State Government of Osun today rolled our debit cards to farmers in the state for direct and easy access to farming inputs, which include improved seedlings, pesticide and fertilisers.

Governor Rauf Aregbesola commenced the debit cards distribution on Wednesday at the official launch of the Farmers’ Input and Credit Support Programme, at the Distribution Centre, AISU, Ede.

He said that the task of arresting and eradicating the scourge of hunger and poverty as well as usher in an era of agriculture-based prosperity for farmers, the people and government will continue to form the fulcrum of his administration

The governor noted that government has brought to bear all technology- based methods for the enhancement of modern agriculture, including the Geographical Information System (GIS) and enumeration of farmers across the state.

Aregbesola said his government will vigorously explore more ways of expanding and improving agricultural production and the development of agro-allied industrial base in his second term in office.

The debit card will make farming easier for all those interested in embracing farming and remove excruciating burden of loans.

“We came up with the aide Scheme in order to correct all the anomalies that are inherent in the extant system of agricultural input distribution, while the Credit Support Programme is meant to boost the capacity of stakeholders to play their roles properly towards the development and modernisation of agriculture.

“We therefore embarked on a rigorous process of due diligence by carefully and painstakingly conducting enumeration of all farmers in the state. This led to the registration of more than 50,000 farmers all over Osun,” Aregbesola said.

The governor expressed confidence on the capacity of the agricultural sector to deliver the goods on the state’s economy saying no wealth can be created sufficiently without the sector.

He said, “We are convinced that there is immense potential in agriculture for job creation, wealth generation, food security and poverty eradication.

“We will continue to vigorously explore more ways of expanding and improving our agricultural production and the development of our agro-allied industrial base.

“What we are doing today is continuation on the path we have consciously taken since our assumption of office. This is the empowerment of farmers and the development of agriculture for the purpose of making food available in abundance, first for feeding ourselves, then for feeding others and ultimately, the development of agro-industries for job creation and wealth generation for individuals and the government.”

In his earlier remarks, the Coordinator of Osun Rural Enterprise and Agricultural Programme (OREAP), Dr. Charles Akinola, noted that the farmers’ input and credit support programme is first of its kind in Nigeria.

He said the various assistance of Aregbesola’s administration to the farmers, which included proviso of farming input, land clearing and tractorisation, are aimed at assisting farmers without stress.

He said: “The delivering of farming inputs by the government to farmers will in no small measures help in massive food production in the state.”

