Osun 2026: The Question That Oyebamiji Must Ask Himself
By Sarafa Ibrahim
By next year, Osun electorate will go to the poll to vote in the state's governorship election. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), electorate in Osun will go to the poll on August 8th, 2026 to cast their ballot, and already, political parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC), are racing over themselves to gain the votes of the people.
The APC was booted out of power in 2022 as Osun voters vehemently rejected the idea of prolonging the harrowing experience that the party characterized. It was basically a referendum on the direction that the APC was leading Osun onto, and the verdict of the people was quite resounding. So, if the APC is looking to come back, the question Bola Oyebamiji must ask himself is– what will the APC be doing differently in Osun?
APC is not something new to Osun people and the image of the party that I am sure resonates well with the people is misery, pains, misgovernance, debt binge, financial recklessness and poor attitudes to welfare. In the 12 years that the party was in charge of Osun, the state was submerged in the aura of hopelessness as bad financial decisions not only pile pressures on the benefits of that moment but also burdens the future.
It was so bad in the four years of Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola as ineptitude was elevated as the answer to governance, contributing to the uninspiring outlook in output in almost all sectors, which severely impacted on the people. This made the job of the electorate easier, opting for Governor Ademola Adeleke and so far, he has made the choice of the people counted for the better in the two years he's being in office.
In the 2026 governorship poll, Osun APC will run basically on its past record in governance and I am afraid, it is not something the people will be willing to embrace. To make matter worse, the APC is presenting Bola Oyebamiji, who was an integral part of the ugly past that Osun people do not want to be reminded of, not to talk of reliving it. This must be why it has been doing everything to avoid anything that would remind the people of what the past it reflects looked like because it was ugly and unpleasant.
Even more interesting is the fact that many of the things it made the people believe were impossible when it held sway in the administration of Osun state are things that Governor Adeleke is doing conveniently. Despite the fact the Oyetola was part of the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola administration that accumulated 30 months half salary to workers, he made no effort whatsoever to pay from the debt throughout the 48-month that his administration lasted and at a point, the workers and pensioners are beginning to lose up of getting what they were actually due for.
Interestingly, Oyebamiji was the Commissioner of Finance who supervised the era of pains and misery for the people. Accruals and interventions were merely for the paperworks as the people who should actually feel them were abandoned, creating a despicable scene of pensioners queuing on the streets to receive help from NGOs as if they are refugees.
Governor, however, relived their hopes, and has so far paid eight months for active workers and pensioners who have received their bonds while senior citizens who are yet to get their bonds have received as much as 16 months. The same with the five-month cooperative deductions owed by the Oyetola administration, which Governor Adeleke has paid off.
Instead of accepting that it failed, especially to the families that its poor attitudes to welfare of pensioners and workers impacted, Osun APC is fond of regurgitating a lie that Governor Adeleke promised to offset the wage-related debts it amassed in six months. Apart from the fact that the lie is against logic given the humongous nature of the liabilities, Osun APC has failed to show anywhere (be it through statement or video recording) such commitment was conveyed. So far, Governor Adeleke has expended over N60 billion on pensions, gratuities, bonds of pensioners in three years, an amount that far outweighed what Oyetola spent for the same purpose in four years.
For active workers, the story is not any different. In 2019, Oyetola approved promotion for workers in the state, however, he didn't implement the financial benefit that comes with it till he left office in November 2022. And just as the other misdeeds of the APC administration, Oyebamiji is at the centre of this failure to Osun workers. People waited in vain as the administration which Oyebamiji served as the Commissioner for Finance, refused to honour words with action, which was implementation.
It was Governor Adeleke who implemented the financial benefits of the promotion and cash backed it. Similarly, Oyetola waited until November 2020 to implement minimum wage that signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2019, making workers to wait for at least 18 months. In the case of Governor Adeleke, he implemented the minimum wage signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in July 2024 in December 2024. The difference is quite clear and I'm sure Osun workers are not oblivious of this salient fact.
When the APC talk about infrastructure, it only reminds us of how terrible things was in the past. When Governor Adeleke took the reigns in Osun state, infrastructure deficit was at a staggering 80 percent, with intrastate and other road networks within the state in a deplorable condition. Sights of abandoned projects littered the state as Oyetola-led government which Oyebamiji served in abandoned projects inherited from predecessor.
At the heart of this neglect was the East bypass road, which Oyetola let his political friction with predecessor, Aregbesola, to get in the way of completion. It took the coming of Governor Adeleke for contractors to return to site and complete the over 6km section of the dual carriageway abandoned by the previous government. The same thing happened with the 10.5km dual carriage Osogbo-Ikirun-Ila Odo-Kwara boundary road which Governor Adeleke completed.
In Ile-Ife, the first flyover in the cradle of Yoruba race is at the verge of completion just as the first the dual carriage road in Ilesa has been delivered. In Ede, the Akoda-Oke Gada dual carriageway has been completed and in Iwo, the first-ever dual carriageway is ongoing and as usual, being done by Governor Adeleke. Governor Adeleke is also building the first-ever dual carriageway in Ila-Orangun and the third phase of the Osogbo-Ikirun-Ila Odo-Kwara road, which will pass through Inisa is ongoing as we speak.
Talk of Osogbo, the state capital and you would be marvelled by the level of infrastructural renaissance that Governor Adeleke has undertaken in three years. Starting with the 10-span Oke-Fia overhead bridge that headline the remarkable transformation, Governor Adeleke built the 2.2km Old Garage-Lameco dual carriageway and at the verge of completing the four-span flyover at Lameco.
Anywhere you look in Osun state, you will hardly miss the sight of one project or the other being executed by the Adeleke administration as several road projects in each of the 30 local governments and area office embarked on simultaneously have bee delivered and now serving the people. In the whole of Osun state, the Adeleke administration has constructed more than 250km of roads and this is just in three years.
Before now, the APC make Osun people to believe most of the physical developments manifesting in the state were not possible. This must be why the Osun APC bandies imaginary figures as revenue that accrues to the Adeleke administration just to excuse its glaring failures.
But the question they have failed to provide an answer to is, what did they do with the revenue that accrued to the coffer of the state when they managed its affairs? What happened to the huge amount of funds the APC administration drew from creditors that strained Osun financial standings and for which many citizens suffered a great deal of pains as over N2 billion from current earnings is used to service debt every month? The simple truth is, the Osun APC is terrible past that no reasonable mind will want to re-enact.
In 2018, Osun secured a $20.5 million grant to renew the infrastructure of primary healthcare centres to enhance service delivery. But the huge receipt failed to achieve the purpose it was meant for as the supposedly rehabilitated PHCs were shabbily done, ignoring standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Governor Adeleke has fixed the problem, delivering so far the wholly rehabilitation of the infrastructure 200 PHCs across the state in line with the WHO standards so as to provide citizens with a better opportunity for healthy living.
For four years, the Oyetola administration, which Oyebamiji was an active participant, watched public schools infrastructure to rot away. Counterpart funds to access money that would improve the infrastructure of public schools was left unpaid and that leaves a great number of students to learn in an unsafe environment as most structures of public schools were deplorable. It is Governor Adeleke that is solving this problem, investing funds into rehabilitating schools and equipping them with furniture and other essentials to aid qualitative learning.
So far, a total of 631 classrooms with offices in 125 basic schools has been rehabilitated while 323 new classrooms with offices, hall and laboratories in 96 basic schools have been built. Other infrastructures provided in schools across Osun in two years included thirty-nine new six-holes squatting toilets in 39 basic schools, forty-one boreholes with reticulations in 41 basic schools, thirty motorized deep well water with reticulation and the construction of 30 perimeter fences with metal gate in 30 basic schools. Construction and rehabilitation of schools and related infrastructure in primary and junior schools across the 30 local governments in the state and the area office while the upgrade of EMIS (Educational Management Information System) units in the 31 LGEAs with new laptops and new printers each for effective data collection and data processing for real time school data and information management.
There is hardly any sector you will look at and the horrible mark of the APC misgovernance will not stare you right in the face. In the agriculture sector, for instance, the APC did not buy a single tractor to aid farming operations in the state in the entire twelve years it was in charge of the state. The most troubling thing is that, it sold off some of the tractors bought by the Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola administration, negatively impacting food production effort in the state. The Adeleke administration has taken procured 31 new tractors with full implements to aid farmers operations and improve productivity.
In fighting natural disasters, the APC were horrible as no firefighter truck was bought for the state fire services throughout his time in power. However, Governor Adeleke has bought seven new firefighter trucks to empower the state fire services with the capacity to fight fire incidents, thereby, saving lives and properties.
And to cap it all, Governor Adeleke has done exceptionally well in human capital development, showing that the strength of any society is its people. Under Oyebamiji's guidance during the APC's twelve years rule in Osun, cooperative societies were left to die owing to lack of support and that seriously hurt small businesses who relies on that form of finance structure for credit. But Governor revived it, providing not just a staggering N4bn capital that would power businesses, but also breathe life to the cooperative school in Ode-Omu to provide training ground for manpower in the sector.
In addition to this, the Adeleke administration engaged ten thousand (10,000) Imole Corps cadet to render social services in their respective localities and unlike the pittance of N12,000 stipend for OYES cadet under the APC administration, N30,000 is being paid to volunteers every month. Several interventions have also been extended to persons with disabilities (PWD), ranging from enrollment on a broad healthcare coverage to the provision of mobility tools and other form of supports to make life a bit easier for them. Under the APC, they were neglected.
Clear enough, the APC has been bad for Osun and having it back will most certainly take the state back to the sordid past that should be better forgotten. Osun APC is bad on welfare of workers and pensioners, bad on healthcare, bad on managing our differences, bad on schools infrastructure, bad on agriculture, bad on almost everything. So, what exactly does APC and Oyebamiji want with Osun? Exert more pains?
• Sarafa Ibrahim writes from Iwo, Osun state.
