By Sarafa Ibrahim
Truth, a 20th century cultural icon, Elvis Presley, warned “is like sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away.” And he was damn right going by the honest assessment of the awful records of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the governance of Osun state given by presidential spokesperson, Chief Bayo Onanuga.
In a blistering salvo directed at a former Governor in the state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Onanuga refreshed memories on the harsh realities that Osun people endured under the APC. Onanuga recalled that “civil servants went unpaid for months, and those who were paid received only a fraction of their salaries” under the APC rule in Osun state while “Many pensioners who relied on their meagre monthly payments died because they were not paid at all.”
Onanuga was right, however, he was a bit sentimental in acknowledging blame on the woes of the past, leaving out many of the actors in the mess that the Osun APC created in the state. For sometime now, there has been a deliberate attempt to recreate history and make a hero out of the many critical actors in the “unmitigated hardship” suffered by Osun people under the APC.
There is no way one will review what happened under Aregbesola without talking about the roles of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, who as Chief of Staff, was considered as the ‘engine room’ in the eight years of that administration or Mr. Bola Oyebamiji, who was the Finance Commissioner in that government. Take, for instance, the document that introduced half salary in Osun state does not have Aregbesola’s signature, but those who Onanuga left out of the blame of imposing pains on the people.
But there was something striking in the whole thing that Onanuga said that should interest the people as the state goes into the poll in August 15. Recollecting how sordid things were in the past, Onanuga pointed out that APC’s rule in Osun state was marked by “financial recklessness, abandoned projects, and misguided policies that brought the state to ruin.”
Interestingly, Oyebamiji was the Commissioner of Finance at a point in that administration and a critical participant in the mess that Onanuga highlighted. This, to a large extent, provided clear perspectives that Oyebamiji cannot present himself as a solution to the problem. We saw it with Oyetola, and by the end of his four years tenure, half salaries and other misdeeds in the administration he was a part of, were left unattended to.
It took the coming of Governor Ademola Adeleke to make things right and restore hopes for the dejected people. While Oyetola could not pay back any of the month the half salary arrears, Governor Adeleke has paid 14 months to active workers and bonded pensioners and 28 months to unbonded pensioners. Even more, the ‘audio promotion’ given to workers by the Oyetola administration, which Oyebamiji was a part of, was made real by Governor Adeleke by paying the financial benefits of the promotion.
Sights of abandoned projects that was a common feature in Osun under Oyetola is no longer the case anymore as Governor Adeleke, not minding who started it, is completing them and making them available for the transportation needs of the people. The truth as highlighted by Onanuga is that, Osun was seriously bruised by the APC, and so make it somewhat naive for anyone to expect anything other than misery and pain from someone who contributed to the sordid past.
That was the simple truth that Onanuga conveyed and Osun people must not let the import of the message he passed be lost on them. The past was bad and it would make no sense for the people to be swayed by deceptive tales that will bring back the agony that responsible leadership under Governor Adeleke is gradually making them to overcome.
No matter how anyone try to sugarcoat it, Oyebamiji is a reflection of Aregbesola and whatever was wrong with the past, he was a part of it. This is the truth that the Osun APC has been running away from but seeing it come from a presidential spokesperson, means they can no longer bend the truth.
Osun have invested faith in the APC in the past and as we are all aware, the experience for the people was bitter and agonising. That was the mess Governor Adeleke has been cleaning in the last three years and restoring hope for the people that suffered unmitigated hardship under the APC.
The long and short of it is that Osun is making progress already under Governor Adeleke and the people must never allow the grim picture that Onanuga portrayed about the past under the APC to be returned through Oyebamiji. With Governor Adeleke, Osun is sure on the right path of enviable progress and a future that pains will not be a normal thing.
- Sarafa Ibrahim writes from Osogbo, Osun state. He can be reached via neyoclass09@gmail.com
