Politics

They said the Adeleke family ‘doesn’t need Osun’s money’. Now, EFCC says that’s not true!—Ismail Omipidan

Published by admin on August 7th, 2026.

They said the Adeleke family ‘doesn’t need Osun’s money’. Now, EFCC says that’s not true!—Ismail Omipidan

For years, we were told that the Adeleke family was too wealthy to touch Osun’s treasury, that “they don’t need our money.” Gullible individuals believed that ridiculous narrative. Some even claimed they were using their personal wealth to run the government. But the EFCC investigation has exposed that lie. The family that claimed it did not need us needed us all along. And Osun is paying the price. The same family that said they didn’t need Osun’s money has allegedly diverted N18 billion of public funds for election purposes. What do you expect from a government that came into office claiming it met an treasury despite the N14 billion the Oyetola administration left behind in November 2022. This is no longer about politics. This is about the future of our dear State.

Beyond that, there are many questions the Ademola Adeleke administration will come to answer sooner or later. Most of the major contracts executed by this administration have been shrouded in secrecy, with little or no public information about the contractors. Despite the huge spending, the quality of many of the projects has been disappointing.

Take the road in Ila, for example. It began to fail shortly after completion, forcing the government to rush back for repairs. The Ikirun-Iree–Ilupeju–Igbo-Ileke Junction road is already riddled with potholes. Yet, the administration abandoned the strategic road linking Osun to Kwara State and instead prioritised roads that many residents did not consider urgent. No sensible and reasonable person does that. The truth is that the story of Adeleke’s maladministration didn’t begin today. It started from the very first day he assumed office.

When we left office in November 2022, we left about N14 billion in the state’s coffers, but the new administration claimed we left nothing. When I challenged them to tell Nigerians where they got the funds they were spending, they changed their narrative, saying they only met enough money to pay November salaries. I then asked them to disclose how much exactly they met. To this day, they have not provided a clear or verifiable answer.

Let me add that the November salaries they claimed to have paid included my own salary, which I never received, as well as those of other political appointees. Likewise, the salaries of about 1,500 teachers and 500 health workers who were later sacked by this administration were part of that same November payroll, yet they did not receive their salaries either. The point I am making is that this government has been less transparent from day one. It’s fond of offering inconsistent explanations and refusing to provide clear answers to public queries.

As we move forward, we must not lose sight of where we are coming from. This is the time to rise above partisan sentiments and put Osun first. If we genuinely desire a better state, then accountability, transparency, and responsible governance must matter more than political loyalty.

Recall the controversy surrounding Osun State’s share of the Federal Government’s palliative funds in 2023. After I granted an interview that went viral at the time, rather than address the issues I raised, the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, and some of the administration’s media handlers resorted to personal attacks. One of them even called me a “foreigner” simply because I was born in Benue State and worked in northern Nigeria before I was invited to join the Oyetola-led government in 2019. Well, I am proud of my birthplace, just as I am immensely proud of my roots in Ila Orangun.

In the interview under reference, I queried why Osun at the time remained the only State in the South West where the FG’s palliative intervention had not translated into tangible relief for the people, including civil servants?

Interestingly, it took the government several months after receiving the funds before it publicly acknowledged that the money had been received. At the Ipade Imole programme held in October 2023, the governor announced that the N2 billion palliative fund from the FG would be used for three purposes: purchasing additional buses to strengthen the state’s transport fleet, rehabilitating primary healthcare centres, and procuring food items for distribution to residents of the State. The government made it emphatically clear that there would not be any addition to workers’ salaries.

But after my interview, I was embarrassingly surprised to wake up to a circular, signed by Sunday Olugbenga Fadele, a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Human Resources and Capacity Building. He revealed that workers in the service of the state would get a N15,000 wage award while pensioners would receive N10,000 and that the wage award will run for six months, beginning from the month of December in 2023.
If the money is available, why the delay in disbursement? Again, at what point did the government change its mind? This is what I said about telling lies and the government’s approach to transparency and accountability.

Unless we take a decisive stand against what is happening in our state, future generations may well ask why we stood by and allowed it to continue. History will judge everyone who played a role in unleashing Ademola Adeleke on Osun, a man who lack the requisite administrative and governance experience for the enormous responsibility of governing a state.

Osun must survive beyond the APC and the PDP. Our loyalty should be to the state and its future, not to a political dynasty.