EDITORIAL: Facing The Future

The change of baton in the State of Osun taking place today is a celebration of democracy. In addition, much kudos needs to be given to the All Progressives Congress (APC) for ensuring continuity in a difficult political terrain.

Special recognition must be accorded to the former governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola. Available empirical data about poverty levels, school enrollment, general well being, infrastructural development and so forth, show that he has left the state in a far better shape than he found it. So, effective has been his intervention, that a chronology of the state of Osun will henceforth be divided into pre and post Aregbesola era. In this way, Aregbesola has demonstrated the definition of the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci that the main function of politics is to (re) define the territory of the discourse in favour of one’s own position.

If you seek to know the positive effects of the Aregbesola intervention, please look around you and acknowledge the transformation of the physical and social infrastructures. The verdict of history on his administration, as well as the profound and irreversible changes he engineered (the pun here is intended) will be positive.

The party mechanism and the wishes of its membership has produced a worthy successor. Gboyega Oyetola Osun’s new governor deserves the mandate entrusted onto him by the people of the State of Osun. It is our considered opinion that he will not fail. Oyetola is the classic demonstration of ‘Cometh the moment, cometh the man’. Oyetola’s solid intellectual preparation has been burnished in the rough and tumble of the private sector and enhanced with administrative experience as Chief of Staff for eight years. He has never been found wanting. Cerebral, urbane and perhaps deliberately understated, he packs quite a (hidden) punch. In many ways, he is a living testimony of US President Theodore Roosevelt’s admonition that the leader, “should walk quietly, carrying  a big stick”.

Osun is in the good and  tested hands of a man who will consolidate the new beginnings started by Ogbeni Aregbesola and emphasis the inclusivity much needed. His mien gives the indication of someone who will run what in Latin America used to be known as a, “government of popular unity”. We have no iota of doubt that Oyetola will take Osun to the ‘next level’ and run an inclusive government which will be for the benefit of the majority of the stake holders and not just in the interests of a privileged. Pampered elite. We wish him great success in the momentous years ahead.