Oyetola Can’t Excuse Himself From Aregbesola’s Failures By Ibrahim Sarafa

There is something amusing, and at the same time, confounding about the Osun state governor, Gboyega Oyetola. It is his consistent approach of distancing himself from the terrible damage that his predecessor and former boss, Rauf Aregbesola, wrought on the state in his 8 years rule.

Right from the time he was ‘remotely’ imposed on the people and controversially sanctioned by the highest court in the land, Oyetola has taken to deception in his desperation to warm himself into the mind of the people. This is obvious in the way he, and many of his aides, have openly blamed Aregbesola for the woes bedeviling the state and try to position the Oyetola government as something entirely different.

A typical instance was a recent disclosure by Oyetola that Osun was really in a bad state when he took over and it took his ingenuity to be able to cope with the tough economic condition necessitated by his predecessor’s financial recklessness. “People thought the state has been ripped off before he (Oyetola) was sworn-in as the governor and that he will be grounded during his administration,” Hon Taiwo Akeju, the Commissioner for Political Affairs and Inter-governmental Relations, who represented Oyetola at an official event was quoted as saying.

In making this kind of disclosure, Oyetola was essentially thrashing his predecessor’s government in which he was a major player and presenting himself as a remedy to the wrongs that characterised Aregbesola’s stint at the helm of affairs. But looking a cursory appraisal of Aregbesola’s administration would show an averagely informed mind that for every Aregbesola’s failure in office, it will be hard, if not impossible to excuse Oyetola from it. This is because he was an integral part of the government and severally, we have been told that Oyetola was the brain behind most of the wrong policies of that government.

In trying to distance himself from those failures, Oyetola is simply playing on the intelligence of the people, and as usual of a dangerous chameleon, to manipulate them into getting their mandates in 2022. The truth, which we have learnt overtime, is that Oyetola and Aregbesola aren’t different when it comes to bad governance. In fact, they are in this case inseparable siamese twins, but even frightening is the deceptive approach that he (Oyetola) has chosen to lure unsuspecting electorate to prolong their harrowing experience.

For Oyetola to position himself as a remedy to the same disaster he actively participated should arouse conscious curiosity of the public and make them wary of his antics. As the Chief of Staff to Aregbesola for 8 solid years, a position often reserved for trusted right hand men of States’ chief executives,, it is so cheap to feign ignorance of the horrible financial status of the state or deny role in most of the bad policies that almost ruined our education system and other damages to the state.

Aregbesola’s failures are real and they still weigh heavily on the lives of Osun people, who are still finding genuine answers why humongous debt is made hanging on the neck of the state, why are retirees not getting their dues, what happens to the 30 months half salary arrears owed the state public workers, and why is it that abandoned projects littered the state in spite of the billions of naira purportedly thrown at them.

All of these have the imprint of Oyetola because as the ‘engine room’, which Aregbesola consistently acknowledged about him, he can never reasonably excuse himself from the failures of Aregbesola. So, Aregbesola was failing while he (Oyetola) sat there watching for good 8years without a blink of objection from him to the failed policies?l and actions? Common!

Thinking he can manipulate Osun people to see him as a ‘good devil’ will be to underrate the alertness of the people to distinguish between truth and deception. Osun people will not reinforce failure in 2022 no matter how hard Oyetola or any of his aides try to maneuver the the open truth. If such self deceit is a joke, it must stop now!