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On July 7, multiplereports claimed that Osun state governor, Ademola Adeleke, nominated two of his family members to commissioner positions. The reposts claimed that Adeleke nominated his daughter, Adenike Adeleke, and his uncle, Moruf Adeleke.
On Wait First, we sort claims into three categories. If it’s true, it gets a fresh banana rating from us. A false claim is burnt dodo, and a misleading claim is cold zobo.
So, is this claim valid? Did Adeleke nominate his daughter and uncle as commissioners?
[Ademola Adeleke / Daily Post]
Background
On July 7, the Osun State House of Assembly confirmed the list of 25 commissioner-nominees forwarded to the House for screening and confirmation by Governor Adeleke.
Among the names that made the list were Adenike Adeleke and Moruf Adeleke. The two share the same surname as the governor. Following the announcement, there were reactions on social media criticising the governor for presumably appointing his relatives into government. Some online news platforms also ran with this news.
Our partners, FactCheckElections, noted that “social media users reacting to the claim viewed the purported appointment as a ‘double standard/nepotism’ and inappropriate in government.”
Verification
FactCheckElections looked into the claim. Here’s what they found:
“The spokesperson to the state governor, Olawale Rasheed, has debunked the viral claim that his principal nominated his daughter and uncle for commissioner.
Contrary to the narratives making the rounds that two of the commissioner-nominees are Adeleke’s daughter and uncle, Rasheed told the media that the nominees are not the governor’s family.
They are ‘bonafide indigenes of Osogbo Land’, he said.
He added: Prof Adeleke was born in Ilesa and hails from Osogbo, the state capital. Mrs Adeleke is the daughter of Chief Omidiran of Osogbo Land and wife of the late Executive Governor of Osun State, Senator Isiaka Adeleke.”
FactCheckElections reports that the governor is from the Adeleke family of Ede in Osun State.
Verdict
The claim that Governor Ademola Adeleke nominated his relatives to commissioner positions is misleading and, therefore, cold zobo.
The confusion stems from the fact that they share the same surname. However, it has now been confirmed that they are not from the same bloodline as the governor.
For many Nigerian politicians, becoming the governor of a state is the pinnacle of political success and should be the time to sit back and enjoy. That doesn’t seem to be the case for Ademola Adeleke, the dancing governor of Osun State who currently has little reason to dance.
On December 15, 2022, Adeleke alleged that the former governor of Osun State whom he defeated at the polls, Gboyega Oyetola, left ₦407.32 billion in debt.
What’s the breakdown of the gist?
Oyetola has boasted in the past that he was able to successfully run Osun State without borrowing a dime. The new sheriff in town, Adeleke, decided to check out the claim with the office of the state’s Accountant-General. His conclusion was that it was untrue. He added that a portion of the debt comes from a bridge finance facility of ₦18.04 billion which Oyetola borrowed after he lost the election in July.
GOVERNOR ADEMOLA ADELEKE REVEALED THE TOTAL DEBT PROFILE OF OSUN STATE TO COUNCIL OF TRADITIONAL RULERS IN THE STATE
“The only fund in government coffers, as of Monday, November 29, 2022, was for November 2022 workers’ salary. Otherwise, the state treasury was empty. If the ₦76 billion debts on salaries and pensions are added, the state is indebted to the tune of ₦407.32 billion. The amount owed to contractors is yet to be determined.”
Nobody likes to be called an onigbese and sure enough, Oyetola’s camp has fired back.
How has Oyetola responded?
Oyetola’s spokesperson, Ismail Omipidan, remained adamant. He responded that his boss didn’t borrow while in office. The response more or less said Adeleke didn’t know much about governance and maths. According to him, any debt claim is from another former governor, Rauf Aregbesola. The governor said there’s ₦14 billion left over in the state’s purse.
“If you go to my principal’s welfare address, he stated it clearly, that like every other state, we benefitted ₦3 billion on a monthly basis for six months from the federal government as budget support.
“This money was given to all the 36 states of the country without request. You cannot categorise that as a loan.
“So the new governor does not understand the working of government and he should have allowed those that understand the rudiment to explain it to him. So that he won’t be coming to the public to embarrass himself the way he did.”
What have reactions been like?
Some traditional rulers in the state like the Oluwo of Iwo don’t think Oyetola could have taken on such debt. Others, like the Oluwo of Kuta have said he should get on with his job since he asked for it.
“Mr Governor, you need to leave brickbats to your party and face governance. There are a lot of landmines ahead of you. You have to face governance with a view to meeting our expectations and your promise on your first 100 days in office, the days are counting.”
The days are counting indeed and Adeleke more than anyone knows this.
Ultimately, he’ll be judged on his performance, not his excuses.
Only five years after he burst onto the Nigerian political scene as the senator who could outdance P Square in public, Ademola Jackson Adeleke is now the governor of Osun State. The former senator assumed office on November 27, 2022, and immediately showed everyone he’s not just a dancer but also a fighter.
Right from his inauguration speech, Adeleke started handing out orders on issues he considered so pressing he couldn’t wait to check out his new office first. He froze appointments his predecessor, Gboyega Oyetola, made since the July 2022 election, sacked 12k workers and suspended state electoral officials.
