OSUN GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION: AREGBESOLA’S BIG CHALLENGE

OSUN GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION: AREGBESOLA’S BIG CHALLENGE

If elections are won or lost on character and performance, as they should, Osun State’s governorship election coming up on August 9 should be a shoo-in for the incumbent, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

But then, as we saw in the June 21 Ekiti State governorship election, the almost universally hailed character and performance of the incumbent, Dr Kayode Fayemi, seemed to have counted for practically nothing when he suffered heavy defeat at the hands of Mr Ayo Fayose, the candidate of the country’s ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP).
In Ekiti at least, what seemed to matter most was instant gratification for the people through so-called “infrastructure of the stomach” and, even more importantly, the use of Federal Might (with capital F and capital M) to cow any opposition (It’s only a foolhardy man who would challenge the well-armed 30,000 security agents drafted into the state for the election who, as the governor said based on intelligence at his disposal as the state’s chief security officer, had instructions to “mow down” anyone who dared raise his figure in protest at their open  partisanship).
As it was in Ekiti so would the PDP like it to be in Osun. One big difference, however, is that, unlike in Ekiti, a not-so-subtle religious propaganda weapon against the governor is being added to the other two.
No less a person than the PDP governorship candidate himself, Senator Iyore Omisore, gave this game away. Asked in an interview in PUNCH (July 18) if he was sure he would win the election he said, “Of course, yes. I mean the indices are there for all to see; the decaying infrastructure, the disrupted education system, THE RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY, infrastructural inconvenience, social malaise, impoverishment of our people.” (Emphasis mine).
Omisore went further to accuse the governor of wrongly “Lumping students from Islam-based faith schools with students of Christianity-based faith schools together AND EXPECTING ONE RELIGION TO SUPERCEDE THE OTHER...” (Again emphasis mine). As a Christian, it is obvious Omisore is accusing the Muslim governor of favouring Islam.
Since Aregbesola dared to declare a public holiday to celebrate an Islamic New Year in the state two years ago, many of his critics have worked overtime to cast him in the image of a Muslim extremist. For many of such critics the absurdity of the logic that what is good for one religion is necessarily bad for the other has clearly escaped them.
Not surprisingly, beneath Omisore’s apparently inadvertent betrayal of his religious animosity towards the governor, an even more insidious crude religious campaign is being waged where Christians in the state are being told that a vote for Omisore is ten votes for Christ!
In this manipulation of religion to gain power, Omisore is only in the excellent company of our president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, for whom the Church had for a long time become his platform for issuing policy statements and indirectly denigrating Islam. Even then for anyone to equate Omisore with Christ is really the height of blasphemy. But then this is Nigeria where politicians think nothing of invoking the Good Lord’s name in vain.
For someone who, at the least, is not averse to being compared to Christ, it was truly amazing how he could lie through his teeth about his relationship with the late Chief Bola Ige whose murder several years ago he was implicated in and tried for and eventually acquitted.
In the PUNCH interview I’ve referred to, the newspaper asked him point blank if he did not kill Ige. “I did not,” he replied, “kill Chief Bola Ige at all. I can’t kill anybody, anyway, not to talk of Chief Bola Ige. Chief Bola Ige was my leader. He was like an uncle in-law to me.” He did not, he also said, instigate the removal of Ige’s cap and glasses in the palace of the Ooni of Ife, a humiliation which presaged Ige’s brutal murder in his own residence in Ibadan.
An amicable relationship between the two was definitely not what it looked like nearly thirteen years ago when Omisore denigrated the chief in an interview in the rested TEMPO weekly newspaper (December 27, 2001). In that interview he called Chief Bisi Akande, who he was deputy governor to and from whom he was estranged at the time, some of the foulest names imaginable and added Ige to the target of his diatribe.
“Recently too,” he said in the interview, “Bola Ige came on radio here to insult me and my family. THAT IS THE LAST ONE. He was beaten yesterday, the people of Ife beat him up and he was crying like a baby as they removed his cap and his glasses...He was disgraced out of Ife, he had to be dressed like a woman to get out of town.”(Again, emphasis mine).
Asked in effect if he approved Ige’s humiliation, he said yes in effect. “He has offended Ife people. If he insults me, he has insulted my people and they have the right to react.”
Omisore concluded the interview by describing Ige as a Yoruba traitor. “Bola Ige,” he said, “is a traitor to Afenifere... He is the Akintola of our time. What Akintola did to Awolowo is what Bola Ige is doing to Adesanya and to the Yoruba people.”
It is truly amazing how the man can now turn around to say he never held anything against Ige but, instead, had always regarded the chief as his leader and an “uncle in-law”, whatever that means.
Omisore would not only tell a lie about his relationships to curry favour with Osun voters to the extent that his implication in the murder of Ige is an issue in the elections, it is also obvious he is afraid to engage Aregbesola in any debate over what each of them can offer the good people of their state. Challenged to a debate by the governor, first he said Aregbesola was mentally unfit. When that did not seem to wash with the public he changed his tune and said in effect that the governor is a thug-in-chief. “Going to participate in a debate with violent people with array of thugs will be too much of a risk to take for us,” he said in another interview in PUNCH (July 20).
In an interview in The Guardian (July 10), Aregbesola said he was confident he will win any election in his state that was “credible, transparent, free and fair.” Therein lies the catch; an election can look credible, transparent, free and fair but the reality may be totally the opposite. An election in which a central government squeezes the opposition by slashing revenue allocation to states under the guise of falling revenue due to massive oil thefts and delays the release of even the little that is left in order to cause disaffection between opposition states and their civil servants, an election in which huge numbers of security agents are deployed to intimidate the opposition, etc, such election can hardly be described as credible, transparent, free and fair.
Actually the rigging of elections can be even more cynical than financially squeezing opposition states and deploying massive force to intimidate. The other day I received an email about the election which, on the surface, seemed too farfetched.
“Do u ever thk along this line...” it said in the arcane language of texts. “200,000 ballot papers thumb printed in Abj, CBN abj convey to CBN Ado ekiti, CBN Ado to some selected Commercial bank, Some selected Commercial banks to Some party leaders in Ekiti land, Party leaders to Some Ward leaders, Ward leaders to 10 women per polling unit...Each woman with 10 already in their body, they pick one each and drop 11 in the box where they v bought agent.”
My instinct was to dismiss this as an outlandish conspiracy theory. But then when I remembered the memorable words of Major-General IBM Haruna, a former minister of information, in one of the most interesting interviews published by the rested Citizen which I headed, I said to myself this may not be as outrageous as it sounds. As the general said, any time anyone tells you something is impossible in Nigeria, consider it done.
In spite of all this great odds against Aregbesola, I believe Ekiti is unlikely to be repeated in Osun on August 9. But then so many impossible things have happened in the country since 1999 that it will not surprise me if, in spite of Aregbesola’s character and performance,  he loses the election.
TWO OMISSIONS...
In response to my column of last week, two readers, Chief Femi Alafe-Aluko and Olu Sangotikun, drew my attention to my omission of Aremo Segun Osoba among the country’s journalism icons who celebrated their birthdays this month. Segun, probably the country’s best reporter ever, celebrated his 75th birthday on July 15.
Another journalism icon, Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman of Thisday and President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) celebrated his 55th birthday on July 14.
Here’s wishing both Happy Birthdays and many more returns in arrears.

