Osun 2018: Preparing well for post-Aregbesola era

ON September 12, 2018, the electorate would return to the polls to elect the governor that would steer the affairs of Osun State for another four years. The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is seen as the party to beat at the polls, not because it’s been in power for almost eight years now but largely because the main opposition party on ground there, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, appears to have been dogged by crisis. The most prominent member of the party and governorship candidate in the 2014 governorship election, Senator Iyiola Omisore, is reported to have defected to the Social Democratic Party, SDP. The development leaves Ademola Adeleke, the senator representing Osun West, as about the most noticeable member of the party in Osun.

Governor Olusoji Rauf Aregbesola has listed the construction of roads and building of schools among his main achievements. Aregbesola also launched a tablet called Opon Imo which the state government distributed to secondary school students. The governor equally dabbled in the construction of cargo airport. The annual Christmas free train ride from Osogbo, the state capital, to Lagos is very popular among the people of the state.

Meanwhile, critics say some of the projects embarked upon by the administration are not what the people need at this point. The projects Osun needs, many agree, are those that will jump-start the economy of the state at a time of serious financial difficulty arising from the poor income from the Federation Account and low internally generated revenue. On this score, the cargo airport, according to critics, for instance, is a misplaced priority to the extent that there is an airport in Ibadan which is about an hour’s drive from Osogbo.  The money expended on the airport, in their opinion, could have been used to offset unpaid salaries of public servants and establish viable commercial projects. Presently, Osun is the only state in the South West owing salaries for more than one year. The Opon Imo also generated a lot of controversy owing to the way the contract for the project was awarded.

Similarly, the people of Ede, where the late Isiaka Adeleke, a former governor of the state and senator representing Osun West, hailed from, are accusing the state administration of being isolated, particularly when it comes to the siting of projects. Isiaka Adeleke, until he died, was a strong APC member. Shortly after his demise, his younger brother, Demola, also an APC member, wanted to replace him in the bye election, but the Aregbesola-led APC government chose Mudashiru Hussein instead as the party’s candidate. The action infuriated the people of Ede, leading to Demola defecting to the PDP. APC lost the election. The PDP victory was interpreted in many politically informed circles as a demonstration that the APC isn’t as popular in every part of Osun as outsiders were meant to believe. In essence, the ruling party is not unbeatable in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.

Ahead of the September poll, three people from the APC are being touted as possible successor to Aregbesola: Chief of Staff to the governor, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola; Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr Moshood Adeoti, and a former Chief of Staff,  Mr Peter Babalola.

On the other side, that is, the opposition PDP, is Senator Demola Adeleke, Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi, Chief Lere Oyewumi, among others. However, there appears to be a game-changer in the race. Akinade Akanmu Ogunbiyi, the Group Chairman of Mutual Benefits Group, and vying to occupy the Government House Oshogbo on the platform of the PDP, comes highly recommended.

An innovative leader and well- grounded scholar, who identifies opportunities and creates great and highly beneficial values from them through entrepreneurship, his type of skills is needed to unlock the potential of the state.

Ogunbiyi is a 1986 agricultural economics graduate of University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife).  An associate member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of London; a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (FCIIN), Nigerian Institute of Directors  (FIoD);  West Africa Insurance Institute,  Banjul, Gambia and also  Risk Managers Society of Nigeria (RIMSON), his career development in insurance started during his undergraduate studies when he ventured into agricultural insurance as his field of specialization. Soon after graduation, Ogunbiyi was employed, in 1988, by the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON PLC) as a Research & Planning Officer. He worked in various strategic capacities in the corporation, including the training of chief executives of Insurance Companies from African countries.

In his entrepreneurial pursuits, he took quite some risks. He gave up an impressive and promising career at NICON to go into insurance consultancy– a business hitherto unexplored and without a precedent of success in Nigeria. Ogunbiyi was the pioneer Chief Executive of Finance & Insurance Expert Limited, a firm of finance, insurance, environmental and management consultants, as Managing Partner/Chief Executive Officer in 1992.

A resilient business manager, he has continued to create wealth for the nation through the establishment of the Mutual Benefits Group- a business empire with nine subsidiaries and over 5,000 employees. Ogunbiyi is also the Chairman of the USIG, a real estate investment firm, and Charles Enterprises LLC, both based in the US, and CIL (Incorporated) UK.

A philanthropist, he is the chief promoter of a private university coming on stream shortly under the Arubiewe Educational Foundation. The Foundation has supported over 100 scholarship awards and sponsorship of students in secondary and tertiary education levels.

The Midas touch that Ogunbiyi has used to build a world-class business empire, and the human feeling that informed the establishment of the Foundation this accomplished entrepreneur to help the less privileged, is all the Osun people need to turn the fortunes of the state around in the post-Aregbesola era.

• Samuel, a political scientist, is a resident of Ilesha, Osun State