Follow Me; Let’s Take One Leg Reach Osun State…By Bola BOLAWOLE
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These are interesting times in Osun state aka “State of the Living Spring”, with governorship elections already slated for August 8, 2026. Noted for its world-class tourist attraction called Osun-Osogbo festival, the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, located in Osogbo, the capital of the state, was recognised, in 2005, by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Osun-Osogbo is celebrated annually for its spiritual significance as a sacred forest dedicated to the Yoruba goddess, Osun, and reportedly represents “one of the last sacred groves of its kind and a vital centre for Yoruba culture and tradition.”
Yearly, thousands of Osun devotees and tourists from far and near flock the grove, reputed for making barren women fruitful. Interestingly, for the three years that I lived and worked in Osogbo (1976 – 1978), I never visited the grove. I am not a friend of rivers – even swimming pools! – and photographs of the Osun grove look weird for my liking!
Osogbo is also noted for its arts, culture, and Yoruba theatre. The Osogbo School of Art was made popular by artists such as Horst Ulrich (Ulli) and Georgina Beier and Susanne Wenger, MFR (aka Adunni Olorisa). Jimoh Buraimoh, Twin Seven-Seven, Duro Ladipo (Mbari Mbayo Theatre), Oyin Adejobi, Kareem Adepoju (aka Baba Wande), Lere Paimo (aka Eda Onileola), Muraina Oyelami, Ifayemi Elebuibon (aka Araba or Chief Priest), among others, were notable offsprings of the Osogbo school of arts.
It was also here in Osogbo that the marauding forces of Fulani jihadists were routed by Yoruba warriors in 1840 at the famous Battle of Osogbo or Jalumi war. Osun state is made even more popular by its current governor, Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke. He combines both Christian and Muslim names. He has also been photographed dressed as both. He is the “Dancing governor of Nigeria”; his dance-steps apart, the way he effortlessly carries his huge frame is a delight to watch. Say whatever you like, I love his dance-steps! All work and no play, they say, makes Jack a dull boy. And is it not poetic that the dancing governor is also called Jackson? In an era when all manner of travails threaten to weigh everyone down, we need one form of catharsis or the other. If music, and dance, is it, so be it! “If music be the food of love, play on…” says Duke Orsino in William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth NIght.”
But don’t you ever think Adeleke is all frivolities! Osun people will amaze you with what they call his giant strides in infrastructural development. He is also said to have done away with the Aregbesola half-salary nonsense as well as cleared arrears of salaries and pensions owed to workers and pensioners alike. Recently, however, spanners were thrown in the works for him when trouble arose over the authentic local government administration in the state. The tussle led to a fracas, after which the APC-led Federal Government reportedly seized Osun State Local Government funds pending the time the controversy is resolved by the law courts.
To many, it is ironic that a president who, as the governor of Lagos state, suffered the unjust seizure of Local Government funds by an opposition Federal Government, is the same serving Osun, an opposition state, the same hemlock he fought against with blood and sweat. Twice, the courts have ruled on this matter but have not helped matters.
At the appeal court, the judgment entered was so ambivalent that both sides claimed victory. Self-help efforts by both sides to enforce their own understanding and interpretation of the court judgment led to a breakdown of law and order. Lives were lost in the process.
At the apex court, the technicality recently entered as judgment has left everyone in quandary. When a judgment pleases and displeases at the same time, it is all motion but no movement forward. The other side of the coin is when a motley crowd of SANs – and they don’t come cheap – cannot smell apriori a technical point as trite as the one entered by the Supreme Court in the Osun state local government seized funds saga!
In a matter of days, Adeleke has to decide, and announce, his new party. With PDP in disarray, the governor’s next platform is still a closely-kept secret, although kites are being flown right, left and centre. The unfolding crisis in APC may, however, be a silver lining on the horizon for Adeleke. Rather than resolve the issue of its flagbearer, the just-concluded Osun APC governorship primaries has split the party down the middle.