But a major decision the new governor has made that’s getting some pushback is to change the state’s official name from “the State of Osun” to “Osun State”, as it was formerly known. State lawmakers have told him it’s not something he can do with a mere executive order, and it seems a battle line has been drawn.
But what’s the difference between “Osun State” and “the State of Osun”, and why’s it such a contentious issue? Prepare yourself for a bumpy story that leaves logic standing on its head and reason crying in a corner.
A trip to 2011
Before Adeleke and Oyetola, Rauf Aregbesola was Osun State’s governor.
This guy is Nigeria’s current Minister of Interior
It’s difficult to track exactly when it happened, but sometime in 2011, only one year into his administration, Aregbesola woke up and realised he needed to make some noticeable changes to the state. Any Nigerian governor worth his salt would create a white elephant project, commission a few useless boreholes, and maybe, owe workers six months’ salary or even get a face tattoo. But Aregbesola was no ordinary governor, so he did none of those ordinary things.
The former governor didn’t like the sound of OVO “Osun State”, so he directed that it would henceforth be known as “the State of Osun”. And that was the beginning of a controversy still plaguing the state 11 years later.
Why did he do it, man?
Naturally, not many people were fans of Aregbesola turning the state’s official name into his plaything, and they made their feelings known. You’d be forgiven for assuming he ordered the name change while tripping on glue he accidentally sniffed, but he really had well-thought-out reasons for his decision.
Aregbesola said he could do whatever he wanted because the 1999 constitution only lists the 36 states without any guideline on if the “state” should come before or after the name. We checked the constitution, and he’s… correct.
“Logic of syntax”
Aregbesola isn’t a professor of English, but he thinks “the State of Osun” is more logical syntactically than “Osun State”.
In his words, “If the Federal Government is the Federal Government of Nigeria in the constitution, the only reasonable way to call the state is the State Government of Osun. There’s no other correct way.”
“See your mates”
If you’re still not convinced he’s the smart one in this story, Aregbesola said all the nations of the world who have states “as the basis of administrative governance” use the “State of” format. He said he simply followed international conventions, implying everyone else in Nigeria was acting like local league.
He’s a man of culture
If you thought this has gone for far too long, then you don’t know Aregbesola, because he has more ground to cover. He said “the State of Osun” is a better fit for a Yoruba translation of the name, which is “Ipinle Osun”, as against “Osun State” which would make the direct translation “Osun Ipinle”. We’re convinced he doesn’t know how translations work, but he said it’s only natural for him to change the state’s name simply due to “cultural basis”.
Remember that this man is our current Minister of Interior
What does the law say about all this?
In 2017, an Osun State High Court ruled Aregbesola’s change of name to be “illegal, null and void”. Using three words to say basically the same thing is the best way to make sure the point sinks in, but you’ve never met Aregbesola.
Until he left office in 2018, Aregbesola maintained the State of Osun name change, while his government appealed the judgement. In November 2018, he handed over the baton to Oyetola, his chief of staff, who had little reason to reverse the name change. And even though Oyetola eventually had beef with Aregbesola and undid many of his other head-scratching policies, the name change remained during his four years in office.
But there’s a new sherriff in town, and Michael Jackson Adeleke wants a return to the old ways.
When will the State of Osun become Osun State again?
Alongside the name issue, Adeleke also used his executive order to undo Aregbesola’s creation of a state anthem, crest, flag and change of the state’s motto. But the State House of Assembly has made it clear none of those changes will happen via executive order because they were created by laws of parliament.
If Adeleke wants to win this battle, he’d have to toast opposition lawmakers to reverse the law. But if that fails, he could always challenge them to a dance battle.
Ademola Jackson Adeleke is officially Osun State's sixth governor.
In democracies worldwide, an election is usually the best chance for groups of people to determine their own future. The Osun State governorship election will present voters with such an opportunity on Saturday, July 16th, 2022.
Here’s everything you need to know about this election.
Why’s it taking place before 2023?
Just like the June 18th, 2022 Ekiti State governorship election, the Osun State governorship election is one of a handful of governorship elections in Nigeria that doesn’t happen at the same time as the nationwide general elections. The Osun election fell out of sync with the regular timetable after the Supreme Court overturned Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s 2007 victory in favour of Rauf Aregbesola in 2010.
Is an incumbent governor involved?
Yes.
The incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola, is contesting for a second term in office as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). His biggest obstacle, yet again, is Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whom he narrowly beat in 2018.
Nigeria has 18 political parties; 15 of them will participate in the Osun State governorship election. The three parties that won’t participate are Action Alliance (AA), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and African Democratic Congress (ADC).
All 15 governorship candidates are male, but there are six female deputy governorship candidates in the race. No woman has ever been elected governor in the history of Nigeria’s democracy.
There are 1,955,657 voters eligible to vote in the Osun State governorship election. But only about 1,479,595 (75.7%) have collected their permanent voter’s cards (PVC) as of Sunday, July 10th, 2022.
Number 7
The upcoming contest is the seventh governorship election in Osun State since its creation in 1991. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has deployed 21,000 police officers to the state to ensure a peaceful process.
When will the winner be sworn in?
The winner of the Osun State governorship election will be sworn in on November 27th, 2022.
