By Seun Babajide
All eyes are on Osun State as the people go to the polls on Saturday to elect a new governor. There are concerns that incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola, seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC), may not return to office.

Justifiably so, the incumbent is facing a strong challenge from Senator Iyiola Omisore of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). If feelers on the Osun election come to reality, it will be the second time an incumbent governor is losing re-election to an opposition candidate within two months.

In June, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State lost re-election to the PDP candidate Ayo Fayose. Aregbesola is coming to the Saturday election on the strength of some achievements that are at best controversial and capable of being his nemesis.

The governor claims to have done so much to move education in Osun forward. He talks about reclassification of schools that is opposed to the national policy on education. Under his own policy, one year is taken away from primary school and added to the junior secondary. How this enhances the quality of education in the state is still a matter of conjecture. It would seem all this is to achieve is that the governor wants to be seen as opposed to anything national because his party is not in control of the Federal Government.

He took this path immediately on his assumption of office when he, unconstitutionally, caused the name of the state to be changed from Osun State to the State of Osun. And in the course of implementing his so-called reclassification of schools policy, Aregbesola ended up instigating religious crisis in the state. Schools were merged indiscriminately and without recourse to religious backgrounds. Students protested the merger in a manner that put Osun on edge for many months. The state has never been divided on the basis of education than it has been under Aregbesola.

The Opon Imo- tablet of knowledge- distributed to students and which the government is claiming to be a star project has been found to be a fraud after all. The contents are apparently riddled with errors while the project, allegedly contracted to Aregbesola’s son, was said to have been hugely inflated. The youths need to be empowered. But all we have seen under the APC government in Osun is mere pretension to empowering the youths under the guise of O’Yes scheme. Youths participating in the scheme are paid N10, 000 monthly.

Osun State PDP gubernatorial candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore and his running mate, Rt. Hon. Adejare Bello acknowledging cheers from supporters during the house-to-house campaign in Ilesa East and West

Whereas the allowance is meagre, it does not come as and when due. Projects that ordinarily would have provided jobs for the teeming youths are contracted to people outside the state. For instance, the contract for the sewing of students’ uniform which could have provided jobs for local artisans was reportedly contracted to a Lagos based APC chieftain.

This pattern is apparently replicated in many other sectors resulting in capital flight from Osun. No achievements are being celebrated in many other sectors including health because there is nothing to showcase. Omisore represents the change Osun needs when the people vote on Saturday. The PDP candidate is bringing to this election 16 years of experience that saw him being deputy governor and the senator representing Osun East at the Senate.

Omisore acquitted himself in the Senate where democracy dividends were delivered to his people in good measure while also chairing crucial committees including the committee on appropriation. The PDP candidate has an eight-point agenda covering all sectors to deliver good governance to Osun people.

A vote for Omisore in the Saturday election is a vote for functional and qualitative education without religious coloration in the state; it is a vote for empowerment of all segments of society in a manner that is not pretentious as we have seen in the last three and a half years under the APC government; it is a vote for good governance in Osun

Seun Babajide wrote this piece from Ede, Osun State