Just as Omisore is not a Fayose, so is Ogbeni not a Fayemi. And so it will be silly for anyone to interchange the Ekiti result with Osun. 
On the 9th of August the State of Osun governorship election would hold. It is an election I have more than a passing interest in, for that is my state. It is, therefore, of great concern to me who will be in charge of running the state for the next four years.
It is no secret that my sympathy rests with Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the incumbent governor seeking re-election. And not without reason. Although I’ve known him well before he became governor and had inkling of the stern and (socialist) ideological stuff he is made of, what I’ve seen of him since becoming the governor has far surpassed my imagination. I can say, without exaggeration, there is no governor, nay, no public servant, here in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world, with greater commitment to service, more suffused with vision and passion, more flogging of self almost to the point of masochism, and more acutely alert of mind and intellect, than the Ogbeni.
Ascetic in his lifestyle, what comes to mind observing Rauf at close quarters over the past four years as governor is Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s assessment of himself. Here: “While many men in power and public office are busy carousing in the midst of women of easy virtue and men of low morals, I, as a few others like me, am busy at my desk thinking about the problems of Nigeria (Osun) and proffering solutions to them. Only the deep can call to the deep.” The only difference, a shocking but pleasant relief, is that whilst the late Awo perhaps would fumble on a dance floor, Ogbeni is a dance maestro, and a populist politician of the Adelabu Adegoke school of oratorical performance.
But Ogbeni is not without his own foible. He is in a hurry to push Osun to modernity in all spheres thereby finding himself and his government at loggerheads with many of his publics who feel being stampeded into a pace and sacrifice too staggering for their level of preparedness. Yet the development is there for all to see.
The citizens love what they see, they are astounded at the evidence that sticks all in the face – in urban renewal and massive road infrastructure; in education and the groundbreaking opon-imo (knowledge tablet) and the primary school pupils feeding programme; in social welfare through the monthly allowances to the aged; in employment; in agriculture; and so on and so forth – but the sacrifices and discipline necessitated have not been enjoyed.
Those adversely affected especially by demolitions of their property in the course of urban infrastructural development, or plugging of public funds loopholes, are complaining and lending themselves to preaching disaffection for the government. The people want to eat omelets without breaking eggs!
The State of Osun under Rauf has so far been adjudged by appropriate federal agencies and international bodies as the best governed state in Nigeria with the lowest unemployment rate, and 2nd in the poverty reduction index. As to be expected, malicious rumours fly fuelled by detractors and the opposition. The good thing about Ogbeni is that of all the dirty rumours peddled, none says he is corrupt or, in the euphemism of the time, that he has “mismanaged” public funds.
Moreover, the religious labelling of Ogbeni as a Muslim radical desirous of Islamising the state has waned largely out of the fear that such religious card might backfire in a state where Muslims are truly in the majority in all but two of the eight largest cities. Rauf himself dismisses the charge as lazy and un-intellectual. “The world has passed the stage where anybody can force his religion on anybody,” he says. “How many years does a governor have to stay? If the white men who were here for 70 years could not force Christianity on all the people, with all the powers they had, why would any one think a governor can ever conceive such thoughts?” He asks.
Ogbeni’s main, or most feared, opponent is Senator Iyiola Omisore of the rival PDP, a party in control of the Federal Government and purse! The result of the recent Ekiti governorship election where the PDP underdog created an upset beating the incumbent APC governor by an unprecedented margin has energised the opposition, making them believe a repeat is possible, even probable, in Osun too. Conversely, it has created unease in the camp of the incumbent who would otherwise have been sleeping with both eyes closed, resting assured that his meritorious performance would put him beyond view of any rival in the court of the electorate.
I know Iyiola Omisore, some. Though he is much younger than I am, I must say I am impressed by the respect or honour he accords me on the few public occasions we have met. Those occasions deflect the generally held view of him as a roughneck capable of the most heinous of crimes. The Osun public refuses to forget that he was accused and charged for the murder of their darling political leader, the cerebral ‘Uncle’ Bola Ige, shortly after both fell apart and had public altercations, even though Omisore has not been found guilty of the allegations.
What Omisore would chalk as his achievement in public sphere include serving as deputy governor for three or so years in Osun State under Chief Bisi Akande, and a term as senator of the Federal Republic during which he was chairman of the mouth-watering Appropriation Committee. It is probable that in the course of these he has benefitted some people, particularly in his Ife constituency, but he is far from being the Osun version of Ekiti’s Ayo Fayose who had spent a long period cultivating the masses and genuinely was with them. A picture of Omisore lately mounting an okada and posing with roasted corn-on-the-hub in both hands went viral on the Internet drawing guffaw from the public at such infantile mimicry of a “grass-roots man.” One Facebook comment tagged it “the Con Man.”
Just as Omisore is not a Fayose, so is Ogbeni not a Fayemi. And so it will be silly for anyone to interchange the Ekiti result with Osun. Ogbeni, as already mentioned earlier, embodies an Awo and Adelabu Adegoke in one. He is at once cerebrally committed and rambunctiously populist. But with question mark being drawn on the genuineness of the Ekiti result, and high-tech rigging suspected for the magnitude of the margin if not the victory itself, there is serious anxiety in the State of Osun that such despicable stratagem may be deployed to thwart the people’s will. Already, rumours are flying of massive infiltration of the state by “aliens” for INEC registration, and, worse, one party spending big to induce thousands of voters in places where the other party is strong to sell their voter-cards just for the sheer purpose of destroying them, disenfranchising the owners, and thus depressing the number of possible voters in such places.
Moreover, the fear is rife that the massive militarisation and overkill of security forces in Ekiti whereby leaders of one party were prevented from going into Ekiti to participate rightfully in their party rallies whilst leaders of other parties were not equally barred; allegations of manhandling and detention of officials of one party at vital moments; and the general intimidation of their members, the fear is rife that such blatant force and violation of constitutional rights of people may be visited upon Osun. It will be sad if that happens, for then not only would our fledging democracy be threatened, the seed of dismemberment of the country, already planted by Boko Haram and other insurgents, would be watered into full germination.
On August 9, let there be a free and fair election and let the people of Osun decide who governs them in the next four years. And that’s saying it the way it is!
YNAIJA

The Governorship election of Osun has been heating up and with few more days to the polls, the people would speak and their future would be determined by the outcome. If votes are won by integrity, dedication to the people, good governance and utmost will to serve, then Aregbesola would defiantly win. Due to the outcome of the Ekiti State Election, there have been so much gargantuan talks about stomach infrastructure outweighing Physical infrastructure. The fact is, if its stomach infrastructure that wins votes, then Aregbesola has been on that part since day one in office.

Aregbesola employed twenty thousand young and able youths in his first 100 days in office. He feeds school children across the state with balanced diet meals daily. He launched a micro credit program that tend to give out soft loans to various individuals in need for funds to start up a small scale business. The farmers in Osun state have enjoyed from the various investments in which the state government have been injecting into the agricultural sector. When we talk about governance, Aregbesola has changed the perspective in which most Nigerian and African Leaders are known. He is a man of service and the people can testify.

The Aregebesola’s administration has transformed the educational sector, thereby making live easy for the students. The students ride in beautiful school buses free of charge daily. The road networks in Osun have been transformed and anybody can attest to that. Now talking about the leading opposition candidate Senator Omisore, he is a man of various controversies and with the various social media pictures, he appears to be relating with the people at the grassroot. The argument now is, do the people at the grassroot, accept him? Do they want him as their Governor? Do they see him filing the huge shoe which Aregbesola is wearing? Well, that would be answered on election day.

The fear on every Osun indigene is not that Aregbesola won’t win, the fear is, would the intimidation tool not be used, would the oga’s at the top not manipulate the outcomes of the polls, would the alleged photochromic method which is said to have played a vital role in the Ekiti election be used? All we need in Osun is a Free and Fair Election, and let the best man win. An Election in which huge numbers of security agents are deployed to intimidate the opposition, can hardly be described as credible, transparent, free and fair.

Folawiyo Kareem Olajoku, Osogbo, Osun State

DAILY INDEPENDENT

Members of the Oranmiyan Support Group have declared readiness to continue to canvass the support of the citizenry for the re-election of Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State ahead of the August 9 governorship election in the state.
The Coordinator, Mr. Ayo Akinola, who said the group, consists of intellectuals and professionals of Osun State origin, who are convinced that the governor had performed well, said what the body desires is to encourage the people to return the incumbent governor for a second term in office.
According to Akinola, members of the support group have been engaging voters to jealously guard their votes to come out in their numbers for the election and to ensure that their votes count.
“Our group is made up of intellectuals who are indigenes of Osun State from every part of Nigeria and we have decided to come out in the open to garner support for the candidacy and election success of the incumbent, Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola.
“We have no choice because we do not want to sit on the fence this time around. We have no other state but Osun. If Osun falls today, God forbid, we fall with it. And if glory comes, we shall all be proud.
“Sitting on the fence could be a sin. The two holy books and even our oral tradition tell us that you do not sit on the fence if good cause is involved. For quite a long time, this is the first time we are having real government in Osun.
What we have had in the recent past before this administration is what is derogatorily but factually referred to as the ojelu (eaters) – those whose interest is to feast on our collective wealth and resource.
“They don’t have peoples’ interest at heart. They came through the back door rather than through the popular will of the people of Osun. Their years of the holocaust were horrendous. Why should we sit on the fence when Ogbeni has, in the past three years, shown us a semblance of good governance?” he stated.
THIS DAY

A movie on the true life story of Governor Rauf Aregbesola will be unveiled Thursday, July 31, 2014, at Ilesa, Osun State.
The movie titled: “Adesoji,” is an inspirational grass to grace story that captures the life of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola.
Starring nollywood notables of the Yoruba genre, like Lere Paimo, Kareem Adepoju, Bukky Wright, Adewale Elesho, Alhaji Ade Adenrele, Bola Obot among others, Adesoji dramatically displayed the making of one of the most celebrated governors today.
The work tells untold stories about the governor’s birth, his revolt against cheating while he was a primary school pupil, his life as a bachelor, meeting his wife and many more, according to the organisers.
Commenting, Akin Olu-Philips, director of the movie said “this motion picture is an attempt to share with the general public a compacted presentation of some of the life’s experiences that formed the person of Ogbeni. I believe it will guide the public to have a better understanding of his person and be inspired thereby.”
According to the Executive Producer, Razaaque Animashaun, “it is intended as a motivating material as it highlights Ogbeni’s struggle to claim back his mandate for three and half years, his successes and achievement in the last three years in the State of Osun, and most importantly to show that our country can actually produce such a visionary leader.
“Whilst he was a Commissioner of Works in his base at the Centre of Excellence, the spirits of his people at home continually cried for his attention and salvation like their forefathers sought from the great Oranmiyan of his genealogy. He initially tried to avoid this great challenge but the Oranmiyan in him became restless. Thus, he honoured the call of destiny in order to save his kinsmen.”
DAILY INDEPENDENT

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer in the August 9 gubernatorial election in Osun State, Governor Rauf Aregbesola has said that he is believing in God and the overwhelming support of the people of the state to be victorious at the poll.

Addressing Muslim faithful and his supporters shortly after the Eid-el-fitr prayers at Osogbo yesterday, Aregbesola said he has done much to make life abundant for the people of Osun State.

According to him, it is in good life that the people can enjoy their existence, stressing that if the essence of life is for human beings to live well then peace which is the only guarantee of happiness must be the watch word for all and sundry.

His said, “I urge us all to embrace love and endurance, it is when there is peace that we can pursue productive engagements that will guarantee for us good life”.

Earlier in the day, the governor’s convoy, which snaked through the capital city from the Government House in Oke Fia to Oke Baale praying ground created excitements as residents trooped out in a show of solidarity with the governor.

Apparently in the spirit of the forthcoming governorship poll slated for August 9, many of the residents who displayed Aregbesola’s campaign posters, brooms and other insignias of support for the governor, also chanted various songs which indicated their support for him.

At the various points in the capital such as Oke Fia, Orita Olaiya, Gbeemu,Oja Oba, up to the praying ground, the residents held Aregbesola’s convoy ‘hostage’ as they insisted he must stop to listen to their songs and see them display their support for him.

OSUN DEFENDER

“Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision.” – Cassius Marcellus Clay.

