An Osun-based Civil Society Group, the Osun Masterminds has described the Spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, as a liar and one who deploys gutter tactics to engage perceived opponents.
The Osun Masterminds in a statement by its Executive Director, Professor Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli attributed a report published by a section of the media where his Group was attacked, to the media aides around the Governor, describing it as “Jacob’s voice but voice of Esau”.
Oyedokun-Alli said the publication was in response to its criticism of the Adeleke-led administration’s resolve to sink 332 borehole across the State as part of the Governor’s 100 days agenda.
The Masterminds said “it has been expecting a day like this to come as we had known from inception that at some point in our activism, we would encounter arrogant, incorrigible and irresponsible strays in government, who would take our activities in bad faith and attempt to engage us in gutter fight. We saw this day coming and we are thus not surprised that it has come. We will however not join those strays in the gutter as ours is honorable engagement of respectable stakeholders.
“We first must put on record that unlike the cowards behind the badly put together comedy of an ‘investigative report’, we are able to easily spot smear campaigns when we see one and we are sure of the direction this particular attempt came from. We know the sponsors are arrogant, ineffectual hangers-on around the Governor calling themselves Media Aides, working under a Spokesperson who is known for bold-faced lies and deployment of gutter tactics to engage perceived opponents.
“As a point of education, we refer to Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution which states that “Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any association for the protection of his interests.”
“Under the above-stated section of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, our right to gather as citizens and associate with like minds under the aegis of groups such as The Osun Masterminds has been guaranteed. We have the right as citizens to associate and speak truth to government, in the protection of our interests as citizens, which in this case is the entrenchment of transparency and probity in governance.
“We must put it on record that The Osun Masterminds as a group has never and will never solicit financial favors from any person in government or outside of government. Whatever we do as like minds pressing for the development of our society is done with our personal resources and we challenge anyone who feels otherwise to present proof that we ever solicited financial favors from them.
“From the above, we thus establish that The Osun Masterminds is only a group of like minds, who are active citizens, pressing for positive change in a society whose navigation is not the exclusive preserve of anyone who gets lucky to serve in government at any point in time.
“To thus attempt to blackmail us like the Jacobs masquerading as Esaus attempted to do, amounts to ignorance and more severely, illiteracy. We know when it is Jacob’s voice, but Esau’s hand. We are accomplished technocrats and we are not strangers to such proxy fights.
“The bad news for the aggressors hiding behind a finger is that we will continue to interrogate government actions, lending our support to positive steps and boldly criticizing negative actions without any care for whatever any egocentric agent of government feels about our actions. Whoever has become too big to be criticized has no business in government to start with.
“Those who feel irked by our bold interventions, which have never incited violence or civil disobedience anyway, should rather cure their arrogance instead of attempt to silence our patriotism.
“Government is a never-ending continuum and no one must arrogate omniscience to themselves in a system of governance that is supposed to be people-driven.”