...AND AN APOLOGY
In my column of July 2 I referred to Major-General Chris Olukolade as “an army spokesman.” Actually he is the “military spokesman”, the army being only one service of the three in the military, the others being the navy and the air force.
In the same article I gave the name of Borno State governor as Ibrahim Kashim Shettima. Ibrahim is not part of his name. This was an error I had committed on several occasions before.
My apologies to both the general and the governor.

Osun: Issues in focus

Osun: Issues in focus

BY AYO OLUKOTUN

“My tenure in Osun by the Grace of God and the will of the people willend in 2018”

– Rauf Aregbesola, July 20, 2014

“If I meet Governor Rauf Aregbesola, I would greet him and tell him to be preparing his handover notes”

-Iyiola Omisore, July 20, 2014

The opening quotes sourced from the two leading candidates in the Osun governorship election indicate the keenness and intensity of the campaigns which will culminate in the August 9 election. There are, to be sure, 20 candidates jostling for the coveted seat but in reality the contest has been described aptly as a ‘three-tier horse race’ between the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, who is also the incumbent governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; that of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Iyiola Omisore; and that of the Labour Party, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade.

Before assessing the candidates and their platforms, a few statistics are in order. Depending on which source you are citing, the population of the state is put variously at anywhere between 3.4 million (NPC) and 4.4 million (UNFPA). The Independent National Electoral Commission put the population of the registered voters at 1.25 million and the voter card holders, as of the end of April, at 59.6 per cent of that number, which is roughly 736, 000. The number of polling units is also put at 3,010. What this means is that less than 25 per cent of the population of the state will on August 9 decide the fate of the candidates. As a corollary, and in the absence of opinion polls suggested by The PUNCH columnist, Prof. Niyi Akinnaso, several of the outspoken debaters and stargazers on the election will neither vote nor will their views loom large on the polling day.

The other background matter worth attending to connects the issue of militarisation of the state along the lines of what happened in Ekiti State.

While the PDP members such as the Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, argued that the presence of soldiers in Ekiti encouraged the voters to come out in the confidence that no harm would befall them, spokespersons for the APC insist that the soldiers and the security agencies generally were not neutral arbiters but partisanly held the ring against the opposition APC.

As a matter of fact, a human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, has stated the opinion that the deployment of soldiers for elections is illegal. In the same vein, the APC has gone to court to restrain the Federal Government from deploying soldiers for the election.

Considering that the role of the military in the Ekiti election and the involvement of Alhaji Musiliu Obanikoro, Minister of State for Defence , viewed as a PDP hawk, has become matters of controversy, it might be unwise to repeat the Ekiti scenario of militarisation in Osun. Obviously, international attention will be focused on the election given that the United States has argued that it would be bell weather of the wider election of 2015.

Now, to the major candidates. Omisore of the PDP is not a new comer to Osun and national politics. He has held the positions of deputy governor as well as senator. Well educated, Omisore stakes his claim to governorship on an alleged deal between him and Bisi Akande that the latter would back him for governorship after four years in office; he argues to the bargain that he was already coasting home to succeeding Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the governor before the judicial victory and consequent swearing-in of Aregbesola in 2010.

There are issues however about the candidate one of which is memory of his alleged controversial involvement in the assassination of the former justice minister, Chief Bola Ige. It is conceivable that in spite of the candidate’s heated denial of alleged role in that tragic event, he has not succeeded in entirely laying the matter to rest.

Substantively, Omisore and his campaign team have mounted a spirited campaign challenging the achievements and even personality of the incumbent forcing the latter to defend his record. For instance, Omisore has punched holes in the incumbent track record by alleging that he has handed over the state to “strangers” by which it is meant Osun indigenes resident in Lagos. He has raised issues about the cost of some of Aregbesola’s projects; spotted errors in Opon Imo, a flagship achievement of the governor and alluded to the controversy raised by the schools’ merger and wearing of hijab.

Unfortunately, Omisore has spent more time putting his opponent on the spot and berating him than enunciating his own programmes. Although he has hinted at an eight-point agenda, the electorate is barely familiar with the high points of this programme as they are crowded out by his politics of attack and threats of repeating Ayo Fayose’s miracle victory in Ekiti.

The incumbent, Aregbesola rides on the wave of his governance record which centres on poverty reduction as illustrated by the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme, the facelift and modernisation of Osogbo, the state capital, educational reforms whose initial hiccups Aregbesola insists are more than compensated for by the adjunct of a far-flung project in which tailors, food vendors, and sundry artisans are employed through the provision of uniforms and the school feeding system. Articulating a neo-welfarist ideology on the lines of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Ogbeni, as he insists on being called (shunning the use of ‘His Excellency’) has, by and large, implemented visionary social programmes that have sought to bring governance to the nook and cranny of the state.

The Labour Party candidate, Akinbade, a former Secretary of the Osun State Government, would in other circumstances, considering his mettle, have been a high profile contender. But as it is, the two titans, Aregbesola and Omisore, have reduced him to the status of a backbencher. In the event of a neck to neck election, however, he might, ironically, come into his own as a ‘beautiful bride’. This may explain why he is being courted by both the APC and the PDP. It is unlikely however, if a level playing field is provided that the PDP would be able to repeat the “Fayose miracle”. In a text message sent to this writer, in the aftermath of my comment on the Ekiti election,

Pastor Biodun Bakare, after doing a post-mortem of that election, went on to say, “It is not going to be easy for Omisore in Osun State over Aregbesola because the latter is closer to the people”. In other words, Osun is a different kettle of fish from Ekiti to the extent that Aregbesola, who has a thriving grassroots organisational culture, cultivated a pro-people orientation. Significantly, and contrary to the expectation that religion will be an issue, several Christian leaders such as Bishop David Oyedepo and Pastor Enoch Adeboye, have endorsed the incumbent based on performance.

Conceivably, Omisore’s battle cry would have been anchored on change.

