BACK UP With Ade Olugbotemi

IT has taken less saplence to decipher that processes of governance that yield democratic benefits are at a standstill, especially since the year 2006 when preparations for the 2007 elections were in top gear in Osun State, the state of the living spring. The embattled Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola has openly acknowledged this fact and has attributed this to the entrance of Engineer Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, that never-say-die political and social enigma, into the political calculations of the state. Within this period in question, it is like the impostor Governor Oyinlola has been lumbered with the task of governance, without any audacity to excuse himself out of the quagmire due to the obstinacy of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party; a party that is populated by reactionary elements, who will want to cling on to power by all means: whether decorous or laced with crudity.

In effect, there is today a multiplication of lumpenproletariats, who roam the streets from morning till evening without any meaningful contributions to the socio-economic development of the state. They prey on the state’s resources as layabouts, and when their pay-masters are too busy to give them attention as expected, they turn dangerous species and nuisance to the struggling society. They occasionally take this deviant behaviour to extremes by venting their spleen on their insensitive paymasters. The boorish spiral effect is eventually dropped at the doorstep of innocent, well-meaning Aregbesola, whose intention is to liberate his people from the insensitive government foisted on them by that war lord who was seeking political relevance as a civilian head of state that woefully failed to convince the people in his poling unit to vote for him in 1999 when the current political dispensation was experimented upon.

It is imperative to examine how Engineer Aregbesola has impacted the political game-plans of the state since he ventured into the terrain in Osun State, so as to know whether to justify Oyinlola’s claim or not.

It is on record that of all the disciples of Aregbesola, nobody has been alleged of holding a gun, not to talk of shooting same in the length and breadth of Osun State. Not even one of those that have been arrested in connection with that imaginary bomb saga has been accused of handling any dangerous weapons. Findings so far have established the claim of those wrongly accused that they were only framed-up in the rock blaster saga, which Oyinlola maliciously turned to bombing. He has brayed his lies over this on so many occasions including the monthly open forum where he usually deceive people on achievements that can only be found in Venus.

In an attempt to dent the image of the opposition, it was recently planned to cage one of their prominent members with murder, so that the Peoples Democratic Party will no longer be the only party that could be accused of murder. They got a clue to their plot recently when they wrongly alleged that Senator Felix Ogunwale; that Iragbiji-born politician that dumped PDP’s reactionary toga to align with the progressive, was instrumental for the death of the hunch-back who was recently killed in his home town. Three people have been arrested, none of them has mentioned his name to incriminate him.

The 2007 elections were massively rigged in Osun State, as proved in the case already decided and those still pending by opposition against the Peoples Democratic Party. Majority of eligible voters were either denied access to the opportunity to exercise their fundamental human rights by way of voting for their preferred candidates or they were denied the opportunity for votes to count. The spontaneous reaction that greeted the daylight robbery is still fresh in the memory of the people. Engineer Rauf Aregbesola immediately cautioned the people against reprisal. Many of his ardent followers were disappointed that their leader, who through his oratorical prowess warmed himself into the hearts of the majority of the people in Osun State, has deviated from the biblical law of Moses that if a hen is wicked enough to pour away one’s cherished medicine, one should not hesitate to break its eggs. Many cajoled Christians, who have been brainwashed with the fallacious melody that Aregbesola is a Moslem fundamentalist, who will do everything within his power to Islamize Osun State if voted into power, began to see the fooleries of those, whose stock-in-trade is deception. Some of them openly expressed their regret for not voting for the man of vision.

To say that Aregbesola has been scolded to the highest level of provocation is saying the obvious. He has been virtually banished from his home-state as information is rife that Olagunsoye Oyinlola has sworn that unless Engineer Aregbesola abandons his clamour for the restoration of his mandate, he is ready to get rid of him. Many times, Oyinlola has tried to actually eliminate the symbol of political hope of the people of Osun State, but the same number of times Oyinlola had failed.

Many people have testified to the fact that Aregbesola deals with individuals according to their peculiarities, without any recourse to inflict any psychological pains. The moment he gets to the roots of a matter, he quickly tells whoever is at fault so as not to engage in similar demeaning practice in the future. He teaches everyone around him to endure all conditions as they arise with the hope that what pain a process of and road to success inflicts should be endured because of the end-results.

