Osun 2018: Third Force, And The Need For Survival 

A deeper intellectual discourse between two Greek philosophers, Plato,  and his ideological apostle,  Aristotle , brought the source of necessary consciousness of a man to the fore, and gave credence to the prowess of man’s economic condition as the real determinant of his consciousness. 

While Aristotle opined that what really determined the consciousness of a man within his geographical location is his state of mind,  his master,  Plato disagreed, arguing that the economic condition of a man determines his level of consciousness. 

Plato further resorted “poverty is the mother of crime and violent revolution, when the middle class is destroyed,  and the number of the poor continues to exceed that of the rich,  problem arises,  and the state quickly comes to an end”.

The logical submission of Plato therefore, and in line with societal configuration of those days,  which to some extent has not significantly changed made his argument more superior than that of his apostle,  Aristotle, who regarded the man’s state of mind as an independent entity without cognisance of socio-economic factor.

In view of the foregoing, scores of analysts have argued about what should be the primary focus of a serious government at any point in time, especially in the developing countries where people are predominantly poor. 

Scores of intelligentsia  believe that a democratic government must first and foremost fine-tune policies that tend to guarantee economic safety and fulfilment for the people,  who intrinsically are the major focus of democracy by its tenets.

This school of thought argued that since human are naturally created to dominate the environment and not other way round, the spate of human development should dictate the way environment changes to become more habitable and conducive. 

A member of this school of thought in Osun State,  Otunba Yemisi Oladeji,  who is aspiring to succeed the incumbent Governor,  Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola come November 26, 2018 gave an explicit analysis of what constitute a political scale of preference in governance. 

Oladeji,  who is contesting on the platform of Social Democratic party(SDP) said “prioritising the needs of our people remains the essence of politics and the basic requirements for our people’s survival.   

“It is an open secret that most of our people are experiencing difficult times.  It would amount to gross insensitivity and a deceptive political advertorial and inhuman consideration to conclude that things are alright in the face of the people experiencing poverty in varied and varying dimensions.

“Those who can carefully read the political horoscope would note that some politicians has the mindset that the best way to govern is to subject majority of the people to poverty so that they can be easily manipulated for their selfish ends. Poverty and the cyclic routine of indebtedness had arguably engulfed most families in  Osun State. 

“Without prejudice, many of our workers are indebted to the banks and financial institutions, they are also indebted to the market women who sells the food items, the market women are indebted to the food suppliers; the food suppliers are indebted to the farmers while the farmers are indebted to the farm workers. 

“However, there is a consolation that if poor people know how to organize themselves, they would never be poor again.  If this assertion is granted, the effective solution to the myriad of problems in governance in the State is to support my political ambition, see the so called dominant political parties as mere labels, reject the strangulating mode of governance that is gradually taking the people to slavery and captivity with tokenistic gestures, throw away a political governance that is reactionary rather than proactive, shove away a government that has no respect for the dignity of labour, vote out a government that mortgage the future of your children with enormous debts and poor standard of education and embrace my road map to economic recovery and prosperity”, Oladeji asserted. 

The economic guru averred that his party,  SDP emerged as a third force by its inherent and distinct ideology of emancipation of the poor against the outright economic oppression of the ruling party,  in which masses have been treated with share disdain. 

He noted the people, as the focus of the party,  and collectivism as an integral subset of its manifesto naturally position the party as an emerging force coming from the third position to take over from the first in no distant time. 

“In modern political governance, particularly at a period when the crisis of governance are enormous, what is required is a strategic coalition of all stakeholders to decide how best to find solutions to the challenges of governance which is the underlying principle underpinning what I called ‘pacted democracy’. This is a process that I envisioned would enable the development strategies to emerge from agreements (pacts) among stakeholders and to include the previously uncoordinated groups in the decision making process to achieve mutual benefits for both the government and the general public.

“The advantages of participatory governance are numerous. It is a mechanism that can go a long way at deepening democratic engagement through the participation of citizens in the process of governance. Also government policies would be designed to ameliorate the challenges facing the people; citizens would be able to play more roles in public decision making while government officials would be mandated to be responsive to such engagements. 

“In another vein, it would help the citizens to have access to relevant information about government policies, which would help them to express their opinions and concerns to enhance dialogue between the State and the citizens and ensure accountable governance. This management vogue, which I passionately embraced, has its roots in developmental pragmatism, which aims at embracing pluralism of ideas, build local capacities and social resilience and embark on purposeful planning to build strong social fabrics that can be deployed towards the holistic attainment of my transformation agenda in the governance of the State. 

“Through the development of new political horizons, I can assure you all the delivery of efficient and effective public services, develop various support mechanisms that would enhance higher level of educational attainment of our children in schools to reassert our values, make our hospital more functional to the health needs of our people and raise the moral of our civil and public servants through constructive engagements leading to improved welfare to enhance better performance of their duties and responsibilities. 

“To achieve my strategic objectives, there is going to be a fundamental redirection of the apparatus of governance from the combustible physical regeneration to social and economic renewal to create wealth for everyone regardless of age, gender or religious affiliations.  

“With the establishment of my pacts with you all, I will provide the tools for monitoring and evaluating my performance in governance giving the measure of my conviction underpinned by strategic focus, policy coherence, financial discipline, transparency, openness, accountability and integrity to support my vision of good governance. I am particularly, inundated with the fact that history would always remember a political leader who governs well with grace, calm, dignity and prowess while in office.  I am assuring you that these virtues would be my guiding principles and with the cooperation of you all, I shall not fail”, Oladeji concluded.

To this end,  the people of the state must be happy and ready to embrace a leading light of diverse knowledge and dexterity for liberation from the manacles of political oppression and obscurantists, who are hell bent in milking the people of Osun dry to the comfort of their Lagos master and cohorts. 

Like the power of light in illuminating every dark side,  Otunba Yemisi Oladeji is indeed the growing light to the political opaque of the All Progressive Congress (APC)  in Osun State. Imole de! 

Courtesy : Imole Osun Group