It would seem however that in the circumstances of a state, arguably, in the throes of governance upgrade and verifiable deliverables, the message of ‘change’ is unlikely to be heeded. The election, considering the various uses to which the omnibus ‘federal might’ might be put, may be closely fought but there is little doubt that the incumbent stands a more than even chance of winning.

Osun poll: The passion of Ogbeni…

By  Steve Osuji

Prelude to the June 21 Ekiti State election, this column waded in on the side of the incumbent Kayode Fayemi because it was the right thing to do, taking cognisance of his antecedent and his performance in office. Also judging by the puny personality of his major contender in terms of integrity quotient, record in office, possession of the requisite gravitas and nobility for high office, this column insists that Fayemi and not Fayose is more deserving of the office even though one cannot help but respect the choice of Ekiti people.

In the same manner and going by the parameters listed above, this column will vote for Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to remain as the governor of Osun State on August 9. The Ogbeni advantage, just as in Fayemi’s, is made seemingly unassailable when ranged against an opponent, Iyiola Omisore, who is weakened and compromised by an odious antecedent. In the days of yore when elders were the spirits of the land and taboos were indeed, abominations to the living and the dead, an Omisore would not deign to be a leader in Yoruba land. In those days, elders would sit at dawn at the first crow of the cock and speak as one with the gods; pour libation and set the land aright, an Omisore would never have found the face to stand before the people to seek to lead them.

But this is an age that is at once licentious and forgiving; an age that easily changes black in white, using confounding ‘means and machinery’. We are in an age that not only gets away with murder (in a manner of speaking), the more dastardly murderous a man can dare to be, the better he is ‘regarded’ in the society. It is in this kind of weird world that an Omisore would stand a strong contender in a governorship election.

It is not to say that Ogbeni is the quintessence of humanity or a citizen of the celestial realms. It is just that he has a track record and a reference point that even his opponents cannot fault. Ogbeni is also a man of immense passion; burning passion for the people; passion to drive change, to improve and to make good. You may quarrel with his method or even the fiery intensity of his passion, but it is often in the quest for the greatest good for the people.

This column had occasions to prick and jab him on some of his actions, especially his dalliance with religion in his state, but his finer motive it turned out, is to upgrade learning and education in his state. Though Christians may have misconstrued it as antagonism towards their faith, what are we to then make of his government’s move to catalyse the building of a mega Christian centre, perhaps the largest of its kind in the country, in his state. Of course, Muslims would see this as deploying the state’s machinery for the propagation of the Christian faith, but for the Ogbeni, the nobler motive is to tap into Christianity’s huge economic potentialities to develop his state.

Such is Ogbeni’s passion, which had been manifest right from his days as the commissioner for works in the Bola Tinubu years in Lagos. He is part of the mastermind and architect of some of the great developmental strides that have unfurled under Babatunde Fashola in Lagos. Of course, Ogbeni is not only a master of the grassroots; he is the essential man of the people who eats his roast corn with the people both on and off camera. The people of Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos, his constituency and domain, would testify to this.

If half of the governors are half as passionate about working for the people as Ogbeni, there would be less strive in the land and the country would progress in leaps and bounds. In nobler climes, Ogbeni would not have had to campaign to be returned to office. But this column wagers that the Ogbeni passion would carry him through: for a man who is credible both on the streets and in the State House, who has rolled out as much physical infrastructure as the fabled stomach substructure, the people of Osun will be utterly nihilistic not to return him. They need to be vigilant too.

Purchased impeachments

We are back to the desperate days of power-at-all cost once again. Why don’t Nigerian politicians grow up for a change? Who would think the day would ever break again when elected governors would be hounded like rabbits in this country as we witnessed in the Olusegun Obasanjo era? Who would imagine that a Goodluck Jonathan presidency would allow itself to journey through such path of perdition once again? Recall that Obasanjo had singled out erstwhile Governor Diepriye Alamieyeseigha for roasting and he had assailed the entire federal might against him. Obasanjo chased Alams (as he is known) to his political death and near physical death. Alams was Jonathan’s boss and godfather. It took a Jonathan presidency to pardon and resurrect Alams and return some of the remains of his life to him only recently.

Almostthe same treatment was meted out to ex-governors Joshua Dariye (Plateau State); Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo State); Chris Ngige (Anambra State) and Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State. Former Governor Abubakar Audu of Kogi State was engaged in a furious auto chase on the highways between Jos and Lokoja by Obasanjo’s federal goons in one of those moments of madness. It was his dexterity that saved him from an ignominious ousting or even a fatal crash. But more notably is that none of those governors accused and ‘impeached’, some in hotel rooms and at night time through Obasanjo’s sleight of hand ever got prosecuted much more convicted. Alams, the only one convicted (through the help of the British judiciary), was recently pardoned and perhaps absolved of the treasury looting he was accused. Fayose was still being ‘tried’ when he was made the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Ekiti governorship election.

From hindsight, Obasanjo will today rue his rascality and bad faith in plotting to rout the governors elected just as he was, and corrupt as he was. If he is capable of some deep thinking, he would worry that he damaged Nigeria’s fledgling democracy by his actions, which were clearly born out of vendetta and megalomania. And finally, because he is equally as culpable as they come, he too stands to give account (and face a worse fate) as long as he lives; and indeed, even posthumously.

This is why we remind President Jonathan that we all have walked this path of perdition before and it leads only to a dead end. It is folly to deny that the presidency has no hand in the gale of impeachments blowing through the land… Adamawa is ‘downed’, Nasarawa is ‘lined’ and others are in the works. Denial is futile because no state legislature can impeach any governor in the land today; that is the real tragedy of Nigeria’s situation.

LAST MUG: Putin putting the world on fire: What shall we do with Russia’s strong man Vladimir Putin? He seems set finally on miring what is left of this fragile world. The Russian Federation is the largest nation in the world and potentially the richest, but the economy is still weak largely because of poor leadership. There is therefore so much to occupy any Russian leader who craves hero status. But Putin seems only interested in annexing even more empires. Not satisfied with wrenching Crimea from Ukraine recently as the world watches, he has worked up rebels, sons of Belial, to scourge their fatherland Ukraine and vigorously fuel a civil war in which hundreds die daily. And last week, a commercial Malaysian plane MH 17 was downed, perishing 298 poor souls. We ask: shall we hand Putin the entire world to run?

OPINION: Omisore Will Loose The Election And Loose His Deposit – Octogenerian, Pa G O Lawal

Honourable Gbadamosi Okunlola Lawal was a member of the old Oyo State House of Assembly between 1979 to 1983. He was elected under the platform of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Hon. Lawal has been a progressive since 1952. He had a stint as the chairman Ikirun District Council between 1959 to 1961. Since early fifties, the octogenarian politician has remained in the progressive fold. In this interview with him in Ikirun, he spoke about the progressive, his party; the Aregbesola administration and the forth-coming election in the state among other issues, here are excerpts.

