Engr. Adelere Oriolowo, Osun APC Governorship Aspirant Explains the Circumstances of his Getting into the Race

Wednesday, September the 1st 2018 at the Ogo-Oluwa Campaign Office of Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola, the official gubernatorial candidate of the Osun All Progressives Congress (APC), one of the seventeen aspirants that contested at the direct primary of 20th of July 2018, Engr. Adelere Oriolowo came with his campaign team to present his congratulatory message to the winner and pledge his support for the Ileri-Oluwa project.

The Iwo born technocrat and one of those that ardently demanded that the next governor of Osun state should come from Osun West Senatorial District was in his jovial self at the meeting hall of the Ileri-oluwa campaign office.

Excerpts from his speech:

"Your Excellency in waiting, by the grace of God, my oga, my friend and my confidant, distinguished cabinet members present here today, ladies and gentlemen. It is my pleasure and great one for that matter, to be here today as part of this great team to usher in our government come Sept 23rd. Of course, I think should be one of the first set of people to congratulate my oga and I did it at exactly 7:48pm on that faithful Friday.

" Right from the beginning, there are things I did deliberately, by design not by accident. The first one is that at every meeting with my campaign organization I used to tell them whenever any person is altering any statement, that is not palatable to me I used to tell them that this is a family affair and partner or family hurt is felt in the flesh not in the bone because one thing I know is that it is always good to have a very good contest to produce the best. So it has been an in-house struggle.

"The second one is a design to make sure that our party is always put forward. Everywhere I went to for campaign, it was towards attaining the governorship position for our party come September 23rd. I think by the grace of God we have achieved that. At campaign organization, we have achieved a landmark at selling the party to the people and I know by all means I watched and I observed all other aspirants campaign. Our own in the front line of making sure that not only the candidate but the party should be ensured to win the election come next month.

" I am so happy to day, I congratulate you sir. It's the same house. There are three people I deliberately avoided for many months of my campaign. That is Mr. Governor. Unavoidably I was to see him but I didn't discuss anything about the Huber issue until the Saturday penultimate to the Monday that we were asked to come to the party Secretariat to show intention. I was from my from Singapore when I stopped in Lagos and asked whether oga is around. I went to his house and I said they have asked aspirants to come and show up, can I go? and he said go and that was the only statement, we started talking about other issues again.

"Also I carefully avoided oga Gboyega Oyetola. One day he caught me in governor's office, he said I should meet him in his office, he said why? I said it's all because of my geographical placement on earth and this is so because he is not somebody that will be going in the front and will not see me right behind him. But by accident of history where I happen to come from on the planet called earth beckoned on me that I should struggle to get this position. Especially in my Federal Constituency because throughout the struggle, people from the West when they asked us that somebody should step down for the other I told them I'm not worried about stepping down but let's set the criteria because what's happening to West that we are crying " West lo kan" the worst is happening to Iwo Federal Constituency in the West, so let us see who will step down for who? because I can't go back home and tell them that somebody told me to step down and I stepped down. I must give them reasons. It is a known fact but nobody ever outlined it.

"I want to tell us this afternoon and I want to say it again because it's an obvious fact but nobody really takes care even the concerned people. We have three Federal Constituencies in Osun West namely, Ede, Egbedore and Ejigbo. We also have Irewole, Isokan and Ayedaade. Then we have Iwo, OlaOluwa and Ayedire which happen to be the headquarter for that senatorial district but by accident of history, I think the current speaker is running the fifth term as speaker from that Federal Constituency. The current senator the one from Ede is running the forth term as senator from that Federal Constituency. The only time West ever tasted governorship seat for twenty-three months was from that Fedey Constituency. One of the two State Government's campuses of University that is in the West , one is in that Federal Constituency. The only Federal Polytechnic that we have in the State is in that Federal Constituency.

" Moving from that place, you go to the other Federal Constituency, they ran Senatorial seat for two terms, they have also taken the Federal ministerial appointments twice, Speaker House of Reps once, the second State Government University campus is in that Federal Constituency.

"Coming to where we call the headquarter of that Senatorial District, apart from Sunday Fajimi who ran only one term in 1999, there is nothing you can point to either in terms of State or Federal Government presence or position. It's very appalling. Of course, it's nobody's fault but we will continue to try until we are able to balance things out. And that's what prompted me to say that if this thing by God's grace, if it came to West and having the requisite experience and skill that it require, I showed up. So these are my driving forces. These are the things that prompted me. Somebody should show up too but not something that is automatically given to somebody.

"To my oga Gboyega Oyetola, I'm always with him. He has been my guide on numbers of official assignment especially when it comes to finance. We have tried our best and God's best has come out. I congratulate you and I wish our party the best at the poll. As I used to tell people across, it's better for you even if you call yourself enemies. It's better that your enemy within your party sit on the seat rather than to have your own son even your own friend from the opposition. There's no way you can show your face. It is possible for me to come here and do all these but it is not possible for me to go to other party to go and congratulate them there.

" So, oga, once again I congratulate you and I am assuring you that by the grace of God all the machineries, arsenals we've put in place to achieve what we have achieved as first timer in the race, I know that by the grace of God people who doubted our strength earlier on have known what God can really do through us. We are going to use everything by the grace of God to make sure that we win the governorship election.

"Thank you very much my people, I wish all of us the best. Let us work together. We have everything that it takes and if you are looking for anything, you want and you cannot find it in you, you will find in us. Thank you and God bless"

More photos: