Monday, August 4, 2014

AREGBESOLA FIGHTS DIRTY – DRAWS ADEBOYE, OYEDEPO INTO GUBERNATORIAL BRAWLING


Mr Raufu Aregbesola, incumbent governor of Osun state is clearly a desperate man.  To try to salvage his sinking fortunes as people get wise and outraged at his many antics, he is now claiming to have the mandates of revered Christian leaders for his second-term bid.  On  his facebook page and several other media, Mr Aregbesola drops the names of Pastor E.A. Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo and Prophet S.K. Abiara as men of God who have endorsed his candidature (see eg http://www.newsng.com/story-detail.php?title=More-Christian-communities-endorse-Aregbesola-%E2%80%93APC&story=30cd9a5557).

Reporting on comments made by Bishop David Oyedepo during a recent visit to Osun state, Mr Aregbesola and his gang conveniently forget to mention that the revered Bishop advised against blowing one’s own trumpet, cautioning that it is the people who really can comment on the performances of a man in public service.  He also conveniently omitted mentioning that the Bishop warned that it is not reasonable to want to change the identity of a people without their consent and still expect them to quietly embrace such a change.  All the public is repeatedly told by Aregbesola’s Lagos Press, is the latter aspect where the Bishop spoke about impressive infrastructure that is being put in place, at last, in the State.

Extremely outrageous is the full page advert in the Guardian (page 73) of Friday 25th July, in which the All Progressives Congress (APC) point-blankly claims that the highly respected Pastor Adeboye  has endorsed their candidate for the guber polls.  With a smiling picture of Pastor Adeboye facing that of a towering Aregbesola, the APC quoted Pastor Adeboye: 

“Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is an anointed governor.  We thank God for your life sir.  Nothing happens except God allows it, because we are not here by accident.  We are here because God had decided it before the foundation of the world.  And I m particularly proud.  I am proud that you are here.  I want the best for Osun State and I am believing God that during your tenure, the Almighty God will do mighty things.  We will support you hundred percent in prayers.  Every member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Osun State will know they have a duty to pray for you to succeed.  And you will succeed.”

A similar full-page advert was also more recently repeated in the Nation’s newspaper. 

However, the featured quote was from far back 2011, at a time when there were no political campaigns in the air. In actual fact, Mr Aregbesola was then just starting his term, and the Pastor was merely dutifully pledging the cooperation of the Church in both prayers and other assistances. To draw this out of the archives and now present it as a fresh endorsement is most despicable indeed.  And it only points out to absolute desperation on the part of Mr Aregbesola.

Now, Ogbeni Aregbesola might as well go away scot-free with the building of roads at 20 times the regular costs; or the monthly repatriation of an incredible, outrageous 10-15% of total tax collected from citizens of the state (mostly government workers) back to his boss and mentor in Lagos state in the guise of paying some Tax Consultants; or the many other half-thought-out failing policies which are currently pitting him against the people.  After all, all these are still in the realm of politics where things are hardly straight-forward.

However, by now drawing Pastor Adeboye and other revered men of God into the fray of partisan politicking, Mr Aregbesola might as well be stacking the back of his camel with the proverbial last back-breaking straw.  

It is absolutely unthinkable that Pastor Enoch Adeboye will be coming out to give an unreserved endorsement (or any one for that matter) for a politician of the caliber of Mr Aregbesola, a man totally sold-out to using state funds and machinery to promote the revival of the dead and dying deities of Yorubaland.  In the name of cultural renaissance, Mr Aregbesola has proudly and defiantly committed millions of naira of state funds to sponsor the Isese festival which last year celebrated 9 disappearing deities of Yorubaland.  This year, the plan is to revive and celebrate 32 of them.  There is, of course, an official public holiday for the celebrations. Likewise, ostensibly to balance the use of state funds to sponsor Christian and Moslem  pilgrimages, Mr Aregbesola has started sending dozens of induced/seduced Yoruba youths to Cuba for indoctrination into the service of the dead Yoruba gods and goddesses.  The more talked-about Islamic jihadists moves of Mr Aregbesola are essentially bribes he is gleefully trying to use to silence the Moslem folks and gain their acquiescence to his more blatantly idolatory moves in the State.  That makes him certified double-disaster for the Church of God in Osun state.

Mr Aregbesola’s antics and goals are aptly summarized in his unilaterally changing the name of the State from “Osun State” to the equivalent of “Osun’s State”, attempting an Esau-Jacob kind of spiritual sell-out.  But even he himself is too ashamed to display the occult-inspired flag he was given to fly to accompany the change of name.  Beyond its initial public unveiling, nobody seems bold enough (at least for now) to hoist the cowries-decked flag either at the State Secretariat, or at State functions.(See the flag here)

It is an open secret that virtually every politician seeking some top office in Nigeria has had to call on Pastor Adeboye to seek his blessings.  The list ranged from Presidents Obasanjo, Yar Adua, Jonathan, to the likes of Buhari, Amaechi, and a host of others.  But never had Pastor Adeboye given a public endorsement to any candidate for a political post.  And never had any candidate issued full-page adverts in national newspapers trying to claim they have such an endorsement.  Not even Governor Mimiko of Ondo State, an open disciple of Pastor Adeboye, could make such a claim in the heat of his re-election campaign.  Incidentally, Mr Aregbesola of Osun state was the self-declared major opponent in that contest!

The on-going deceitful desperate moves by Mr Aregbesola, throwing decency to the gutters and drawing revered men of God and the Church into a dirty dog-fight, just to save his own skin, might as well backfire on him as people begin to realize the incredible depths of his deception and desperation.  Hopefully, the men of God involved will sooner than later be provoked to the point of having to issue some official rebuttal to Mr Aregbesola’s opprobrious acts being carried out with impunity.

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