Connect with us

Featured

Those Who Say I’m Uneducated, Can’t Govern Osun Ignorant, Mischievous – Adeleke

Published

4 years ago

on

By Bola Bamigbola

Senator Ademola Adeleke was the governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party in Osun State in 2018. He tells BOLA BAMIGBOLA about his plans to re-contest against Governor Gboyega Oyetola in next year’s poll, among other sundry issues.

You were almost becoming the governor of Osun State about three years ago. Some said you were robbed while others said you lost. What would you attribute your loss to?

There was no doubt about the fact that the 2018 Osun State governorship election was compromised. All election monitors and observers reported that the so-called rerun was a charade. It fell short of all known standards. We won outright at the first ballot anyway. The declaration of the election as inconclusive was a misnomer and preplanned to achieve an undemocratic outcome. This was the verdict of major national and international election monitors and it tallies with the views of majority of our people in Osun State. I have since moved on in life and our strategy this time will take care of rigging methods.

Some people were referring to you as a dancing Senator and that because you were not educated, it would be disastrous to handover the affairs of a state like Osun State to someone like you. How would you react to this?

Those who say so are either ignorant of what constitutes education or just being mischievous. I am by the grace of God a man given to the pursuit of knowledge and skills. Before politics, I had successfully managed businesses worth several millions of dollars. I was involved in turning around blue-chip companies and so I am eminently equipped to turn around the fortune of Osun State for good. My recent completion of a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice should even put all doubts as to my academic records to rest. I am sure you know it takes more than being average to attain this feat. They are free to check my school records, they will marvel at my performance.

Why did you wait so long, at 60 plus, to enrol for a degree?

Is it ever too late to learn? I am a determined person when it comes to goals. I will continue to pursue knowledge at all times because that is how to stay relevant at all times.

There are insinuations that if you had been elected, you would just be a figure head governor while your brother would be the one ruling. Have you been told of this and how would you react to those who think that way?

I laugh whenever I hear this. Perhaps those who tout this do not know my brother well. Dr Deji Adeleke is one of the busiest human beings on planet earth. He has little or no time to dabble into issues of governance. While he, like many others, is interested in good governance as a tool for development, his only interest is that the people of Osun State live in prosperity and peace. When our elder brother was Governor late Isiaka Adeleke, I think Dr Deji Adeleke visited the government house once or twice. He is not the kind of a person who will leave his vast business empire and be involved in running government.

There is still an insinuation that Dr Deji Adeleke wanted you to be governor in 2018 because ex-governor Rauf Aregbesola offended him during the run-off to the Senatorial bye election that you won. Do you really think he is still keen on you becoming Osun State governor in 2022?

My aspiration for the governorship of Osun State did not originate from Dr Deji or even myself. It is a long story but the summary of it is that after I won the senatorial by-election in 2017, notable leaders of the party mounted pressure on my brother to compel me to run for governorship. For so many months, we resisted the pressure but it was becoming obvious that the party needed to leverage the pedigree of the Adeleke family, especially the record of service of our late brother and the momentum of the victory in the by-election. So, we agreed to run. So it was not about my brother trying to get back at anyone. We knew the APC was no longer wanted by the people of Osun State and the party needed someone who could neutralise their perceived strength in contest. The same dynamics remain true today so I am set to contest and win by the grace of the Almighty God.

Having come from a wealthy family, some of your supporters were shocked to know that you were not a graduate prior to the conduct of the governorship election in Osun state. Tell us, why didn’t you go beyond the controversial secondary school?

Of course, I went beyond secondary school but not in Nigeria because I travelled out to join my brothers in the United States of America shortly before I finished my final papers in high school. My friends and classmates in the schools I attended are alive and have always attested to my good academic and moral standing in secondary school. While I enrolled in the Jacksonville University in the United States, I struggled between academics and business. It was while pursuing my studies there that my late elder brother, Isiaka Adeleke, took a decision to contest the governorship election of the then newly created Osun State. So I had to come back to Nigeria to support him. The flexibility of the American education system enabled me to resume that studies which I just completed with a bachelor degree in Criminal Justice from the Atlanta Metropolitan State College of Georgia.

Were you nursing political ambition before the death of your brother, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, or his death was just an opportunity for you to fulfill a dream?

Absolutely not! The death of my brother in April of 2017 was a major blow to our family. No one expected he would die that soon because Alhaji Isiaka Adeleke was a man filled with life. He was very active up till his last hours. He attended several social functions on the night before his demise so no one thought he would be no more so soon. I supported him as a brother and learnt a lot from him. I never nursed any ambition when he was alive.

