Thursday 24 December 2020

Decade Rule of the Progressives in Osun: A Cause to Preserve the Divine Union of the Present with the Past

Story by Razaq Adedeji Jimoh 

The Preamble

IT is as well a decade of the progressives’ rule in Osun State that was celebrated on November 26, 2020 as Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the State’s Chapter of the All Progressives Congress rolled out the drums for the celebration of Oyetola’s 2years in office. I say this with the logic that it was yet a union of the 2 years of Oyetola and the 8 years of his immediate past predecessor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola.

I am not alone in this line of thought. I should however say I share this view with the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as so clear in his congratulations message to the substantive celebrants, Governor Oyetola. Acknowledging the giant stride Oyetola had achieved so far, he said he said: “Within two years, the impact of your people-oriented and responsive government has been felt across the length and breadth of your state. You have built on the legacies of your predecessor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Thank you for making Osun. Thank you for making APC proud. Thank you for you have made all of us (the progressives) proud".

The sense in this is deeper than imagined anyway. Had the will of God made it possible that Osun fell from the rule of cerebrals to the grip of dancer clowns two years ago, there would not be this celebration while the past would have been dead. But to His glory, He chose to create Ileri Oluwa from the ribs of Oranmiyan for the union of the past 8years of the latter with the 2years of the former. Therefore, it is the wedding anniversary of the past APC rules with the present one that was celebrated on November 26. The union makes the oxygen that keeps the APC alive as the government in continuum in Osun today.

In trying to put the Osun education policy reversal by Oyetola in contexts of politics and history to establish the trailing insinuations of feud between the duo as unwarranted mischief, professor Niyi Akinnaso observed that the reversal rather meant to show that the APC government of the past and present governs in continuum of marital bliss contracted to ensure that the wishes of Osun people prevailed. He said Aregbe already gave a hint of the policy reversal as possible imperative the public should expect from the new government.

For better clarity, Akinnaso drew his conclusion of the union of Oranmiyan with Ileri Oluwa by reconciling the statements of the duo during their metaphorical wedding planning – the period of campaign for the election that brought the change of baton. He quoted Aregbe to have said: “If my party believes there are areas which I ought not to have done or done differently, the party will adequately inform Ileri Oluwa (Oyetola) and he would do it. So expect him to do things differently”

 To bring forth the full weight of Aregbe’s message, Akinnaso went further to state the aligning statement of Oyetola as then incoming Governor: “If it is the yearning of majority of the people that we should reconsider any policy… We would look at”.

It must therefore come to the psyche of all concerned that it is this blissful union of the foremost thriving couple in the Land of Virtue that the traducers seek to put asunder. And so it is yet the duty of the concerned that they hold it by sacred rote to preserve the union in their own interest.

The cause for this has its core testimony in a curiosity the Osun People are wont to forget so soon: the wonder that is it anything but a course of God’s Will, Allah’s Way that the same Chief Iyiola Omisore who was the core origin of the destabilization of the Osun progressives at incipient of this Fourth Republic that would yet become the metaphorical ‘Man of God’ – the Clergy – to solemnize this Union of Oranmiyan with Ileri Oluwa in 2019 – twenty years after?

Whereas the dots of this Omisore’s algorithm of the progressives politics in Osun has been well established in the book of Political History of Alimosho (still at mint), Civics Journal has found it worthy to bring the excerpt for the people of Osun to appreciate how far they have journeyed through the wilderness wild barbarity to human colony. The excerpt reads thence and it is an interesting stor to read.


Excerpts from the Book of Political History of Alimosho  

IT is quite evidential that in Nigeria, we live as a people that hardly sit back to connect the dots of our respective histories, both severally and as a people, to make out a sense of our existential course of values. Steve Job once underscored the essentiality of this task by making it a subject of his biography. In our case, we erroneously celebrate this failure in pride of our cultural disease and literally flaunt it as Short Memory Syndrome (SMS). It is only for want of a way to deny this as a tragedy of intellectual handicap that we embrace the excuse of SMS. In practical philosophy, SMS may have its value when it is ordinarily made a basic ingredient for forgiveness. But for fact, it is a matter of weakness to rise above primordial sentiment – not forgiveness – in our own case.

By November 26, 2018, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregesola would have served out his 8-year rule in the State of Osun as Executive Governor and Chief Security Officer. In the findings of this author from a subjective study of the diverse agenda and issues about the subject of Oranmiyan as a phenomenon, it seems to be an indisputable fact that the part of Oranmiyan at governance has overwhelmed the parts of its origin and struggles. The latter two seem to have been pushed into oblivion. Yet, a part can never be greater than whole. Thus to say it is only the holistic study of the whole parts to the Oranmiyan phenomenon that we can help the youth of Osun, indeed the Nigerian’s, to understand the history required to shape their parts to life in building today such that they can be part of the future as humanly desired.

