By Sule Akande

Since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999, the Osun State political landscape has been dominated by two major political parties. These mainstream political parties have jointly decided the state’s democratic fate in the 23 years of uninterrupted democratic rule in Nigeria. Subsequently, while Nigeria celebrates its longest democratic dispensation, the people of Osun State seem to have been fated to endure plummeting leadership from the dominant political parties. Even though some of these political parties have formed a coalition and emerged with a new nomenclature during elections, their grandstand is best described as same old distasteful wine in a new bottle.

Osun began its journey to democracy with high hopes upon the return to civil rule in the country in 1999. Chief Adebisi Akande became the first democratically elected governor of the state in May 1999, on the platform of the Alliance for Democratic (AD), and held sway until May 2003 when Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola took over on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Then came Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola, who have governed the state for 12 years on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC). It is instructive to state that, in spite of their differential personal and party ideologies, successive governments in the state have all contributed meaningfully to the well-being of Osun State. Without sounding immodest, however, every indices of human and societal development show that the state has not fared really well under their careless watch.

Meanwhile, the July 2022 gubernatorial election in the state gives the people yet another opportunity to decide whether to continue with motion without movement or go the path of shared prosperity, which Akinade Ogunbiyi is set to lead. This years election will decide whether the people will elect the same political parties that have mismanaged the state’s economy for the past 23 years or give Accord Party an opportunity to give the state a fresh breathe of transformation. This should be the overriding questions that electorate in the state must answer as they go to the polls in the July election.

While the electorate think about the above questions, they should be confident in Akinade Ogunbiyi, a man whose love and passion for his people have been his sole motivation to contest in the coming election.

He is a consummate industrialist and an unassuming scholar whose business and academic pedigrees cut across the continents of the world. With these fantastic exploits, Ogunbiyi remains the right man for the job. At a time that the country’s economy is still grappling with the untold economic downturns occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Osun State, like every other states across the country, needs its best products to oversee the economy. As a sterling economist with international repute, Ogunbiyi remains the best choice to lead the state at this critical time.

Famed for his ingenuity in job creation, especially in the agro-allied industry, Ogunbiyi will painstakingly harness the agricultural resources of the state to ensure food security and job creation for the sons and daughters of Osun State. He believes that the cocoa produce, if carefully managed, can sustain the economy of the state. Time and again, Ogunbiyi has assertively declared that the state’s economy will largely depend on agriculture, where it has comparative advantage. He has continuously argued that the state’s reliance on the monthly stipends from crude oil earnings is like sitting on a time bomb that will eventually explode. It is purely laziness to run to Abuja every month to scramble over the paltry funds from crude oil, which are never enough, when there are a lot of economic opportunities around the state that can buoyantly sustain the state’s economy. It takes only a visionary leader to identify these opportunities, and Ogunbiyi has found them in the state’s agricultural sector, the tourism industry and in the human capital development.

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An elder stateman and former head of service of the state, Elder Segun Akinwunsi, has this to say about Ogunbiyi: “Ogunbiyi clearly is not contesting because of the glamour of the office or to make money. He is in the race to bring to light the long-awaited difference in the lives of our people.”

The comment by the elder statesman clearly distinguishes Ogunbiyi as an imperative and a panacea to the myriads of challenges bedevilling the Home of Culture. I believe Ogunbiyi is the long-awaited saviour. I just hope time and Osun citizens prove me right.

Just during the week, while welcoming Ogunbiyi to the Royal Court, the Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi; (Ojájá II), had paid compliments to the Accord candidate.

According to the Ooni, Ogunbiyi is a gentleman who is highly intelligent.

“I believe in your ability, capacity and competence to lead Osun State,” the Ooni said.

•Akande, a political analyst, sent this piece from Ilesha, Osun State