In his entire eight years in office, President Muhammadu Buhari maintained a gung ho look, almost like an ultra-human from the outer planet. He rarely, if ever, granted press interviews let alone come close to his subjects in town halls. This heightened the laughable joke cracked by Buhari himself about being a body double.

Even during elections, televised debates did not happen. So grim and cultural was Buhari’s official alienation from the people that President Bola Tinubu seemed to mimick the Buhari parody of successful public evasion during the 2023 presidential election campaigns.


Governors are a bit different as they are known to wine and dine with the people only during election campaigns. Afterwards, many of them remain physically and emotionally detached from the people, making leadership at the highest level seem a sombre, macabre and extra-mundane affair. Not so for Ademola Adeleke, the dance persona and performer of a leader!

One writer described the contrast between Adeleke and Gboyega Oyetola, his predecessor: “A man of advancing years, Oyetola tends to be grave, studied and soft-spoken, but Adeleke is a hurricane — free, lively and in no way reserved – and connects with young people in ways that many can only dream of”. Now with state power, Adeleke adds stage power to enthrall his subjects. In so doing, he occasionally lightens the burden of Nigeria as one of the worst places in the world to be a human being.

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https://www.primebusiness.africa/ademola-adeleke-the-osun-governor-and-his-dance-cap/