In the parts of Oranmiyan’s conception and struggles are lessons in leadership courage as complementary to leadership charisma for today’s youth in prospect of their leadership in future. In their scattered dots of disjointed parts, like image puzzle, they might not be meaningful. But when the dots are connected to join the three parts – the conception, the struggle and the governance; a meaningful picture is bound to emerge to make a whole sense of a compass to guide the youths through their leadership formative year.


Let’s look at it this way: two of the prominent events amongst those of political evils President Olusegun Obasanjo planted as terrorism officialdom during his tenure were the assassinations of Chief Bola Ige of Osun State and Engr. Funsho Williams of Lagos State. At the interment ceremony of Williams in Lagos on 10th of August 2006, the officiating Minister, Rev Father Marvin Ubili of St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, Yaba, observed with posers that the killers “who would later be celebrated as heroes” of democracy could only be traced to the ruling class on account of evidential circumstance linked to the inexplicable peculiarity’ of the deceased’s’ security operatives.

The Clergy queried: “Where were the policemen guarding the late Chief Ige when the assassins came? We don’t know! Where were the policemen guarding Funsho Williams when the killers came? Nobody knows!”

The question now is how relevance is that observation made in 2006 to the contemporary time of Oranmiyan at governance today?

In 2001 when Chief Ige was killed, the nearly day-old infants at the year are secondary school graduates at the administration of Aregbe as Governor of Osun State while Chief Iyiola Omisore made the visage of opposition. For lack of history, how would these youths of secondary school graduates be guided in their choice of role model between these two? Coincidentally, the duo equally made the opposing personages of the events surrounding the death of Ige, whose only offence against Obasanjo’s Presidency as presumed to inform the killing is herein later explained in title of The Fall of Araba in satirical prose...

It is not likely that in taking the statistics, 2 out of 50 people (not the youth only) of Osun would be able to connect the conception of Oranmiyan Project by Ogbeni Aregbesola to being his decision to rise against the rule of tyranny and to halt the high profile political murders that had caught Hon Olagunju, Chief Ige, Alhaji Olajoku, etc as victims. It was also a resolve to dismantle the beast colony the Obasanjo’s presidential evil had enthroned in the state.  Because the two parts of Oranmiyan’s origin and struggles had the nuclei of their events of connection to Osun rooted in Alimosho, it is simply providential that documenting the about twenty years of the Lagos Local Government’s political history would encompass the corollary value it has in the holistic study of what is today known as the Oranmiyan Phenomenon.

This is the core goal of the Political History of Alimosho in nexus to Osun. Interestingly, this is a front row account of the conception of the Oranmiyan project and the struggle to actualize the mission as conceptualized. Because the author was involved!  

To this author, then at incipient of its shindig, the philosophy that informed the choice of ‘Oranmiyan’ title for the Project was not clear. But it was clear to all the people of Alimosho Political Caves that it was a tide of Aregbe's governorship aspiration for the State of Osun. I call it ‘Alimosho political caves’ because the shindig of the purpose of Oranmiyan Project echoed across all the political parties – PDP, AC, the residual AD, ANPP, etc. The PDP cave was particularly enthralled with it in emotional jittery for the potential threat it posed to the party as a ruling government in Osun State.

In the AC cave; because the 8-year privilege of holding the portfolio of Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure had strategically exposed Aregbe to becoming a progressives’ icon across the state, the Oranmiyan interest that evolved from the Alimosho cave's soon secured the solidarity of the entire State's Action Congress members to become a Lagos Chapter's project. Indeed, Oranmiyan did become an auxiliary project for the Lagos AC for two reasons: first, it later became more discernible to be a liberation struggle for the people of Osun -- a cause an Ijesha man had chosen to champion from his Alimosho base in Lagos. Second, the Action Congress was formed on the philosophy of a political institution strongly poised for the liberation of Lagos State and the Nigerian nation at large from presidential idiosyncrasies tilting towards an extremism of what I have chosen to describe as the ‘Criminality of His Excellency in Power’.

At the behest of President Obasanjo’s body Language, his ruling party, PDP, had adopted a strange cultural philosophy for the new democracy he was superintending: that the party’s fundamental rule of engagement was a rule of might inspired by the typical instinct of the struggle for power in beast colony – not one of the conventional rule of law inspired by the logic of mind and cerebral power of thinking in human community.