Individual interpretations notwithstanding, elections are generally regarded as contests.
The United States of America’s quadrennial election of 1876, which eventually led to the Compromise of 1877, through Kenya’s “tribalism-marked” election of 2007, to Zimbabwe’s “deeply flawed” presidential contest of 2008, even, Venezuela’s “decisive” election of 2012, among numerous others, all point to the fact that, Nigeria as an indivisible part of the Global Village cannot be said to be indifferent to the dynamics of its global villageness.
As a matter of fact, anyone who has read the book, ‘Why Nations Fail’ by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson would readily admit that there’s clearly more to the gubernatorial election which returned Ayodele Fayose as Governor-Elect than meets the eye. Aside any other reasons already in circulation for the sad event of June 21, 2014, I have personally described the quintessential Governor Kayode Fayemi as the [Governor Babatunde] Fasola of Ekiti State. The question then is: if the Fasola in Fayemi did so well – and, he did very well – in Ekiti, why then did he lose the election by such a wide margin? In my considered opinion, the answer is simple: the Bola Tinubu of Ekiti politics was conspicuously absent; and the Lamidi Adedibu, the Azeez Arisekola Alao and the Olusola Saraki of Ekiti politics were either dead, incompetent, unrecognized, uncommitted; not empowered, or simply gone into self-imposed exile, thereby leaving the stage for the pro-masses-yet-integrity-deficient Fayose with such a landslide.
Some people tagged it “stomach infrastructure”; I’d rather refer to it as the “PDP abracadabra”: the more you look, the less you see!” Till date, I have continued to ponder what went so wrong and how things went so bad that none of Fayemi’s men of political “timbre and caliber” was able to deliver his local government to the ruling party. Too bad! Fayose won the election the usual People’s Democratic Party, PDP-way and the Umbllera wentgaga, thinking that all elections would go the way of Ekiti! Anyway, as one Nigerian privileged with witnessing the Ekiti saga, what happened as well as what did not happen during governorship election are issues for another day!
Goodbye Ekiti, the Fountain of Knowledge! Welcome Osun, the Land of a Virtue! In less than two weeks, precisely, on August 9, 2014, residents of the state will go to the polls to elect the governor who’ll run the affairs of the state for the next four years. And, as a respected political leader once remarked, with the way this“mere geographical expression” is constitutionally structured, in any of the country’s 36 states, after God, the next person is the governor. Little wonder why every Tom, Dick or Harry wants to grab power at all costs! What more? With Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s sitting Khalifa, unwilling to let go of power; and, with the North scheming with unparalleled crudity to take back the power it “willingly conceded to the South”, the ruling party at the centre is indeed desperate in its bid to capture the Southwest in order to make up for any shortcomings that may come its way from the Northern part of the country during next year’s general elections.
“The journey is the reward”, said the Chinese Proverb. In other words, it is a settled case that Rauf Aregbesola, the sitting governor, has simplified the art of governance and has laid the foundation for modern welfare in the state. Apart from some of his achievements which have been comprehensively articulated by respected commentators, the governor has also surpassed the people’s expectations in other areas. For example, his First Term in office witnessed the establishment of the Quick Impact Intervention Programme (QIIP) – to deal with small-scale farmers on a cooperative basis; and Osun Debt Management Office – to centrally coordinating the management of the state’s debt. 185 Km Oyo Boundary (Asejire) to Osun-Ondo Boundary (Owena) was beautified; super highways to connect Osun to Lagos and Osun to Kwara States were built; and Freedom Park, the first of its kind in the history of the state, was constructed.
Aregbesola’s administration also saw to the payment of salaries to old age people (referred to as Agba Osun). Not that alone, over 3,000 permanent teachers were employed into the state’s Education Sector while 339 university graduates were recruited into Osun State Civil Service. Even, as we speak, there are free rail services to all indigenes of the state living in Lagos State; and 61 township roads covering128km are being upgraded all over the state.
Albert Einstein describes politics as being more complicated than science. He was right! Politics is all about issues. It is about morality and credibility. It is about loyalty to the country, not to any particular individual, however strong, powerful or connected. Politics is about leadership; and leadership leads to good governance. It is all about the presence of the rule of law, not abuse of authority or the practice of nepotism. It is transparent, accountable, consensus-driven and predicated on the fundamentals of equity, efficiency, responsiveness and effectiveness.
Intrigues of power-play! Physical demonstration of incompetence! Twists of tension and turns of pretension! In our very eyes, politics has gone beyond being the survival of the fittest to the exclusive preserve of the horrid and the bucolic. Added to this is a blend of “dumb horse-traders” and “perpetual complainants who do nothing about their complaints apart from moaning and moping.” In the midst of these, terrorists continue to torment us but, as far as our president is concerned, once political ‘Skelewu’ is on course, all other issues of statecraft can even go to blazes!
Hmnnn! Though leadership is about a leader’s ability to match words with action, in Nigeria, it is a different ball-game entirely! Here, it is about men with no “proud history of radical measures” lording it over a hapless populace. For instance, once our president promised Nigerians that, by April 2014, Boko Haram menace would“be a thing of the past.” Now, not insurgents but innocent Nigerians are being sent to early graves. No thanks toBoko-bombs.
Casual politicians and political casualty: strangely related! For instance, PDP had no better candidate as its flag-bearer for Ekiti governorship election than Fayose, the man on whose neck two murder cases in addition to a lawful impeachment were hanging. In Osun, Iyiola Omisore, the man suspected of masterminding the death of Bola Ige, then serving Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, is being offered for election. Granted that he’s been acquitted by the law court and that his impeachment as Deputy Governor of Osun State has survived the constitutionally-stipulated moratorium of ten years, yet, unanswered questions on Ige’s death, coupled with his election as senator in questionable circumstances no doubt speaks volume of how bad things have gone in the country. Sad that a Minister of Justice could not get justice, even in his country!
In Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala, another ‘I-have-learnt-my-lessons’ character seems favoured by the president while ‘go back and sin no more’ steps are already at an advanced stage to cleanse and present Muhammed Abacha as Kano State’s PDP governorship candidate. In Lagos State, an appointment by proxy has already been offered Bode George while Diepreye Alamieseigha, President Jonathan’s former boss, now, his god-(the)-father, has been pardoned of corruption charges and he is on his way to the senate.
In the words of Bear Bryant, “It’s not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference” August 9, 2014 is no doubt a day of decision for Osun and its people. It is a day of choice between the principalities of darkness and the powers of light; between the twists of fury and the tears of joy. Even with the presidential threat of flooding the state with twice the number of security officers that were deployed to Ekiti, it remains the day when the foundation of falsehood shall become so badly thrashed that it’ll become permanently consigned to the dustbin of history.
The story of David and Goliath taught us a lesson about “facing giant problems by seeing them from God’s point of view.” The Bible also taught us that the God who made it possible for “a seah of the finest flour to sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria” (2 Kings 7:1-7:17) was the God who sent “the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now” (Exodus9:18). He it was who sent “a man from the land of Benjamin” not only to be anointed ruler over Israel, His people, but also to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines (1Samuel 9:16).
Yes! Osun is not Ekiti and Osun cannot go the way of Ekiti! Reason: in Aregbesola lie both the Fasola and the Tinubu of Osun politics. Oranmiyan, as he is fondly called, is an astute administrator and a political juggernaut who knows his onions. But it doesn’t end there. The electorate must be prepared not only to cast their ballot, they must also be prepared to jealously guard their votes, not forgetting in a hurry what the PDP is known for.
And, because He lives, by this time on August 10, 2014, their Wall of Jericho will have fallen (Joshua 6; Hebrew 11:30); and their Goliath, strong as he may seem, sound or prove to be, will have had his head cut off by our small-but-mighty David (1 Samuel 17). There and then, shouts and songs of joy and victory will gladden our hearts (Psalm 118:15; 32:7; Deuteronomy 20:1-4); “for the Egyptians whom” we are seeing today, we “will never see them again forever” (Exodus 14:13-14).
May God save us from ourselves!

