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Commodore Olawunmi and the maladies this time 

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5 years ago

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An early morning inferno broke out in Circus Maximus, Rome on June 19, 64 A.D. It spread like bushfire through the ancient city. Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar’s reaction was immediate: he scapegoated Roman Christians of the time and inflicted a persecution scarcely heard of in Roman history on them. Highly chagrined by the nauseating no-holds-barred interview granted by Retired Commodore Kunle Olawunmi on Channels television last week which exposed its security underbelly, the current Nigerian government found the template of this Roman emperor, renowned for debaucheries and political murders, fascinating. It thereby went on a route similar to Nero’s, unleashing the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, (NBC) its broadcasting regulatory Rottweilers, on the journalists who conducted the interview.

The Roman fire had wrecked a colossal havoc. In nine days, of the 14 districts in Rome, it totally destroyed three, severely destroying additional seven later. While this fire was raging, classical sources among Roman elite claimed to have sighted Nero, the most infamous among Roman emperors, who had recently acquired an obsession for music and the arts, sitting on his palace rooftop, attired in theatre apparel similar to a performer about to enter the stage. He was said to be reciting by rote a line from the Greek epic, The Sack of Ilium. This new passion of Nero’s for music must have given birth to the typecast that he fiddled as Rome burned. The emperor then ordered the brutal persecution of these scapegoats. While he decreed some of his victims to be attired in animal skins, preparatory to getting dogs to tear them into shreds and eat their flesh, for some others, he ordered that they be burnt alive at nighttime pyres.

Last Tuesday, the Nigerian fire got so very intense too. Unprecedented in the history of Nigeria, terrorists caught the self chest-thumping Nigerian security apparatchik literally in flagrante. In the early hours of that day, these murderous elements, unconscionably named bandits, matched their infidel feet on the country’s military university, the Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA) Kaduna. By the time they were done, they had murdered two officers as if they were snuffing life out of gnats and abducted another big-epaulette soldier. A few other soldiers sustained serious gunshot injuries. Like itinerant Mullahs, the terrorists walked out of this highly prized, foremost military training institution, unscathed, into the dusk. This came at a time when the whole world, except this government and its palace courtiers, knows and is aghast that, regarding security and governance of the space called Nigeria, Aso Rock lacks a rudder.

Now, entered Commodore Kunle Olawunmi. Clinical, bold and unconventional, the retired military top-brass dissected the malady of governance and leadership afflicting Nigeria to its basest form in that interview. Very seldom saying anything that Nigerians didn’t know already, as a top officer-participant in the Nigerian security equation, his revelation prised the bottom off government’s can of cant and hypocrisy. If you had a modicum of respect and regards for government hitherto, that no-holds-barred interview defrosted them all. It seemed to solve a long-time jigsaw puzzle on the epidemic of violence, banditry and Boko Haram insurgency that has held on tight to Nigeria’s jugular. With the recent take-over of Kabul without a shot being fired by the Talibans and the suspected compromise of Afghan leaders in this roulette, permutations are rife that there is a mathematical permutation to get insurgents to take over Nigeria.

Many analysts have demonised Olawunmi. Typically, they even alleged that his anger at that interview was as a result of the systemic frustrations he encountered in the twilight of his stay in the military. He was unprofessional, they alleged and his revelations were similar to prattles of a chatter-box, unbecoming of a highly placed military officer of his hue. Having been entrusted with sensitive information, he shouldn’t have exposed those information in the glare of the public, they pursued further.

To me, these criticisms are unmindful of the precipice that Nigeria has been pushed to. It is gross irresponsibility to be conventional at a critical moment like this when it is obvious that those who hold the Nigerian steering wheel are bent on crashing the ship of state. Except for the Islamization agenda alleged by Olawunmi which may seem a bit off-tangent, there was nothing the retired Commodore volunteered in that interview that was not in the public domain about this government. Were we hearing for the first time that this is the most divisive government in the history of Nigeria? Was it new on us that we are trapped with an unrepentant nepotist leadership?

Even Olawunmi’s allegation of Islamization agenda may sound logical when viewed from the background of his revelation that security breach was committed every Friday at the NDA. Even a dimwit will know that, by the opening of doors weekly to Jumat prayers and the ease of penetration of the Officers’ Mess, that breach could not but happen. In this kind of equation, it is trite knowledge that spying on this key military institution as a precursor to planning the NDA-type attack was a fait accompli.

The NDA attack may have awoken Nigerians from their slumbers. Allegations that some governors, ministers and Senators sponsor both the Boko Haram insurgency and the banditry of the northwest are ten a dime on Nigerian streets. Ditto, information that the Nigerian intelligence community and the defense headquarters were aware that Bureau De Change operators were covert sponsors of the Nigerian daily blood spillage. It is in the public domain that, recently, the government of Dubai sent lists of these sponsors to the federal government. The veracity of Olawunmi’s claim that the DMI, DSS and Police intelligence know the sponsors too can be easily interrogated, as well as claim that the DSS possesses files of the sponsors.

Shouldn’t it be logical, judging by Isa Pantami’s romance with Islamic extremism, details of which are in the public domain, that “our brothers” in the forest have his sympathy? Olawunmi merely ignited Nigerians’ sense of disgust at a government that chose hesitancy in bringing these sponsors to judgment, at the expense of taking action. When you now imagine the cheetah speed with which this government is mowing down “dots in a circle” who have scarcely spilled a pint of blood and those who are merely calling for self-determination, Olawunmi’s frustration with the escalating Nigerian riddle will come into focus.

The NDA compromise just won’t jell. Under whose purview was such colossal disaster that befell the Nigerian military? Government’s reaction to it too was very tepid, too simplistic and petty. Or a combination of all. Its claim that the attack might have been a ploy by a God-knows-who to embarrass it is sickening and weak.

Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, had said that government was looking at so many scenarios. “Could this be truly a criminal attempt to violate the sanctity of that military institution? Was this an opportunistic crime? Is it political? Does somebody want to embarrass the government by doing this?” He then went on a needless voyage to recount what he called the string of victories achieved by the government: “Look at how Boko Haram is unravelling in the north; they surrendered. All of the victories that have been recorded even in the north-west — these bandits are being taken out in large numbers. So, in a climate — political climate — in which people seek to make political capital out of this unfortunate incident, you don’t rule in anything, you don’t rule out anything.”

What makes the above claim worthless is that sensible governments all over the world don’t talk like a sissy as this; they act. While it is in the province of malefactors to embarrass governments, the government’s job is to make life miserable for them. Did you hear President Joe Biden after last week’s Kabul blasts where 13 American soldiers were killed? Biden had said, not through any proxy going by the name, “presidency” as we have in Nigeria: “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.”

Terrorists killed soldiers fighting your war and all the president did was to convey his disgust through a voluble character. Nigeria has an infamous policy of granting amnesty to insurgents who kill its people at will, without regard for the philosophy behind forgiveness. In this regard, we shouldn’t be surprised at the bedlam Nigeria has become.

The global concept of amnesty is very ancient. Its principle was taken from the ancient Greek literature, Odyssey written by the great philosopher, Homer. Homer, author of the Iliad as well, had written, “Let them swear to a solemn covenant, while we cause the others to forgive and forget the massacre of their sons and brothers. Let them then all become friends as heretofore, and let peace and plenty reign.” The concept of amnesty was reinforced by Carl Schmitt, a German lawyer, who argued that a war against everyone was a civil war and “even the cold war turns to civil war” without amnesty. Without amnesty, he said, non-forgiveness becomes a vicious circle of self-righteousness and revenge. Still on the foundation of amnesty, Algerian philosopher, Jacques Derida, said it can only be measured against the fact that “forgiveness, if there is such a thing, measures itself.”

Predicated on the ethics of forgetting and what is called “the politics of a rejected memory,” amnesty is reconciliation and imposes “silence on the memory of the unforgettable.” In other words, the one granting amnesty and the amnestied, though the infraction of the latter is normally unforgivable, must take an oath to make a clean break from their memory of the past.

From the first recorded amnesty in history which happened in Athens in 403 BC, to the pardon of war criminals of the World War II, people who worked as spies, soldiers, politicians, guards etc, amnesty is the banning of recalling of a certain misfortune. As said above, a major essential of amnesty is that both parties freeze the memory of the crime but with a proviso of non-occurrence of the act.

No doubt due to the confusion of the acts of the two criminal groups that have attacked the Nigerian state – Boko Haram and Niger Delta militants – this government has sought to follow the Umaru Yar’Adua route by granting amnesty to insurgents. In 2016, through the Defence Headquarters, government inaugurated what it called Operation Safe Corridor, (OSC) a counter-insurgency approach to rehabilitate what is called “low-risk repentant Boko Haram fighters” so as to reintegrate them into society. It comes with vocational training, de-radicalization and civic programmes. Two years ago, government claimed to have rehabilitated 893 ex-Boko Haram members with the Nigerian Identity Management Commission registering about 900 of them as citizens of Nigeria.

The truth however is that, Amnesty should not be a government-militants, two way without a third wave of victims’ involvement. In Nigeria, insurgents’ atrocity is still fresh in the minds of the victims. This freshness elicits stiff opposition to granting amnesty to those who killed their children, parents and consigned them to IDP camps. More instructively, the forgetting that this government forcefully midwives is apparently linear; on government’s side alone, without reckoning with the forgetting of the amnestied. Have the killers of yesterday renounced their atrocities? Have they taken the oath to forget? Have they forgotten their deeds indeed?

Apart from the tragedy of the NDA attack, last week also brought the tragic quality of government’s interface with the public by Aso Rock to the fore. No matter his personal imperfections, Samuel Ortom of Benue State represents the undisguised antagonism of the people of Benue to this government’s eerie silence to the spate of killings in Benue, alleged to be handiwork of armed Fulani herders. In response to the Benue people’s umbrage, Nigeria’s presidency willingly took a shuttle to the sewage.

Alleging that Ortom was engaged in “promotion of ethno-religious politics and divisive utterances,” and “sectarianism and ethnicity,” government walked on a predictable route that has become a convenient path to tread by ethnic warlords masquerading as governments. These are people whose governmental style does not represent what they verbalize. This is “the Rwandan genocide.” In the release, shamelessly, the presidency tacitly underscored its Acheulean grazing route while excoriating what it labeled “so-called” Benue’s own Ranches Establishment Law. It abused Ortom for this law which it said was “intended to withhold rights and freedoms from one ethnic group alone, whilst inciting race hatred against them, amongst all others.’’ Purely self-serving and nonsensical!

It is a dramatic irony that this government would label anyone an ethnic canvasser and their defence of their people “a copy of the language of Hutu Power.” What is the difference between the president’s labeling of Igbo people “dot in a circle” and Hutu’s profiling of Tutsi as “cockroaches,” preparatory to their genocidal rout? Just after that dot labeling, Imo and the east in general have witnessed killings the figure of which seeks to shake hands with the Rwandan genocide casualty. Aso Rock’s obsessive impunity has activated that narrative of some felon dipping the Quran in the sea. It is what is burning Nigeria. The killings of the last 6 years are about rivaling the figure of the Nigerian civil war and they can be linked to promotion of the narrative of a Fulani ethnic ascendancy, just like in Rwanda.

As much as we can blame Retired Commodore Olawunmi for violating the oath of secrecy he swore to as an officer, we must realize that this is a season of anomie and not a time to acquiesce to or be rigid to observance of any ancient norms of engagement. The man dies in him who keeps silent in the face of the brand of tyranny that confronts us in Nigeria today. We needed an Olawunmi kind of engagement to ensure our sanity and to be sure we are all on the same page about these locusts among us. I agree with him that this is the worst government in the history of Nigeria but Nigeria is greater than the runners of this government. We should endure this insanity. As interminable as the remaining two years look, before we wake up, the years will soon evaporate into nothingness. What we have endured is not up to what is left. Nigerians are the ones who must be resolved not to allow this affliction to rise a second time.

 

 

Dr. Adedayo writes from Ibadan

 

 

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Opinion

Governor Seyi Makinde’s Media Chat: A Hundred And Twenty Minutes Of Trash Talk | By Sola Abegunde

Published

2 days ago

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October 13, 2026

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I knew that Governor Makinde would provide us with a hundred and twenty minutes of comic relief and at the same time, I knew he is bound to commit unforced errors which would further expose his shenanigans.

The outgoing Governor of Oyo state did not disappoint on both fronts.

Personally, I understand the need for him to have one final valedictory Media Chat.

The atmosphere might be too hot for him to even think of such luxury after the general election in 2027. So, if he’s got the opportunity now, why not take a shot at it?

I must however say that the Governor displayed his insensitivity right from the choice of the Studio the Chat was aired.

Shortly before the Media Chat commenced, I came across a release signed by the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalist, NUJ, BCOS Chapel, Com. Ademola Balogun.

Com. Balogun was full of lamentations concerning the very terrible state of the Oyo state Broadcasting Corporations, BCOS.

He was of the very strong opinion that the BCOS should have meaningful opportunities to cover Government activities.

He also called on Governor Seyi Makinde to empower the BCOS to invest in modern studio, transmitting equipment, digital broadcasting facilities and online platforms.

Com. Ademola spoke extensively about Staff welfare and other issues.

Sadly, while Governor Seyi Makinde has been consistent in empowering a particular Radio station, the Broadcasting Corporations of Oyo state, BCOS has been dying slowly.

Unfortunately, I have no good news for Com. Ademola. His lamentations will definitely fall on stone deaf ears. It is too late for Governor Makinde to change his ways. I just pray that the Governor would not wake up one day and sold off whatever remains of the Corporation.

That is just by the way. Let me address Governor Makinde’s Media Chat for whatever it is worth. The Governor spent a whole two hours venting anger and spreading outright lies and half-truths.

I am surprised that Governor Makinde has not seen any reason for him to have a second thought about his awkward and reckless comments about the Law Profession.

I am saying this because, for the second time, his Deputy was sitting closely beside him and yet, he felt like it was humorous for him to take a dig at Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli, the All Progressives Congress, APC Gubernatorial candidate, regarding his misconceived failure as a Law practitioner.

He repeated the ignorant and reckless comments about Senator Alli, not being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and for that reason, according to Governor Seyi Makinde, the Oyo South Senator is not an accomplished Legal Practitioner.

He had made that same reckless comments a couple of weeks ago and at that time also, the Deputy Governor was beside him!

The respectable man is an accomplished Lawyer of many years of experience, who had trained a lot of successful Lawyers.

I also wonder, how people like Dr. Nureni Adeniran and Olasunkanmi Olaleye, who are also Lawyers and have been working with Governor Seyi Makinde over the years would feel about those reckless comments coming from their Boss.

If you want to follow Governor Seyi Makinde’s reasoning, if you are a teacher and you did not rise to the status of a School Principal or Head teacher, then, you’re a failure.

If you are a Military Personnel and you didn’t rise to the position of a General, you’re a failure!

Any time I saw the Governor arguing in this regard, I always asked myself if he was actually himself, because, for me, only a drunkard is capable of reasoning in that manner, or, perhaps, some young elements who had taken so much banned substances.

I have carefully analyzed the 120 minutes Media Chat and I saw that Governor Seyi Makinde spent so much time treating two issues.

The first, being his frustration about his perceived betrayal by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the second being his failed attempt to rewrite the Constitution of Nigeria regarding the financial autonomy for Local Governments.

The birthday boy tried to work him through the crisis at the Circular Road, but it was obvious that the main reasons behind Governor Makinde’s Media Chat were grounded on his firm beliefs that Tinubu breached certain agreements with him and others in 2023 and his warped opinion about how the Local Governments should operate within our Federation.

Let’s start with Governor Seyi Makinde’s allegations against Tinubu.

According to him, in 2023, an agreement was signed between certain individuals, including himself.

He said there was an agreement that a Government of National Unity would be formed by president Tinubu after he won the presidential election of 2023 and that he and the Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu were signatories to that agreement.

According to him, president Tinubu was not a signatory to the agreement but he was informed after the agreement was signed!

He went further to say that on the strength of that agreement, he presented Bimbo Adekambi as a Ministerial nominee because the president had earlier told him that he wanted to appoint the Minister for Budget and Planing from Oyo state.

To his chagrin and disappointment, president Tinubu settled for Bayo Adelabu and asked him to own the nomination of the former Minister for power, a request he claimed he rejected.

He therefore concluded that all the Ministers nominated from the South West are from Bourdilon.

I have carefully analyzed this confession by Governor Seyi Makinde and I have a few questions for him.

Why is it that Governor Seyi Makinde is the only one complaining about a breached agreement?

Why did it take him all these long to come out with this fact?

What was the criteria for the nomination of Bimbo Adekambi? Did he just take a random decision to choose Adekambi without a prior relationship between the two of them or what?

How does Governor Seyi Makinde want to convince any right thinking person that he believed an agreement would be binding on Tinubu on the strength of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s alleged signature?

For me, that doesn’t make any sense, most especially, for an ” accomplished Engr” like Seyi Makinde!

