Osun Decides: How I was Fooled By Aregbesola

I was among millions of Nigerians who naively believe that the governor of Osun State and the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC), in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Osun State, Nigeria, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, will have a walkover victory over his closest rival, Senator Iyiola Omisore of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) based on Aregbesola’s “performance”.

I also never wanted to put my money on Omisore in the August 9, gubernatorial election based on the many negative baggage that the PDP candidate carries not the least of which was his alleged link with the murder of the former attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Chief Bola Ige. Even though the court had cleared him of all accusations and exonerated him from that murder stigma, I was told that in the court of public opinion the verdict is different from that of the court of law. My suspicion of him as man with so much show of braggadocio was not helped when I saw in the papers hooded security guards following him around as he canvasses for votes. Given many other baggages that he carries including the fact that Osun State has been part of the bastion of opposition in Nigeria, I had taken it as a given that the election belongs to Aregbesola.

It was partly based on this mind-set that when I met some Osun indigenes in Abuja, I did not waste time in telling them that I don’t know why APC is complaining about “militarisation” of Osun election when it is obvious that the governor has performed well and that even if Pharaoh was to muster all the Egyptian army at the Red Sea the people(Osun) will cross the Red Sea en-route to the Promised Land led by Aregbesola. The surprised Osun indigenes asked me why I was so sure that Aregbesola will win and what are the things that he has done to merit re-election?

I began to reel out what I have read in the newspapers and seen on the TV. I told them that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has constructed more roads than any governor in four years since the creation of the state. I reminded them that he has computerised all secondary schools with his famous i-pad given to all secondary school students and the unification of school uniforms. I also told them that he has built mega schools, provided free food for students and revitalised agriculture and the civil servants are happy with him to bout.

After reeling out the  aforementioned achievements of Aregbesola, you could imagine my embarrassment when one of them started laughing at me and before you know it there was a chorus of laughter from Osun indigenes who in the midst of it all gave it to me: “That is how you people are fooled by newspapers and television, all you mentioned are all make-believe.”

Thereafter they began to educate me. I was made to understand that the i-pads was only given to three secondary schools in Osogbo, the state capital and because it could not go round it began to cause disquiet in the state and the i-pads was therefore recovered from the students. On the mega schools, I was told that many schools were closed for the mega schools to emerge and that this forced my students to travel long distances to school and that when students and parents complained, the government promised that there will be free buses for the students. The buses were never provided until a few weeks to the election and instead of the buses being free, the students pay N50 and the buses was 30 in number which is grossly inadequate for a large state like Osun. I was also told that the man brought in the problem of hijab in schools which polarised the state along religious lines.

I was also told that the so-called roads constructed were actually reconstruction of roads built since Obafemi Awolowo era. Even that was concentrated in the state capital while nothing was done to construct rural roads which is vital for agricultural development and development of the rural economy. The schools are also kicking about the free school feeding in which the caterers are outsourced instead of living it with the school authority who ordinarily should be able to know what their students are feed with. That teachers and other civil servants are not paid as at when due and that angry teachers and civil servants are recipe for easy defeat for any incumbent governor as happened in Ekiti State, where Fayemi sacked 5000 workers at the beginning of his tenure and he paid dearly for it during his re-election bid. They also told me that Aregbesola’s youth empowerment programme, O’YES was bastardised as the graduates were paid N10,000 and given knives to go and cut bushes instead of establishing farms and training them on modern farming techniques. After being educated about the true situation of things in Osun State especially the alienation of the people I was convinced that a grassroots person like Omisore may torpedo the regime of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on August 9, 2014.