Sir, you are known as a progressive in the politics of Osun, what differentiate the progressives from the conservatives and how can you relate that to your All Progressive Congress in Osun?

To start with, I have been in politics since 1954, I contested as a Councilor in 1954 and I won that election. Since then I have been in the progressive, I can never be in a party that is conservative in nature, personally, I like to serve my people rather go about collecting money for my own gain, I also hate a situation where people intimidate others, when I compare both side it became obvious that I should be a progressive. The APC for example in Osun is truly a progressive party, since Aregbesola got back his mandate, he has been doing a lot of things that we have not witness in this state, if it is for him to get money he wouldn’t have come to Osun at all, all what the governor is doing are pointers to the fact that he is a progressive. Within his 100 days in office, he employed 20,000 youths under Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES), that means a lot, because we have never witness such governor in the state, this scheme cost government 200 million naira in a month, after that is the O-meals programme where primary school pupils are being fed every day, there are some pupils before now who attend school without taking any meal from their house, but now, pupils are eager to go to school because of the free meal, it has also increased enrollment because most of these pupils live with their grandparents who can hardly take care of them, but government is doing that. As if that was not enough, through the feeding programme, government also employed over 3000 caterers who cook for these pupils, some of the caterers through the job feed their families, then O-REAP for farmers, O-SCHOOLS, where government is building new schools and renovating schools, some that has been built during the Awolowo era, even the standard of the structures that Aregbesola is putting in place now, some of the so called university that we have cannot boost to have what we have in Osun. The people in the state love this government and I am sure that if election is free and fair, we must get about 85% of the vote, even in this Local Government, we are working towards 95% now, because we feel the pulse of the people, that is why we can say all these.

People are saying much about what this government has borrowed, some say Osun’s debt is 350 billion Naira, what is your take on this?

I am sorry to use this language, they are mad, how can a government borrow over 350 billion Naira? I don’t think banks can give a state up to that amount, does their banking regulations allow for that? How can a government borrow 350 billion, when Olagunsoye Oyinlola borrowed 18 billion during the last period of his administration, people raised questions that what is he going to do with the money at a time when his administration was ending, was it not when Aregbesola came that he re-negotiated the conditions of the loan?. Let us now assumed that he borrowed money, we can all see what he is doing with the money, because in the olden days people were agitating for the non payments of tax and that was not general, but if people see what they are doing with the money, nobody will agitate. Like I mentioned if the state is saying to everybody that it has borrowed 35billion, we can all see what he has done with the money, there is development in Osun. The noise is the hand work of opposition, because they have nothing to offer and they have to discredit him, you listen to their campaign, do they have any manifesto?

There is another one which says that in every APC government, the shoe always pinches the civil servants and the teachers unlike that of PDP government which has cash liquidity in town?

During the days of PDP, there are many ghost workers unknown to the governor, which is the work of the civil servants; they have as many ghost workers as possible. When awarding contracts, they bargain with contractors to inflate contract sum, if they have grievances now, I want to belief that is normal because the leakages have been closed, that is why they are angry with the government. This has nothing of interest to the masses, the masses don’t benefit from the leakages, it is only few civil servants that enjoy from this, because it benefits their pockets alone after their salary. About teachers, during the PDP government, they introduced lesson for the student after school hours where they collect money from the students doing nothing is it what they failed to teach the student during the school hours that they will now teach them when they can no longer assimilate?. This is not in the interest of the students but for the interest of their pockets, because they levy them, but now the present government has stop that and made education totally free. How will they not be angry, because their pockets have been offended, and I want you to know that civil servants have no politics but their pocket is their politics?

What is your reaction as a resident politician in Osun that most of the people in Aregbesola cabinet are from Lagos?

No, they are not Lagosians, the person sitting next to you is an appointee and he is from Ikirun and so many of them, they may be living in Lagos, the Attorney-general is from Ikirun and we all know them. Assuming we don’t even know them at home, does that mean we should allow them to die in foreign land? We want to bring them home. I believe there is no point in that, they are all from Osun state, and they may be living in Lagos. What of Aregbesola himself, but people prefer his government to every other government they have seen in the state and that of people who have been living in the state, whereas he was in Lagos before, that should not be an excuse at all.

As the August 9 gubernatorial election approaches, what is your expectation?

We are going to win the election; the other candidates will lose their deposit because in those days if you want to contest election, you have to pay some certain deposit, if you score a certain percentage, you will get your money back, but if you score below that, you will lose your deposit. Sincerely speaking, after they lose that election, they will also lose their various deposits.

What gives you this confidence, there are insinuations that the state will be militarized and coming from the background of the Ekiti election where we have heavy military presence and that of other security agents, don’t you think people will be intimidated?

We have no fears as that is concerned, our people will be educated, we have been telling them should it be soldiers or police, they have only come to protect them and not to harass them and the party is doing much on that before the election. There is no compound in this state where you will not get a graduate, we will use them to educate people that soldiers are meant to protect them and we also advise every security officers that will be drafted to Osun to play according to the rules of the game.

What is your general assessment of Aregbesola’s administration, will you say it has affected positively on the masses?

I have said that before, is it the children that he is giving free meals to that you want me to talk about, go to town and listen to the songs on their lips, “daddy, mummy, uncle and sisters you must vote for Aregbesola” nobody taught them. We have no fear about the election, as far as we are concerned it is going to be victory all the way, because our people are not ingrate. The positive transformation of Osun by Aregbesola will translate to massive votes by our people, come August 9, victory is certain. Osun cannot be left in the hands of people who are going to set it back, the consequences will be so great that the children coming behind will suffer for it, and they will not forgive us, Aregbesola has brought genuine development and he deserve to continue his purpose driven government.

#OSUNDECIDES: Aregbesola! The Man And The Moment – By Abiodun Komolafe

“A man shall not be established by wickedness: but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.” – Proverbs 12: 3.
I am not a politician but a ‘political animal’. I am also not a card-carrying member of All Progressives Party (APC) but a Rauf Aregbesola sympathizer; and an unrepentant one at that! If I am therefore tagged a politician because of my belief in the progressive credentials of Aregbesola, so be it! In the same vein, if I am labelled an ‘Aregbe wrapper’ as a result of my love for this great man of honour, I owe nobody any apology!

At a time like this, I cannot but remember my days at Ijebu-Jesa Grammar School (IJGS), Ijebu-Jesa when it was all fun traveling to towns and villages especially, within the-then Obokun Local Government Area of the old Oyo State for sports and related social activities. I can confirm that those were relatively good old days when towns were towns and schools were schools. At a time like this as well, one cannot but begin to wonder what became of our government that, for close to three decades, residents of my Local Government were at the mercy of the State Government. No thanks to the bad roads and absence of other social amenities that were naturally taken for granted in saner climes.