I am surprised that Governor Makinde leaves out what he benefited from the alignment with Tinubu in 2023.

Remove the alignment with Tinubu in 2023, Seyi Makinde was a goner and the fact that he was able to secure a second term in office ought to have been enough for him.

I am also surprised that Governor Makinde didn’t understand that he was advertising his penchant for serial betrayal and greed when he was relating the events that shaped his re-election in 2023.

It was all about him and the decisions he took, not only affected the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP alone, it also affected certain candidates of his party during the first ballot in 2023.

Now, to the issue of Local Government Autonomy.

Governor Seyi Makinde is a very funny individual. He was very clear about his position on Local Government Autonomy in 2023.

His position was that he never even believed in their existence and I was amused when the birthday boy was saying that despite his position on Local Government Autonomy in 2023, he was still able to win in 31 Local Governments, signifying the fact that the people of Oyo state believed Governor Makinde’s explanations.

I am extremely happy that Governor Seyi Makinde has not changed his opinion on how Local Governments should operate within the Federating units.

He is still stuck on the fact that the 33 Local Governments in Oyo state should be appendages to the State Government, even, in spite of the Judgment of the Supreme Court granting them full financial autonomy.

I am shocked that Governor Seyi Makinde could attempt to confuse what happened between the Lagos state Government when Tinubu was Governor of the state and the Federal Government during Obasanjo’s period, with the illegalities he has been perpetuating with the resources 33 Local Governments.

There is a clear distinction between both scenarios.

In the case of Tinubu as Governor of Lagos state, the Lagos state Government created more Local Governments and the Federal Government was of the opinion that the state Government was wrong to have done so.

As a result of this misunderstanding, the Federal Government stopped the monthly allocations for the Local Governments in Lagos state and it led to a Judicial dispute.

In the end, the Supreme Court held that the Local Governments created by the Lagos state Government were incohate, but it faulted the Federal Government for withholding the monthly allocations belonging to the Local Governments in Lagos state.

Lagos state Government thereafter recognized and administered the newly created Local Governments as Local Government Development Areas and many states have since copied the template, including Oyo state.

In the present scenario, the president, through the Attorney general of the Federation approached the Supreme Court and sought to secure full financial autonomy for the 774 Local Governments and the Supreme Court agreed to the request.

I have been asking myself, why is it that Governor Seyi Makinde is having problems with that judgement?

The monthly allocations released to the 33 Local Governments are released against their names.

Is Governor Seyi Makinde saying that it is proper for a Governor to still be the supervisor for the 33 Local Governments?

How does the judgment of the Supreme Court translate to the Federal Government trying to take control of the 774 Local Governments?

Yorubas will always say that a dog can not stand watch over two different buildings. ( Aja kii roro, ko so ojule meji po).

I was also surprised to hear Governor Seyi Makinde talking about the fact that, instead of full financial autonomy for the Local Governments, he preferred to discuss about how the Local Governments could be empowered to survive without monthly allocations from Abuja.

Haba! Governor Makinde!! Gently now.

You are depriving the Local Governments of their entitlements and you except them to thrive. How would that happen?

Why didn’t we start with the state? Can Oyo state survive without monthly allocations?

I think everyone can now see that Bimbo Adekambi as Governor, would never allow the Local Governments to breathe.

On the other hand, Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli has promised to guarantee full financial autonomy for the 33 Local Governments and the implementation of the policy requires no rocket science. All it requires is the will.

There is an existing judgment of the Supreme Court which has outlined the steps to be taken by any willing state Government.

Sarafa Alli only needs to direct relevant stakeholders at the Local Governments to comply with the judgment and that is the end of the matter.

What is so difficult in that, if you are not covetous?

I might have to do this piece in series but I will like to warn the residents of the Circular Road.

You heard Governor Seyi Makinde. He is promising you nothing.

My only problem with him is his attempts to shift the blame of the chaos he orchestrated at the Circular Road on the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

He even said that that the Government of Ajimobi defrauded residents of the Circular Road!

Sometimes, people like Governor Seyi Makinde needs no one to enchant them. Their character is an enchantment on itself.

If you’re saying that the Governments of the late Ajimobi defrauded residents of the Circular Road, is Bimbo Adekambi not an integral part of that Government and that is before you begin to ask the Governor for proofs.

I enjoyed Governor Seyi Makinde’s valedictory Media Chat, while looking forward to the new era awaiting him next year.

