Bayo Adelabu? Oh Ajimobi, what have you done??| Akinsiku Oladayo
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By the time the electoral commissioner, Demola Seriki, announced the winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial primary on that fateful dawn inside the Lekan Salami stadium on the 1st of October, 2018, Governor Abiola Ajimobi had committed an act, a paradigm, that will forever cause a shift in the political fortunes of Oyo state.

A certain Bayo Adelabu emerged from that process as the APC’s governorship candidate in the upcoming elections, no thanks to the ways of the outgoing Governor Ajimobi, who has by this singular action, trumped all other actions that would have been his major legacy as Oyo’s first citizen for 8 years.

A certain Bayo Adelabu, a former Central Bank Deputy Governor, and the instrumental Ajimobi (just) watched on as it happened.



To understand the enormous nature of this Ajimobi’s critical act, we’ll have to track back a little.

In the twilight of the Ladoja – Akala regime(s), politics was played with the currency of sorrow, tears and blood in Oyo state, because violence was the PVC; both wanton and state-sponsored violence. And oh yeah, brigandine and barbaric godfatherism was INEC with a HQ in Molete. It was very bad, some of us experienced it, while some others have seen videos.

During this time, every and any individual prodigal, people the Yorubas call “tajá-teran”, signified interest in public offices at all cadre, men and women of quality were few, and it wasn’t unconnected to what held sway inside Agodi at the time; ill-natured amala politics.

This particular fact above alienated serious and cerebral minds from Oyo politics, and Oyo people paid dearly for it as the ideal of governance suffered, terribly at that. The obvious lack of qualitative hands directly meant a lack of qualitative governance, so much Oyo and Oyo’s own became a national font of ridicule.

But then, Abiola Ajimobi became governor, and he came with this promise of transformation and restoration, a hope to restore the state back to its best and pacesetting ways. I for one, like many, was a skeptic as touching this promise, apparently because other governors before him have failed spectacularly at stopping this menace, as it was clear it would take more than a ‘mere’ political promise to overcome it and restore Oyo’s pride.

However, against the gradient of skeptism, Ajimobi actually did a number on this particular promise, standing firm against the dragon of violence-laced and pocket-lacing amala politics in Oyo state, in order to change (read transform) the ridiculous narrative it was being pelted with. He fought an establishment that was used to the status quo to a stand still, at the expense of being hated for it.

“Ajimobi ti like details ju!”
“Ajimobi o ya owo fun awon boys mo!”
“Ajimobi o gba gbere rara. O ti serious ju o jee!”. These examples and likes were the sentences used to describe the new sheriff’s unusual style that favored people over pockets, and performance over power-politicking.

Well, one can say it worked indeed. The consequent u-turn and flurry of interest in Oyo politics from ranking professionals wasn’t surprising at all. I mean, any discerning mind would know. Today, without equivocation, the Ajimobi years can be rightly adjudged and weighed in ounces of gold by the sheer quality of men who showed interest to succeed him and keep that drive to the next level.

Inadvertently, that unusual, and refined style, mode and code of operation laid a solid foundation for modern politics in Oyo state, a kind of politics that favours performance and efficiency in governance at the expense of violent and ‘share-the-money’ politicking.

With a Central Bank Deputy-Governor in Bayo Adelabu, to a global KPMG Partner in Joseph Tegbe, a barrister of upright repute in Niyi Akintola (SAN), an award-winning industrialist in Dr. Olusola Ayandele, a public administration czar in Adesoji Eniade, among others like them all showing interest, any discerning mind will know that Oyo has passed it politically perilous times.

During the pre-primary election moves, some of us already had the discretionary conviction that Oyo would be good for it, whoever emerged as the gubernatorial candidate. This came from simply judging from this pool of quality on display. No other state in the southwest had such bliss of men as aspirants, the way Oyo had in the APC, it was a record feat.

As expected, we are being proven right if moves already taken by the gubernatorial candidate, Bayo Adelabu, is to be considered. The APC gubernatorial candidate is being applauded across Oyo state for already showing an impressive level of readiness for the job . In most of his ongoing consultations with different groups of Oyo’s own, youths, party leaders, artisans, fellow professionals, community leaders, support groups, market men and women and the likes, Bayo Adelabu reportedly stands on his feet for hours, reeling out his plans, both short and long term, in accurate details and with catching clarity.

This is what Ajimobi has done. The quality of people who desired to succeed him becoming a pointer to another thing he got right.

His idea-based style of governance ensured that Oyo state got restored to its position as the intellectual and political capital of the southwest; a place where young and vibrant cerebral minds like the great Awolowo, Adegoke Adelabu (Penkelemesi), Ladoke Akintola, etc, all held sway as intellectuals practicing practical politics. Today, the effect of the Ajimobi years is making that a restored reality.

Asides it’s impact on the quality of people governing from different cadres of governance, this rare emergence of Bayo Adelabu as APC’s gubernatorial candidate, has brewed a fact that youths, sons and daughters of Oyo state with a tenable form of influence and/or affluence, can no more afford or choose to be politically apathetic. This is such that, the make-up and nature of the Oyo state’s critical mass that now gets involved in governance and politics has been transformed, tuned up really.

This, is a major feat, strong and iconic enough to trump every other acts and legacies of Governor Ajimobi as the topmost one.

Ajimobi’s prime legacy won’t be his koseleri strides in security, even though he became that governor who was able to look at the beast of insecurity in the face, and boldly enough to tame it. It won’t be in education, even though he successfully kickstarted a revolution of qualitative learning that has seen to the erection of 3 massive model schools that will serve as template for more, and also the set up of Nigeria’s first Technical University in Ibadan. It will also not be his path-breaking strides in infrastructure and welfare, strides which saw him become the first governor to be re-elected for a 2nd term by the people of Oyo state in 2015.

Rather, looking back now critically, Ajimobi’s prime long-lasting legacy will be how he became the father of modern of politics in Oyo state; referencing the way he deployed his own refinement to redefine the quality of politics and its players in Oyo state. Gratefully so, a certain cerebral Bayo Adelabu, who has been repeatedly quoted saying he desires to be “a reference to quote regarding excellent governance”, is the face of that redefinition.

Without an iota of doubt and with this Ajimobi’s critical act, Oyo state is set to be back to its pacesetting ways; just watch Bayo Adelabu.

Ajimobi destroyed Awo's free education legacy in Oyo state, the state still has the lowest literacy rate in the SW.

After Ibadan, where else is developing in Oyo? Even the Ibadan is a dead place.

Please Mr. Bayo Adelabu has a lot of work to do. I don't see any reason to rejoice...yet.