Specifically, between 1985 when I left IJGS and and 2010, when Aregbesola was sworn-in as 

Osun Sate Governor, schools in Osun State had become something else and hitherto passable roads had become such death traps that residents completely got cut-off from the rest of the world. People groaned in the rough of aches and moaned in the tumble of pains. Hunger begat hunger, poverty took the place of affluence and it was as if the gods were angry!

Entered the Rauf Aregbesola-led administration on November 27, 2010 and Osun State was again on the path to greatness. Within the first three years in office, Aregbesola saw to the training and empowerment of over 5,000 youths in Information Technology through the Osun Youth Empowerment Technology Scheme (OYESTECH); some thousands of the stand-alone, multimedia, e-learning Opon Imo Tablets were distributed to students while others are expected to benefit from the scheme through local production by a company already sited in the state. Within the same period, no fewer than 750,000 pupils and students were given free school uniforms, with over 3000 tailors trained and empowered to sow school uniforms. Primary School Funding Grants also increased from 7.4million to N424m a year while Secondary School Basic Funding Grants rose from N171m to N427m a year.

During the period under review, Tuition Fees in state-owned Tertiary Institutions got reduced by close to 30% even as 254,000 elementary students were fed daily with nutritious meals through government’s O’MEALS scheme, a project that also led to the employment, training and empowerment as cooks of 3000 people. Since the foodstuffs were sourced and prepared locally, the scheme brought about the annual injection of N4billion into the economy of the state. Aregbesola’s era also witnessed the inauguration of Omoluabi Garments Factory as well as Omoluabi Conservation Fund into which N4.2billion reserve has so far been injected.Also worthy of mention is Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) which has succeeded in taking off the streets and engagement of 40,000 unemployed youth.

Efforts to enroll more youth into the programme is also in top gear. State-of-the-art Police Stations were built and Patrol Vehicles, Armoured Personnel Carriers and related security equipment were also donated to Security Agencies towards the enhancement of security of lives and property. What about those ‘Stop! Ma P’ara e!’ Aregbesola-constructed roads that adorn the nooks and crannies of the State, in addition to O’CLEAN’s bi-monthly statewide environmental exercise and Agricultural Farm Settlements Project through which 1.765 hectares of land were cleared and prepared for farmers?

The State was able to build 74 Primary Health Centres and rehabilitated its 9 hospitals and 12 Comprehensive Health Centres, thereby aiding the provision of Sustained Free Health Services to all, irrespective of age, gender, political affiliations or religious inclinations. Through its Free Medical and Surgical Missions Programme, government was able to provide free treatment and surgeries to thousands of citizens; and, through its Osun State Ambulance Service Authority, not less than 400 youth have been trained as paramedics. 123 kilometres of waterways (streams, arteries and canals) were dredged to keep the state flood-free for three years and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) increased from N300m to N1.6b without any increase in tax payable by citizens.

In my personal opinion, the Education Sector seems to have been the most blest. Apart from those education-related dividends which I have enumerated above, Osun State Government, under Aregbesola, also embarked on the building of no fewer than 40 Elementary, Model and High Schools to cater for its ever-increasing population of pupils and students. Some have been completed and already put to use while some will be commissioned within the next two weeks. This is in addition to the 20 new sites which will also be opened within the same period.During the period under review, 7000 thousand additional teachers were employed; with all outstanding allowances paid and all entitlements settled. The governor also graciously approved the creation of four Permanent Secretary positions (that is, Tutors-General) for the Teaching Cadre. And, as we speak, over 30 brand new Omoluabi Scholar Buses are ready for distribution to the State’s High Schools. The number is expected to increase to 100 by September.

So, herein lies the essence of this piece. Of all the contenders for the Seat of Power in Osun State, two of them, that is, Aregbesola and Iyiola Omisore, former Deputy Governor and former Senator, are of interest to me. This is not to say that other contenders for the office are not qualified. Rather, it is because the duo have some things in common which others in the race don’t have – which stand them out.

First, Aregbesola and Omisore were born the same year: 1957. Both are from the same Senatorial District (Osun East) and both are qualified engineers. Both have tasted power – in their own rights and in different capacities; and both are still interested in aspiring to that highest office the Constitution allows Osun State to offer any of its indigenes.

However, while one has a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mechanical Engineering, the other holds a Doctorate Degree in Procurement, Taxation, ‘and things like that.’ Not that alone, while one is an apostle of Due Process, especially, in Political Practice, the other is a man of scant consolation renowned for desperate and dangerous schemes that carry along with them avoidable violence. Again, while one is skillfully artful and gets fairly well with everybody, the other paints the picture of a man of fancy speculations and unstable whims who only politic for individualistic innuendos; one whose credibility baggage, in saner climes, couldn’t have earned them ‘aspirant’ status in the first place. But this is Nigeria!

Beautiful Denial! Shameless insincerity! Sickness of inaction! Wheezing vanities! Like Omisore, like Goodluck Jonathan: clueless; visionless; pretentious; mere men with narrow loyalty. In their dictionary, ‘power of performance’ and ‘forces of politics’ are of the same essence. Little wonder the country has become a wasting entity! But, if I may ask: what does Omisore want again? Maybe I should put it this way: what does Omisore want for the good people of Osun State and what does he want for a political party which was for close to eight years in power without any meaningful achievements to justify its rule? What does Omisore want his party to give to his people as democracy dividends and why is President Jonathan’s Federal Government bent on destabilizing the region that has all this while sustained a semblance of peace?

That Nigeria is sick and that the ruling party is responsible for her ailment has never been in doubt. Political Violence has taken the better part of Nigeria’s electoral process while ethnic competitions, religious tensions and struggle for power between the North and the South have reached an absurd peak. Once, her predicament was excused on the politicization of the military. Now, it is the militarization of our democracy. Once, its politics was tagged ‘bread and butter’; now, it’s been re-branded: ‘stomach infrastructure’. There’s chronic youth unemployment in the midst of get-rich-quick ‘yahoo yahoo’ mentality; Boko has spread its ‘Haram’ insurgency to the Southern part of the country and it is as if Nigeria has no leader.

In our clime; and, in our very eyes, politics has gone beyond being the survival of the fittest to being the exclusive preserve of the meanest and the crudest. Added to this is a satanic blend of “dumb horse-traders” and “perpetual complainants who do nothing about their complaints apart from moaning and moping.” That is why it has become practically difficult for the those who mean well for dear fatherland to challenge the status quo ante bellum. Threateningly, we are for the first time having as president a man who does not see himself as the Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces but one to whom perpetually remaining in office is the only strategic necessity.

