Ademola Adeleke And Lessons From Osun West Senatorial Election, by Rotimi Makinde

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Hon. Rotimi Makinde

There is no way we can adequately comment on the recent bye election of Osun West Senatorial district without  making a quick review of the buildup that led to the emergence of the two gladiators namely Senator Mudashir Hussein and Dr. Ademola Adeleke.

 

Without sounding immodest, let me be quick to place on record and to acknowledge once again my affection and relationship with Dr. Ademola Adeleke and by extension the Adeleke family. Upon the death of our leader, the late Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke, my mind truly searched for Dr. Demoo as I love to address Dr. Ademola Adeleke, as the winning formula for my partyAPC. This was regardless of his limited experience in politics. Not just him, I also thought of my former colleague and friend, Hon. (Barr.) Adetunji Isiaka Ajagbe, who like Dr. Ademola, is also from Ede township. Barrister Ajagbe had contested and won election before in that constituency, he was also another potential candidate who could fly the APCticket according to my understanding of politics. That was, however, based on circumstances, before I bought into the idea for the latter, Senator Mudashir Hussein, another complete gentleman who was previously denied the ticket in order to please late Isiaka Adeleke. Talking of circumstances, I concluded that the party was right in its verdict, and till date, I have no regret abiding by the party’s decision.

 

My personal consultations thereafter gave the winning formula to aggressive campaign, sacrifices and serious mending of fences, fast reconciliation, compromising and reassurance, for the center was no longer holding. The party cannot be wrong. I was only thinking in the direction of having the vacuum created by the sudden death of an illustrious son of Ede to be so filled by another of his kinsmen as a compensation especially considering the fact that Ejigbo where Senator Mudashir Hussein hails from is currently a community enjoying the patronage of the speaker of the state’s house of assembly, Rt. Hon Najim Salam, and also that of the House of Reps member, Prof. Mojeed Alabi.

 

 

I therefore began to study the scenario from far and was awaiting the body language of my party. The party’s position matters to me as a committed member vis a vis the leadership’s posture. My curiosity and eagerness prompted my several calls to both of them. We spoke extensively and my immediate advice to my friend, Senator Ademola Adeleke was that he should ensure that he meet with the governor to indicate his interest and thereafter to leave the rest to us to canvass support for his candidacy at the primary. He heard me quite well, he understood me very clearly, he knew I would love to see him clearing the air that his elder brother’s death was natural not by anyone. Late Isiaka Adeleke couldn’t have been killed as being peddled by a section of the public. To me, such spirited move by his blood brother would have been enough to douse the tension and to disabuse the mind of the public and would have been the tonic some of us needed to push his candidature in the party even beyond his imagination.

 

In actual fact, my wish was that he should do just that on the 8thday of his brother’s death during the Fidau prayer organized for the deceased. I played on the opportunity that the governor would attend the Fidau to also attend. I was so afraid I might also be lynched just like it happened to Hon.  Idiat Babalola, another great indigene of the town who was openly embarrassed right in the home of the Adelekes, but for the quick intervention of Ogun State governor, His Excellency, Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

 

That Friday, I was seated on the same table with former governor of Oyo State, Dr, Alao-Akala, my friend and MBA course mate, Otunba Adekunle Alao (Lele) and a few others. I was seriously watching the scenario and the countenances of all the people present at the event which was dominated by PDP chieftains, as no APC governor joined Governor Aregbesola for the Fidau. I was so curious and at the same time waiting to see if Dr. Ademola Adeleke would seize the opportunity of the presence of party VIPs to launch himself as presumed. The MC of the occasion, Alhaji Bakare Adeoye, happens to be a friend and in-law, so I briefed him about my anxiety and I guessed he too reminded Dr. Ademola of such need. Alas, my hope was dashed for a reason I later understood through another great politician in the state.

 

The Fidau prayer for Senator Isiaka, our amiable philanthropist and the first executive governor of the State of Osun, therefore, came and gone just like that. And I’m not really sure if the Adeleke family thereafter sent a thank message or visit to the governor.

