EDITORIAL: An Endorsement For Continuity

 

• A No-Contest Between A Savvy Technocrat And Ademola The Unready

Two paths face a state of Osun at a critical juncture. To choose to continue the progressive forward thrusts of the Rauf Aregbesola government or to sadly retrogress. Our position is unambiguous; we prefer a hand over of governance of the state to a proven, tested technocrat.

With minor parties snapping at the fringes, the realistic options are limited to Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). On paper, it should be a no-contest. Straddling the private and public sectors, Oyetola represents measured emotional, intellectual development as well as acquired managerial sagacity. These attributes are crucial, and for a decisive reason. Starring down a demographic time-bomb, the decade ahead 2020-2030 is not just pivotal, it will be make or break. Cometh that looming moment therefore, we must beckon forth a man with the proven capacity; that man is Gboyega Oyetola.

The contrast with Ademola Adeleke is unnerving. The PDP, it must be said has shown the utmost contempt not just for the membership of their own party, but for the larger interest of the State of Osun in choosing Ademola Adeleke. Incontrovertibly, there were much better candidates available. Why they didn’t choose them is unexplainable. An historical similarity to this is the infamous election manifesto of the British Labour Party in  1983, which has been often described as, ‘the longest suicide note in history’.

In choosing Ademola Adeleke, the Osun State PDP, in the words of Karl Marx have descended from ‘tragedy into farce’. Often likened to the ancient king of England Ethelred the unready, Ademola Adeleke is precisely that, Ademola the unready. A childlike sense of entitlement can in no way mask a lack of the intellectual preparation as well as the management savvy required for office. There is of course something fundamentally wrong in choosing a man who obviously cannot decipher, let alone interpret a balance sheet. If Ademola Adeleke cannot interpret a balance sheet, how on earth is he going to work out a desired medium – term economic strategy and framework to take Osun to the next level?

 The comic – tragic choice of Adeleke encompassing his sense of his entitlement has been seminally captured a an analysis a few days ago in the online publication, Premium times. A cerebral columnist ‘Fisayo Soyombo observed that “his reason for seeking the governorship seat surely rank among the most comical in Nigeria’s political history. “We held a family meeting to seek God’s guidance on the governorship issue and we said, let all of us pray and fast for 40 days for a divine direction from Him and it was when we got a clear signal that I came out to announce that I will contest the Osun governorship election,” he told his party two months ago. “During this period of the 40 days of prayers and fasting, we, the Adeleke’s made a covenant with God that we shall alleviate the suffering of the people of Osun.”

Had God said otherwise, Adeleke wouldn’t have heard — because his late brother wanted to become governor and his life since April 2017 has been all about living out the rest of Isiaka’s earthly life”.

The choice is not just baffling, it is profoundly disturbing coming from a sophisticated State that has produced pivotal figures such as Nigeria’s first lawyer Christopher Alexander Sapara Williams, his brother Dr Oguntola Sapara heading a long list of a production line of pivotal figures from Osun State who were amongst the best and the brightest of a generation, of any generation.

We have a duty to warn against retrogression and handing the affairs of Osun State over to untested hands. This newspaper has a moral obligation as well as a duty of care to advise the people of the State of Osun to come out in record numbers on the 22nd of September, 2018 and vote for a proven ready technocrat in the person of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola.