Ogunbiyi, Ileogbo And His Political Rituals By Ibraheem Alli

I could remember our early days at farm, hunting pouch rat (Okete) and mouse (Emo). Occasionally, we catched rabbits. For the purpose of this article, my interest is in the mouse.

Mouse is small, smart rodent, delicious with taste. It has hole where it stays and equally has route. The route is always specially cleaned with guided and easy movement. It is always hard to catch a mouse once it gets on its route. Yoruba will call it “Oju Opo”.

The possibility of mouse escapism at danger on its route provided most hunters to proffer an iron trap (Takute). Hunters will put palm kernel on the trap to attract the mouse. Ordinary, the mouse don’t miss their route. So, the hunters play wiser by positioning the trap on the route. Unfortunately, the mouse has a weakness. That is, memory deficiency syndrome. When the mouse escape the trap the first time, you see them get attracted again by palm kernel and eventually caught. One other thing is, the mouse will not inform the pup (Small mouse) of the danger on their route. But the few without the syndrome will escape and never toe the path again.

Osun 2022 Guber election has come and gone. There is always time for assessment and re-assessment. One of the few who gave the winner a tougher moment was the Ileogbo born Insurance guru, Dr. Akinade Akanmu Ogunbiyi. He slugged out with the governor elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke for the PDP Guber ticket before his subsequent defection to Accord Party where he floated his ambition. During the struggle for the coveted seat of the number citizen of the State of Virtues, many expected unexpected happened.

In my personal judgement as an observer, Ogunbiyi, noticed the harsh handwriting withdrew his membership to sustain his infant but expanding structure. Ordinarily, he was expected to stay but how would you cope in an acrimonious house. He went ahead to test the deep of the river. To me, he was not drown.

Of interest to me is his courage at engineering a political route and awareness for Ileogbo. He consulted and contracted, mentioned and mentioning Ileogbo, to the national and international actors. At least, he has further projected the town beyond yesterday. And today, it will be hard for his friends in his former political party to serve him without respect.

In 1992 when the Late Senator Isiaka Adeleke became the Governor of Osun State, amongst his major decision was the creation of a structure across the state. The Political structure was parallel in every ward in the state. They were well equiped and empowered That he did successfully. Till date, the structure is still a ride to victory for his family.

More so, gotten elected in the Nigeria political market is fairly favourable under two parties-APC and PDP.

But despite, the mission of sustaining the engineered route was not betrayed. My piece for the actor is to re examine his experience on the route. The mission is gold but the route is rough. I beseech the insurance guru to reconsider the route. May be that singular change in route to power can move us faster. I’ve a strong hope that such will put us apart from Memory Deficiency Syndrome associated with mouse.

We can kick with third force but to have a victorious outing, we need a promissory platform. I wondered what could have happened should Idera De accepted the Senatorial ticket in 2019.

For his struggling to fabricate a political path and generate a political sense of respect for Ileogbo, I commend you. The political rituals shall be accepted to the glory of Ileogbo, Iwoland, Osun State and her people.

The mouse was attracted to the trap but escaped with his memory, not deficience. My candid appeal is, let’s change the road for the rituals to be fruitful. We can still get there if we are ready. We have all it takes but needed an established structure which are on ground in the two leading political parties. Must we return to the trap?