On the contrary, Oyinlola’s Peoples Democratic Party is populated by mean men who imbibe hedonics as a way of life. They believe in short-cut to success, irrespective of whose ox is gourd or whose path is crossed. The fad to cut corners is always hunting an average PDP, party member. This voluptuous nature has been institutionalized as a machinery to carry out government business. This laxity has been a source of worry to the good people of Osun State, but it weighs less on the people, who are daily plundering the legacies that the efforts of the past have put in place. Faffing is now accorded serious acclamation and it is taken as a normal feature that can be applied in normal day-to-day running of government business.

The effort to transmogrify the society in the best interest of peace, harmony and progress is always considered an anathema and personal satisfaction is accorded high priority such that it now constitutes an anti-social behaviour to place premium on masses’ well-being. This is in fact the crime committed by Engineer Rauf Aregbesola. The common dictum in the polity now is the survival of the fittest; with fitness not from what is contributed but what is amassed from the cake-sharing business, leading most of the time to the fructification of rottenness and anti-social ethos, which are quite unmentionable because of the inflicted necrosis.

From all indications, the gormandizers will not have conducive abode within the platform that the ascendancy of Aregbesola into power will create. Those who seem to be flourishing in affluence today will soon lose hold of the comfort that ill-gotten wealth could afford because greed and avarice will no longer be habits and constant tenour of life. That is why people’s enemies are afraid. They are not sure about what the anthropocentric nature that Aregbesola is endowed with will afford or deprive them because a government that is people-centred will have little regard for parochial individuals, whose gluttonies often deprive people of necessary minimum comfort of life, or mar the luster of life that propels their human essence.

There is no way two parallel lines can meet, so, there is no way there can be any understanding to be fostered between the reactionary elements of PDP extraction and the progressive elements in the Action Congress (AC). That is why they are happy now that the cases before the retrial tribunal are dragging. They are happy that more time will be created to satisfy their lust with distractions here and there to deceive people as if something tangible is taking place. They are equally happy that people’s suffering will go on unabated because ceremonies will be magnified in place of concrete achievements that will impact people’s lives positively.

They are happy that they are multiplying those human folks who really don’t believe in themselves to create a nitch that can guarantee human survival. They are happy that vagabonds are on the increase. No orientation to rid our society of all manners of anti-social behaviour that is now rampant in our midst. Artisans are on the decrease daily because they have all resorted to OKADA operation as a means of livelihood and nothing is being done to check the trends.

Engineer Rauf Aregbesola is not super-human. He is like any of us, but with strong determination to change Osun State, which the reactionaries have battered humiliatingly. The meticulousness with which he is pursuing his case at the retrial tribunal is frightening, and the other camp, (PDP) has sensed its impending waterloo. The considered option left for them now is to weaken the structural base of his yet-to-be installed government, so that he will find it difficult to achieve his aim and further allow them their inaction in office.

That is where things are wrong with the PDP because the man at the centre of the storm is a master strategist, who had his master-plan well in-place before he veered into Osun political game-plan at all. It is their opinion that when they rig their cronies in as legislators in reruns that are being ordered, the incoming governor will lack necessary buffer to stabilize for governance. How far they will go in achieving this, time will tell.

Osun State at the moment needs visionary leaders, who will re-enact the feats performed by the likes of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late Chief Bola Ige and a host of others including those who are still living and are doing something concrete in that direction like Raji Fashola of Lagos State. We need leaders who will not be power-drunk like Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Chief Obafemi Awolowo resigned as the Federal Commissioner for Finance in 1971 because the then head of state decided to postpone the day to transfer power to civilian government. Despite the huge transformation going on in Lagos State, Governor Raji Fashola is still insisting that he will not run for a second term, though pressure is mounting everyday so that he will be able to take the good work he is doing to a stage where there will be no dislocations again.

Osun people must take our destiny in our own hands. We must stop rigging culture outrightly. Osogbo house of assembly rerun election must not be allowed to be rigged as they did in Egbedore. Ife/Ijesa senatorial rerun election must not be allowed to be rigged. People’s wish must reflect in the two forthcoming elections. People’s votes must count this time around. We must all constitute fencibles to project our heritage so that the gluttons that are parading the corridors of power at the moment will no longer remain to continue the plundering of our heritage any further. The government in power has no confidence in itself and that is why it will not work out any good for us no matter its longevity. It is time we liberated ourselves, as any delay may be an invitation to squalor and peril. Away with those who desire for us no repose after the fatigue and toil of the day but find pleasure in wearying our hearts with despondency arising from failed promises.

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