By Engr Shakbab
In the words of our elders, “He who throws stones from a glass house should not forget the fragility of his own roof.” The latest tirade from one Adebayo Adedeji, an APC self-appointed town crier, is not journalism but a poisoned dart dipped in hypocrisy. It reeks of selective amnesia, the same party that bled Osun’s coffers dry now pretends to be the custodian of fiscal discipline. Mischief is being hawked as truth, but we will not let falsehood wear the robe of fact.
Governor Ademola Adeleke has said it clearly, repeatedly, and without stammer: under his watch, Osun operates no slush fund, no backdoor “security votes” in the sense Nigerians know it. Every naira for security is processed through the budgetary system, vetted, approved, and documented. Yet he chose to shut his eyes to the truth and open his mouths to fiction, because truth is a bitter kola they cannot chew.
The writer’s arithmetic acrobatics fail the simplest test of honesty. You cannot compare today’s open, audited budgetary allocations with the shadowy vaults of yesterday. When Oyetola’s government was painted walls and called it development, Adeleke’s government has been building lives, paying salaries, clearing pension debts, sustaining peace, and still investing in infrastructure. As the proverb goes, “Empty barrels make the loudest noise” and the APC’s noise is deafening only because their record is hollow.
Supporting Amotekun, quelling communal clashes, and safeguarding lives are not luxuries; they are lifelines. If rescue operations in 2024 required more funding, it is because Adeleke values every citizen’s life above any political optics. The last administration may treat human safety as a footnote, but Adeleke treats it as the headline. After all, “When the shepherd counts his sheep, it is the lost one that pains him most.”
The irony is thick: those who left Osun’s treasury bleeding now cry wolf because the people’s governor is spending openly and lawfully. Their lamentations are crocodile tears from political scavengers who long to return to the banquet of public funds. Adeleke’s creation of a special project account to save FAAC windfalls is light years ahead of last administration’s era, when windfalls disappeared like morning dew in harmattan.
Adebayo Adedeji accuses Adeleke of falsehood while standing knee-deep in his party’s swamp of deceit. This is the same APC that promised heaven and earth but delivered potholes and debt. The people of Osun have not forgotten; “A man who burnt down the barn should not mock the one who pruned the trees.”
Governor Adeleke will not be distracted by the tantrums of those still nursing the wounds of electoral defeat. His focus remains fixed on roads, schools, hospitals, agriculture, salaries, pensions, and above all, peace. The APC may choose to dance naked in the marketplace of lies; Adeleke will keep dancing to the drumbeats of progress and the people of Osun will keep clapping.
As Shakespeare wrote, “The truth will out.” And in Osun, the truth is simple: Adeleke governs for the people, by the people, and with the people no matter how loudly the jackals howl in the night.