My father used to tell us that the mouth of the liar does not ooze blood. ( Enu opuro kii seje).

By the way, I saw that Governor Seyi Makinde never mentioned anything about the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the abduction of Teachers and Pupils of Yawota and Esinele communities of Oriire Local Government.

How far now?

Sola Abegunde.

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Re: Adekambi vs Alli: Dr. Olanrewaju’s Descent To Soliloquizing | Sola Abegunde

Published

2 weeks ago

on

October 1, 2026

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I have read Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju’s piece titled ” Adekambi vs Alli: Between Substance And Sensationalism” and it offers me a lot of entertainment.

Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju is a seasoned Journalist no doubt. Very brilliant mind, but, he needs a lecture on politics and governance.

No matter how educated or professional you could be, if you lack basic knowledge about raw politics and governance at different tiers of Government, you are bound to struggle like a fish out of the water each time you attempt to defend certain positions.

Very obviously, Dr. Olanrewaju doesn’t know how a Local Government should operate on a normal situation, even, before the Judgment of the Supreme Court obtained by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

I will refer Dr. Olanrewaju to a document titled ” Financial Memorandum for Local Governments”.

That document speaks to how funds belonging to the Local Governments could be legally spent.

It will also provide accurate information about the roles and powers of the Local Government Chairmen, Head of Local Government Administration, the Finance and General Purposes Committee, F&GPC, how approvals for funds, projects and how contracts are signed at the Local Government level.

Had it been that Dr. Olanrewaju had proper information, I am sure that he wouldn’t have advertised his ignorance the way he did, in the argument about Financial autonomy for Local Governments which Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is promising.

He would also have known that his Principal, Governor Seyi Makinde had been engaged in criminal activities in the manner he had been withdrawing and spending resources belonging to the 33 Local Governments illegally since 2019.

Perhaps I need to repeat this for emphasis sake. There is no Law that empowers a state Governor to withdraw money belonging to the Local Governments for the execution of projects on behalf of the Local Governments.

The fact that the monthly allocations for the 33 Local Governments would have to drop on a joint account does not confer any authority on a state Governor to illegally withdraw and spend same.

It is the responsibility of the F&GPC for each of the Local Governments to identify projects it wants to execute, approve funds for same and if the funds are beyond the approving limits of the F&GPC, it will seek approval from the Governor through the office of the Commissioner for Local Governments.

If the project would be executed as a contract, it is the sole responsibility of the HLGA to sign the contract agreement.

That is what Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is saying. That he would not make illegal withdrawals from the Local Governments funds. That he will allow the F&GPC for the 33 Local Governments to function without hinderance. That he will allow the Career officers to do their duties assigned to them by Law.

If Governor Seyi Makinde doesn’t believe in the existence of the Local Governments and he is not hiding this fact and Sarafa Alli is saying, I believe in a functional and free Local Government, where is the sensationalism in that?

Truth hurts. Dr. Olanrewaju can not, through his essay, which I consider an afterthought, rewrite the fact that, his Principal publicly declared that he doesn’t believe in the existence of the Local Governments, not to talk of allowing them to function freely.

I am surprised that Dr. Olanrewaju is of the opinion that Senator Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli is not saying what he would do differently.

I know that the Special Adviser on Media to Governor Seyi Makinde is not deaf. Neither is he blind or dumb. He is only being hypocritical.

How else does the Allied People’s Movement, APM and its Gubernatorial candidate want the All Progressives Congress, APC Gubernatorial candidate to say what he is going to do differently?

On this issue of Financial autonomy for Local Governments, Sarafadeen Alli is saying, contrary to the illegalities of the past seven years plus, he will not concern himself with the responsibilities that are ordinarily that of the Local Governments.

On Education, he has declared that he will ensure that we go back to the 30 Pupils per classroom policy of the former Governor, Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja, now, H. I . M, Oba Senator Rasidi Adewolu Ladoja.

He said he will revive the Broadcasting Corporations of Oyo state, BCOS which is gasping for breath under Governor Seyi Makinde.

He was emphatic about the fact that he would set up a Committee to review the crisis created at the Circular Road by Governor Seyi Makinde within 72 hours when he is elected as the Governor of Oyo state.

He said he would review the sales and handing over of our Farm Settlements to Estate Developers amongst other promises.

On these issues, what are the clear positions taken by Adekambi?

