By SALAM MUSTAPHA OLAMILEKAN.
I read with dismay a diatribe spewed by one Lani Baderinwa, on his Facebook page few days ago where he attempted in vain to discredit the political assets of the workaholic, sufficiently experienced and highly knowledgeable consensus governorship candidate of our party, the Osun State All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji popularly known as ‘AMBO’ by his numerous admirers.
As if that was not enough, Baderinwa, a known relegated politician since he parted way with the former Governor Gboyega Oyetola now Minister of Marine and Blue Economy when he denied him the opportunity to have another shot at the state information ministry as the state commissioner, was found out to have discovered his voice by also unjustifiably attacking Alhaji Oyetola in order to impress his principal in the African Democratic Party(ADC) who is the proponent of misgovernance as reflected in his two-term of eight years in office.
It is uncharitable of Baderinwa to have opened his mouth wide and accused AMBO of lacking required experience to govern the state when it is a known fact that AMBO, a two-term state commissioner of finance, immediate-past Managing Director/Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority NIWA and a foremost retired banker has all governorship attributes in excess more than Baderinwa’s principal in the ADC who was only a refrigerator/generator repairer before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu funded his governorship election in Osun State which he subsequently mismanaged that has become the albatross of the progressive government in the state today.
I could see that Baderinwa frivolously engaged in the act of shooting down AMBO without luck in order to use it as a ladder to get out of political obscurity where he has been licking his wound since he found himself on the wrong side of the politics of the state.
It is my conviction that if a generator/refrigerator repairer and a mascot, commercial dancer in foreign land who specialised in perfume selling and dispatch riding in the United States of America could become the governor of the state at different times in her history, AMBO’s chance who has a verifiable cognitive working experience, well-read with the abundance of native intelligence, is brighter.
Baderinwa whose hatred for AMBO and Oyetola is pathological should desist from fighting an anointed man of God as the next governor of Osun State as he is not the one responsible for his ill-luck in his failure to be enlisted into the cabinet of the embattled Governor Adeleke that himself and his political co-travellers worked for during the 2022 governorship election.
I will implore Baderinwa to keep on maintaining his lane and await the declaration of Governor Adeleke for the ADC pending the auspicious time that his place holder from Ejigbo would be given the green light by the political emperor in his camp to give way for his choice of his governorship candidate who would be defecting from the PDP/ACCORD Party before March ending.
It is disheartening that Baderinwa who has no political value at any level could descend so low to badmouth the irrepressible AMBO who has paid his dues in the political arrangements of the state to the knowledge of the right-thinking members of Osun State and beyond.
One thing that is crystal clear is that AMBO is better equipped than the Baderinwa political idols for the forthcoming contest of the 8th August, 2026 governorship election which he has been demonstrating that he is a serious contender and not a pretender.
My advice to Baderinwa is that he should learn how to criticise constructively in order not to continue to make himself an object of ridicule in the court of the public as his needless attack on AMBO has succeeded in stripping him from the leftover of the infinitesimal level of dignity and respect he might have been enjoyed before his outburst. Half a word is enough for the wise.
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*SALAM, a Comrade, is the chairman of Integrity Group of Nigeria, Osun State chapter.*
