The main challenger in the Osun State governorship election, the Peoples Democratic Party’s Ademola Adeleke, parades himself as the harbinger of light with a campaign slogan “imole de”; a Yoruba phrase that translates to the light is here. But his plans and vision for the state lack clarity and illumination.
While campaigning and during media rounds, he has stuttered and floundered, failing to articulate any real point as to why he deserves a shot as governor. Not even with the support of prepared notes; an almost clownish feature of his media appearances that all but reveals his astonishing inability to convey even the most basic understanding of his supposed policy actions extemporaneously.
One is reminded of an exchange he had with a prominent aide to a former Speaker of the Senate during which he completely ceded policy proposals to the young man after being unable to assert himself in the conversation; thus confusing the public on who the actual candidate was. A man who cannot demonstrate thought leadership in an exchange with young aides is definitely not one who should be placed in charge of a state.
Contrast this comical mess with the campaign of incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola who has premised his appeal for another term on his faithful devotion to his ‘Ileri Oluwa’ pledge to continue and expand the revamping of critical sectors of the state and, through the facilitation of new growth and economic investments, fortify it against external shocks that hitherto crippled ambitions and threatened state obligations to the main drivers of the economy.