 

With the cries and hues that trailed his death before the 8thday prayer, and with the number of PDP members that attended the funeral, daily congregating around the bereaved and tactically giving the family a kind of succour and coupled with the security report and the circumstances that prevented a state burial for the late senator, it became evident that I was soon to choose between Dr. Ademola Adeleke and my party. I will always choose my party in such a circumstance. That may be my sin in the eyes of some people who thereafter began to attack my position particularly on the social media. However, even as I campaigned for my candidate and party, I never lost my respect for Senator Isiaka Adeleke’s memory. At any rate, no one has found me wanting as a representative of my people in Ife. All I can deduce so far was that my blind loyalty to my mentor and my party might lead me to political suicide, but that I bluntly refuse. Well, I happen to be a person who base his stance on conviction, I am not the type that worships human being or get carried away by expectations; that itself has never counted for me, so, what next is there from those they wrongly think I bootlick for or those leaders they wrongly think I daily worship.

 

Many had misinterpreted my kind of gestures to mean bootlicking, eye services to gain favours or looking for commissionership slot etc. In whatever circumstance, is it really wrong to be committed to one’s conviction? The answer to me is no and it shall remain no throughout my political career. My critics should know me for that. As someone who shall remain steady no matter the opposing views based on conviction. I have repeatedly stated the fact that I would be the last man standing with Aregbesola. And come to think of it, is my kind of loyalty truly the wrong or unprecedented in the history of politics? The late great Chief Michael Akanbi Omisade (accuse No 2), my big uncle, never for once betrayed Chief Obafemi Awolowo, even despite his inability to pick the party’s gubernatorial ticket based on the fact that the venue for the party primary was changed hours to the exercise in 1978. I am still studying what makes the wrong type of loyalty. I have a mentor who is human and often allows me audience. I understand his challenges and his burning desire to transform the state. He may prudent or not as socially inclined as some we compare him to but certainly I know he has a call to serve the state and he is dedicating his life to doing that. His attitude to workers’ salaries and delay in payment which is not limited to just Osun State may need review. Indeed, it is a big task and a pitiable challenge for I know the limitations before him. Workers deserve to be paid, so say our Lord. The governor there chose between options, laying workers off and payment of half salaries. He ended up attracting enemies and even faced with the challenges of internal party crisis across the state. What a pitiable cobweb.

 

This is not the time for me to talk about the importance of building trust in leading change efforts. Change creates discomfort and disruption to the way people do things and how they interact with others, sometimes in profound ways.  In short, it puts a strain on relationships, and therefore, on loyalty. And what does a leader under pressure to manage a significant change often do, almost reflexively?  They try to leverage the loyalty of others. He became a lone ranger, finding no trust in many, faced with betrayals littering the corridor of power and yet he prefers to die with good legacies, no doubt,he has many of such to live after him.

 

There’s good news and bad news in this immediate past bye election Here’s the good news.  The opportunity availed us to know the right kind of loyalty and by extension it provides us a solid foundation for the trust and leadership people around us. What manner of people we should be looking for during challenging situations.  It makes it easier for a leader to convey the value of the change and enlist others in making it happen. The bye election shall therefore go down in memory for it enables us to take a quick review of our past, reshape our present and for a better tomorrow. We should rather stop dwelling on those things we ought to have done but to concentrate on those things we left undone and to begin to do the needful. There are so many of such. The LAUTECH problem must be resolved, the internal party politics must be revisited, improve welfarism, make serious reconciliation and reconnection with those who may have genuine reasons to be aggrieved, balancing of appointments, get closer to the traditional setup across the state and more. With all these in place, I can bet it, Osun people know the PDP can never be the best alternative.

 

The sudden love flashed and still flashing at my brother and friend, Senator Ademola Adeleke can never be said to be real but a mere “marriage of convenience”. The beneficiary of this deal is not our new senator himself but his new found lovers, he just happened to be the best bridging gap for them to hurriedly close ranks.

 

The bad news?  It’s all too easy to misunderstand the nature of loyalty or to disregard the consequences of fake friends, fake loyalty and fake affectionate. You risk building a house of cards that falls apart under the high stakes and duress that change often brings. I refuse to believe that our party, APC, cannot triumph any longer. Let’s not forget that Governor Oshiomhole of Edo State was downed on two senatorial contests before he won the governorship tussle. All we need is to reconnect ourselves and work as a team. It is a temporary success for the PDP, it is for us not to allow them to consolidate on it.

