By Waheed Adekunle
In a world where words can be both powerful and perilous, silence is often touted as a virtue. The adage “silence is golden” suggests that holding one’s tongue can prevent conflict, avoid trouble, and maintain peace. While this may be true in certain situations, there are times when silence can be more harmful than beneficial.
In many cases, speaking up is not only necessary but also crucial for creating positive change, protecting one’s rights, and standing up for what is right.
It is no longer news that the incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke has drawn a boundary path-line with the former Governor Rauf Aregbesola going by the recent happenings and words of war between them as the state approaches yet another electioneering period. However, the perpetual silence of the ‘Information Minister’ in the state, Barrister Kolapo Alimi, over the palpable emotionally charged and ego-driven brouhaha has been a great concern to many particularly the discerning minds in Osun State and beyond.
Observers in the public court of competent jurisdiction have begun to interrogate the identified issues painstakingly observed, garnered, and planned for empirical analysis as to the likelihoods. Stemming from different perspectives as to the strange silence from the mega-piece of the Osun State government recently, one could suggest that the latter is now in the state of dilemma.
It would be recalled that the incumbent ‘Information Minister’, so to say, an appointee of Governor Adeleke, defected to the Peoples Democratic Party in a bid to pursue his political career having served for two terms as a Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs under the administration of the erstwhile Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
To some, no doubt, Barrister Alimi’s silence is justified by state of dilemma, that can be likened to the normal experience of a confused envoy facing trials of choice in the plethora of uncertainties. It is on record that Governor Adeleke’s political appointments extended to former aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress, APC who claimed undiluted loyalty to the erstwhile Governor Aregbesola made few of the beneficiaries to see the immediate past government as a pathless snake that crawls on the solid rock.
To them, particularly the ‘Information Minister’, nothing tangible was done in four years of the government. It is on record that Adeleke’s Information Commissioner led the media war against the then government and personality of the immediate past Governor – Adegboyega Oyetola, dragged his person and image into politics of acrimony all in the name of vengeance and ventilation of vendetta. In the build up to the 2022 governorship election in Osun, the current mega piece of the incumbent government acrimoniously campaigned against the then sitting Governor calling his government all sort of things just to demarket his person and office for political gratification. Citizens can’t forget in a jiffy how Barrister Alimi was going from one radio and television station to another, discrediting the good works of the then government as subtle means to revenge a nonexistent offence. Many of the laudable projects and monumental achievements of Oyetola’s government were bitterly and vindictively bad-mouthed in the quest to heal their insatiable appetite for power that’s transient. Most significantly, the iconic Olaiya flyover was fiercely disparaged and erroneously vilified for no just cause to the extent that a cliche was coined to suit the hallucinations of the purveyors of propaganda.
The ‘info Minister’ described the edifice as an embodiment of failure, physically and technically ‘failed brain test’, which in their myopic tendencies couldn’t survive, but lo and behold, the Olaiya flyover is still serving the good people of the state despite all the vituperative and propagandist tendencies of the latter and the those in the current government. It is quite unfortunate that majority of those in the current government have deeply dug their political holes for ‘self traps’ as manifested in their actions and inactions and the reality is now dawn on them.
However, it is pertinent to bring to the fore, the state of confusion currently experiencing by political gladiators most importantly now that their principal, Governor Adeleke, has been running up and down to pitch a tent with the national ruling party – APC, the party that was called several unimaginable and unprintable names all because of transient powers. Haaa! Where is the face of our Information Commissioner?
It seems the question of integrity, dignity, decency, decorum, humility and morality are coming to play as many discerning citizens have been expecting the ‘Information Minister’ to defend the “Open-Secret and Exposedly Covered Anus” of the current government in his usual way. Many have been expecting statements that would be authored and signed by the ‘Information Commissioner’ to reply his former principal. Can we say our Barrister is unaware of the imbroglio? Is it not the government he’s serving? Why the silence since? Alas! Whatever goes round, comes round!
In a saner clime, it is the constitutional role of the Information Commissioner to defend the truth around the government not minding the personality involved or whose ox is gored. Is it not safe to say that our Barrister has failed with this responsibility? Many have been expecting Barrister Alimi to issue statements in his regular routine to set the record straight if there is any, at least, speak to truth and reel out sacred facts in the defense of criticisms leveled against the government to which he’s serving as mega piece by his ex principal. Or is it difficult to defend the government that has been allegedly taken to the cleaners? Is it a sin to come out from one’s shell and furnish people with good things that the incumbent government has done which the latter failed to acknowledge? I know, we know and people know what is behind the scene. But sometimes silence is not golden, integrity plays a crucial role in genuine success since there’s a difference between success and achievement.
May God heal our land!