated, suggesting that Aregbesola was a member of the Ogboni secret society and that he was, in fact, a citizen of Kogi State.

Furthermore, it was repeatedly alleged during Aregbesola’s tenure that he was repatriating all of Osun’s money to Lagos. Later on, these falsehoods took a political turn, falsely accusing Aregbesola of working against the APC and the Tinubu Presidential ticket. In truth, Aregbesola won his polling unit, ward, and local government for the APC governor during the governorship election. However, the Ileri Oluwa team’s poor political strategy at the time resulted in a resounding loss for the APC in Osun during the presidential election, which coincided with the senatorial election. Nonetheless, these falsehoods have attempted to pin this comprehensive defeat on Aregbesola.

Perpetuating such falsehoods poses a significant threat to global peace. If the world wishes to maintain its peace, mechanisms must be established to hold purveyors of fake news accountable.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not represent the opinions or views of Osun Defender