Osun’s maladministration: still awaiting Dr. Deji Adeleke’s press conference

By Ismail Omipidan

Last Wednesday, we had a seminar presentation in the class, a PhD class. A colleague of mine who presented her paper that morning made an assertion, and after subjecting the assertion to a thorough probe, the class, our course lecturer inclusive, concluded the assertion was untrue, as there was no empirical evidence to support the claim. I recalled the above incident to show that the academic environment is no place for bogus and frivolous claims.

Who, and what, therefore, prompted a business mogul and elder brother of current Osun Governor, Dr. Deji Adeleke, to claim that he would be the first to address the press if his brother, Senator Ademola Adeleke, derails in the administration of the state?

And because the unprovoked, unsolicited and solemn claim was made at an academic environment, I feel duty bound to take Dr. Deji Adeleke to task on this matter because so far, his brother has been a fantastic failure.

Sir, it is two years now since you made that claim. When will you address the press conference? To help you, you must not necessarily address a press conference to condemn him if you feel strongly that the business model being deployed to run Osun at the moment is good and would lead to its prosperity. I would excuse you, since, like me, you are entitled to your opinion. I will, however only remind you that, while comments are free, facts are indeed sacred.

As you mount the podium today to address graduates of your university, their parents and other members of the university community, you must redeem your name, image and reputation. For me,
I believe that it is not too late for you to prevail on your brother, who is the governor, to reconsider some of his missteps and do the needful.

You may not have passed through the Akoda -Ede road, but find time to inspect it. The road project began over a year ago. It began even before the launch of the N100b infrastructure projects, yet, it was lumped with it. As at last Wednesday when I plied that road, nothing much had been done. They had just hurriedly delivered stone dust on a segment of the road. I believe they did that because of the planned Fidau prayer and probably the convocation. The rate they are going, I doubt if they would be able to complete it as scheduled. Go to Oke-fia, go to Ife, and even Ilesa, where they appear to have damaged everywhere in the name of road construction. These road projects are being shabbily executed because the contracts were awarded to cyber cafe operators, fertilizer distributors, estate agents and other persons with no requisite knowledge of road construction. I am sure you were aware of the anomalies in the contract awards, but what did you do to stop the insane abnormality ? Your brother, the governor is the Commissioner for Works, and so you should know better.

Your brother, the governor, scrapped the O’YES scheme, a government initiative that engaged 20,000 youths, with a promise to replace it with his Imole version. Eighteen months on the line, your brother has not told us anything in that regard. Is that what you promised?

The President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration gave us FG palliatives, the same way it gave to other states. Your brother warehoused it for months and when he eventually shared it, it was a “paddy-paddy” arrangement, so disheartening that one of the senior special assistants of the governor was said to have looted 70 bags of rice earmarked for members of the civil societies. Is that fair?

In this year’s budget, your brother, the governor, budgeted 3.5billion naira for agriculture, whereas he allocated over 13billion naira to his office. Yet, you promised us that his government would develop the agriculture sector. The most annoying thing is that by the first quarter of this year, 5.2 billion naira had been spent on Food, Entertainment and luxuries of the governor and his acolytes. While pitiable 164million naira was released for agricultural sector. Is that how you are running your business? I am sure you will never subscribe to that kind of attitude. This is why you must speak up either for or against what your brother is doing with our state’s resources.

The governor, your brother, promised to recruit 5,000 teachers. The aptitude test has been conducted, even though it was riddled with irregularities, we are yet to hear from the government on the next line of action since after the exercise. I can go on and on, but let me stop here for now, so I can allow you respond. Posterity beckons!

Lest I forget, in responding, kindly encourage the government’s and the Dynasty’s media Rottweilers to be decent by sticking to issues, and not resorting to personal attacks, their stock in trade.

Omipidan, a journalist, writes from Abuja.