If Dr. Olanrewaju wants us to believe his cock and bull stories about the performance of the 33 Local Governments under Seyi Makinde, I challenge him to ask his Principal to publish the statement of income and expenditures for the 33 Local Governments in the past seven years plus.

He should give us a breakdown of the total figure of the monthly allocations received on behalf of the 33 Local Governments, the breakdown of salaries and allowances paid, the number of projects executed, identities of the contractors who handled projects, the contract agreements, total figure of the Internally Generated Revenues, IGR received by the Local Governments and the VAT.

In the absence of these vital information, which I am certain they will never dare to make public, I want to humbly suggest that Dr. Olanrewaju should go and update his knowledge about how certain things are done.

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Ladoja @82: When the ladder becomes too tall and Makinde’s sin of ingratitude | By Ayinla Joseph

Published

2 weeks ago

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September 28, 2026

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The Yoruba say, when a man forgets the ladder that took him to the top of the iroko tree, the fall that awaits him will be narrated as a proverb.

On Thursday, Ibadan stood still for its king. Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja clocked 82. Not 82 years of mere age, but 82 years of bruises, battles, betrayals and benediction. A former Senator. A former Governor. An elder statesman who, like Oduduwa, returned as king. The following day, Friday, Oba Ladoja also clocked one year on the throne of his forefathers.

Ibadan celebrated him. Nigeria celebrated him. The Presidency sent greetings. Former governors knelt. Serving governors bowed. The Alaafin of Oyo paid tribute. The Soun of Ogbomoso poured libation of words. Even the Aseyin, far in Iseyin, bought a full page in a national daily to say: our father lives.

But in Agodi Government House, there was silence. Cold, deliberate, imperial silence.

Governor Seyi Makinde did not felicitate his king. No advert. No statement. No courtesy of any sort extended. Nothing. His protégé, Bimbo Adekanmbi, toed the same line of contempt. For 48 hours, Ibadan people waited for a word that never came, until shame forced a whisper.

We must ask: what manner of politics is this?

In 2019, it was this same Ladoja who held Makinde’s hand when Makinde had no hand to hold. It was Ladoja who coordinated the coalition, who gathered the angry, the broken and the hopeful, and stitched them into a garment called victory for a man who had never won anything before. Without Ladoja, there would have been no Omituntun in 2019. And the man knows it.

Philosophers call it the Paradox of Power. Machiavelli warned about it in “The Prince”: that power acquired through the mercy of others must be sustained by gratitude, otherwise it consumes itself. Plato called such rulers philosopher-kings who failed philosophy. Men who know how to win power but not how to carry it.

History is littered with them.

Emperor Nero of Rome who burnt the city that made him emperor. King Rehoboam in the Bible who told the elders who made him king: “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist.” Emperor Commodus who thought Rome was his father’s farm and turned the palace into a circus until the circus swallowed him.

Seyi Makinde governs like them — as an emperor, not as an Omoluabi. A man who believes loyalty must flow upwards to him, but must never flow downwards from him. He rides on the shoulders of giants and then complains that the giants are too tall.

Today it is Ladoja he snubs. Yesterday it was the Alaafin. The day before, the Soun. Tomorrow, which Oba will taste his disdain? He has transferred his personal hatred for the Olubadan stool into a war against all royal stools in Oyo State. That is not politics. That is poison.

And what shall we say of Bimbo Adekanmbi, his political son, who has learnt this ignoble art of ingratitude so perfectly? The Yoruba say, “the child who says his mother will not sleep, he too will not sleep.” To watch a man seeking to be governor practise contempt for the throne he seeks to govern is a disaster foretold.

Oyo people know Omituntun 2.0 for what it is — a poisonous pill coated with sweet advertisement. If 2.0 can openly humiliate an 82-year-old first-class monarch who made him, what will Omituntun 3.0, headed by his anointed, do? It will be the unkindest cut of all. It will be the complete desecration of the Omoluabi ethos that Ibadan and Oyo hold sacred.

Seyi Makinde will be remembered. Not for the roads that crack before commissioning. Not for the parks that lead to nowhere. He will be remembered as the governor who rode on the backs of eminent men and made every one of them regret that they ever lent him their shoulders.

Ladoja at 82 needs no advert from Agodi to be great. The king’s greatness is not conferred by the governor. But the governor’s smallness is exposed by how he treats his king.

Oyo people, shine your eyes. This affliction must not rise a second time.

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