The Osun state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ajibola Basiru of deliberately pushing out lies and inaccurate datas to downplay the monumental achievements of Governor Ademola Adeleke in nearly three years in office, lambasting the former Senator for his attempt at twisting logic on its head to paint a different reality about Osun under Adeleke.
The PDP in a statement signed by its Chairman, Hon. Sunday Bisi, said it is absurd that Basiru, whose time as commissioner and senator was marred by glaring failures, is now presenting himself as someone with sound knowledge on good governance, urging him to keep his advice, which is replete with failures and sheer ignorance, to himself.
Hon. Bisi maintained that the Adeleke administration has recorded significant progress in fixing the failings of the APC and improving the situation of the people, noting that Governor Adeleke has achieved so many of the things that Basiru’s party hitherto believed are impossible.
“It is quite an irony that Basiru, whose past service record oozes failure, has suddenly presented himself as someone with any idea on governance. If indeed he has any ‘useful advice’ as he touted, perhaps half-salary which Governor Adeleke is gradually offsetting wouldn’t have arisen, or he wouldn’t have been so abysmal as a Senator having no tangible impact on the people of Osun Central for a whole of four years,” Hon. Bisi said.
“Contrary to Basiru’s claim, Osun allocation didn’t increase by 300% but we understand the exaggeration as a clever attempt by him to excuse the financial recklessness that defined its time in Osun state. NEITI put the change in allocation to states for 2024 at 62% when compared with 2023 while a publication by ThePunch Newspaper put the increase in allocation to Osun and some 10 states, including Lagos, for 2024 at 50%. This increase may however seem insignificant when the impact of devaluation of naira, which stood 40.9% when compared with 2023.
“Beyond this fact is the minimum wage and going by records, the table implemented by Osun state is one of the best in the whole of Nigeria. More than N47 billion has been expended on pension benefits, which is far more than what the APC paid in twelve years for the same purpose.”
The PDP chief dismissed Basiru’s claim that Governor Adeleke sacked 5000 teachers in the state as an overreach in propaganda, noting that the Adeleke administration philosophy since assuming office is promoting opportunities and relieving the people of the pains that the APC misgovernance inflicted on them.
“It is so unfortunate that Basiru is relying on pure falsehood as the only tool to promote his destined-to-fail governorship bid. Before now, the APC claimed it was 1500 teachers that were sacked even though they are yet to provide any evidence of such, but now, Basiru say it is 5000 teachers. This is the problem with liars, they are not always good with numbers and Osun people can see clearly that the APC is just cooking up numbers to misled them,” he said.
Hon. Bisi who laughed at Basiru’s disturbing show of ignorance on the ongoing Oke-Fia overhead bridge, said it is too pedestrian for a lawyer with poor output to try and force his misguided opinion on a project that has been validated by the country’s topmost engineering body, the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE).
“It is laughable that Basiru is forming opinion on what he lacks any knowledge about. Even the law he claimed to be a practitioner, his outputs have been anything impressive as Osun lost most of its cases under him as the Attorney-General. The Oke-Fia overhead bridge is of top standard and NSE during its visit confirmed this much during the tour of its leadership to the project.
“It is only those who are blind to reality like Basiru that will feign ignorance on what the Adeleke administration has done to improve the lives of the people. In Agriculture, for instance, Governor Adeleke has procured tractors and distributed them to farmers. For the twelve years that the APC held sway in Osun, no single tractor was bought to aid farming activities in the state. Senator Fabiyi Ajagunla who replaced Basiru in the Senate has bought three tractors to compliment the intervention of the State Government and given to farmers in Osun central.
“So, what did Basiru or his party do for agriculture? Nothing! In fact, the only achievement that can be credited to Basiru through out his four years in the Senate, are defective solar streetlight, which earned him ‘Senator Solar’ nickname, and worryingly, most of the streetlights are no longer working.
“We dare say that Governor Adeleke doesn’t need the advise of someone like Basiru because those he gave them to in the past ended up failing. Governor Adeleke is focusing on delivering for Osun people, giving them a true sense of governance, unlike the deceitful and ineffectual government that the APC gave them in the past.
“Therefore, he will continue to implement interventions that directly touch their lives and not those who stayed on the paper, just as the audio promotion that the APC gave workers in the past. We are so glad that Osun people are feeling a positive effect of the good governance that Governor Adeleke is rendering, and so, not bothered about the demonstration of frustration of a few parasite, whose only understanding of governance is filling their pocket as was the case in the past under the APC.”
Signed:
Hon. Sunday Bisi,
Osun State PDP Chairman
18/05/2025