Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has launched a blistering attack on the economic blueprint unveiled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Muniru Bola Oyebamiji, dismissing the document as a recipe for economic retrogression designed to enslave the state to external interests.
In a statement issued on Sunday in Osogbo, the Governor described Oyebamiji’s proposals as imbecilic, old school and dangerously out of touch with modern economic realities.
Adeleke argued that a critical review of the opposition’s plan reveals a sinister agenda to reverse the current economic boom in Osun and return the state to an era of capital flight to Lagos and suppressive taxation.
The Governor specifically took issue with Oyebamiji’s proposed Lagos corridor strategy, interpreting it as a direct threat to Osun’s economic independence.
Adeleke contended that while regional collaboration under the Oodua framework is already active, Oyebamiji’s specific approach would kill the state’s vital local content policy.
He warned that the APC candidate’s plan amounts to corporate slavery, intending to siphon Osun’s resources to serve external commercial masters rather than empowering local residents and businesses.
Governor Adeleke further ridiculed the APC candidate’s blueprint as lacking originality, accusing Oyebamiji of merely regurgitating policies that are already being successfully implemented by the current administration.
He cited tax reforms, revenue digitization, public-private partnerships, and agro-industrialization as areas where the opposition candidate effectively copied the incumbent’s homework without understanding the underlying strategy.
According to the Governor, his own administration has already placed Osun on a sustainable growth trajectory through aggressive local content policies, the revival of free trade zones, and the transformation of the state into a digital economy hub.
He highlighted achievements such as the disbursement of almost four billion naira in cooperative financing, the signing of the state electricity bill to localize power regulation, and the revival of the Owala Lake beach resort under a PPP model, a sharp contrast, he noted, to the abandonment witnessed during the era when Oyebamiji was a key government player.
The statement also directed a stinging critique at Oyebamiji’s competence regarding the Blue Economy, referencing his tenure as the head of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).
Adeleke asserted that Oyebamiji failed to curb waterway accidents or modernize the transport system during his time at the federal agency, leaving a record of “almost 1000 deaths” by the time he left office.
The Governor argued that Osun does not need such sordid records replicated at the state level.
Concluding with a tone of defiance, Governor Adeleke declared that the state has advanced too far in economic liberation to turn back now.
He insisted that the electorate would not support a return to policies that prioritize corporate hawks over the welfare of the people, affirming that Osun’s path to prosperity is now irreversible.