 

Governor Aregbesola is the type that wants to build the kind of solid relationships that allow you and your followers to build long-term change agility into your setup. He may have his weaknesses, like every mortal, but certainly you cannot beat his records in repositioning the state in the comity of the nobles.

 

It will take a lot of initiative to uncover or find solutions to problems that inevitably pop up as regards this last election. Underneath the surface is resentment and desperate anxiety and serious betrayals. It isn’t about the team or the larger vision. It’s about the challenges associated with the just past election. My type of loyalty is toxic to the team. People recognize what’s happening. It often creates distrust, jealousy and behaviors that undermine rather than elevate.  Some of us as a people go along to get along. Not because of what we want but because of our personal conviction. Loyalty naturally makes some of us feel good.  Even “fake loyalty” does.  And in the short run, it can have its uses.  But in the long run, it erodes the very relationships you need in order to thrive in a changing environment.

 

When you are a leader implementing change, ask yourself: how do I create buy-in and enhance loyalty? In this case, Governor Aregbesola, to me, is working within limited resources and with limited connections to get the needful to help his state at the federal level despite the fact that his party controls the federal.

 

I have read many submissions and each writings from different perspectives. I have noticed that no one thinks of the fact that the election was not about Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola or about Senator Mudashir Hussein. It was about the “dying APC” as a party, it was about our ailing president, Muhammadu Buhari and his economic development policy as it affects Nigerians.

 

Governor Rauf Aregbesola and indeed all party loyalists had to fight to have our say in who flagged our party’s ticket. If it has to be Dr. Adeleke, I guessed we should be carried along and of course the sitting governor deserved some respect. It was never so and that was the first buildup that gave birth to the colossal loss. The calamity was therefore not about Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola but about how things became so degenerated and disconnected in our party. The party at the national, state and local government levels  must be ready to use brooms against brooms for people are very much ready. Show me one serving or former national assembly member who can freely walk in his domain or plan to re-contest with all these that are happening in our party, show me my peer who can woo any member of the opposition to our party. Many of us worked, staked our lives and spent heavily for this party, believing a change at the federal level would open up avenues for us to hold our followers and continue the change mantras. But our leaders are so disconnected, governors and senators and party chairmen no longer have any say in who represents them, the party is at the moment has no bearing, and the foot soldiers never get party patronage. The lacuna created by our undoing has created enmities between governors and their followers. How many governors in each zone of the federation are friends with each other, how many of them in the south west could muster energy to physically support Governor Aregbesola or Osun APC as a party in this last election? To them, it was an opportunity to take their pounds of flesh, an opportunity to tell him they could build monsters and destroyers even in his home. Aregbesola had to face many battles home and away, starting from having his voice on who picked the party’s ticket, up to the presidency. The war is really not from outside his party but from the cabal that never liked his style of politics. And the war was also not against him alone, his people were also shot down, there is no single member of the state in any agency that will be there to support him should he need help. He remained the only rallying point, he began to dominate the talks, facing daily organized protests and kept talking and justifying a position to ears that only wanted food on their table. He was thinking more of posterity but they wanted a piece of the action as they are used to, which normally is necessary in politics..

 

The bubble finally got busted, the campaign began, he toured all major cities, sold his party and the candidate in his usual manner, he sang and danced but he was supported only by those who are truly convinced that having a high ranking person in the state is just the best. Unfortunately, at the tail end of the campaign, their agent  and final executioner came not for re-integration but to prove a point unknown to the law but to our Creator. They appeared on the scene in what is better described as the highest spiritual coup d’etat in a mystical manner. They needed not make any speech but their mere shocking appearance was damnable enough to perfect to show they were there to take their pound of flesh.

 

Great ideas come from robust conversation and differing   perspectives; blind loyalty doesn’t question. That is where I’m different. Blind loyalists simply execute the plan at all times.

Therefore, I would leave my readers to place me where I really belong.