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Friday, May 24, 2013. 35 governors gathered to vote for the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). With the initial postponement and intrigues that surrounded it, it was going to be a night of long knives. With the Presidency interested in the outcome and with Governor Amaechi determined to give it another shot in spite of his open confrontation with the President, it was going to take more than ordinary determination to navigate the treacherous waters.

It would take grit, uncommon courage and the ability to outfox the henchmen of the Presidency. At the entrance of the venue of the election, all the Governors were mandated to submit all their mobile phones. But one man particularly suspected there was going to be foul play so he sneaked in a pen camera.

He recorded the vote counting surreptitiously until when Governor Godswill Akpabio noticed they were being secretly recorded. When controversy sprang up on the actual winner of the contest, he released the video to the public. The man who exposed the lie for what it was was Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Governor of Osun State.

Controversy is his middle name. For 9 months, he operated solely without commissioners. He renamed Osun State and gave it a new nomenclature called ‘State of Osun.’ He fashioned a new educational policy and called it reclassification of schools. In one fell swoop, schools were merged and bedlam ensued. In one school, we were treated to a picture of students dressed in choir robes, hijab and masquerade attires as uniform. Some suspected Muslim fundamentalists broke into a school and flogged a teacher. For the first time in the South West, religious embers were stoked. Then came the uniform controversy. All the public schools were mandated to adopt the same uniform all over the State. Fakunle Comprehensive School, Osogbo was demolished despite pleas that a school with such a grand tradition should be allowed to stand. He declared Hijra as a public holiday for Muslims, the only state to do so in Nigeria. Then he declared another holiday for traditionalists called ‘Isese Day’. Suspected of being a religious fundamentalist, he donated N35m for the burial of late Prophet Timothy Obadare. And then the ‘Opon Imo’ controversy. Then came the issue of the ‘Sukuk’ Islamic bond. His tenure could be appropriately termed ‘one week, one trouble’.

