By ISAAC OLUSESI
In Nigeria, Ijesa North Federal Constituency, Osun State, none of the accredited speakers starred at any notebooks, the manner of soothsayers, immersed in a divination process; and the audience, huge and diverse, listened with the profundity of loyalty and pervading interest in what the speakers were wont to say.
The event changed the Ijesa skylines last Tuesday; it was the All Progressives Congress (APC) endorsement of Governor Gboyega Oyetola, and the party in the constituency urged him to carry on for the second term in office. The party faithful, encompassed also the Igbo, Hausa, Igbira, Fulani residents across religion, sex in the 22-ward Oriade- Obokun constituency, all enamoured to the Ijesa dialect and eulogy, enthusiastically gyrated like in a gym for joy and reverberated cross culturally, quick and fast that said so much about the engagingly robust logic of the historic moment: the endorsement of Mr Governor for re- election, then his birthday, in sequence. And at the event, the party men, women and youths who dispensed hands of fellowship, fascinatingly with his Leviathan achievements in the state, also waxed stronger supports for him by the APC 2-finger victory sign, apparently in swift response to the vibrated salvos of party slogans, first fired by the party chieftains from the podium and were immediately aided effectively by party folks at the Ijebu-Ijesa Town Hall, the venue of the endorsement, filled to its rafters with contents split to the surroundings and across roads.
The goodwill messages from the party chiefs incisively shaped the years of Oyetola in the Osun governance, and were seasoned with refreshed allusions to his inexhaustible acumen and commitment in a steadily coordinated patience that have accorded him a pride of place in the Osun politics, economy and health-road-security -peace infrastructure. The speakers, one after the other, patterned his present and defined his future which explained that the developments here and there today across the state are a miniature, a tip of the iceberg. They said that more of such huge developments in terms, will come with his second term in office.
Entered the endorsement practical, and in a jiffy, the state legislature, replicated for practice in a prototype, had its mimetic Rt. Honorable Speaker Nathaniel Agunbiade mimic "a call for a motion for the endorsement of Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State for second term in office." Accordingly, the motion was clearly moved on its merits by Hon. Bosun Oyintiloye, Member, Mockup Legislature at the event, and supported by another Member, Hon. Aloba Isreal Oluwatomilayo. The motion was procedurally passed as parliamentary resolution after the ‘Yea-in-support’ unanimously roared above ‘Nay-against,’ in the simulated hallowed chamber and the ‘Yea” had it, with the traditional bang of gravel, the ceremonial hammer, for order by the mock Rt. Hon. Speaker. The situational legislation put to rest the opposition doubts about the purity of the Oyetola governorship at the next governorship poll in the state. His endorsement teethed by the parliament scenery heralded exemplary standing, earth-shaking applause from the party people, massive, at the endorsement who intensely vowed to stagnate any assemblage to his next governorship.
Little do the oppositions know that Oyetola, unassuming in politics though, he’s penetratingly a dynamite political pugilist who suffers no fools gladly, with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) weird and unguided, correspondingly, idiotic because the heaven of their dissonance, dissension and rebellion is the preserve of the idiots. “After all, in the first place, God created idiots and that was for practice,” in the words of Marks Twain, the great 19thcentury American writer in his book, _Following the Equator_ . The kicks and rankles of the familiar trick of the opposition elements are meant to undermine the laudable achievements of Oyetola in the state, but ironically, they reveal the opposition guff, wearing cynicism as a virtue on their epaulette just to provoke acute depression on the electoral integrity, dignity and discipline in the praxis of the Osun electorate. Meaning that anyone in any part of the state, marching against the APC Ijesa North federal constituency endorsement of Oyetola's 2ndterm in office, will only be arranging a rendezvous with self entrapment.
Speaking, Chief Kunle Odeyemi, Chairman APC, Ijesaland called on the traditional rulers in Osun to help resolve whatever internal strife there was in the state APC, known to them in order to enable dividends of democracy get even more equitably distributed in their domains. And Otunba Jumoke Ogunkeyede (JMK), deputy party leader, Oriade/ Obokun federal constituency, redefined democracy dividends as accountability, fairness, equity, justice and transparency, and said, "Mr Governor is daily cultivating these precious virtues of democracy and have earned him achievements." The strides, gargantuan, tremendous virtually birthed the gale of his endorsements everywhere in the state, for second term in office.
Speaking much earlier, the state party chairman, Prince Gboyega Famodun, also chairman of the event said, the endorsement of Mr Governor by the Oriade-Obokun federal constituency was the outgrowth of the party symbol shared in common by party members with enormous integration function that has assuredly made the party a party to beat in the state. The trio of Famodun, Odeyemi and JMK charged the party men, women and youths to remain steadfast in their support for the re election of Mr Governor. And responding to the Ijesha North endorsement show, Hon. Isreal Ajibola Famurewa who represented the governor, said that the state helmsman called for unification and unity of the party in the constituency. He added that any compulsive or unilateral conspiracy against peace in the party could cause effervescence of party discipline to make further development difficult. He thanked the party peoples of the constituency for the endorsement of Mr Governor for second term in office.
The event that made everybody happy, with the party leadership, happier that Oyetola is not a small mind of the Lilliputian achievements in Osun governance, was not a solo event. His 66th birthday not only got a huge mention at the endorsement, it was spiritedly celebrated with a birthday cake beautifully baked, shaped cake walk with APC logo and 4+4=8 wishes inscriptions. The endorsement event provided the icing on the cake, that was later sliced, shared and eaten at the event, with all having full advantages of the dual event of the day suffused with colorful banners of different shapes and styles that hedged the venue in the airy skylines, welcoming all to the event.
And the day verdict? The greater responsibility for the stability of APC in the state with the tested culture of cohesion, solidarity, party discipline and interest articulation shouldered by Oyetola's firm advocacy for internal peace has saved the party from diving into utter, sheer political mutual suspicion, insensate hostility, unbridled antagonism and incendiary, the much incentive basis for his brilliantly immense performances in office that also courted his popular endorsements by the different strata of the Osun governed.
The Ijesa North verdict is that Oyetola is a governor with unbeatable sense of common purpose, always in pursuits of the greatest good for the greatest number of people above all other considerations. And by that, he has assumed a concept too risky to ignore in the next governorship calculus in Osun.
The event was well attended.
**Reproduced by exigencies*
*OLUSESI wites at the Foot of Most Merciful. Most Gracious. All-knowing.*
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