Now, between the three frontliners jostling to succeed the incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola in office come November 2018, one is being confronted with the fact that the smooth manner of emergence of Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola as the flag bearer of the APC in the State of Osun speak volumes about what to expect on September 22 2018. So far his antecedents are incorruptible, clean and without blemish unlike Senator Adeleke’s messy educational kwashiokor and Senator Iyiola Omisore’s alleged murderous instincts regarding the famous Bola Ige saga. In almost eight years now, Gboyega Oyetola as Chief of Staff to Aregbesola has benefited immeasurably from Ogbeni’s incomparable pragmatic administrative prowess that has brought unprecedented physical, educational, social, economic, infrastructural etc., development to the good people of Osun State.
It is quite understandable why the level of political activities have recently been heightened in Osun State, most especially since the first grade political parties have had their governorship primaries.
By adhering strictly to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) laid down time table for the conduct of the 2018 Governorship Election in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) have succeeded in producing three political heavy weights as their governorship candidates.
Expectedly, in our clime issues-free governorship primaries are often scarce, so it was not dissimilar in the State of Osun during and after the various political parties conducted their primaries.
Firstly, a crop of party faithful who were unsure of their popularity within the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state vehemently kicked against the usage of direct primary method ordered by the Adams Oshiomhole led National Executive Committee (NEC) for the conduct of the governorship primary.
But, in the end the Option A 4 otherwise known as direct primary style adopted by the APC to pick Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola as the undisputed champion in the race has been widely acclaimed by many political pundits as a watershed in this dispensation.
It is tantalizing to know now that it is this credible, open, free-for- all party rank and file, less expensive and violence-proof method that is being considered absolutely by the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress to be used to execute its remaining governorship primaries in preparation for the 2019 general elections in Nigeria.
Therefore, gigantic accolades must quickly be poured on the sitting Governor of the Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola for displaying the highest level of political cum ideological transparency, aloofness and sincerity which led to the smooth and historic emergence of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola as the current flag bearer of the APC for the September 22nd 2018 Governorship Election in the state.
Secondly, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) had what one can describe as factional governorship primaries as a new entrant into its fold, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who had been heavily blocked and thrown out by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from actualizing his gubernatorial aspiration, bamboozled his way into reckoning within the party.
As a ruthlessly desperate serial governorship character that contested the 2014 Osun Governorship Election using the PDP flag and lost with a landslide to Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Senator Iyiola Omisore was in a familiar political terrain when he ultimately succeeded in acquiring the most rancorous and controversial governorship ticket under the banner of the SDP in the state.
Today Senator Omisore is bulldozing his way formidably within the SDP towards the Osun 2018 governorship election in spite of occasional brick bats being thrown at him from within as a fall out from the party’s governorship primary.
Thirdly, the leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the State succeeded in furiously frustrating, indiscriminately ridiculing and ferociously pursuing its former governorship candidate in the person of Iyiola Omisore out of the party, because of the junior brother of the late former Senator Isiaka
Adeleke who dramatically won the Senatorial by-election earlier for the PDP in 2017.
The point being canvased here is that Senator Ademola Adeleke became a beautiful political bride for the PDP in the state for surprisingly winning his late brother’s senatorial seat and that made some busy strategists/ think tank within to recklessly conclude on him as the political magic wand to grab the state from Aregbesola’s APC in Osun.
The PDP governorship primary was from all indications keenly and closely contested and Senator Ademola Adeleke who had been meticulously penciled down by the powers that be to knock down the APC massive engine of victory in the state narrowly overcame his closest rival in a pulsating contest that saw Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa as chairman of the entire process.
As soon as Senator Adeleke survived and came out of the heat generated by the PDP governorship primary a dirty scandal of immense proportion about certificate forgery stamped him on the face and subsequently busted uncontrollably into the public glare.
The Senator Ademola Adeleke governorship campaign outfit is battling tooth and nails to wriggle out of this most uncomfortable albatross hanging menacingly on whatever sympathy, credibility or integrity the Senator representing Osun West Senatorial District in the state would have gathered at the time of the sudden death of his senior brother in 2017.
Now, between the three frontliners jostling to succeed the incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola in office come November 2018, one is being confronted with the fact that the smooth manner of emergence of Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola as the flag bearer of the APC in the State of Osun speak volumes about what to expect on September 22 2018.
So far his antecedents are incorruptible, clean and without blemish unlike Senator Adeleke’s messy educational kwashiokor and Senator Iyiola Omisore’s alleged murderous instincts regarding the famous Bola Ige saga.
In almost eight years now, Gboyega Oyetola as Chief of Staff to Aregbesola has benefited immeasurably from Ogbeni’s incomparable pragmatic administrative prowess that has brought unprecedented physical, educational, social, economic, infrastructural etc., development to the good people of Osun State.
Then, coupled with his cerebral accomplishments and staggering administrative experience it is naturally and logically expedient for Gboyega Oyetola to continue from where Ogbeni Aregbesola stops in November.
In genuinely wanting Oyetola as a successor to Aregbesola using the Osun 2018 governorship election as a fantastic opportunity, the electorate will only be following a superlative and enchanting democratic tradition that has made a state like Lagos a stability haven for the uncommon dividends of democracy.
Nowinta wrote Where We Are – A Call for Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.
