Osun State’s All Progressives Congress, APC, has blasted the commissioner-nominees unveiled by Governor Ademola Adeleke as the worst collection of government actors the state has ever seen.
Aside from proving the party’s claims of dissent inside the Osun APC, the list of nominees also highlighted yet another broken promise made by the Adeleke-led administration, the party said.
The Osun APC chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, expressed disappointment in a statement released on Saturday, adding that there was nothing to be celebrated about the nominees who will be entrusted with the government of the state through their respective ministries.
But he added, “It would not be proper to be collective in his excoriation and castigation of the Adeleke administration cluster, as there are few ones in the horrible, horrendous, and obnoxious commissioner-nominees list that have distinguished themselves in their callings, either in private endeavours or public offices.”
“Governor Adeleke’s attempts to use grammatical and political chicanery to prove that he is not truly guilty of nepotism have failed miserably,” the article continues.
The parade of only two women out of a total of 25 nominees is against the adopted World standard in any saner state and also contrary to the promise the governor made to the women during the campaign. This is in addition to the fact that the slots are heavy in some local governments without considering the propriety of others.
Most of the nominees lack solid and verified backgrounds, which has the party worried.
According to Adeleke’s list of commissioner nominees, “the Osun State chapter of the APC was vindicated on the accusation that there was divided loyalty in the party as two chieftains of the defunct self-styled Barr Kolapo Alimi and Mr. Biyi Odunlade, both members of the Osun Progressives (TOP), a political party supported by Nigeria’s ex-Minister of the Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, were included. This provides even more evidence of the TOP members’ covert connection with the PDP.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state responded by calling the APC’s reaction to the list of cabinet nominees “ignorant,” claiming that the APC did not bother to read the nominees’ profiles.
The party’s chairman, Sunday Bisi, released a statement saying that the Osun APC had tried to smear qualified individuals who had been selected to run for office in the state.
“How can you evaluate candidates without even seeing their profiles? Almost two-thirds of the people on the list are experts in their fields; how can you possibly criticise them all? The nominees are outstanding citizens with impressive resumes from both the public and commercial sectors. We’ve compiled a roster of professionals with backgrounds in fields as diverse as economics, education, agriculture, the law, and engineering.
Spread across federal constituencies, interest groups, and professional concerns were all taken into account by the PDP government when compiling the list.
Our response to the APC as a party is that Osun is reaping the benefits of democracy even before the nominations have been made public. With Governor Ademola Adeleke’s new cabinet in place, the state is expected to expand and improve.
On Friday, the Osun State House of Assembly announced its picks for the state government.
Starting on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, a screening committee will be established by the Assembly’s Speaker, Adewale Egbedun, to examine cabinet nominees.
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