It was the third Gubernatorial Debate to be organized by the Board of Directors of West Midlands Communication Limited/ Splash 105.5 and Lagelu 96.7 FM. Interestingly, the spectacle of the debate is not in the number of the candidates paraded but the quality of one who is distinctly different from the rest, Oloye Adelabu Adebayo, the governorship candidate of APC.
Unarguably, all the six candidates that eventually turned up to present what they represent, spoke eloquently. But the grandiloquence is an art that anybody can apply to arrest the attention of his or her audience who is only impressionable. While others attempted to speak to the heart of their audience to swivel attention, only Oloye Adelabu Adebayo spoke to the minds of the listeners.
His responses were in consideration of the utility to human end, which David Hume reffered to as “public interest” and the audience both at home and at the venue accepted him as their true voice. Beyond any doubt, one or two Guber candidates today did not hide that they have come around to talk to impress the audience and get celebrated with a resounding clap. Conversely, Oloye Adelabu Adebayo frankly talked to express his mind, not to impress anybody. He is truly the tenor in the quartet.
Noticeably, the program, noble as it is, could have been more revealing and expository had the candidates be arranged come one after the other. This would have enabled the audience to ascertain their individual self worth, thus demarcate the line between real contenders like Adelabu Adebayo from the pretenders who only clinched their party tickets for a show off.
A discerning mind could easily identify a candidate who attended the debate just to palaver the audience into giving their votes cheaply. Talk is really cheap, as the old maxim goes. When you talk to placate the audience with what is not realistic, not achievable, you are merely drawing your strategy on the dust. In no time, it’s blown away. I noticed that insincerity among one or two parties candidates who have come to teach us how easy it is to build castle in the air. The strategy is not original, it has been used by some glib talkers in the past. The English word for it is ” Blarney”. The electorates are wiser.
It bears emphasis that OloyeAdelabu Adebayo is not in the class of your everyday politician. He is too patrician to hide under any cloak. Because he doesn’t masquerade his truth, he is always consistent. If you ask him the same question in different ways, you get the same response. The difference is Crystal Clear.
During the debate When the panelists asked him leading questions to demand a simple Yes or No answer, Oloye Adelabu Adebayo proved to them that, at times, an answer could be both Yes and No, depending on the context. He is right. For instance, when they asked if he agreed that “politics has now turned to an investment” and expected a straight forward “yes or no”. He tactically gave them a joker in the pack. His answer was “Beeni, bee si ko”.( Yes and No). In a similar vein, they asked if he believes in godfatherism, he replied No”, and he went straight into what in meta ethics is called “conceptual clarification” to unclog the linguistics muddle. Waxing philosophical, he said “He who wants to lead must first learn how to follow. I don’t believe in godfatherism, however, I believe in mentoring”. He was apt.
On project continuity, he minced no words. “Am an apostle of incremental development”. This was similar to his response to the ‘look alike’ question when he featured on the popular Mayor Isaac Brown programme on Fresh FM, where he self -styled himself as “Accelerator” who would continue to build on the foundation laid by the incumbent governor- ” the initiator”. He also demonstrated his staunch believe in governnance as a continuum today, when he was sounded out On his plan to rebuild the State ‘Broadcasting Service’. He said unequivocally that, the present administration has already adumbrated Media Transformation Plan, (MTP) which he will only push forward for optimal output. He is never caught unawares.
The one who leads the pack today, is he who is not only open to change but to the new paradyms. Oloye Adelabu’s response on the need to unfetter the local government and make it more autonomous and functional was striking. Where others rigmarole, he hit the questions on the right place. He really proved that his first class is not decorative. He earns it.
His own honour is not just honourary. The way he tackled the issue of need for increased women participation in governnance system, improving Primary Health care system, Ladoke Akintola University and Sports Development was spick and span. Not that he was hazzarding guesses, he was assertive. What some people who attended the debate didn’t grasp is the fact that most of the questions, they asked him already fall within the precinct of his 7 point agenda blueprint which he has on his palms like a slate. Not surprisingly, other candidate did not tout such developmental touchstones.
However, there are three questions that the writer really considered as ” walking a tightrope” but which Oloye Adelabu Adebayo, as usual, did not even pause before he deftly answered. One of them bothered on his financial worth which he said he would declare once again to the appropriate authority when time is ripe. The next was whether or not he would continue with the office of the first lady, Adelabu cleared the air that that he would only have “wife of the governor ” and the last was on the indictment of his grand dad, Adegoke Adelabu Penkelemesi on financial misappropriation in 1955 when he was the first Chairman of Ibadan Native Authority later known as IMG. He Educated Edmund Obilo who enthusiastic, but for apparent ulterior motive threw the javelin like question that “Penkelemesi was discharged and acquitted as the entire case turned out to be a flash in the pan”. Oloye Adelabu’s responses to these slippery slope questions without slipping or wobbling, accentuated his high level acumen and strategic thinking. These are leadership qualities that are not common like daisies in the spring.
Will you probe Ajimobi’s government when you assume office? A member of the panelists fired the salvo. His terse reply was not only impressive but reflective. He said “Anybody who goes for gold in a race, don’t look back.” Deep.
Apparently, one or two other participants, from their reactions were poised to pick holes in whatever he said, Oloye Adelabu Adebayo did not give them opportunity to hit “any slacked jaw”. As they say in local parlance “always guiding’.
Conclusively, If today’s debate is the only yardstick for judging who is most qualified to occupy the covetous seat of Oyo state governorship, it is too evident for a fresh emphasis that Oloye Adelabu Adebayo is really the “Primus inter pares” – first among the equals . He is the man who is tailor made to take Oyo state to the next level.
Only a stupe will argue that.
