Day Of Democratic Affirmation In Osun

By Mobolaji Sanusi

Last weekend was electorally exciting in the country. At a time when electoral cynicism engulfs Nigeria’s democratic space, it is heartwarming to witness echoes of genuine electoral victory from Osun State. The feeling is nourishing, refreshing, and inspiring, not only for the democratic spirit of indigenes and other inhabitants of Osun but also for majority of Nigerians whose faith in our contemporary democratic experiment is presently at its lowest ebb.

Against all odds, Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke, a likeable politician from afar, deployed grit, unwavering spirit, and undiluted optimism to secure a re-election many thought was impossible. More importantly, the people of Osun State, through their votes, loudly declared that they are not only pleased with his performance in his nearly four years in office but are also delighted with his trademark dance steps that have routinely confounded his detractors.

Several dangerous traps littered Adeleke’s path to re-election victory, but with wisdom and tenacity of purpose, he surmounted them all. Barely a fortnight before his re-election, the EFCC placed a lawful but ill-timed no-debit restriction on the state’s account. This was only lifted after a statesmanly presidential intervention.

For two years now, the state’s monthly federal allocations to local governments have curiously been withheld. Added to this is the fact that the political turf, in days preceding the election, was criminally made volatile for the governor and his supporters. Yet, Adeleke kept soldiering on, even though his traducers staked their hopes of truncating his re-election bid on their touted “insurmountable” federal support.

Adeleke saw them as pessimists who were erroneously fixated on odds he believed could be conquered through his people’s steadfast belief in his leadership. Only a down-to-earth politician with grassroots wisdom could survive the deluge of intimidation to which the Osun State governor was subjected.

Orison Swett Marden, the prominent American writer and publicist who in 1897 established Success magazine, aptly captured what Adeleke’s victory symbolises when he wrote: “Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” The truism of this statement, as demonstrated by the love the people of Osun have shown Adeleke, coupled with his deep resolve, was evident in the results of his re-election.

Adeleke scored 511,067 votes, against Bola Oyebamiji’s 444,815 votes and Najeem Salaam’s distant 17,180 votes. Adeleke’s Accord Party won 19 local government areas, while Oyebamiji’s APC won 11. Adeleke’s triumph could not have been a fluke, which is why it is of extensive interest to Nigerians, because it revived the belief that the will of the people cannot always be trampled upon in a democracy.

The people of Osun State, through their votes for Adeleke, repudiated political hubris as personified by an APC cabal in the state led by the current Minister of Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, and his small but powerful inner circle, whose only strength lies in his perceived closeness to the seat of power in Abuja and not in possessing any real political clout among the people they schemed to govern through Oyebamiji.

Oyetola is not the President, but he is a powerful minister of a strategic ministry, and undoubtedly the foremost among the President’s blood relations. Despite this and even though blood is thicker than water, he could not politically be an Asiwaju because he lacks the large-heartedness of an Asiwaju. In his handling of the recent Osun governorship election affairs, Oyetola exemplified unnecessary political hubris that he could have better deployed in his other endeavours apart from politics.

Oyetola wants to be a political godfather in Osun State but lacks the requisite qualities to be one. Where in Oyetola are the endearing spirit, charisma, philanthropy, political acumen, tolerance, wisdom and thick skin needed to manage conflicting interests? An Asiwaju of the universe, as a former governor, private citizen, and now President, possesses all these qualities and more, yet Oyetola, despite being his blood relation, does not have these sterling qualities.

No wonder he unwisely blocked Adeleke from defecting to the APC and alienated the party’s other governorship aspirants, including a more politically entrenched Senator Iyiola Omisore, among others. The foundation of Oyetola’s ambition to install Oyebamiji as governor collapsed the day he schemed other aspirants out of the governorship contest with shameless hubris. Not even the obtrusive presence in the state of the political who’s who in the power circles of this country to campaign for the APC’s Oyebamiji could stop Osun voters’ resolute support for Adeleke on Election Day.

The minister’s overbearing conduct, despite being a political lightweight whose main credential in politics is being a relative of the President, is well captured by Sir Ernest Benn, who, while commenting on the hubris of politicians who overestimate their competence to fix and direct everything, said: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

Oyetola’s wrong diagnosis of the Osun political terrain, by fielding Oyebamiji rather than allowing Adeleke to cross over to the APC, amounts to applying the wrong remedy—an irredeemable one for that matter.

President Bola Tinubu, in words and deeds, acquitted himself creditably well by publicly correcting the wrong impression of bias by the Presidency against Adeleke. His telephone call to Adeleke and his civilised directive to the EFCC to lift the encumbrance on Osun State’s account were timely. Again, his call to Adeleke after the election to congratulate him when victory became clear was commendable.

If the President of our dear country can be so fair-minded on this issue, it is disappointing that those who routinely dropped his name for sinister purposes, especially during the days preceding last week’s Osun election, are currently nowhere to be found, with their tails between their legs. For now, and shamefully so, Oyetola, Oyebamiji and the Osun state APC are yet to congratulate Adeleke for winning an election whose outcome only a jaundiced mind could dispute.

The irony is that Oyebamiji, a beneficiary of an Oyetola-induced injustice against APC’s internal party democracy machinery, is now contemplating approaching the court to seek justice that his own party denied other governorship aspirants when he was selected against the tide of popular will. Indeed, whatever goes around comes around.

The continued refusal of Oyetola, Oyebamiji, and the Osun State APC to congratulate Adeleke shows disrespect for the leadership of President Tinubu, who, as an avowed democrat, called the winner to congratulate him and even issued a press release to that effect. If Oyetola could exploit the President’s name to put Osun under siege by deploying the state’s instruments of coercion during last Saturday’s governorship election, nothing stops him from directing Oyebamiji, his protégé, to follow the President’s majestic footsteps in this regard. His failure to do so thus far is nothing but sheer arrogance, overestimation of self, and outright leadership hypocrisy.

What message is inherent in this loss in the Osun State governorship election? That the President must be wary of those who pay nocturnal visits to him in the Presidential Villa to give him false information about the real political and socio-economic situation in the country. The President needs to know the reality of the Nigerian situation on all fronts.

The Osun election is gone, but lessons must be learnt so that the coming 2027 general elections can be better managed as against the whims of those who erroneously believe that brawn, criminal intimidation, and undue persecution of opponents, and not good performance, mass grassroots appeal and wisdom, are the only requirements for winning an election. Nigerians are getting wiser by the day.

Perhaps, it will be apt to end this piece with Tinubu’s instructive presidential counsel to Adeleke during his visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday. In his admonition on Adeleke’s electoral victory, which he had earlier described as “a fitting assurance that democracy will continue to flourish in our country,” Tinubu consequently enthused: “You did not conquer anybody. You won an election. That is the essence of democracy. Don’t make a single individual a victim of your campaign. Call for reconciliation and expand your coast. That’s the only way you can give thanks to the Osun people. Not the way you sang it or celebrate it. It’s the way you act it…”

Nothing needs to be added, because the political leadership of Osun state has inadvertently been thrown onto Adeleke’s lap by providence. But this can only endure and reenact another August 15,2026 in future if he deploys native intelligence and wisdom in his subsequent words and conduct.

On this note, yours sincerely sends his best wishes to the re-elected Osun State governor.

•Sanusi, former MD/CEO of Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, is currently Managing Partner at AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS. (WhatsApp only: 07011117777