In spite of the unending controversies and despite the appointment of an Osun State indigene Jelili Adesiyan as the Minister of Police Affairs, it is my carefully considered opinion that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola will win the August 9 election. Here’s why I think he will trump Otunba Iyiola Omisore, the PDP’s candidate.

1. Omisore’s Poor Candidature

Iyiola Omisore is not Peter Ayodele Fayose. He lacks the charisma of Fayose. He is not a Jimi Agbaje. He lacks the character of Agbaje. He doesn’t have the mass appeal even though he has the notoriety. While you cannot deny that he has a semblance of structure having been the Deputy Governor of the State and also a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, his major Achilles heel is that he has been successfully tainted by the accusation of involvement in Bola Ige’s murder. This is one accusation that has refused to go in spite of his protestations. In addition, his campaign is a poor caricature of Ayodele Fayose’s. Whoever is his campaign director needs to get fired as he has run one of the most bizarre and lacklustre campaigns ever. His efforts to align with the masses fell flat- his handling of two roasted corn cobs in both hands, his ride to a campaign venue on an ‘okada’ and his absurd combination of two different ‘Ankara’ materials as cloth are images that have defined his campaign. He has not successfully exploited Rauf Aregbesola’s obvious weaknesses.
When it was time to debate Ogbeni, he didn’t show up. That was an opportunity to redeem himself but he failed to utilize it. Ayo Fayose challenged Kayode Fayemi for a walk on the streets of Ado-Ekiti but Iyiola Omisore claimed he didn’t come for the debate because he didn’t want Ogbeni to beat him up. Is it any wonder that the President has not attended any rally in Osun State even up till now? The President must have read the handwriting on the wall and there was no point dissipating energy in the wrong direction. PDP lost it when the ticket was given to Omisore because he is irredeemable. If he’s banking on federal might, he got it wrong this time because you can only rig successfully where you are popular. In fact, Ogbeni will be gifted this election not because of his superlative performance but primarily because of Omisore’s poor candidature.

2. Disunity In The PDP House

No situation exacerbated the looming disunity in Osun State PDP than the statement credited to the Minister for Police Affairs that he will beat Senator Isiaka Adeleke when he leaves office. Adeleke claimed he was assaulted during a party meeting and he subsequently defected to APC. Fatai Akinbade, a former Chairman of the State PDP and a man who served three different times as Commissioner under three different military regimes also defected to the Labour Party. Former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola has not come out openly in support of Iyiola Omisore despite belonging to the same party. In fact, he was even courted by the top echelon of the APC. As a former National Secretary of the party and also a former Governor of the State, his body language speaks volumes. Oyinlola is a Prince of Okuku, the capital of Odo-Otin Local Government, one of the 30 Local Government areas in Osun State. It is instructive to note that Odo-Otin is one of the three local government council areas with the highest number of 15 wards in the state after Osogbo and Iwo.

3. Ogbeni Aregbesola’s Above-Average Performance

In spite of his controversies, only a blind man will ignore Ogbeni’s performance. He has built mega schools, many of them super infrastructures with commendable appurtenances. He has constructed over 20 intercity roads and more than 15 intra-city roads. This is apart from some very ambitious dualization projects embarked upon. The free festive inter-city train ride from Lagos to Osogbo has become a constant feature of his administration. I was informed that he has built 74 primary health Centres all over Osun State. He has increased IGR in Osun from N300m to N1.6b and has not been known to borrow from any financial institution, save for the Islamic bond he took. His O’Meals project is laudable. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying the fact that he has improved the face of governance in the state.