It has also been said that you are only living on the large political image of the late ex-governor Adeleke. That as a person, you have not really been tested in public administration. What is your take?

If anyone says I am leveraging the record of my late brother, why should that bother me? He was a successful politician and statesman who remained the factor in the politics of Osun State for so long. What some people don’t know however is that I had always been with him, working together on several fronts. I had been involved in politics and administration at different levels even before my election as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I am not a rookie in governance and that will be put to practical use as we work to develop our dear state.

Nigerians were surprised to see you in graduation gown a few days ago. What motivated your return to school?

The quest for more knowledge motivated me to enroll for a degree programme. I had enough time after the controversial decisions of the courts on the Osun State governorship election. I could not just be politicking so soon and so I decided to go back to school. It is a desire to be a better me and it was a worthwhile decision.

With the certificate, are you now ready for the next governorship election in Osun State?

I have always been ready but I can say now that I am even more ready to accept the call for leadership in Osun State. I know the problems of the state and I am well equipped to drive the process of solving them by the grace of God.

Would you be surprised if some people still doubt the genuineness of the school you said you attended and its certificate?

(Laughs). What will a mischief maker not doubt? In this age of technology and digital platforms, is it too difficult to verify claims? Whoever doubts my degree certificate should honestly have his head examined!

What are the new things you learnt while in school?

That knowledge is not static. The things you knew five years ago are probably obsolete now. Again, the course I studied gave me a better insight into the administration of Criminal Justice and how to build a better society in Nigeria.

Your party, the PDP, is divided in your state. How would you be able to realise your ambition to be a governor with such a divided house?

The PDP in Osun State is not divided. We are one under the chairmanship of Sunday Bisi. The whole working committee, state executive, party chairman at local and ward levels are on the same page. No division whatsoever.

You were with the former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, during the last South-West zonal election, but your group lost. How have you been able to reach out to the Governor Seyi Makinde group that won the election?

In intra-party politics, you don’t talk about winners and losers. The South-West PDP Congress was a family affair. Governor Seyi Makinde is my brother. We have come a long way and have a common goal. He is the only PDP governor in the South-West and that confers some leadership roles on him. Former Governor Fayose is also a formidable leader in the zone. We are all working to strengthen the party and make it a wining vehicle. We are all in constant communication and working for the success of the PDP.

Don’t you think this loss may affect the unity of the party in the zone and also negatively affect your governorship ambition?

Certainly not! We have put the congress behind us and we are moving forward.

Are your supporters still intact in Osun State?

Very intact and vibrant! We are actually getting stronger with defections from the SDP and the APC into our party almost on a daily basis. Wait and see what will play out in Osun.

The Police took you to court during the last governorship election in the state. Don’t you think the same case could be resurrected as soon as you show interest in the next election?

That case is dead and buried. The courts have discharged and acquitted me of all the charges. You can’t charge a man of the same offences he has been acquitted of. You all know it was politics. There was absolutely no ground for my arrest and prosecution in the first place. It was politics taken too far and I hope the Police have learnt their lesson to leave politics to politicians.

Some people also claimed that you jumped bail after court freed you to attend to your health in one of the cases regarding your certificate, what is the status of that particular case now?

That is very untrue. I was granted bail to attend to my health. The prosecutor later dropped the charges against me while the court even ruled that I had no case to answer. The Court of Appeal also upheld our submissions and quashed all charges. As I said earlier, what happened was malicious prosecution that was politically motivated. We later heard all that happened and how the plots were hatched. Some of those who participated in the plots have confessed and begged for forgiveness.

The Ogunbiyi group is still formidable in the PDP in your state. Have you reached out to him after the last election and what was the outcome of your efforts?

Dr Ogunbiyi and other co-aspirants are important leaders of our party. There is no one we will ignore going forward. The only thing is that we must all put our party first and be 100 per cent loyal to the PDP. I respect all and have no grudges against anyone.

Copyright PUNCH.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured

Remembering Biafran Warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu (1933 – 2011)

Published

22 hours ago

on

November 8, 2025

By

By Eric Elezuo
He came as a unifying force, defying all known luxury to settle for career he was in love it – military. His name was Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu; a Nigerian soldier turned Biafran Warlord as a result of exigencies that ‘cannot be ignored’.If Ojukwu had lived till date, he would have been celebrating 92 years on November 4, the day he was born. But Ojukwu died on November 26, 2011 after a brief illness in London. He legacy has remained evergreen, especially among the Igbo speaking tribe of Nigeria, residing in the south-east region of the country; a people, he gave his utmost best to liberate from the shackles of mass murder, supervising a bloody war with little or no arms and ammunition for 30 months.

Ojukwu is the toast of the average Igboman, his shortcomings notwithstanding.

Born with the shinniest of silver spoons in the Zungeru area of colonial Nigeria, on November 4, 1933, to one of the wealthiest individuals of his time, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, the young had the best of everything life could offer, growing up. He was educated at obe of the most prestigious institutions in the country then, King’s College, Lagos, and later at Epsom College in Surrey, England.

He proceeded afterwards to Lincoln College, Oxford University where he obtained a master’s degree in Modern History in 1955. He returned to Nigeria to serve as an administrative officer and suddenly, contrary to expectation, he joined the Nigerian army, and grew by the ranks. He was the first of a kind, joining the military with a retinue of academic successes and certificates.

It would be noted that Ojukwu joined the army in protest. He was protesting the termination of his appointment in civil service when he was posted to Calabar, by the Sir John Macpherson at the instant of his father.

A breakdown of Ojukwu’s sojourn in the field of academics has it that at the outbreak of World War II when he was seven, his father sent him to St. Patrick’s School and CMS Grammar School both in Lagos. In 1944 at the age of 10, Ojukwu started studying at King’s College, Lagos. In 1945 when Ojukwu has stayed for two years in Kings College, his father, who want him to be educated in England, made consultations from his English friend. Epsom College in Surrey was recommended and by 1946, he was sent there for an advanced education.

Ojukwu stayed at Epsom for six years. During that time, he excelled in academics as well as in sports and athletics. He played rugby for the college winning the spring javelin throwing and discus. At 18 he entered Lincoln College, Oxford and studied briefly in 1952. Loius wanted his son to be a lawyer as it was the most common in Nigeria but Ojukwu wants to read modern history. Between 1952 and 1955 he studied law and later switched to history. He also joined the West African Students’ Union in Oxford. During his final years, he joined Oxford Rugby Union as wing three quarter in Lincoln College’s team. Ojukwu graduated with a B.A in arts in 1955 and travelled back to Lagos. He would later return to Oxford to obtain his M.A.

His destiny was beginning to get shaped when six years after Nigeria’s independence in 1960, a group of military officers overthrew the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa-led civilian government. The failure of the coup brought General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi to power, and he appointed Ojukwu as the Military Governor of the Igbo-dominated Eastern Region.

Following a pogrom against the Igbo in several parts of Nigeria, especially in the north after the coup that claimed Aguiyi-Ironsi’s life, Ojukwu, as the governor of Eastern Region, engaged the government in several diplomatic discussions on the road to peace. An accord was reached during some of the parley, one of which is the popular Aburi Accord.The failure of the Accord and continuous pogrom led Ojukwu into seceding from  Nigeria, declaring the Republic of Biafra, and becoming its first Head of State. The action led to a civil war, which has been argued in many quarters as a genocide against the Igbos of the then-Eastern region.

Ojukwu did not have what it takes to fight the war as regards weapons. He only had the determination and willpower of his people. But that did not take them far as the Nigerian military, with support from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, came out victorious, using the weapon of hunger and alleged genocide.

Ojukwu’s effort to use the foreign media to highlight the plight of Biafran civilians and depict the war as genocide against Igbos went unheard, receiving recognition only from France, Haiti and Cote d’ Ivoire among one other two others. He lost the war after superlatively standing off the Nigerian military with its massive oversea’s support, and with it, the young Biafran nation and about three million Biafrans.

Ojukwu subsequently fled to Ivory Coast in exile, where President Félix Houphouët-Boigny granted him political asylum. He returned to Nigeria 1981,when President Shehu Shagari granted him total amnesty.

Though he tried unsuccessfully to grab political power, he made his mark for himself and his people. He began by fighting to reclaim all his property across the country, and married the 21-year-old Bianca Onoh, daughter of a one time governor of Anambra State, C. C. Onoh.

He died in 2011 at the age of 78 in London, England. His body was returned to Nigeria, where Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan gave him a state funeral, a funeral suitable for a general, which he was. He was buried with full military honours, including a 21-gun salute from the Nigerian Army, and thousands of people attended his funeral.

To some, Ojukwu is a contentious figure in the history of Nigeria, but to many, especially the Igbo, he is a hero and wears a messianic cloak. They believe that though the war was lost, a statement was made in the loudest of voices.

Today, however, the voice of Biafra has re-echoed, first from MASSOB, and presently from Nnamdi Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IBOP).

