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CLAIM: The Ogun state commissioner for Youth and Sport, Dr. Kehinde Oludare has denied calling the former governor of the state, Segun Osoba a bad leader for not embarking on human capacity building when he was the governor.
It was widely circulated that the sport commissioner called Osoba a bad leader because he did not have people he can point to have built while he was the governor. But, the sport commissioner in a rejoinder denied all the claims by some of the online medium including PLATFORM TIMES.
Full Text: Last week, the Commissioner for Youths and Sports in Ogun state, reportedly mocked the party leader in the state, Chief Segun Osoba for lacking in vision and building human capacity.
Oludare while hosting members of the League of Registered Political Parties in his office was reported to have singled out former Lagos State governor, Chief Ahmed Bola Tinubu for building political empire by empowering the likes of Fashola, Ambode, Aregbesola, Fayemi, and Muiz Banire.
He however reportedly condemned Chief Osoba for being careless about his followers.
But, after the news was circulated on different online news medium, the commissioner on Monday 16th January, 2020, in a statement he personally signed and titled: “Re;Ogun State Sports Commissioner Mocks Osoba, Say’s He’s a Bad Leader, Failed as Ogun Governor: REJOINDER” denied ever making such assertion as reported by the online news platforms.
He insisted that he is a well brought up Yoruba son that would never made such utterance against the personality of Olusegun Osoba.
He described the reports as inaccurate and misleading because he did not at anytime during the interactive session made such ‘erroneously statement’.
Verification
In a voice and video record of the commissioner of about 8 min and 6 seconds showed that the commissioner actually described the former governor as a bad leader.
The voice and video record which the sport commissioner did not denied not to be his own quoted him to have said, “well, let me say that, as we all know that the adventure of life is to learn , what is important in this world is what are we contributing to the development of our society, I think that is very very much important. And as a political party we have our own internal objectives for us to join politics and the essence of this is because we feel we can contribute our quota to nation development.
“Most of the people today , they will talk about the days of Awolowo, that when Awolowo was there he was able to transform free education, he was able to bring these ideas on board, he has his own ideology. But, I want to do two comparism , Awolowo and Chief Ahmed Bola Tinubu, today most of us celebrate Tinubu as our political leader, mentor because one or two things that we can attested to the fact that he has achieved.
“When you look at Awolowo, Awolowo appreciates brain, he discovered brain. The likes of Bola Ige, Jakande, Olabisi Onabanjo, Adekunle Ajasin , all these people are Awolowo boys. In their own right, they are doing well, that is why the work of Awolowo can be in that line.
“And according to the world leader that I want to borrow a lead from, he said that, the best way to estimate intelligent of a leader is to look at the calibers of people he had arround himself. So, in that note , when you look at Awolowo time, then you will know that he surrounded himself with people that have same ideology with him. And the only person that probably tried to emulate that style is Bola Ahmed Tinubu
“In 1999 Bola Hameed Tinubu came on board with the likes of Osinabajo, Kayode Fayemi, Fashola, Aregbesola, Mamorah, Muiz Banire, Tokunbo and Koro, you know all these people and till today, all these people are doing well in their own respective field and that is why till today, you will see Lagos, Ambode ,Fashola era.
“When you also look back to that 1999, when Osoba was Governor, Lam Adeshina was Governor , this man from Edo State that was former chairman, Oyegun was governor and Dariye and few other people in 1999. How many of them can you point that this is people they were able to grow. And we should all know that a leader without a successor is a failure and that is what matters in this struggle.
“So, in here in Ogun State, maybe I will say the only person I can see with Osoba is Segun Adesegun. Aside from Segun Adesegun, no other person, so likewise in Oyo State , nobody I can’t say this belong to Lam Adeshina camp but Bola Tinubu is not like that.”
Conclusion
It was obvious that the commissioner was trying to compare Awolowo and Bola Ahmed Tinubu leadership qualities and in the process sighted the likes of Osoba, Lam Adeshina as people that did not have anyone they can call their loyalists. The commisioner further emphasised on the fact that “you are a failure if you don’t have a success”. In his record, he insisted that Osoba has only Segun Adesegun.
From the above assertion by the commisioner, even though he did not directly call Osoba a bad leader and a failure, what he meant can easily be translated that he meant Osoba, Lam Adeshina and others mentioned by him are bad leaders because they don’t have people that believe in their ideology.
Sodiq Ojuroungbe
Sodiq Ojuroungbe is a researcher and the News Editor of PLATFORM TIMES newspaper, a community newspaper with a 24-hours national online news platform. Ojuroungbe is a graduate of Mass communication from Prestigious Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta. He is a trained journalist, with good research and writing skills. He is well skilled in the field of fact-checking and verification