In Osun, Governance Takes a Back Seat While Adeleke Positions Politics in the Front Seat

By Femi Adesola

Governor Ademola Adeleke has won the war; now the people of Osun are waiting for the peace. He polled 511,067 votes to defeat the APC’s Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815, in the August 15 governorship election — a margin of 66,252 votes across 30 local government areas. But three months after that hard-fought triumph, now reality of Governance beckons, Osun is no longer who won the election; it is who is governing the state.

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The governor has earned his rest after a bruising campaign; no reasonable person denies him that. Yet, a mandate is not a trophy to be placed on the shelf. It is a load that must be carried daily through reinvigorated quality good governance delivery and not rainbow coalition politicking as good people of Osun did not vote for that.

Adeleke returned from his deserved rest in England after one of the most competitive campaigns Osun has witnessed. His adversaries threw obstacles before him; the people, however, climbed onto the obstacles, defiled all odds and levelled the field for Adeleke’s emergence. The result was emphatic: 19 local government areas to 11, and a victory that no arithmetic could quietly reverse by rigging or by any tribunal.

But politics and governance are not twins; they are only distant relatives who occasionally attend the same family meeting. Politics asks: “How do we win?” Governance asks: “What do we do with the victory?” The first can be settled in one night of collation. The second is settled in the delivery of good governance to the good people of Osun that gave you the resounding victory.

The Yoruba say, Bí a bá gun ọ̀kọ̀, a gbọdọ̀ mọ ibi tí a ó wà lo. When we board a canoe, we must know where we are going. Osun voted for a destination and not politicking.

The most urgent alarm is security. Reports of cult killings and reprisal attacks have turned fear into a public companion. A state cannot be governed from the podium while young men govern the streets with guns, charms and vendettas many belived this is as a result of the ‘hard guys’ used during the elections that still have scores to settle withing themselves.

Osun needs a joint security task force, bringing together the police, the military, DSS, NSCDC, Amotekun, and other relevant agencies under a single coordination and response structure. A unified command centre should receive intelligence, dispatch response teams, and track incidents in real time. Security cannot be left to press statements from Mallam Olawale Rasheed after blood has been spilled.

The government should also consider a time-bound amnesty and deradicalisation programme for cultists and whoever is willing to surrender arms and renounce gang life. Those who embrace it should be rehabilitated, monitored and given a path to work. Those who reject it after the window closes should face the full weight of the law. Mercy must have a deadline; otherwise it becomes an invitation to anarchy.

Secondary healthcare in Osun is gasping. Comprehensive health centres across the state are reportedly short of medical personnel and basic diagnostic equipment, pushing avoidable pressure onto the two major teaching hospitals. A health system that sends every fever, every emergency and every complicated delivery to a teaching hospital is not a system; it is a disaster in waiting.

The state government should conduct an emergency audit of personnel, equipment, drugs and power supply across its health facilities. It should recruit doctors, nurses, laboratory scientists, pharmacists and community health workers; equip comprehensive centres with functioning diagnostics equipment; and ensure regular drug supply. Before Osun can speak confidently about universal health coverage, it must first count its doctors, Nurses, Allied health professionals, its equipment and its empty consulting rooms to measure up with reasonable Doctor to Patient ratio.

It is commendable that the government recruited some teachers close to the election. But a few buckets of water cannot quench a burning farm. The recruitment is too small against the vacancies spread across schools in the state.

It was alleged during the campaign that only one physics teacher existed in the whole of Atakumosa Local Government. Whether the figure is exact or exaggerated, the commissioner’s own admission that shortages exist, He however blamed it partly on withheld local government funds, He confirms that the classroom is in distress. The commissioner has also praised existing teachers, old student and PTA for going the extra mile and supporting the state . But teachers cannot teach physics, chemistry, mathematics and English with applause alone, they need more hands and the Government need to weigh her priorities and prioritise more funding for education, they should also strengthen its engagement with the Universal Basic Education Commission and meet its counterpart-funding obligations to access UBEC interventions for school infrastructure.

The state needs more than a committee on environmental sanitation; it needs a state of emergency. The committee set up while the governor was away is welcome, but committees do not evacuate refuse as it is evident that their approach is not working as Major roads across the state remain littered with filth. The government should invest in waste-evacuation trucks, procure and distribute bins on major streets, create collection points, and deploy environmental marshals to enforce compliance. Waste should be collected, sorted and channelled towards safe disposal and recycling where possible. A clean state is not a luxury; it is public health, public dignity and economic common sense.

The governor should also revive the practical energy of the Rauf Aregbesola-era environmental marshals. Young people already engaged under the Imole youth empowerment scheme, especially those not assisting in schools should be deployed to street cleaning, drainage maintenance and infrastructure monitoring. Let them earn their stipends with visible work that residents can see.

There are reports that critical road projects — including the Ejigbo- Iwo road, Otan-Ile – Ilare road have been abandoned. If true, the government must return to those sites with timelines, contractors and funding.

The free trade zones, including those in Ede and Dagbolu, should be aggressively developed as genuine retail and business parks. The Government should target independent, off-grid power supply of at least 20 to 50 megawatts for these free trade zones. No investor builds a factory on the strength of ‘Rainbow coalition. With reliable power, good access roads, security and streamlined permits for land allocation, investors will come and with jobs for the youth and more income taxes for the Government.

The governor should announce a “Skill-to-Wealth” programme targeting at least 10,000 young people annually. Training should cover electricians, plumbers, mechanics, carpenters, bricklayers, shoemakers, tailors, welders, solar installers, digital skills and agro-processing.

Training alone is not empowerment. A young person trained in shoemaking and left without machines, leather, workspace or market access has been taught a trade and denied a livelihood. Graduates should receive starter tools, micro-credit, cooperative support and linkage to markets. If Osun can put 10,000 youths on a productive path each year, unemployment will begin to lose its grip.

Adeleke has been vindicated. He fought, endured, danced through the storm and won. He should now buckle his belt, roll up his sleeves and repay the people of Osun with governance that touches their daily lives. Osun has given Adeleke a second mandate. The people have done their part. Now the governor must do his: move governance from the back seat, place politics where it belongs, and drive Osun towards becoming the commercial hub of the South-West.

Femi Adesola

adesolafemigab@gmail.com