2nd And Final Open Letter To His Excellency, Gov Adegboyega Oyetola

“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”

Your Excellency,

Please, kindly take this second open letter as the final, being a follow-up correspondence to the first one that I earlier wrote to dissuade you from proceeding to the Supreme Court immediately the Court of Appeal upheld Sen. Ademola Adeleke as the duly elected governor of Osun State.

I had carefully chosen my words in the previous letter to let you know I am one of the few realistic public commentators who can tell you the truth irrespective of the differences occasioned by our belonging to differing political platforms.

My late mother (bless her soul) often reiterated the benefits and advantages therein whenever her wise counsels were discountenanced or disregarded. According to her, she would have the last laugh against those who giggled at her proffered wisdom.

I am here smiling. Yet, those who called me an ‘interloper’ are now interlocked in multiple disgrace. There can never be a way wherever there is that surreptitious will to steal votes, or upturn the sanctity of the people’s wish.

My late father (again, the Lord rests his gentle soul) also taught me that no one counsels a bound-to-doom soul not to do his heart’s bidding, it is at the point of being disgraced that the hapless becomes calm.

The storm is over, the afflictions we saw in Osun, may we never see it again. Amen.

Perhaps because my father of blessed memory was raised in the palace at Ibokun, he exuded native wisdom in copious measures. He also shared counsel with me in that the person who is bound to be clothed with dishonour will find no reason to be grateful, even if a damask garment is sewn and given to him.

Your Excellency, I advise and warned. I cautioned and predicted. I appealed and even went biblical! But like a dog that is about to lose his bearings, you refused to listen to my hunter’s whistle. You instead followed the contorted path created by your perceived loyalists, which obviously has led to doom. Osun election was a clear statement of rejection of the APC.

The aftermath of the judgement of the Appeal Court against the ‘Buga’ verdict of the Tribunal would have saved your face against the present tag of desperado which obviously has devalued your worth.

The much touted ‘battle to finish’ “A ma gba pada” by your disciples in the APC has eventually finished the remnants of your political clout in Nigeria because Osun state has been the axiomatic cynosure in the eyes of the world; they wanted to see if the much-peddled extra-presidential influence will play out at the Supreme Court by awarding victory to a loser.

The legal technicalities deployed to rob Senator Adeleke of victory in 2018 have expired and become old-fashioned. It did not work in 2023, and to the Lord be the glory. Kudos to the bastion of freedom and civility, the judiciary and its judges. Osun can now move on forward, unhindered.

The “Gang of Lagos” have been sent parking at last and finally.

May we never meet again. Political sanity has finally been restored. You have lost the goodwill and albeit the ovation is loud now, but it is sadly against you.

The apprehension, insidious tension and worries have all come to an end but not without some revelations, reservations, and observations.

Like I rightly predicted, you have wasted your time, lost money and above all, forfeited the reserved perceptions about your outward gentlemanly appearance.

Your looks and actions are being summarised with the lines of King Duncan in Act 1, Scene 4 of the great Shakespearian classic, Macbeth, that “There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”

It is pertinent as it is striking that this is one huge duplicitous moment. You have clearly acted in a manner that deviates a million miles away from the people’s perception of you.

The impression that you are ‘pious’ is now being derogatorily referred to as ‘poison’, epithets that are only ascribed to people regarded as dangerous and deceitful.

A nonbeliever in the will of Allah cannot be said to be a true believer. I cautioned against fighting the wish of the people of Osun and the will of God over Sen Ademola Adeleke, but my admonition was brushed aside because I am not a marabout. You have become a story rather than be the history. Osun will not forget you in a hurry. We are happy to miss you.

Sadly, you have allowed desperate political jobbers to take you off the enviable list of good leaders in Osun.

Regrettably, you dashed my hope of having in you a semblance of the magnanimity of President Goodluck Jonathan who did the uncommon thing by congratulating President Buhari when he realised that he has lost gallantly at the then presidential elections.

Congratulating Sen Ademola Adeleke now is flippant and would come across as too little and too late. It may no longer be necessary except for documentation.

Moreso, it will come across to discerning minds as an ill-thought-out afterthought, a situation akin to when eloquence falls ludicrously short of sincerity of purpose!

The respect and civility that your concession of victory, if genuinely done earlier, would have espoused may have been lost to an unnecessary waste of effort and time in seeking a rebuttal of the fundamental will of the people of Osun State.

The several thorns you planted on his way before you left office have become a sort of manure through which he has blossomed into stardom. Gov Adeleke and indeed the Adeleke dynasty are now ‘The main the main’ in Osun. They are much loved because of their reciprocal affection for humanity in general.

He now has many acronyms attached to his name. ‘Ilufemiloye’, ‘Afijogbayi’, ‘Eniafe’ and ‘Serubota’, just to mention a few. While wishing you bye bye and the very best, I leave you with the Yoruba dictum that the name of the king whose tenure brought a crippling drought shall never be forgotten in a hurry, especially when juxtaposed with that other king whose reign heralded prosperity in that same sphere.

God bless Osun State. God bless Nigeria.

Yours sincerely,

Prince Diran Odeyemi.

Former PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary.