Onanuga’s Reality: Why Osun Should Not Trust Oyebamiji, APC again

Onanuga’s Reality: Why Osun Should Not Trust Oyebamiji, APC again

By: Dinho-Apomu

I was amazed reading the responses of Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to Mr President, in response to former Governor Aregbesola. This statement has unintentionally done what many of us in Osun have long struggled to achieve, it has validated, in the clearest possible terms, the suffering endured by the people under the APC administration.

Onanuga did not mince words. He described APC and Aregbesola’s tenure as one marked by “unmitigated hardship,” where civil servants went unpaid for months and, when they were paid, received only fractions of their salaries. Pensioners, he noted, were abandoned, many dying without receiving their entitlements. These are not the words of the opposition. They are the words of a top figure within the same political family. It can be practically termed as the voice of Mr President himself.

But here lies the irony that Onanuga failed to confront. Since Aregbesola’s government inflicted such hardship, who were the key actors that enabled those policies?

Gboyega Oyetola, now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy who is now the De Facto APC leader in Osun, was not a distant observer. He was the Chief of Staff, the engine room of that administration. He worked hand-in-hand with the current APC Governorship candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who served as Commissioner for Finance during that period. Together, they implemented and signed off on the very modulated salary system that reduced workers’ earnings to as low as 20 to 30%.

So the question becomes unavoidable: If the policies were seen as disastrous to Onanuga, and these men were central to them, why should the people of Osun trust them again?

Since Governor Ademola Adeleke assumed office a few years ago, the people of Osun have been urged to move forward, not by forgetting the past, but by learning from it and refusing to return to it. History is not so easily erased. The pain, the hardship, and the suffering remain fresh in the minds of the people. Those who were responsible know, deep in their hearts, the weight of the hardship they imposed. That is why today, even voices from within their own fold are now openly acknowledging what the people of Osun have always known. The pain of unpaid salaries, the indignity suffered by pensioners, and the economic hardship imposed on families are lived experiences

Even more troubling is the quiet reality that those who presided over that era of hardship are now the very ones calling for the removal of a working Governor Ademola Adeleke from office despite the fact that they are also benefiting from the payment of backlog salaries, without any attempt to return what they once denied others. So when Onanuga speaks of failure, he speaks a truth, but not the whole truth.

The full truth is that, the failure was a collective responsibility shared by those who held power, made decisions, and executed policies during those period. You can not isolate Aregbesola while presenting Bola Oyebamiji and Oyetola as credible alternatives, it is misleading. How can those who were part of the problem suddenly become the solution?

Onanuga has opened the door. He has reminded us of a painful past. What remains is for the people of Osun to connect the dots and refuse to be swayed by recycled narratives. Osun must not go back to the Egypt.