By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain and the immediate past PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Prince Diran Odeyemi has urged former governor of Osun State, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola not to challenge the recent Appeal Court judgment on the Osun state governorship election.
The PDP Chieftain in an open letter to Alhaji Oyetola on Sunday, made available to newsmen, maintained that challenging the outcome of the election and the recent Appeal judgment will give a wrong impression about his personality to the generality of Nigerians who are keen observers of the happenings in Osun.
Prince Odeyemi stressed in the open letter that ” the rejection of APC in Osun state is confirmed”, and that ” the recently concluded elections were messages; they are indeed some unspoken words of wisdom meant for you to decode.
” My honest advice is for you as a major stakeholder in Osun is to rally support for the governor-elect so that Osun State can move forward. I am not one of the people who believe that you are not appreciated in Osun state. To garner 375,027 votes is a good show only that the majority of 403,371 preferred your successor, Sen Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke”, he said.
The PDP Chieftain added, ” Your Excellency, though the final decision is yours but my advise to you will be to stop further court process and allow sanity to prevail in our polity. Apart from the waste of time and money on either side that the exercise would entail, the mounting hostility, unwarranted apprehension and insidious tension it is causing the people you love are beyond imagination”.
” Should you be the one to heat-up the polity? No, not at all. You are too gentle and pious not to accept the will of Allah as occasion and circumstances would have dictated. You have been blessed above thousands of your contemporaries and have been a blessing to humanity.
Prince Odeyemi said ” the history of Osun State would be incomplete without your tenure and persona occupying a whole chapter, to say the least. In Nigeria politics, and at the Federal level, some roles still beckon. In the much-vaunted axiom of our elders: He who carries on his head a whole elephant must not be seen to be scathing the ground for crickets. In Osun State, having done your best, it is about time to leave the rest and indeed time to rest your case’.
” My honest advice is for you as a major stakeholder in Osun is to rally support for the governor-elect so that Osun State can move forward”, saying, ” to insist that their wish must be wished away through “technicality” or back door arrangements, using extra-presidential power is wrong, ungodly and totally unacceptable”
” You will remain an hero if after reading this letter you put a call through to your brother, Sen Adeleke and congratulate him. You may wish to sample opinions, he is making you proud; success without a good successor is a failure.
President Goodluck Jonathan is much younger that you in age and wisdom. He did the uncommon thing by congratulating President Buhari to teach an inherent lesson ensconced in the spirit of sportsmanship. You win today, you lose tomorrow, it is never the end of life, it continues.
“We know the respect accorded Jonathan globally for displaying maturity and respect for the wish of the electorate as is known in a functional democracy. Your Excellency, kindly replicate this good gesture in Osun and have your name recorded in history as our hero that deserves a resounding ovation.
He stressed, ” I am compelled to write this open letter to you when I got the hint that you wanted to proceed to the Supreme Court as an aftermath of the Court of Appeal judgment which has upheld Sen Ademola Adeleke as the governor of Osun State. Before going further, let me first express my knowledge of Yoruba culture lest cynics who may chose to read this open letter upside down accuse me of teaching an ‘elder and a leader’ what is right.
” In Yoruba culture, elders do not make mistakes. Their words are considered to be full dose of wisdom and adequate knowledge. Even in the event that what an elder does is the direct opposite of what is right, in Yorubaland, you still do not say it is a wrong. I am sure Your Excellency will agree with me that no man is an encyclopaedia of knowledge in the present day, and that is especially true in politics. The best advice, nay counselling, can come from anybody or the least expected quarters, hence this open letter from me to you.
