By OLOLADE ADEYEMO
When politicians sign themselves up to serve within a political jurisdiction, it is presumed there is a well-defined, development-oriented agenda in the pipeline waiting to be executed, if given a chance at the polls, for the benefit of the residents and citizens of that jurisdiction.
As a rider to this, a healthy democracy like what obtains in the Nigerian political arena makes allowance for campaigns, rallies and debates, which become avenues for a person desiring a political office to strategically distil his ideas and exercise the qualities that make him worthy of public trust.
Sadly, politicians who evidently have not overcome their personal insecurities or have become embodiments of unprofitable stewardship when previously given a chance resort to personal insults and intimidatory behaviour as a face-saving mechanism in place of issue-centred campaign.
Without a shadow of doubt, politics is filled with sensitive topics and sometimes issues that people have strong feelings about, but there are certain behaviours that are just not acceptable.
The case of Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, the sitting governor seeking re-election (but whose four-year term has been marked by dance and groove, shopping for a new political hiding place after devastating his former habitat, and raising false alarms about non-existent issues), calling the Director-General of Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji’s campaign council, Hon. Wole Oke, a ‘bastard’ among other unprintable insults, is overly low-level and a significant threat to the moral framework of the society.
His unfiltered description is in bad taste. His slandering of the person of Hon. Wole Oke, even to the point of weaponising his body frame against him, sets an unpleasant tone for psychological distress and a toxic political environment in a state once known for virtue and charitable disposition. The shameful display by Governor Adeleke, along with his co-travellers at that forum, alludes to the absolute degradation of public discourse in Osun State as birthed and nurtured by a jittery sitting government.
It wasn’t as if public discourse under Governor Adeleke even before his Esa Oke outburst had any real rational value or constructive content, but the fear and fret in the Accord Party camp is becoming more obvious, like a malformed dentition that moderate lips cannot cover. The hitherto public display of embarrassing entertainment, theatricality and empty promises from speeches read with robotic and disengaged delivery has finally dissipated into nothing, exposing the featherless rump of the fowl.
A sitting governor sure of his onions and focused on his destination would not have been caught on record, at a public gathering, confessing to knowledge of a brewing ‘revolution’ that he is trying to put a lid on. He really should go on air (and I recommend the state-owned broadcast stations) and speak more on this ‘revolution’ that he is talking to his people about.
Ordinarily, this is the time the former senator should be showing deep commitment to the development of the state and be busy speaking about what he has done and the reason he needs more time to deliver democratic gains to the people. But with less than 60 days to the governorship election, the open desperation with which “the dancing governor” is going about cursing and slandering people makes one wonder if service is indeed at the centre of his ambition. What kind of governor pretends he is not aware of the violence in a state he is ‘ruling’ and focuses on threatening the security agencies?
Or what else does one call that statement about ‘holding his people back’ from unleashing mayhem on his political opponents and, by extension, the innocent people of Osun? Did Mr Adeleke weigh what he described as ‘revolution’ before he spoke? One hopes his handlers have since reminded him of the implications of his words because he evidently has no clue what revolution means; otherwise he wouldn’t have deployed it as a synonym for political violence if only he understood that a revolutionary movement can even remove an incumbent leader, as seen in examples such as the Arab Spring.
When hate becomes too great a burden to bear, in the words of Coretta Scott King, it injures the hater more than it injures the hated. This looks exactly like the path Governor Adeleke is threading because his hatred for the APC structure in Osun State is beginning to make him self-harm in the most injurious way.
It is only a matter of time for one who takes his rituals beyond the religious house to learn that nothing beats discretion, especially in the political arena.
For the sake of enlightenment, the governor needs to be told (in case no one on his team has found a way to inform him) that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria empowers the President to call for a state of emergency in the federation or any part of it (including Osun) whenever it feels the peace and security of the state, and, by extension, the nation, is threatened.
For politicians like Governor Ademola Adeleke who think and appraise every issue from a sentimental lens, a state of emergency has nothing to do with the deployment of federal might against a state because of political differences. It becomes a necessary last resort to bring about public order and safety in any event where the chief security officer of the state has failed in his duty to ensure the safety of lives and property, as is becoming the case in Osun.
But the good and noble people of Osun know better than to want the presidential sledge to land on the state. If the eyes will not behold evil, the body must be ready to pay the price. That is how important the forthcoming election in the state is; it has become a matter of who is resourced enough to protect them from actual and potential threats, and it is about who is strategically equipped to return Osun to the era when it was statistically the most peaceful state in the country. As August 15, 2026, approaches ever so fast, may Osun be safe again.
•Adeyemo writes from Lagos.
