Osinbajo: Senator Adeyeye’s inconsistency as a sign of dishonesty

Osinbajo: Senator Adeyeye’s inconsistency as a sign of dishonesty

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers” — Proverbs 6:16

Cultural and moral principles differ across human societies but the Yoruba tradition, in which Senator Olusola Adeyeye and I were raised, even though have no orthographical trace, has a place for human decency and regard; the latter of which is usually sustained by individual’s commitment to honesty, dignity and integrity. The implicit conclusion here is that an individual is short of any modicum of integrity, irrespective of their socioeconomic class or age grade; if they speak from both sides of their mouth, then they are outright dishonest. This cultural understanding permeates all spectrums of Yoruba’s epistemology and its knowledge is mutually intelligible. My predecessor, Senator Adeyeye, should be able to attest to this fact.

But my predecessor, when writing his rejoinder to my article, Osinbajo: Senator Adeyeye and his dishonest thesis, succeeded in confirming and projecting his hatred for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That is the only clear thing he has been able to put forward. Senator Adeyeye’s purported rejoinder was not about Reno Omokri. It was a veiled diatribe against the person of Asiwaju, he only used Omokri’s opinion in his Column in ThisDay Newspaper of Tuesday, May 3, 2022 to launch it. Senator Adeyeye’s apology to Reno Omokri is well placed because he twisted his narrative out of context in his failed attempt at drawing out Asiwaju for an open confrontation.

Being a supporter of a presidential candidate does not give anybody the latitude or impetus to concoct lies and all sorts of unverifiable historical anecdotes to justify the fantasy of their preferred candidate as the anointed. Senator Adeyeye is well within his rights to pander to the permutations of people whose predilections support his leaning towards a preferred presidential candidate but that does not give him the right to heap vitriolic attacks on others, in this instance, Tinubu. The vehemence in the senator’s words against Tinubu is disturbing.

In his thesis, 2023 political realities that annoy and heal, Senator Adeyeye stated thus, “I (President Buhari) won’t tell you my favourite for 2023, he may be eliminated if I mention. I better keep it a secret”. He wasn’t joking. The comment is revealing. It tells us he was aware of the intense jostling for the position going on within our party. It tells us he had someone in mind already and that person isn’t a party Goliath. For a man who knows what Osinbajo has endured as vice president, he knew what he was talking about. Of course, the only thing is that he has not expressed his preference to Osinbajo himself.” Does this statement leave anyone in doubt as to whom our honest Senator is referring to as Buhari’s candidate? It is obvious that Senator Adeyeye possesses the power of clairvoyance and sees what we ordinary mortals don’t. Has his denial that he stated this in his earlier write-up not contradicted his stance in his later work?

Senator Adeyeye is confused and showing sheer inconsistency as he cannot stand by his words in just two months. He was of the opinion just two months ago that every Nigerian has the right to aspire to any office as long as he’s not been found guilty of any offence that disqualifies him, but in his bid to satisfy his new leader and display hatred and envy towards Asiwaju, he decided to shift the goalposts in the middle of the match.

He wrote, “If Tinubu wants to be President, why should he not want? If Osinbajo wants to be President, why should he not want? If Okorocha wants to be President, why should he not want, it’s left to party members to choose whom they want, and if the party then chooses a wrong candidate, the citizens might show them by rejecting their choice at a free and fair election, if I were younger, I would also throw my hat into the field (sic). I believe I’ll make a fantastic president, I have ideas, but I have given up on the ambition.”

Undeniably, it is within Senator Adeyeye’s right to give up his ambition. But he cannot by subterfuge coerce others who, unlike him, absolutely believe in the democratic process, to give up on theirs. It is the responsibility of party members to elect the party’s standard-bearer, a fact Senator Adeyeye subscribed to two months ago, but which now totally negates his warped establishment tendencies. That Senator Adeyeye is openly advocating a deviation from the democratic process is ominous of the dangerous abyss the nation may be plunged into politically by turncoat democrats.

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It is laughable to have this coming from the same person who, just a few weeks ago, was unequivocally acknowledging Tinubu’s brilliance and industriousness, ascribing the political wherewithal needed to aspire to that office to him. According to my predecessor some weeks ago “Tinubu is a fantastically hardworking human being, he has the right to aspire to that office.” Probably the long-nursed bitterness against the perceived and hugely proven shrewdness of Tinubu’s political machinery have overwhelmed my predecessor so much that he is getting himself buried under the burning logs of share inconsistencies that could only be euphemised as hallucinations borne out of his chequered political sojourn.

Senator Adeyeye has not been able to answer one of my major questions: “Which establishment brought the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), into power?”. The professor of science has circumvented this question and instead went into a frenzy about the undocumented history of how presidents are made in Nigeria, obviously from his own archive of contrived facts. His treatise contains, mostly, attacks on personality and banal references to issues and persons. His dishonesty in his assertions is legendary or how else does one place his statement that Asiwaju is a blackmailer? Where are the facts to support this baseless and unwarranted statement? What happened to civility? He said he did not call him a blackmailer yet he understands why those who do see him in that light. Who are those people? Why is the elderly Senator speaking from both sides of the mouth? The Yoruba are right when they say, agba o kan ogbon ori; age doesn’t bequeath wisdom.

Ironically, Senator Adeyeye who cannot ordinarily win his ward is the one calling out the great Jagaban! Someone who has not been able to install a councillor in office in his Local Government since the beginning of his political sojourn dares to challenge a man who has made governors, senators, ministers and many more. I doubt if Adeyeye knows a single delegate from his Ward 8 in Ifedayo Local Government Area that will participate in this election.

It is also laughable from Senator Adeyeye’s rejoinders that the arguments advanced in my thesis amount to hero-worshipping. For a man of his ‘putative academic standing,’ it is uncharitable for him to equate a robust challenge to his manifest display of dishonesty in originating odious attack on the person of Asiwaju, as hero-worshipping.

Senator Adeyeye has not debunked the assertions in my thesis. His rejoinders are nothing but attempts at name-calling and nothing more. It is what, in local parlance, is referred to as ‘beautiful nonsense or beautiful lies.’ Henceforth, I’ll stop further correspondence with Adeyeye on this issue.