Continue Reading

Featured

HURIWA Demands Probe As Nine Soldiers Accused of Links to Boko Haram Allegedly Escape from Custody

Published

4 days ago

on

November 5, 2025

By

A major security breach has hit the Nigerian military after nine soldiers reportedly escaped from a guardroom at Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri — headquarters of the Army’s 7 Division.

Military sources said the incident occurred around 2:15am on Monday.

Most of the escapees were said to have been detained for alleged links with Boko Haram and involvement in arms trafficking in the North-East.

“There was a jailbreak on Monday around 0215 hours at Maimalari Cantonment. Nine personnel detained mostly for dealing in arms running with terrorists escaped,” a source, according to some media reports, confirmed.

One of the fugitives has since been recaptured, while a manhunt is underway for the remaining eight.

The military has reportedly launched an internal probe to uncover how the soldiers succeeded in breaking free from the high-security facility.

Meanwhile, a pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group – Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) of Nigeria has condemned the criminal activity of letting out such high value suspects at a time that the nation is gripped by the threats of the United States of America government’s threats to unleash military airstrikes targeting Islamic Terrorists like Boko Haram terrorists and ISWAP.

HURIWA believes that if the report is factually accurate, then there is more to it than meets the eyes. It means that there is a high network of conspiratorial plots from the topmost echelons of the command structures and these collaborators and saboteurs of the war on terror must be identified, arrested, prosecuted for treason and jailed for life.

HURIWA tasked the Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede and the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu to take the matter as a high priority case and to go after the escapees just as the commander charged with securing their detention should be immediately suspended and all those who participated in aiding and abetting their disappearances must be arrested and prosecuted for sabotaging the counter terrorism war in Nigeria.

“If this is true, it means that the claims made by the Borno state governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, of the existence of saboteurs of the war on terror within the Nigeria Army is much deeper than we are all contemplating.”

The Rights group stated that although the Nigerian Army is yet to react to the development at the time the media filed this report, the escapees were alleged to be involved in arms trafficking to terrorist groups operating in Nigeria’s North-East just as it was gathered that reports of the jailbreak have led to serious concerns within Nigeria’s security sector.

HURIWA expressed disappointment that saboteurs embedded within the nation’s military circles orchestrated the ugly development just few days after President Bola Tinubu appointed new service chiefs as a way to pass a message that they are invincible but the civil rights advocacy group stated that allowing these important and strategic suspects who sabotaged the war on terror to escape without being caught on time, it therefore means that there is the urgency of the moment to review the entire spectrum of military operations against Boko Haram terrorists given that their informants and suppliers of weapons have successfully penetrated the military institution, which is a very big shame.

“When we call for heads to roll, we truly mean that many bad eggs must be immediately weeded out of the Army given that they are actually undermining the National security of the corporate entity of Nigeria. It is time for a transparent overhauling of the security operations against terrorists in the country.”

Continue Reading

Featured

Should I Have Traveled with My Enemies’ Children, Wike Defends Traveling with Sons to Official Assignment

Published

5 days ago

on

November 4, 2025

By

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has reacted to viral photos showing his sons accompanying him on local and foreign trips, saying he has the right to carry them along.

He argued that his sons, as master’s degree holders, need the exposure.

“What law says that my sons shouldn’t travel? Let the FCT say where they paid ₦1.

“What official matter? Did they sign any document? It doesn’t need to be a personal trip.

“What’s wrong? So, I can travel with anybody from the FCT. I can travel with anybody in Nigeria. I have that right.

“Oh, come on, they have to know how Nigeria is. They have to learn about government,” Wike said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.

Asked whether he was teaching them to become politicians, he said, “No, that’s not correct. My first son is a lawyer. He said, ‘No, I’m not going to practice. I want to be a farmer.’

“I said, ‘What do you mean by this? He said, ‘No, this is what I want to do.’ I said, ‘Okay’. What do you do?

“They’ve gone for training in Spain. They’ve gone for training in Lisbon.

“My second son finished from King’s College — a master’s degree in Economics. He said he wants to be in real estate.”

The former Rivers State governor also said he is happy that his sons behave responsibly and give him comfort.

“I’m so happy that I have children who have given me comfort, who have not given me problems.

“Assuming they were somewhere smoking. You would have said, ‘Oh, look at these children now. Who are they? I will not travel with my enemy’s children,” he added.

Wike has been spotted with his sons at official events, including the commissioning of projects in the FCT.

Last week, he was criticised by some Nigerians for taking them to a summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Continue Reading

Trending