TEXT OF THE JUNE 2022 STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS DELIVERED BY THE OSUN MASTERMINDS
Gentlemen of the Press,
You are here on the invitation of The Osun Masterminds, to witness the June 2022 State of the State Address of the Group. The State of the State Address is the Group’s monthly effort towards addressing critical developmental issues arising in Osun State.
The Osun Masterminds is a coalition of patriotic civil society groups, working together to put pressure on policymakers, political gladiators and people within the society, to do the right things and take the right decisions at all times, in politics and governance.
The group has been in existence for almost a year, gathering information about several key areas of our immediate, Osun State and our enlarged environment, Nigeria. Our background work has been more focused on understanding the rot in the system clearly, so that we can make informed contributions to the course of political and public governance issues.
Over the past four months, we have delivered a monthly State of the State address to lend our voice to key issues in Osun State, profferring solutions that we consider workable each time. We also championed correspondences to several key Federal establishments, against the recent antisocial conducts of a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are glad to say that our activities in the recent history of our dear Osun State, has restored sanity to several key areas of the State.
We must restate the fact that we want to see an Osun State, particularly, where politicians play responsible politics that put the people and their development first. We also must state that we want to ensure that we contribute to the enthronement of a new era of developmental governance that does not serve a few pockets and shows total submission to the will of the people.
These are our core objectives. Now, several issues may come within the purview of our efforts as we go forward with our relentless campaign, but the grand picture will still be people-focused politicking and development-oriented governance.
I will give you an example of one of the issues that cropped up recently and we feel concerned about.
One of the Gubernatorial candidates in the State was campaigning somewhere and he boastfully declared that the election was now going to be fire for fire as he has come with a lot of dollars and pounds and Euros to prosecute the election. The video is all over social media and that was not just a condescending way of speaking to the people of the State, reducing them to mere goods in the market that money will buy so cheaply, but it was also clearly a reckless statement borne out of an absence of clear ideas to move our State forward.
When we spot issues like this, we quickly condemn the people behind those issues and continue to raise our voice loud until they stop whatever antisocial behaviour they had been exhibiting. It is in that spirit that we loudly condemn any attempt by any moneybag politician to turn the forthcoming Osun election into a see-and-buy affair. Osun deserves to have purposeful governance built on clear developmental ideas, not Naira, Pounds and Dollars.
As a group, we also make efforts to midwife positive political action. For example, we have taken a careful study of governance in developed climes and discovered that the people are at the core of the growth process, asking the right questions, putting government on its toes and generally contributing their quota to the course of development. As we borrow from these lessons and advocate for emulation, more people in the society will gain awareness and by their new understanding, be able to make clear political of their own.
For example, we have said in our past State of the State addresses that Osun requires a certain quality of personality at the helm of affairs as we go into the election. We are past the point of rice and beans politics; we are now in an era of issue-based campaigns. Governance is not a clap and dance revival, it is serious business and we must treat it as one.
We are encouraging our people to ask the right questions. Is this person good enough? What level of personal success have they achieved in the past that will make us entrust Osun in their hands? What meaningful propositions are they making now? Are they speaking to the issues or they are fumbling and boasting about having resources?
As we continue to speak the truth as we know it, we expect that more people gain insight and are able to begin asking the right questions.
We also must state that part of our efforts at midwifing positive attitude in the society is through commendation of truly positive actions.
We must here make known our sincere appreciation of the Osun State Government’s decision to reinstate Justice Folahan Oloyede, who was unjustly relieved of her duties as a Judge of the State High Court. It is sad to note that such injustice, promoted by the past lord of the manor in the State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, was allowed to subsist for so long, until the present State Government made the right choice of obeying the court order that reinstated her.
We understand that for a society to get it right, such inhuman and utterly retrogressive actions of the past administration in frustrating Justice Oloyede out of her job, must never be allowed to become our identity as a people. We encourage the Osun State Government, under Alh. Gboyega Oyetola, to continue on this path of honour as we gradually restore the State to its position as one that promotes equity, justice and peaceful coexistence.
We also must mention another vice that we have repeatedly spoken against. The practice of police intimidation, brutality and harassment of innocent citizens, worsened by irresponsible use of firearms, must stop forthwith. The Osun State Police command has become notorious in recent times for needless killings and all manner of actions antithetical to the tenets of true policing.
Recently, while covering a protest that erupted as a result of the unjust killing of a young man in Osun State, a journalist was shot in a needless show of force by men of the Nigeria Police Force, Osun State Command. We were further irked by the claims of the State Commissioner of Police, that the it was only a teargas canister that hit the journalist and not a live bullet. We are constrained to say that while the lower echelons continue to act irresponsibly, the upper echelons of the State Command seem to be ever-ready to deny obvious criminality and defend errant officers of its command. This is sad and we condemn it in its entirety.
We also frown at the destruction of campaign billboards and advertisement of opposition political parties in the state particularly that, of the PDP Governorship candidate, as this, is unhealthy for all inclusive democratic participation and citizens right to choices.
Social vices like these make it impossible for a society to truly grow and we call on all relevant stakeholders to put hands on deck to prevent future occurrences of injustice and criminality.
On a final note, we want to enjoin Osun people to participate fully in the present electoral process and ensure that only men and women who guarantees their well-being through well spelt out plans and programmes, are voted into office.
It starts from looking out for the candidates that will attend the Governorship debates that will be organized going forward. To take a candidate serious, we first must hear them discuss the plans and programmes they have, that may convince us to vote for them.
We must also ensure that candidates are offering solutions, not just intangible promises that are neither measurable, nor redeemable. It is not a time to regurgitate stale manifestos, it is a time for candidates to get pragmatic and show us their plans and their capacities to actualize those plans.
The process is simple. Get your PVC. Scrutinize candidates thoroughly and when they offer you pittance to look away from their obvious flaws, let them know you are firmly for the development of our State. Then, ensure that you vote on Election Day for a person you are convinced will deliver the good dividends of democracy to our State.
We wish all indigenes of Osun well and pray that God guides us aright as we go to the polls next month.
God bless Osun State.
Dr. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli
Executive Director, The Osun Masterminds
