Adeleke’s Commissioner Fingered In Osun Youth Council Leadership’s Crisis

• Stop Blackmailing Me, Olagunju Tells Aggrieved Chairman

There seems to be no end in sight to the lingering leadership crisis rocking the Osun State Chapter of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN).

The National Executive Council of the organisation has identified with the Caretaker Committee set up in Osun which is being led by Comrade Abdulmojeed Oyeniyi, against Ajala Adetunji who claimed to have been elected in 2023.

Findings by OSUN DEFENDER revealed that the crisis engulfed the Osun NYCN after the election that reportedly produced Adetunji on April 6, 2023, by all the affiliate associations of the council in the state.

According to sources, the National body of the council was against the candidature of Adetunji as the chairman prior to the election.

Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Youth Affairs, Hon. Moshood Olagunju, has been accused of fueling the crisis for political reasons.

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Olagunju was accused of siding with the Caretaker Committee of the NYCN in the state.

Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER on the genesis of the crisis, Adetunji said the national body of the council has failed to identify with him because its anointed candidate, Oyeniyi failed to win the election.

According to Adetunji, the national secretariat appointed Oyeniyi as Caretaker chairman of the council after losing the election.

Adetunji also accused the national body of lobbying the Commissioner for Youth Affairs and other persons in Adeleke’s cabinet to do their bidding.

He said: “I have served as the Assistant Secretary and Public Relations Officer of the National Youth Council of Nigeria before my emergence as the chairman. Our election was conducted on April 6, 2023, and it was supervised by the Ministry of Youths which means the support of the government was involved in our congress.

“However, on the day before election, the delegates from the national led by the Vice President, South-West were in Osun. 

“Meanwhile, prior to that time, there has been a kind of move from persons within the national body to impose Abdulmojeed Oyeniyi on us in the state but he is not known. He doesn’t belong to any affiliated organisation. 

“After all efforts to impose him proved abortive, on the day of our election, the national came up with the list of five people. Two of the five people are member (sic) of the Youth Council while the other three were not members of the council. 

“Among the five names are Abdulmojeed Oyeniyi, Emmanuel Adebisi who is now Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ademola Adeleke on Civil Society, and one Eluyemi who has distanced himself from the supposedly Caretaker Committee.

“Also, the two other persons from our own end has also declared that they are not part of the kangaroo. Only Oyeniyi and Adebisi are going around calling themselves caretaker. 

“When these people could not take control of the council, they tried to lobby the state Commissioner for Youths to do their bidding.

“The commissioner is not following the information he ought to follow. What they are telling him was that he can actually hijack the council and make it useful for his own purpose, by putting someone he can control for election. 

“But we have maintained that the council is apolitical, and if you want to join the council, you cannot join individually. You have to join through organisation. 

“And it is clear to the state that the constitution of National Youth Council of Nigeria does not give any credence to caretaker. It’s a kangaroo. Such action and decision are not known to the constitution. 

Earlier, the head of the Voluntary Youths Organisation, an affiliates of NYCN, Kamil Badmus, also accused the Commissioner for Youths of fueling the crisis by taking side with the factional group.

Badmus, in a statement made available to OSUN DEFENDER, on Wednesday, affirmed Adetunji as the duly elected chairman of the council.

The statement reads partly: “We are here to affirm the Chairmanship of Ajala Adetunji, who was initially elected by all the affiliate associations of NYCN last year April in a congress supervised by the Ministry of Youths in the state.

“We, the VYOs, therefore urged the Commissioner for Youth in the State, Hon. Moshood Olagunju to play the neutral role of being a father to all rather than taking side with a faction and illegally suspending an elected chairman, who can only be suspended by the congress.

“We are the groups under the NYCN and we only recognise Ajala Adetunji’s leadership, hence, we appeal to all stakeholders, including the State Government not to cause more crisis in the group and should only work with Ajala as our representative in the state.”

But Olagunju, in a telephone interview with OSUN DEFENDER, on Wednesday, debunked the allegations, saying the crisis has been in existence before his emergence as commissioner.

Olagunju noted that he is only working with the Caretaker Committee as recognised by the National Headquarters and Patron, Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi. 

He said: “The problem they have is with the national leadership of the group which, in an official letter, disowned Ajala Adetunji as the Chairman and is insisting on an elective congress to elect leaders for the group.

“We suspended Ajala from having anything to do with the Ministry of Youth due to the illegal activities he was perpetrating under the name of the Ministry. But on his leadership issue, he has the national leadership to sort out issues with.

“I can only work with the group which was recognised by the national body and their patron, the Ooni of Ife. In fact, this issue has been on ground before I assumed office. He should stop blaming me with his predicament. 

“The national body was here at the state police command on Tuesday on the crisis and they told him to stop parading himself as the chairman. How is it possible to call yourself chairman when the national headquarters does not recognise you.

“The election that produced him (Adetunji) was a kangaroo. The election which the national headquarters and representative of the patron was not there to observe. When it’s time to do another election, the patron will send his representatives and I will also invite other Commissioners from other state ,including security agencies to observe”.