Rauf and the bitter ones, a response to JMK epistle.

by Adabanija Kamorudeen

Raufu and the bitter ones.

By Abosede Busayo Oluwaseun (Safety)

Of the entire balderdash credited to Otunba Jumoke Ogunkeyede, none strikes me more than his unpatriotic claim that the Minister of Interior and former Governor of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, did not do anything for Ijesaland as a people when he held sway as the chief executive of the state.
Aregbesola, if you recall, did not only run a people-focused, open door administration, he ran an open Government House which was more or less home to every Tom Dick and Harry.

Perhaps, the only place that was left ‘uninvaded’ by the mass of the people ranging from party loyalists, friends of the government, friends of Aregbesola and friends of his appointees, was his bedroom given the all-comers outlook of the abode of the Governor in his eight years.
JMK, as he is called, was a notable face in that milieu as he carried himself with the special bravura of one of the Governor’s confidants and a seeming back-of-the-stage fixers.

There were many of them that Ogbeni indulged in the same manner who carried on with such arrogance that made the rest of Ogbeni’s men and women looked inferior.

But then, it’s all politics. Ogbeni himself has learnt the hard way that humans, like ants, are only attracted to opportunities and not personalities. Ants would converge wherever there is sugar, honey and once the perks are drying, the ants return to their enclaves. What Yoruba people would call Owo epo laye bani la; won e bani lawo eje! That is the simple illustration of the turncoats that many of Ogbeni’s ‘loyalists’ became.

“There was NOTHING Raufu did for his own people while he was governor for 8 years,” JMK wrote in his scandalous epistle! Ahusubilahi! (as my Muslim friends would scream when they encounter something evil) JMK wrote this. Eeesi beru Oloun (Won’t you fear God?).

I think for a moment, we should even agree with JMK in this his proposition not even in the whimsical consideration that senility might have started setting in. Yes! What did Rauf do for Ijeshaland truly. Sebi the Adulawo/RLG Technology Company Limited was sited in Lokoja, Kogi State and the Ilesa Government High School, sitting majestically now is located in Ibadan! Can we even count elementary and Middle schools either constructed or rehabilitated in Ilesa, Obokun, Ijebu-Jesa, and other adjoining towns and villages. Abeg! Who go join me laugh o?
The Road to Ijebu-Jesa is in Benue State while all the several kilometres of internal roads in Ilesa are indeed being used by Ijebu people. In fact, After Rauf unveiled his most creative tablet of knowledge at Zenabab Hotels and Resorts in Ilesa, he took the units of the devices meant for Ijesha students to Iwo. Heheheeeeeeee!
And the biggest of them all! The multi-billion Naira Ilesa Water project is located in Epe Lagos state because JMK cannot see it.

But to harp too much on the above may amount to jumping into the gutter with the pigs. Ogbeni did not set out to be Governor of a section of Osun but Governor of the state. Hence his state-wide orientation in projects siting.

Yes, he did not dualise Ilesa-Osogbo Road just as he did not, Iwo-Osogbo or Ilobu-Osogbo but he opened Osogbo to Ikirun-Ila Odo to Kwara Boundary and constructed the Adebisi Akande Trumpet Interchange Bridge in Gbongan as the resources of the state permitted.

Even our later day Ijesa advocate in person of JMK and his co-travellers fail to be broad-mined in their look of the projects in the state. The Bisi Akande Trumpet Bridge, though sited in Gbongan, is beneficial to an average Ijesaman who travels that road. Can JMK recall how many Ijesa men and women perished at the hitherto deadly junction on their ways to Ilesa from Ibadan. Minions are minions and they don’t see anything beyond their noses in appreciation of good things.

The point we are making is this! Aregbesola did not bear sentimental considerations in his siting of projects. He was not one of those who constructed roads because their girlfriends lived on those roads. The overall good for the largest number of people formed the fulcron of his decisions and that accounts for while he held sway, he was able to balance spread of development across the length and breath of the state.

It beats imagination how supposedly educated people behave like intellectually malnourished and deficient beings just because they carry in their hearts some loads of hate. But no doubt Rauf towers far above these minions. And as they say “if each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.”

The reason we just waka pass these little minds for the walk to greater things are more rewarding.

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