OYEBAMIJI’S YEARS IN GOVT A STORY OF FAILURE – ADELEKE CAMPAIGN

The Imole Campaign Council has rubbished claims by the Osun State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Oyebamiji, that his years in government prepared him for the top job in the state.

In a statement, the Imole Campaign Council spokesperson, Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq, described the claims as laughable and implausible. Olajengbesi added that Oyebamiji’s manufactured achievements in the era of fact-checking are most unnoble of any candidate.

“As a campaign council, we will let the facts speak for themselves, but the fact cannot be overemphasised that under Oyebamiji’s supervision of the state finances, Osun experienced one of its worst economic conditions as public resources failed to count for the people,” he said.

Olajengbesi recalled that Oyebamiji’s tenure as the Osun State Commissioner for Finance saw the treasury of the state nosedive incredulously to an all-time low while the state’s deficits rose geometrically. He said during the period, Osun State domestic debt rose to N148bn while external debt rose to $91m, an unprecedented debt record by the state. “However, upon assumption of office, Governor Ademola Adeleke immediately paid off part of these debts, reducing domestic debt to N83bn, and external debt to $75m,” he said.

He noted that Oyebamiji also left a debt portfolio of N75.8bn in unpaid civil servant salaries, pensions, and insurance commitments, all of which the Adeleke administration immediately cleared. He said Adeleke also cleared all the arrears of the hazard allowance owed health workers by the administration of Oyebamiji and his godfather, Gboyega Oyetola.

He also noted that according to the National Bureau of Statistics, food inflation in Osun as of 2022 under Oyetola and Oyebamiji was 22.24 per cent but fell to 11.9 per cent as of 2025 under Adeleke.

He further mentioned that the finances of Osun State under Oyebamiji were grossly opaque and veiled, highlighting that Adeleke brought accountability and transparency to the state’s finances, making the state secure a 100 per cent fiscal transparency score in the Q3 2025 report by BudgIT and ranking among the top tier of states in the country. “This is not a political assertion but an independent validation grounded in data and objective analysis,” he said.

Olajengbesi noted that the Osun State Investment Company Limited was poorly managed when Oyebamiji was the managing director. He said the many boat mishaps across the country during Oyebamiji’s time at the National Inland Waterways Authority are undeniable pointers of his colossal failures.

“It is therefore most laughable that Oyebamiji relies on his undecorated basket of failures at the state and national level as his preparation to be governor of Osun State,” he said.

According to Olajengbesi, Osun people, particularly workers and pensioners, cannot forget in a hurry the deluge of unfulfilled promises associated with the APC in the past, especially the audio promotion, payment of owed salaries, and other failed promises in the areas of infrastructure, health, agriculture, social services, and many more. “It is therefore not surprising that they voted out Oyetola and Oyebamiji out of office in 2022 and elected Governor Adeleke,” he said.

He concluded by stating that the good people of Osun State cannot be deceived by the theatrical displays and untrue claims by Oyebamiji. He said this points to the belief that the good people of the state, having seen the light with the outstanding records of Adeleke, will go to the poll on August 15, 2026 and re-elect the people’s governor.