After The Debate – What Next for Osun State? – By Legendary J. O. E

“A state is not a nightclub, governance is not a family inheritance, and the people are not an audience”.

After the Arise News Osun Gubernatorial Debate today, I have arrived at a revealing conclusion:

Governor Ademola Adeleke appears to me to be a good man – a jolly good fellow who simply wants to merry, dance and enjoy life without particularly concerning himself with the rigours of diligence or the burden of competence.

He strikes me as the kind, generous fellow you would happily have in your corner – either as a friend or as family. I can understand why Chief Dele Momodu would not mind carrying the Governor’s bag after him, and why Davido appears prepared to go to almost preposterous lengths – even dragging the President of the United States into a local political affair in Africa – just to ensure Adeleke survives the political torrent of this era.

And this is precisely why I am not particularly pleased with the business mogul, Chief Deji Adeleke, for putting the Governor through this needless stress he appears never to have been built for, and, in the process, subjecting the good people of Osun State to an era of cluelessness and ineptitude in leadership.

The man, to my mind, only wants to flex, eat, dance and sleep – yet providence, or should I say nepotism, has somehow handed him a steering wheel when what he appears better suited for is the dance floor.

In the debate, for example, the Governor was all defensive, spending more time on attacks, name calling and intercepting the questions before they have safely landed than reeling out the achievements of his administration and what lies in wait should he secure the 2nd term.

For example:

On the Future policy direction of Osun State:

While AMBO placed great emphasis on attracting private capital, agricultural processing/industrialisation, and shifting away from a “civil-service economy” dependent on higher federal allocations, Adeleke became reactive on the central economic battleground choosing rather to concern himself with how he can never construct Federal Roads.

That, in itself, was telling.

A man who has four years to build a case for another four years should not spend his precious minutes explaining what he cannot do. He should be telling the people what he has done, what he will do and why they should trust him to do it.

Politics, like farming, is not the art of pointing at another man’s empty barn; it is the ability to show what you have harvested from your own farm.

The Governor had time – ample, generous, undeserved time – to market the strides of his administration. Instead, he spent it name-dropping his predecessor Oyetola like a man haunted by a ghost he cannot outrun, elevating beer-parlour rumours of rigging into governance conversations, before finally lavishing a remainder portion of his time defending his dancing habits – insisting that music runs in the family.

And here, for once, I concede he is correct: with Davido and B-Red performing something with the semblance of music, specifically the reason the man makes a more convincing vixen than a Governor.

That said, for the good people of Osun State: it is true that debates alone do not win elections – but wisdom does not need a ballot box to recognise a pattern.

Weigh the totality of this man’s tenure, and reward him with the deserving rest he has, in truth, been angling for all along – to face his true calling in entertainment, and leave governance to those trained, equipped, and bred to bear its weight.

Because a state is not a nightclub, governance is not a family inheritance, and the people are not an audience.

Good Evening Severally…