By SALAM MUSTAPHA OLAMILEKAN
Pelumi Olajengbesi’s write-up is long on grammar but empty on honesty. It pretends to warn the people of Osun about “federal overreach” while deliberately ignoring the real and present danger in the state: a sitting government that has normalised intimidation, weaponised disorder, and outsourced governance to chaos.
Let us be clear: Osun did not descend into tension because of imagination, fear-mongering, or federal presence. Osun became unsafe the very moment Governor Ademola Adeleke chose confrontation over the Constitution, emotion over the law, and street tactics over statesmanship. When a government sacks elected local government officials without due process, occupies secretariats by force, unleashes thugs under the cover of a so-called “popular mandate,” and then cries oppression, it forfeits the moral right to lecture anyone about democracy.
Olajengbesi speaks of violence as though it arrived from Abuja in a suitcase. That is dishonest. The violence in Osun has fingerprints, and they are local. It is the violence of desperate power retention, executive lawlessness, and a government that fears institutions because institutions expose its illegitimacy.
Comparing Gboyega Oyetola to Nyesom Wike is not just lazy analysis; it is deliberate misdirection. Oyetola does not command street mobs. He does not incite supporters to “take over” government facilities. He does not govern by drama or intimidation. If anything, the current crisis exists because Oyetola respected the law enough to leave office peacefully—something the Adeleke administration has failed to respect since day one.
What Pelumi conveniently avoids are the real questions:
Who turned local government secretariats into war zones?
Who invited violence into grassroots administration?
Who reduced governance to dancing, shouting, and the deployment of thugs instead of policies?
Certainly not Oyetola.
Certainly not the APC.
A government that promotes violence will always accuse others of it. A government that thrives on disorder will always cry “intimidation” when order threatens its survival. The Adeleke administration has mastered this script: provoke chaos, then play the victim; break the law, then scream persecution; fail in governance, then blame the centre.
The people of Osun are not hostages, and they are not fools. They know the difference between federal authority and state irresponsibility. They know the difference between lawful power and mob rule. They know that democracy is not sustained by noise or emotional blackmail, but by strict respect for the Constitution.
If anyone is importing a dangerous template into Osun, it is not Oyetola. It is a PDP/Accord government that believes popularity excuses illegality and that violence is an acceptable political tool.
Osun will not be bullied.
Osun will not be gaslighted.
Osun will not be ruled by fear—whether wrapped in dance steps or disguised as legal essays.
And come 2026, the people of Osun will respond the only democratic way they know how: with their votes, not violence.
*Comr. Salam Mustapha Olamilekan*
Public Analyst
Chairman, Integrity Group of Nigeria, Osun State