Before the Birth of Oranmiyan: Omisore as spoiler


There is no doubt that a thorough objective assessment of the eight years rule of President Obasanjo, in fairness, will not fail to conclude that it was the darkest era of governance in Nigeria’s republics. Less than two years into his first tenure, the record of political murders had doubled the less than six years regime of the maximum despot, General Sanni Abacha. His regime’s act of state terrorism and audacious tyranny was never in minimal parity with the Abacha's either. While Abacha's victims and targets were localised in southwest region, Obasanjo era’s was wide spread across the nation, particularly when he began to conceive the idea of Operation Totality (“OT”) way back in 2000…

At end of the 2003 general elections, the PDP captured 5 out of 6 states in the Southwest geopolitical zone were captured for Obasanjo’s “Mainstream Politics” induction. The succeeding PDP governors were Gbenga Daniel for Ogun State, Rashidi Ladoja for Oyo State, Ayodele Fayose for Ekiti State, Brig General Olagunsoye Oyinlola (rtd) for Osun State and Olusegun Agagu (deceased) for Ondo State. It is on record that except Ladoja that rather became a victim of the political subterfuge that brought him to power and Agagu who would later taste a dose of Mimiko's poison of treacherous politics, the collective regime of Fayose, Daniel and Oyinlola was a psychopathic siege on their respective states. It was an era of harvests of deaths such that Wole Soyinka would eventually be convinced that “the PDP (as a political party) harboured a nest of killers”.

At the end of their first tenure in their respective states in 2007, the residents had encountered substantial terror. It overwhelmed them such that even in their wailing for a saviour, ‘terror seemed to be taking their sounds’ before they made them in their bondage. No one seemed to hear them!

How it all began and grew to Oranmiyan Phenomenon is the subject of interest here. However, in totality of the narrative of the three parts – Origin of Oranmiyan Project, the Oranmiyan Struggle and Oranmiyan Idiosyncrasies in governance, it will surely end up  being a case study of how the latent war of Operation Totality was commanded from the Presidency in Abuja.

It should therefore make sense to give a strong insight to the agonies of Osun people in the tenure of Oyinlola as case study for what happened in other states so ‘captured’ for the agony of PDP bondage. Thus so it should also hold for our belief that it was that cry of the people of Osun in that typical bondage of tyrannical terror that informed the rise of Oranmiyan in Alimosho.

In that OT war commanded from the palatial Obasanjo’s Presidency, the stratagem was a deliberate use of the federal might to destabilise the regime of the ruling AD party in the states, using the force of fifth columnist to undermine their administration. In the case of Osun, Chief Bisi Akande was the Executive Governor of the State. The first fatality of the war were marked by the demise of one Honourable Olagunju, a member of the First Osun State House of Assembly in this Fourth Republic and the eventual death of Chief Bola Ige – then Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation yet in the cabinet of President Obasanjo.

Governor Bisi AKande had barely settled down in office when his Deputy Governor, Chief Iyiola Omisore, became his pain in the neck as the fifth columnist in that administration. Instigating the Deputy Governors against their principal officers seemed to be the prime strategy adopted for the OT war. It would seem that the process for enlisting the pliable lieutenants for a mole in the administration entailed infusion of a dope of treachery into the psyche of the Deputy Governors for the mission to undermine the regime of their principals. Those of Osun (Omisore) and Lagos (Akerele-Bucknor) appeared more vulnerable to the dope offered in pecuniary materials and kindness of thorough abuse of the federal might.

For the matter of Osun in discuss, Chief Bisi Akande (November, 2004) explains how Omisore was used to destabilise his administration from his principal witness’ account and a victim’s real experience.

He said: “I also which to recall another incident. I received telephone calls in Mecca that the Osun State Police Command was being directly, without passing through the Inspector general of Police, controlled from Aso Rock by the PDP leadership, including President Obasanjo himself. I was asked to break my pilgrimage rituals to return to Nigeria to avoid a declaration of  State of Emergency being planned for Osun State. The Story was that if a few people could be killed in a riot, President Obasanjo would suspend me from office as the governor and takeover the State.

“Riots were truly orchestrated. The House of Assembly was sacked (by armed thugs). Arrest of people with arms and charms parading as rioters were made. Commands were coming from Aso Rock to the Police in Osun State that prosecution should be stopped and those arrested should be released”.


Chief Akande further explained how he reacted to the issue: 
“Uncle Bola (Ige) phoned and asked me to return home... Governor Bola Tinubu (also on the Hajj) and I discussed the desirability of returning home urgently too... (But) I decided to stay back for another ten days thereafter. He (Bola Ige) advised me to speak to the President (Obasanjo) on phone. I did not attempt doing so... I am happy, however, that I had the opportunity of telling President Obasanjo in writing, on my arrival from pilgrimage, (about) his harassment and intimidation of my administration’s security apparatus in Osun State during my absence”.