But why Aregbesola again? The answer is simple! So far, so commendable! Aregbesola is an achiever who, within so short a period of time in office, has transformed Osun State into an attractive city, a state of aquatic splendor and a centre of tourist attraction offering superb views. A man of poise and panache, this small-in-stature-but-mighty-in-spirit Ilesa-born politician has changed the face of Osun into a state looking ahead to the future. No doubt about it: Aregbesola is witty, disciplined, teachable, responsible and passionate about leaving not only Osun State but also the world better than he met it. Little wonder he was described in Wikipedia as “the best Governor Osun State has ever produced since the creation of Osun State.” Of course, that’s why we all want him at Bola Ige House for another term of four years!

“If the plural of ‘man’ is ‘men’, why can’t the plural of ‘pan’ be ‘pen’?” So, why not Omisore? Here again, the answer is simple: Osun State has had its fair share of the few ‘ups’ and the many ‘downs’ of this ‘mere geographical expression’ called Nigeria. Left to this reason alone, the state’s democratic destiny should no longer be left in the hands of misfits and pretenders whose previous outings not only ended up polarizing our thinking with a sickening system but also turned our common patrimony into a ‘breakfast-in-London’ and ‘lunch-in-Ada, Osun State’ venture. And, if I may add: a man in whose eyes violence is not only justified but is also essential for the attainment of political objectives should not be entrusted with the destiny of a State as promising as Osun.

In the words of Oscar Wilde, democracy is nothing but the “bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people.” But how come Kigali suddenly became the epicenter for everything chaotic, tribalistic and genocidal? How did it gravitate into a metaphor for the sad, the bad, the ugly and the violent? How did it become a habour for hatred so much that, even, two decades after, Rwandans’ wounds remain practically and pathetically unhealed? If I may ask again: how did the “substantial” violence which characterized the fall of the House of Hohenzollern come to be and what was responsible for the rise of the Weimar Republic through the German Revolution of 1918–19? Coming back to Nigeria, have we as a country any lessons to learn from the ‘like play, like play’ predicament of Somalia, Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Kenya, Zimbabwe and, now, Central African Republic (CAR)? For God’s sake, who is responsible for our woes and how do we take back our destiny from the claws of political marauders, rapacious ‘jegudu jera’ and ‘alo k’olohun k’igbe’ politricians?

The beginning of the end! Or, the end of the beginning! The truth is; and, not unexpectedly, too, events in the coming days will be the ultimate decider of Nigeria’s direction.

May God save us from ourselves!

Komolafe writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State

Bishop Oyedepo Punctures Claims of Religious Bias In Osun

Bishop Oyedepo Punctures Claims of Religious Bias In Osun

By Erasmus Ikhide

Both Governor Rauf Aregbesola and Bishop David Oyedepo seem to be in agreement with Kutaddgu Bilig in some sort, written for Turkish ruler of the Karakhanids in 1069, which said, "To control the state requires a large army. To support the troops requires great wealth. To obtain this wealth the people must be prosperous. For the people to be prosperous the laws must be just. If any one of these is rejected the state will collapse."

The single most touching issue plaguing this nation or any other nations of the world today is religious crisis. Religious disharmony is so combustible to the extent that it could consume any nation or people if not properly managed. Political gladiators in history, especially in Nigeria have manipulated the religious vulnerability of the people and still doing so for political gains.

The People Democratic Party's (PDP) candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore in Osun State's 2014 Governorship election, is frantically exploiting religious sentiments, blackmail, and other incendiary mechanisms to hoodwink the electorate. One of such gimmicks sold to the general public is the open allegation that Governor Rauf Aregbesola's administration has not only blank out the Christian community in the state in terms of patronage, but has made efforts to muscle them out of existence.

The charge fall flat on its face. Out of 36 members of the cabinet in the state, 26 are Christians; also, out of the 12 members representing Osun in the National Assembly, 6 of them are Christians. The Christians also had the majorities among the local government chairmen, which shows how committed the governor is to bring about religious peace and harmony in the state.

The allegation has been long in coming without thorough checks by his critics on the the religious issue Governor Aregbesola's administration inherited from the previous PDP government. It's common knowledge - except for the mischievous band of frustrated politicians who daily waxed in delusionism - that the governor is out to Islamise the state. The charge bothers more on the wearing of Hijab by the Muslim students in Christian schools.

The issue of Hijab would have been rested by now, if not for want of excuse of failures on the part of PDP, which governed the state for roughly eight years before Ogbeni retrieved his stolen mandate from them. For the records, it was under Governor Olagusoye Oyinlola's administration, a PDP Governor that the Muslim community went to court and insisted on their wards attending schools in their Islamic wears as part of the school uniform. As we speak, the matter is still being pursued in the court by the Muslim community. Dressing Ogbeni in a borrowed robe to score cheap political points on the bases of religion fanaticism is clearly a crass political opportunism and promotion of falsehoods to a grand art.

On the other hand, the accusation that School Reclassification process in the state didn't factor in the National School Policy of 6 3 3 4 System is another tactical attempt to paint an otherwise noble policy in a bad light.  The need to provide world class learning environment necessitates the ongoing building of model elementary Schools across the state in accordance with the UNESCO Schools Reclassification standard, which has since been adopted by the US and other developed countries.

The elementary Schools are state-of the-arts structures that accommodate 900 pupils of ages 6-9, in the first grade to the fourth grade, i. e, Primaries 1-4. In the same vain, government has built over 15 Middle Schools across the state. They are also state-of-the-arts structures with accommodation provisions of 1,000 capacity for the students. The middle school is for the fifth to the ninth grade which is the present primaries 5-6 and the Junior Secondary School JSS 1-3 in the age ranges of 10-14 years. Students in the High School are within the age bracket of 15-17 years. This category is known as Grades 10-12. The High School Infrastructural facilities will accommodate 3000 students.

It is in the light of these strides and other innumerable achievements of Governor Rauf Aregbesola that the General Overseer of the Living Faith Church a.k.a. Winners’ Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, on Wednesday, 9th July, 2014, said the infrastructural renewal, particularly the education revolution in Osun deserves global applause.

Bishop Oyedepo gave his assessment in Osogbo, southwest Nigeria, when he paid a courtesy call on the Governor of the State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. The cleric noted that any governance that is producing results and affecting the lives of vast majority of the people must be deeply appreciated, irrespective of religious inclination. The Bishop strongly appealed to stakeholders to always be at the vanguard of peaceful coexistence, noting that there is nothing like living in peace, working in peace and promoting peace.

