Adegboyega Oyetola: 5 Important Things You Don’t Know about APC Governor Who Wants to Rule Osun for 2nd Term
On Saturday, July 16, the people of Osun state will be heading to the polls to elect their governor for the next four years.
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Among the leading contenders is Adegboyega Oyetola, the incumbent governor of the state who is seeking a second term in office.
Source: Twitter
Being the incumbent governor, the people of Osun state and indeed millions of Nigerians are already familiar with Oyetola’s profile:
| DATE OF BIRTH | Adegboyega Oyetola was born September 29, 1954 in in Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Area |
| SECONDARY EDUCATION | He attended Ifeoluwa Grammar School in Osogbo, finishing in 1972 |
| UNIVERSITY EDUCATION | Oyetola studied at the University of Lagos and graduated with a Bachelor of Science honours degree in Insurance in 1978. |
| The Osun governor obtained his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Lagos in 1990. | |
| CAREER | In 1980, Oyetola joined Leadway assurance company Limited as an area manager and worked there till 1987 when he moved on to join Crusader Insurance Company Limited as an Underwriting Manager between 1987 and 1990. |
| In 1990, he joined Alliance and General Insurance as Technical Controller and served in that capacity until 1991 when he left the organisation to start his own company, Silvertrust Insurance Brokers Limited. | |
| Oyetola was Managing Director since its founding until 2011. He also served as Executive Vice Chairman, Paragon Group of Companies between 2005 and 2011. He was also Chairman of Ebony Properties Limited. | |
| He had been a Director of Pyramid Securities Limited, until 2011, He is an Associate Member, Chartered Insurance Institute in London and Nigeria. He is also a member of the Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM). | |
| POLITICS | In 2011, Oyetola was appointed as Chief of Staff to the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola. He became Osun governor in 2018 |
The above is the official profile of Governor Oyetola which many Nigerians are now familiar with. The information is publicly available on the website of the Nigerian Governors Forum.
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What you don't know about Governor Oyetola
1. Founding member of AD
When Oyetola emerged the Osun APC governorship candidate in 2018, many had considered him a technocrat who was just crossing into elective positions.
Contrary to this assumption, Oyetola had been in politics for years but operated behind the scenes in Osun State politics sbefore he decided to move to the political center stage.
He was, for instance, a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1998.
2. Never contested for other elective seats
Despite his many years of being involved in politics, Governor Oyetola had never stood for election until earlier 2018 when the then outgoing governor, Rauf Aregbesola, tapped him out of a long list of political protégés as his final anointed successor.
3. How Oyetola rejected Chief of Staff position and Tinubu’s role
Source: Facebook
For eight years, Oyetola served as Aregbesola’s Chief of Staff. This is known to many. What is not so publicly known was the politics behind his emergence as the Chief of Staff.
Oyetola was said to be handpicked by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the role against Aregbesola’s preference, Gbenga Akano , according to a Premium Times report.
“Oyetola is your chief of staff,” Tinubu was quoted as telling Aregebesola when the latter visited the former to tell him about his choice for his chief of staff.
It was also gathered that Oyetola, a successful businessman, initially rejected the offer.
The report by Premium Times cited an anonymous source as saying that the governorship candidate of PDP in Borno State in 2003 and 2007, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, told them how Tinubu convinced his business partners, including himself, on why it was important to have Oyetola who was from the businessworld join Aregbesola in Osun.
The source quoted Ibrahim-Imam to have said:
“No doubt, we missed Oyetola in our midst. But Tinubu told us that Aregbesola needed a calm, trusted and financially prudent man as a chief of staff if the progressives would have any chance to visit Osun after Aregbesola’s tenure.”
4. How Oyetola emerged APC governorship candidate in 2018
In 2018, former Governor Rauf Aregbesola picked Oyetola as his annointed successor. Many people didn’t know why.
However, in the buildup to the APC governorship primary for the forthcoming election, Aregbesola who has now cut ties with Oyetola revealed why: Tinubu allegedly imposed Oyetola on him with the promise that he would continue the legacies that he laid.
5. Oyetola’s relationship with Tinubu
Many also many not know that Oyetola’s relationship with Tinubu was beyond politics and being from the same state.
The governor of Osun state is said to be Tinubu’s cousin. According to Daily Trust, it was gathered that Tinubu’s mother and Oyetola’s are of the same father.
Court dismisses suit seeking disqualification of Oyetola as Osun APC gov candidate
Meanwhile, the Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking the disqualification of Governor Oyetola as the APC candidate for the July 16 governorship election scheduled to hold in the state.
Delivering Judgement, Justice Inyang Ekwo, stated that the plaintiff, Moshood Adeoti, failed to support the process with relevant laws, and as such, showed no cause of action in the suit which makes it a gross abuse of court process.
Justice Inyang added that the suit instituted falls outside the scope of section 87(9) of the Electoral Act and Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
Source: Legit.ng