Seven out of nine aspirants were reportedly disqualified, leaving the field wide open for only two contestants, one of whom is just to fulfil all righteousness. The Group of Seven is threatening hail and brimstone. Where the pendulum will tilt remains to be seen. One thing is certain: There will be a realignment of forces. Hitherto strange bedfellows are likely to become partners of convenience, if only for the purpose of the coming election.
Osun may be one of Nigeria’s smallest states but its importance is in the fact that it is the widely-accepted birthplace of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu lost the state to PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, due largely to the fact that the sitting governor, Adeleke, was PDP. With PDP’s factionalization, Adeleke has announced his exit from the party.
Not long ago, rumours were rife that the dancing governor was on the way to joining the gale of defection into APC. When some important members of the Adeleke family were photographed in meetings with President Tinubu, the rumour gained currency still, but informed sources later revealed that some important APC leaders thwarted the defection move, forcing Gov. Adeleke to stay back in PDP, until his recent resignation from it.
Marxists posit that what is constant in motion is change; they are right. Politicians are allies today and foes tomorrow. The person whose fortunes you help today may be the same who stabs you in the back tomorrow. It is said that in 1999, the form purchased by Chief Iyiola Omisore was the same that was handed over to Chief Bisi Akande to fill, with Omisore compelled to be his running mate. The agreement, I learnt, was that Omisore would succeed Akande, but before the end of their first term in office, they fell apart and Omisore was hurried out of office. Chief Bola Ige, who was the godfather of both, and Omisore also parted ways. To this day, Chief Akande is said to be one of those unrepentantly opposed to Omisore’s governorship ambition.
In 2018 when Nurudeen Adeleke (PDP), then a senator, contested the Osun state governorship election against Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola (APC), he almost won, if not that the election was controversially declared inconclusive. Omisore became “the beautiful bride” in that election when the areas where elections were deemed inconclusive fell within his strongholds. Would he support his partyman, Adeleke? He did not, the bitter blood of the party primaries where Adeleke upended him was too strong to ignore. Besides, he was said to have found the carrots dangled before him by the APC-controlled Federal Government too tempting to ignore. So, he pitched his tent with APC’s Oyetola and helped APC win, to the chagrin of his party, PDP, and its candidate, Adeleke.
Adeleke went back to school to make up for the blight that had trailed his educational qualifications, and bounced back four years later. Helped by the schism that had surfaced between Oyetola and his former boss, Rauf Aregbesola on the one hand, and the parting of ways between Aregbesola and his own godfather, Tinubu, on the other, Adeleke trounced Oyetola, denying him the opportunity of a second term in office.
Opinion is divided on whether Oyetola as governor implemented all the agreements himself and APC reached with Omisore. Now, it is the same Oyetola that has been fingered as the brain behind the disqualification of Omisore from the Osun APC governorship primaries. Will Omisore accept his fate as a loyal party man, stay back in the party, queue behind its candidate and ensure victory for the party in the coming governorship election? Chances are he will not! Already, the disqualified contestants have formed a pressure group and are threatening to let all hell loose except the party revisits their case.
In the likely event that the party does not, what options do they have? Some will be wooed or corralled back into the party. The support of some will be bought. The silence of others will be enforced. For the average Nigerian politician, the fear of EFCC is the beginning of wisdom! Will Omisore once again seek another platform to contest the election? Or will he join forces with Adeleke this time around – if only to teach some folks a lesson? Time, as they say, will tell!
It is difficult to say which side President Tinubu will take. His good fortune, however, might be that all the Osun combatants are his – Adeleke, Oyetola, and Omisore. So, it appears a win-win situation for him. He might, therefore, play neutral and allow anyone to carry the day. He might as well play the Muhammadu Buhari card: Tell the Osun electorate to vote for whoever they prefer in the governorship election but vote for him, Tinubu, as president! The name of the game is enlightened self-interest!
Former editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/Editor-in-chief of The Westerner news magazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.