“There is nothing like peace in the whole world. We should always walk towards whatever will promote peace and peaceful coexistence among our people. Let us work for an atmosphere that encourages peace, which engenders growth and development. This is because life is all about promoting the well-being of the people.

“I deeply appreciate the infrastructural development. Besides, the education revolution is for us a great achievement. “I can see the massive road construction going on. This is to the benefit of the people. No policy can remove the roads. I am very impressed,” Oyedepo said.

Observers of political development in Osun should know that Governor Aregbesola’s administration has no political, religious or tribal preference. It is absolutely impossible for Ogbeni to be a religious fundamentalist owing to his all-faith inclusive background. One cannot but wonders why the governor has been so  described by mischievous makers who erroneously tagged his administration as pro-Islamic faith.

The only description that suits Aregbesola’s administration by any forward looking individual, is zero tolerance for religious cohabitation and opportunism. This largely accounted for near total peace in the State. Aregbesola has always encouraged people to practice whatever faith they profess, even within his own immediate family.

“My upbringing in Yoruba setting has given no basis for religious antagonism and mutual distrust. “It is impossible in Yoruba milieu not to imbibe the culture of accommodation, tolerance and understanding of the faith of others.

“I guide my faith as much as I fight for the protection of the faith of others. If anyone would accuse me at all, it should be that I have zero tolerance for fundamentalism. “Therefore, my liberal disposition to religion is thus farther from the erroneous impression of being an Islamic extremist,” Aregbesola said.

It is clear the mischief makers has been engaged in a futile battle to make up for their irredeemable battered image and character - which is the ultimate determinant of the August 9th election. The people of Osun will chose between sound character and bloodletting criminal gang, between concrete development and deceptive promise of development and people-oriented governance and propergative ones.

Erasmus Ikhide wrote in from Lagos, Nigeria

Tel : 23480 5622 5515

A Ride With Aregbesola By Igbotako Nowinta

“If anything, his efforts deserve to be applauded, and if Nigeria must develop quickly, men of ability and substance must never shy away from throwing their hats into the political ring just like what Ogbeni Aregbesola has done” – Quoted in Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola (In the footsteps of Chief Obafemi Awolowo) Page. 105.

It has been said in several quarters that Ogbeni Rauf  Adesoji Aregbesola is the greatest positive thing that has happened to the people of Osun State, since he was sworn in as the Executive Governor on November 27th, 2010.

This fact above manifested clearly again when I visited the State recently. It has been said correctly too that, no one leader or sitting Governor of the State of Osun has won the hearts of the masses overwhelmingly like Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, since Osun State was created out of Oyo State on August 27th, 1991.

Fact is sacred! When Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola invited me to join his campaign team to Ede, perhaps for me to see things for myself, I was excited to make the trip with him. What I saw as we made our way to Ede and when we got to Ede proper exceedingly warmed my hearts. It warmed my hearts because my more than two years research into the activities of Ogbeni Aregbesola which has manifested into a recent book on him, has turned out to be a worthy and well deserved venture.

What I saw in Ede has equally complimented the fact that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s idealism and fiery temperament has given hope to many who has hastily flocked to his train of political redemption. This man is absolutely sincere with power and what he has done and what he still hopes to do is visible for any one that visits Osun State to X-ray.

Indeed, what I saw on our way to Ede clearly displayed that Ogbeni Aregbesola has attracted the attention of the lowly, the humble and the multitudes that have seen hope in his political proclamations. As we made our way to Ede, school children of all grades ran out of their school compound to shout and cheer Ogbeni; on their faces one could see exceeding joy and satisfaction.

After all, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is feeding them with hygienic food and clothing them as they go to school every day, using his popular programme of O’MEAL (reserved for pupil of between primary one-four). Women and men of all shades and the elderly people trooped out to dance and sing the praise of Mr. Governor of Osun State and waved the flags and broom of the All Progressive Congress (APC), as the Governor’s convoy drove slowly towards Ede.

As we moved closer to Ede, the entire town suddenly rose up to welcome Ogbeni Aregbesola’s campaign train. I will never forget the experience. People were recklessly cheering, dancing and singing on the streets. What awaited us at the palace of Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Lawal was quite unique. The mood at the palace was indeed emotionally irresistible as the orgy of celebration was total. The crowd that had gathered within the palace listened attentively and enthusiastically as Ogbeni Aregbesola addressed them on why they should return him to power on August 9th 2014.

The mood at the Seventh Day Adventist High School, Ede, venue of the Ogbeni Aregbesola’s re-election campaign rally was ecstatic, as people of all colours, the aged and the young, poor and the rich danced uncontrollably as Governor Aregbesola rode in .The spontaneous emotional outburst that gripped the venue of the campaign rally reached crescendo as Ogbeni Aregbesola made his way to the podium.

When Governor Rauf Aregbesola said  “Our administration has treated the various political districts equally without sentiment…What we have done in less than 40 months, surpassed what they did in seven years both in quantity and quality”, he was saying nothing but the truth.

I indeed saw completed township roads in Ede and the inhabitants were happy with Ogbeni. It is clear without any shadow of doubt that Ogbeni Aregbesola came and prepared to lead the people of Osun to the glorious next level. 10 kilometer of roads are being constructed in every Local Government Areas of the State of Osun. The crowds in Ede were simply very large. The man is popular!

On Monday July 7th, 2014, a day before the mega rally at Ede, Ogbeni Aregbesola commissioned the Ayegbaju Modern International Market in Oshogbo. I have reliably gathered that a replica of this gigantic market will soon appear in all the senatorial districts of the State. There is something about the Ayegbaju Modern International Market, that I have not seen anywhere in this country before.

The Ayegbaju market, apart from the massive size of land it occupies in Station road Oshogbo, has facilities like Hotels, Medical Centre, Banks, a Mosque, Church, Filling Station, Police Station, and Car Park etc. It will be a miracle of the century if Senator Iyiola Omisore, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Osun 2014 Governorship election wins the race on August 9th 2014? The phase two of the market is presently being constructed.

With what I witnessed on Tuesday July 7th, 2014, in Ede, and what I have seen on the ground in terms of honest pragmatic implementation of formulated policies like OPON IMO (Tablet of knowledge) O’MEAL, O’Schools, O’TOURS, O’AMBULANCE, re-classification of schools, Agba Osun (scheme for the elderly), O’YES (Youth Employment Scheme), O’REAP etc, Ogbeni Aregbesola will clinch the baton of re-election on August 9th, 2014, in the State of Osun.

Apart from Ede, the tumultuous crowds that normally trooped out to welcome Ogbeni wherever he goes on a campaign tour, is an indication that the man is the tribune of the silent majority in the state of Osun.

