Opinion: Ademola Adeleke and His Pen

By Sola Isola

Govinda once said, “All of us start from zero. We take the right decision and become a hero.” Simply put, a hero is made by the decisions he makes.

Shortly after Governor Ademola Adeleke became the Governor of Osun State, he announced the decision to enroll all the people living with disabilities in Osun under the Osun Health Insurance Scheme, so they can have access to quality and free healthcare.

Recently I saw a video. In this video, Oyewole Jamiu, a person living with disability of the eyes revealed how Governor Ademola Adeleke’s intervention saved his wife, Suliya Jamiu, who is also a person living with disability from untimely death.

Oyewole disclosed that he brought his wife to the hospital to give birth but unfortunately she couldn’t deliver through the normal delivery process. He also explained that the hospital management through Osun Health Insurance Scheme (OHIS) did a cesarean session for his wife free of charge.

This then reminded me of a question a man once asked, he said “can a son of nobody because somebody without knowing anybody in Nigeria”. I then imagine if Ademola Adeleke had not decided to enroll the persons living with disabilities into OHIS, what would have happened to this couple?

A man who knows nobody has been saved without knowing anybody. I know that this is one out of many cases we may not have heard of. There are several others who would have been saved just like this couple.

One of those days in the Office of the Governor, Senator Adeleke made a remark, let me quote him, “I’ve got the pen”, why did he say this? He understands the fact that with the pen in his hand, decisions can be made, agreement can be reached and problems will be solved.

In the field of journalism, we say often that “pen is mightier than sword”. We understand that a sword is only effective when it’s a physical battle only but the pen is very much effective. Swords can only destroy, pen can make, correct, reprimand and direct where necessary, so pen is indeed mightier.

In the case of Ademola Adeleke, he holds the pen in Osun, it is with this pen he has decided to continue to redraw the badly managed Osun he inherited from his predecessors, that’s why I said earlier that the right decision makes a hero out of a person.

His decision to revitalize Primary Healthcare Centres across the state brought back a $500,000 grant with Osun emerging first in the southwest.

His decision to prioritize workers welfare which led to the implementation of overdue promotions, implementation of minimum wage with one of the best salary tables in Nigeria, payment of backlog of salary, renovation of over 200 primary and secondary schools brought Osun up from 33rd position it was in 2022 to 7th position in 2024.

These and many other decisions are the root cause of the developmental stride of the Adeleke administration which is often appended by the green pen of Asiwaju Ademola Adeleke.

Tom Brady said, “You didn’t come this far, only to come this far”. This is to say that if you have to go far, there has to be specific reasons for coming far and not just for the fun of it.

I brought this up to say this, many people have asked the question or doubt if Adeleke in the remaining two years of his administration will not abandon the projects he started and will continue to do more.

Let me drop here for you what “Mr Project” said while addressing the people of Osun State as his administration clocks two years.

“We are rededicating ourselves to service delivery as we are honoured by the accolades and commendation from within and outside the state.

“We are acknowledged locally and internationally as true agents of good governance. We are honoured as I invite the opposition to join this train of positive development.

“The goal of politics should be development. The opposition is enjoined to join the people in their mass support for our government. It is not shameful to acknowledge what is good. It is a sign of maturity and responsibility

“As we accept the ovation, we also welcome the few critics and criticisms. We are a responsive government. We are building on our strengths as we are attending to observations from the general public.

“As your Governor, I am passionate about service delivery. Osun should not just be a construction site, I am supervising its remodeling into the best among comity of states.

“Let our people be informed that commissioning of completed projects continues, both in urban and rural areas. As we open completed projects for public use, we are intensifying monitoring of ongoing projects for quality and best practice.”

To the people of Osun State and those of who genuinely love Osun, we are seeing clearly the difference in the model being operated now can compare systematically with all the models operated by the outgone governments.

Indeed, Adeleke got the pen.

Oh I forgot to tell you! You can now get a Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) in 45 days with the technology put in place by the government of Adeleke and you can also get your certificate of Origin in less than 24 hours.

Sola Isola is a Media Aide to Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State.