Why Adeleke is the best for Osun —Oladimeji

  Dr Muyiwa Oladimeji is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former member of the House of Representatives. He speaks on factors that make the PDP governorship candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, the best candidate in the coming election.

The outcome of the PDP governorship primary has continued to generate controversy. With this kind of development coming from a party that people expect would go in a different direction…

I don’t know what you mean by different direction.

For a party that has been out of government for many years in Osun State, people looked forward to a fresh challenge from the PDP, especially with fresh aspirants that could have given the party a mileage. But at the end of the day, it was the usual controversies.

Look, having controversies in itself is not a crime; it is how you handle such controversies that matter. And you said a new direction; yes, we have a fresh face coming up as the governorship candidate and that is Senator Ademola Adeleke. He won the primary and of course, there were challenges. That there are court cases or controversies is not a bad thing; we have to stretch our democracy to its elastic limit so that people can know. So, I don’t begrudge anybody for challenging the result of the primary.

But with the level of controversy regarding the certificate of your candidate, are you leaders not haunted by conscience that you are presenting such a governorship candidate?

Well, I don’t know what you mean by haunted by conscience and there is no controversy regarding Adeleke’s certificate. He has fulfilled all the requirements of the law and the court has ruled that he is eligible to contest.

But he presented an SSCE certificate in which he failed many subjects and even absented himself from the examination…

Well, the regulation is that you must have secondary education and he has secondary education.

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You are medical doctor with two Ph.D., is that the kind of governor you want for Osun State?

You see, let me tell you that in this country, we have had as leaders, across all parties, people parading highfaluting educational degrees left right and centre and yet this country is where it is. Even in Osun here, we have a governor who came and paraded himself as Omoluabi and an engineer and all sorts, but today, workers are not being paid their salaries. Up till now, pensioners are not being paid their dues. So, what matters is a governor who will put food on the tables of our people, who will take care of the welfare of his people, a governor with a vision for the development of the state and I can tell you that Senator Adeleke has all these.

Let me also tell you what makes Adeleke different; he is not a hungry man. MKO Abiola used to say that when you put a hungry man in the kitchen, you will get less food in the dining room. Senator Adeleke is not a hungry man, he is self-sufficient and he has a pedigree in terms of his background; his father was a senator, the brother was a former governor. He is not someone who will start looting the treasury of Osun State. He is far better than some of these thieves who have been looting the treasury left, right and centre such that the workers are suffering.

Yes, I have a Ph.D. and I am not ashamed of it, I am also a medical doctor. But that is beside the point. Do you know that former United Kingdom Prime Ministers, Jim Callaghan and John Mayor were not graduates yet they were great prime ministers?

But the opposition can use that against your candidate…

Which opposition? I hope you are not talking about the APC. That is a party whose national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, only finished modern school and he was governor for eight years. Did they see anything wrong with him?

The issue is if someone has all these fantastic degrees and at the end of the day, he is a treasury looter; that person is worse than a humble, amiable, considerate and welfarist-minded person who though has no high degrees, is ready to ensure that the welfare of the people is taken care of. That is the kind of person Senator Adeleke is and no matter the level of blackmail, PDP will win September 22 election by a landslide, because the people can see through the cheap blackmail and deceptive attempts of the APC.

In any case, governance is not about one individual; it is a team approach. So, whatever sentiment the opposition is spreading about Adeleke, they should not forget that there will be eggheads and experts that will work with the governor to make sure things go right. But like I said, Adeleke is a committed welfarist and he is not a hungry man.