Osun State has elected a dancing governor. Ademola Adeleke, the onboarding governor, knows how to dance and will break out whenever he is in the mood. Can his dexterity on the dance floor translate into nifty management moves in governance? He is faced with three choices. He could dance around the problems, as did his more recent predecessors. He could quickly learn the ropes and put up fancy footwork that leaves everyone astonished. Or he could dance away from it all when he is fully briefed on the extent of the rot that he is going to inherit.

Public commentators are not giving the onboarding governor a chance at succeeding on the job. And what is their evidence? They allege that his education is suspect while his predilection to dancing marks him out as unserious. But do these “failings” justify the charge that he won’t do well as governor?

The education evidence appears weak because it is based only on non-possession of certificates, given the fact that he comes from a state whose citizens pride themselves with enormous brainpower. They find it difficult to reconcile with one that wants to govern but struggles to convince people that he finished school. A certificate scandal dogged his first stab at the governorship. But didn’t he thereafter return to school and successfully complete a proper degree programme? Does this not show focus, a single-minded commitment to achieve a goal that one set one’s sights on?

Beyond this, however, earning excellent grades and passing exams do not guarantee that anyone will excel as a manager. What it guarantees is that the person can return to teach, if everything else fails, as George Bernard Shaw implied in Superman. Therefore, what should count for the onboarding governor is that he passed through a broader education in the university of life, his international exposure and contacts, experience of sitting on the board of local and multinational corporations and his personal business forays. Added to these are a legislative experience and his university training in criminal justice and political science. He should be able to leverage his social skills and vast contacts to assemble and manage a team of first-class technocrats that can turn around the fortunes of his beleaguered state.

The second charge against him is his proclivity toward entertainment, specifically a hobby of dancing. Grumpy people complain that the man hits the dance floor too often. But he does this when he is happy, or on achieving a milestone.

The Adeleke family has developed and extended unique brands in three areas of endeavor, politics, business, and entertainment. His late eldest brother, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, was the first elected governor of Osun State. He built the political brand. The governor-elect has now successfully leveraged and rebranded the family as a political dynasty with Sunday’s announcement of his win. His immediate elder brother, Adedeji Adeleke, developed the business brand. Again, the new governor served tutelage under him, not only as director at Pacific Holdings but also holding a seat on the board of Guinness, a multinational company. The entertainment brand is held by the next generation Adelekes, including Adedeji’s son (the world-famous Davido) and the governor’s own son, B-Red. The new governor is probably the one family member that is most at home in extending the brands, a bridge-builder of sorts. The love that he enjoys, which the election allowed us to see through videoclips, proves this. Therefore, if he fails to deploy his proven social skills to unite his people to develop Osun State beyond what it is now, the fault will not be in his stars.

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What exactly is wrong with dancing as a hobby anyway? Who among us is not guilty of one quirk that we display when we are happy or when luck smiles on us? If we were not living in the age of social media, how many outside Ademola Adeleke’s social circle would have known that he was a first-rate dancer? And, speaking of first-rate dancing, shouldn’t this count as a plus for the man in other respects? Most people can shuffle on the dance floor when the mood hits. But how many dance well? And how easy is it to master the craft? Consider the physical advantage that dancing conferred on the new governor.

At 62 years, he is a senior citizen. And yet he moves with the sleekness of a python and the grace of a gazelle on the dance floor. Despite his age and bulk, his moves are fast, fluid and graceful. They are precise and expressive, and they make him look, feel and act younger than he is. Does he look 62 when he is on the dance floor? Dancing has given him the physical balance he needs to shoulder the burden of governance. I vote for him to continue dancing because this will leverage engagement with both Generation Z and Millennials alike. Osun’s troubles are many and require a manager who is self-contented, quick-thinking and nimble on his feet.

The state is yet to emerge from lingering economic stagnation. Most economic reports that I saw on Osun State highlight its inability to exploit agric potential, serial neglect of infrastructure and subsisting poor maintenance culture. Interestingly, the reports also indicate that what is needed is good leadership that jumpstarts Osun as a business and investor-driven economy. They, however, warn that the state must intentionally jettison its lethargic “civil service” approach to governance.

Osun has all it takes to transform into one of the wealthiest states in Nigeria. Assets available for the state to catalyze economic transformation include mineral resources, arable land, eco- and culture tourism potential and high-scale human resources. These reports highlight two areas that look like low-hanging fruits, agriculture and tourism. What most of the reports ignore, and which I would like to add, is education. This is probably taken for granted because the state has a surfeit of schools, including at the tertiary level.

There are eight universities alone in this state, six of them privately-owned. However, consider that these educational institutions are catalyzing development of two cities outside of Oshogbo and Ile Ife. The new cities are Iwo and Ede (the governors hometown), each of which hosts two universities. These institutions are also assets for production of high-level manpower. Developed and run properly, the new cities should be able to attract investments in business and learning from local and foreign sources. Needless to say that the tax benefits to government are enormous. But government must help this process along by putting the required infrastructure to support their transformation into proper cities, able to attract investments that will promote organic growth. The state should also be able to harness the brainpower from these universities to deal with poverty arising from outdated practices in agriculture and poor support for small-scale businesses.

Osun has impressive acreage of eco- and culture tourism real estate. It can leverage the historical sites, the Ile Ife culture layout, war museums, waterfalls, and hills. The governor will inherit a tourism plan that he can fine-tune or execute as is. As an example, there is no reason why he cannot deploy both to harness his state’s human, cultural and natural resources to make Osun the number one tourism destination state in Nigeria. Because, come to think of it, who better to do this than someone with a natural flair for entertainment?