The Bayo Adelabu Campaign Organisation ( BACO) has advised Prince Dotun Oyelade, Chairman of Governor Seyi Makinde Media Campaign Council to think deeply and ruminate on issues relating to the administration he is serving in order not to continue making a fool of the Makinde administration and by extension, the Governor.
The Adelabu campaign team also took a swipe at the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Teslim Folarin, describing him as a shameless politician who should cover his face in shame when achievements and responsiveness to the need of the people are discussed.
BACO’s advise was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday while responding to Prince Oyelade’s not- so-well-thought-out comparison between the Accord Governorship candidate, Oloye Bayo Adelabu and Governor Makinde over investment in Oyo State and the shameless response of Senator Folarin on the same issue of investment in the State.
Reacting to Oyelade ‘s statement, BACO said it “ would not have responded to Prince Oyelade because he obviously needs to defend his meal ticket, however in the process of doing so, his statement comes across as not well-thought out. As a septuagenarian, one would have expected him to understand the issues at stake before responding, unfortunately, it becomes disappointing to observe that where one expects wisdom, one finds foolishness, just like Ahitophel.”
“In order to properly situate the issue, What Oloye Adelabu is saying is that, if a mistake was made in 2019 with the election of Gov Seyi Makinde, who ran an unsuccessful , briefcase business, that mistake should not repeat itself in 2023. The people of Oyo State should vote for Adelabu who had always shown his love for the people by putting all his investments in the State where he has employed about 3000 people.”
The Campaign organisation noted that a man who could not run a successful business would put the State in far worse state than he met it. This has clearly manifested in the race to run Oyo State aground by the Governor through incessant borrowing which has put Oyo State’s indebtedness to about N200 billion.
“ When Oloye Adelabu eventually takes over in 2023, he would need all the financial skills at his disposal, to bail Oyo State out of this burden that a public analyst once said would extend to the unborn generation if not quickly arrested.”
The statement further lambasted Oyelade who described Oloye Adelabu’a investment as self serving and baseless.
“The likes of Makinde and Oyelade would describe such multi-billion naira business as baseless because they do not know the value such businesses bring to the people since they can not point to anything as successful. As much as Accord governorship candidate has legitimate business unlike Makinde, no one should begrudge him for making profit from the business. No one prays for an unsuccessful business, though one can not say the same for Oyelade ‘s principal. The bottom line, however is that Adelabu is not only giving the people of Oyo State fish, he is also teaching them how to fish. People like Makinde and his All Progressives counterpart would rather keep the people in perpetual slavery, doling handouts to them.
BACO noted that Makinde, like other candidates was invited and given advance notice about the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Yoruba– organised debate, for him to render account of his stewardship, however, “that was the same time he chose to play golf and was shamelessly posting same on social media. To him, the people of Oyo State who would have wanted to hear him render account of his mismanagement of Oyo State, do not matter. For Teslim Folarin, BACO noted that his statement that Adelabu should quit politics and compete with the likes of (Alhaji Aliko) Dangote if he is the best investor among them, is at best asinine and can only come from a politician, who having spent more than a decade at the National Assembly has nothing to show for the trust the people of Oyo State gave to him by electing him as a Senator.
“ To empower the people like some of his colleagues are doing is problematic. He would rather hoard what he has and dole it out to people who would only do his biddings. He is like a mafia don whose mantra is nothing goes for nothing. That is why he had to forcefully remove a transformer from a community because they did not vote for him. People of Oyo State are wiser. They will not vote someone like Folarin whose name is akin to violence and brigandage. The people will not forget in a hurry the Eleweomo saga and are not willing to return to that inglorious era.”
According to BACO, Senator Folarin has no moral justification to take on Adelabu who has shown deep business acumen and who had successfully traversed the private and public sector, rising to the pinnacle of his career as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) before voluntarily resigning his appointment with the aim of serving his people.
“He did not stop at that, he also invested his money in his State in order to further empower his people. If he had done that in his private capacity, obviously as Governor of Oyo State, he would do more. For Adelabu, it is no longer about money as God has blessed him, it is about service to the people now. The same can not be said of Makinde or Folarin who would rather take from our collective patrimony.”
BACO said Folarin should rather apologise to the people of the State for disappointing them by not showing up at the debate where all the governorship candidates have the opportunity of telling the people their plans for the State.
“We are not really surprised since he has nothing to offer the electorate and would prefer to dodge an intellectual outing rather than publicly ridicule himself as he has been doing in recent time.”