Iyiola Omisore would later become the prime suspect in the murder of Chief Bola Ige, the next victim of the state terrorism linked to Obasanjo's mission of operation totality. And curiously, Obasanjo’s conduct did not fail to give him out for a suspicion of accessory after the fact of the murder of his Cabinet member…

The Coming of Oranmiyan: the Struggle and the Alimosho's Leg of the War Stratagems

To this author, the basis for the choice of ‘Oranmiyan’ as identity for governorship ambition has not been discerned as a direct revelation from the visage, Ogbeni Aregbe, at the moment of writing this segment. The author was however an integral part of the political struggles and the strategic content by which the people of Osun State were eventually liberated. And curiously, while Oranmiyan was conceived as purpose vehicle for the liberation, only a few of Osun people realized the imperative of the cause. But Oranmiyan had since justified why he picked the gauntlet to the impressive appreciation of Osun people. The narrative of that Oranmiyan struggle is the subject of this chapter…

Beyond the goal for which it was conceived, Oranmiyan Project would later transform into Oranmiyan phenomenon from which many issues arose in subsidiaries. As implementation began – hereinafter discussed as The Oranmiyan Struggle, the whole essence of Oranmiyan as defined in mission would turn out to be a Policy Centre for Strategic Actions in legitimate means to dislodge a brutal despot and his tyrannical regime from power. This literally makes this passage's theme to be a narrative of the strategic activities for the epicenter of the struggle and the theatre of the struggle – all being the State of Osun in Nigeria – as logically conceived from Alimosho County in nexus to the Ikeja GRA base of the scheming.

Every festival time, it has become the practice of Osun State to deploy Railway transportation for his policy of “Family Reunion” in fulfillment of the constitutional mandate the fundamental principle of governance which shall include the promotion of harmonious family unit. However, it should not be any gainsaying that only infinitesimally small People of Osun would be able to tell in convincing term that the policy is in memory of that day Oranmiyan defied the threat of fatwa pronounced on its ‘Symbol’ – Aregbe – against his planned formal ambitious return to Osun. He escaped the ambush of enemy to arrive Osun with the cover of Railway.

This and others are what this chapter intends to highlight with a view to explain the underpinning strength of the strategic base of Alimosho Politics in Lagos.

Having accepted to lead the political liberation struggle for Osun State, Aregbe embraced a new political title – The Symbol – to depart from his previous Moniker for Lagos political brand – The Young. It was not too difficult to discern that in full content and lexical meaning, it implied the contemporary visage of Oranmiyan; as to be addressed as The Symbol of Oranmiyan. This again is my presumption of the thoughtful intendment…

It had been mentioned that Brigadier Olagunsoye Oyinloa (rtd) was the eventual beneficiary of the Obasanjo’s OT war in Osun. What has not been done is the whole narrative of Oyinlola’s regime in the context of which Osun literally regressed to a beast colony.


It mattered that following the impeachment and arrest of Chief Iyiola Omisore for the murder trial that clamped him in prison detention, Oyinlola inherited the evil structure Obasanjo had used Omisore to create…
The pains of Aregbe’s tribulations that have become the later pleasures of Osun people today revolved around the post 2003 general elections. With the 2003 election over; Obasanjo was now decked with euphoric garlands of his double feats: the 90% success of his ambitious drive to push Yoruba to PDP mainstream and his second term presidential victory, which took particular cognizance of his late wife, Stella Obasanjo, groveling on her knees before Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to clear the stumbling thuds on the path of her husband’s reach for the second term PDP presidential ticket. But it was an unfortunate era for the Yoruba nation; as thus it was for Atiku Abubakar anyway. The purported metaphoric kasa kasa baba kese kese had arrived. The reign of impunity was now enthroned. More enlistment of high profile political killings began to count across the region – from Funsho Williams in Lagos to Dipo Dina et al in Ogun State. From Ayo Daramola et al in Ekiti to Alhaji Olajoku et al in Osun State. But the scenarios of Osun yet remain our subject of interest.

Oyinlola had hardly settled down to governance before the barbaric siege of PDP on the State began…Thence too, the Oranmiyan struggle started earnestly as the plot giving it the thrust became rooted in Alimosho, Lagos. The epicenter of the struggle where the Lagos plots had to be executed was Osun State – then metaphorically described as the den of “Lion Oyinlola”. A school of thought even had it for suggestion that no metaphor could better describe the activities of the struggle better than what it really was: a full scale war. The thinking from this quarter should not be any point less than 100 per cent correct on account of the experience of 2005 edition of Oroki Day event. It was one date that gave another empirical support to the beast colony Osun State had degenerated to from Obasanjo's Operation Totality as purportedly commanded directly from his Presidency. It was the day Aregbe escaped death only by the skin of his teeth.

Really, the Oroki date encounter ought to have made it to a heritage of significant landlubber in the political history of Osun State. This proposal is never because of its tragic magnitude, but because it compares rationally in parity of purpose and act to the fatal event of February 13th 1976 in which then Head of State, General Muritala Muhammed encountered his fate of death. The Muritala and Aregbe's bullet ridden vehicles are good evidential monuments for the relics of their respective encounters in liberation cause... 

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