Nowinta, Wrote OGBENI RAUF AREGBESOLA

(In The Footsteps Of Obafemi Awolowo)

Coriolanus of Osun

Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, in Shakespare’s historical Roman play, Coriolanus, was a young general.  The play was written c.1605 but was set in 509 BC Rome, just after the expulsion of the last of the Tarquin kings.

In today’s Nigeria, politics and demagoguery have contrived to throw up another Coriolanus, in Iyiola Omisore, the PDP gubernatorial candidate for the August 9 election in Osun.

It is a classic case of history repeating itself as outlandish farce.

Coriolanus was truly noble, heroic and intrepid, so much so that his glorious capture of Corioli, a city of the Volscians, Rome’s mortal enemies, earned him the agnomen, Coriolanus.

He was a soldier and no meddler.  Soldiering was what he was and ever wanted.  To boot, he had noble contempt for the Roman plebs with their reeking breaths — and an over-size pride that curried nothing but self-destruction.

Still Volumnia, his mother, wanted her son to transit to politics and run for consul.  But for Coriolanus,  the path to consul was the beginning of the end.

When, to win the consulship, Coriolanus needed to show his war scars, and fresh Corioli wounds, to earn the sympathy of the plebs of stinking breaths, goaded to rebellion by subversive tribunes, Coriolanus fatally blew his tops.  That pretence was simply too much for his noble soul!

The result: banishment from Rome; a Coriolanus-Volscian siege on Rome, aborted only by plaintive pleas from Mother Dearest, Volumnia; and Coriolanus’ eventual murder at Antium, the Volscian capital.

But so long for Rome and its near-boy soldier!  How does Iyiola Omisore, a former senator of the Federal Republic, compare to the original?

For starters, while the tribunes, voices of the Roman rabble in the Shakespeare play, goaded the plebs to anti-Coriolanus passion, a Nigerian Tribune slants Mr. Omisore’s case — hardly a crime but hardly journalism virtue too — as positively as the Roman tribunes negatively twisted Coriolanus’.

Then, the nobility-villainy continuum.  Coriolanus’ nobility was beyond doubt.  Mr. Omisore’s friends and acquaintances could well claim for him similar virtues, with their intensely private knowledge of his persona.  Still, respectable society would appear to cringe from Mr. Omisore’s public persona.

Coriolanus, among the rabble, exuded fear, while the Roman nobility had nothing but admiration for the callow youth.  What Mr. Omisore emits, among the masses and the elite, could best be seen from the reported masked gunman captured on photo, trailing him at campaign stumps.

But it is in the post-Ekiti Debacle frantic Fayose-wannabe that Mr. Omisore best replicates the Coriolanus vote comic.  To be consul, even after securing the Roman senate’s nod, Coriolanus was condemned to showing off his war wounds, for the votes of the rabble he despised with all his noble soul.

Like the Roman Coriolanus, the Osun variant has, in frantic search of votes, also condemned himself to acting his newly acquired man-of-the-people demagoguery, ala Ekiti’s Fayose, with tragic comedy.

Man-of-the-people Omisore jumps on the next available Okada to the next campaign stump.  But what comes across is extremely bad acting that craves cheap sympathy.

Man-of-the-people Omisore stopped to grab popcorn from the roadside.  Yet, lurking behind him was the sinister shadow of a hooded gunman.

Man-of-the-people Omisore sank his teeth in two roast corncobs, in double-handed felicity with the masses.  But what came across was a hideous scowl: some suppressed rage at pawning such personal humiliation for votes.

In Nigerian political history, it is so reminiscent of an Ahmadu Bello, feeling dust in his nostrils, swearing to deal with Obafemi Awolowo for dragging him to beg for votes before his own subjects.  But the Sardaunawas, at least, royalty!

Man of the people Omisore did violence to basic dress sense; his own very cynical proof that he numbered among the masses.  Yet, what emerged was ludicrous self-ridicule that harvests more scorn  than love.

Blind panic was never executed with a bolder face!

And all this melodrama for what purpose?  Reported snorting at the people not to waste their votes, since it would allegedly not count; alleged threats that gwodogwodo (strange and ruthless soldiers and police) would be unleashed on election day, in a complete partisan militarisation ala Ekiti; and wilful bad-mouthing of glittering achievements by Rauf Aregbesola, the sitting governor, in the fond hope that the Osun people are deaf, dumb and blind to the obvious!

And if all that failed — as they seem to be failing — play the religious card: Christians-don’t-vote-for-that-mullah, as allegedly ordered by Aso Rock and PDP hierarchs, as claimed by some news reports.

For all you know, these might all just be high-voltage partisan allegations.  But with Omisore protégée, Jelili Adesiyan as Police Affairs minister and Musiliu Obanikoro, the Lagos prodigal, as Defence minister of state, the wondrous deeds of the duo in the Ekiti electoral blitzkrieg, and an unconscionable Jonathan Presidency that thinks nothing of throwing the security agencies into partisan fray, hardly any allegation sounds so fantastic.

Still, not unlike Fayose before him, at least from media coverage of the Osun electioneering, Mr. Omisore boasts no cutting-edge vision or rigorous articulation of policy over the Aregbesola governorship — just a dark hint that federal might would fix it, no matter how dull or uninspiring his ticket comes across to the Osun voter.

Ironically, the Aregbesola camp too, with the shock of the Ekiti debacle, was almost pressing the panic button: what with Mr. Fayose bragging he would lead PDP to “recapture” the South West; and Mr. Omisore staging his Fayose-wannabe burlesque.

Still, Governor Aregbesola has hit back with a carefully choreographed mix of politics and policy, rolling out, mint-fresh, newly completed school complexes, commissioning of the school bus programme, launching a micro-business credit scheme with sheer pomp; aside from glittering infrastructure — thanks to the governor’s massive urban renewal programme; and no less massive suburban and rural roads.

It is a classic case of a governor that has a lot to show in four years — and is not at all coy about showing them!

And the campaign crowds?  Simply intimidating, perhaps sending raw panic to the other camp.  If Governor Fayemi could be charged with aloofness, which has proved fatal for his second term, Governor Aregbesola has proved himself a consummate man of the people, an effective mass mobilizer (and his massive rallies are proof) and a policy wonk cum visionary, all rolled into one.  All these, he has deployed against the staid Mr. Omisore, who looks even more pathetic by the day.

Aside from the sorcery of federal might (beginning to echo the bubble of Shakespeare’s Macbeth’s three witches), the Osun Coriolanus continues to look like some luckless lamb led to slaughter.  He has neither the sharp mind to match Aregbesola’s policy articulation nor the personal effervescence to match the governor’s charisma.

As the August 9 election draws near, how would the federal fixers fiddle this one, as Mr. Omisore is allegedly boasting?