4. Ogbeni’s Massive Campaign Network

Ogbeni has embarked on a blitzkrieg of a campaign. Maybe due to the lessons learnt from Ekiti’s recent election, he has left no stone untouched. This is the first time I’m seeing an incumbent campaign as if he’s the under-dog. He has run a very good campaign so far- both terrestrially and on social media. Going by his student unionism antecedents, one is not too surprised that he has at least 2 former student leaders in his cabinet and they are both active in running his campaign. Most of the controversial issues raised have been either effectively addressed or well mitigated by this team. When the issue of religious fundamentalism came up, they released the video of Bishop David Oyedepo’s visit. Ogbeni has been photographed genuflecting to Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye. He attended a major night vigil organized by a white garment church. He has been dancing ‘skelewu’ at all rallies to show he can connect with the populace. He has run his campaign without Bola Tinubu being visible so the issue of the overbearing influence of the APC leader has been largely well managed. Ogbeni runs the best propaganda machinery in the South West and the effect can be seen in how he has successfully diverted attention from his controversies while making Omisore seem to be the controversial one.

5. The Seeming Inconsequential Position of Osun In National Politics

In the calculation of the PDP, Osun State may not really be worth the trouble. Like Ekiti, one would have expected a massive support from the centre but apart from the involvement of the Minister for Police Affairs Jelili Adesiyan and party big wig Buruji Kashamu, no other major PDP political actor has been to Osun State. Not even the Vice President Namadi Sambo who usually represents the President on most occasions. The PDP Chairman has been missing in action conspicuously and in my opinion two major issues come into consideration here: firstly, the antecedents of Osun politics where the State was the only one won by the erstwhile ACN candidate Nuhu Ribadu during the 2011 Presidential elections without having any impact on the outcome of the full national election results. The resources are limited and they would rather concentrate such where they can get the greatest political capital- Adamawa, Nassarawa, Edo, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos States.

The second is the opportunity to take the wind out of the sail of APC’s complaint that Osun’s elections will be rigged by the PDP just like they suspected it was done in Ekiti. Furthermore, it is PDP’s calculation that APC will be misled to believe they have stopped PDP’s incursion in the South West. Consequently, if APC wins Osun, the party will be seen to be a bad loser anytime it complains after another loss. So PDP can afford to lose Osun State without batting an eyelid.

6. Ogbeni’s Grassroots Support

Rauf Aregbesola is well schooled in the art of politics. He has been able to successfully marry both politicking and governance which was one of the major issues Governor Kayode Fayemi had. You can accuse him of everything but you can never accuse him of not connecting with the populace. With the pupils, he has appeared in their school uniform on many occasions. He has held his health walk in several towns across the states. He has several mushroom groups such as De Raufs located all over the state and these ones project his ideology. He has given himself the identity of ‘Oranmiyan’, a progenitor that the Yorubas respect. His support base is not limited to a particular demographics – he has a broad base across all sectors in the state. Ogbeni is street smart and can fight dirty if need be. A veteran of many political battles, he is not a gentleman like Kayode Fayemi and can be very rambunctious. That was why he asked people to come to the polling units with charms on Election Day. If there is anyone who is a true protege of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he is one. That is one of the reasons the Ekiti story cannot repeat itself in Osun State.

7. The Geo-Political Demographics in Osun State

The geopolitical demographics currently favour Ogbeni Aregbesola. Ogbeni is from Osun East Senatorial District, the largest district in the State.Though Iyiola Omisore also hails from the same district, Ogbeni is from Ilesa, one of the three biggest towns with the highest number of voters in the state while Omisore is from Ile-Ife. Osun East with a voting strength close to 500,000 comprises of 10 Local Government Areas- 4 in Ife and 6 in Ijeshaland. There are about 1.2m registered voters in the state. Ogbeni is expected to have a clean sweep of all the 6 Local Governments in Ijeshaland while Omisore will sweep his own 4 Local Government areas. However, Ogbeni’s deputy Mrs Laoye-Tomori is from the state capital, Osogbo and so he’s expected to pick up the votes in the town. Iwo, which is the largest town in the State is predominantly Muslim and this will also play to Ogbeni’s favour.
Omisore’s deputy, ex-Speaker Adejare Bello hails from Ede, the same town Senator Isiaka Adeleke hails from. ‘Serubawon’ as the Senator and former Governor is popularly called has more grassroots support in Ede than Bello. His family even has a University called Adeleke University in Ede.

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