Adeleke: Workers Endorsement And Osun APC’s Failed Strategy -By Sarafa Ibrahim

To start with, it is a bad strategy to rely on blackmail and lies as a tool to win support of potential voters. This is what the Osun APC seem to miss in its futile effort to get the state’s labour force to its side as we gradually approach the 2026 governorship election in the state. Osun workers are, perhaps, the most political conscious community in the entire Southwest, if not the whole of Nigeria, and so, it is utterly insulting to them for the APC to suggest that they are coerced or induced to endorse Governor Ademola Adeleke for a second term in office.

Any close observer of events in Osun in the last two years of Governor Adeleke administration will not find it surprisingly that the workers are lining behind him for the 2026 governorship election. This is simply because Governor Adeleke has given uttermost attention to the welfare of the workers, addressing not just past imbalances, but also set the ground for improved welfare packages.

Let us, for a moment, consider a Facebook post by Mr. Alabi Dare, a civil servant in the state, which highlighted the unbearable pains that workers endured in the 12 years of the APC administration and how Governor Adeleke, in two years of his administration, has provided reliefs by resolving inherited welfare issues and improving packages.

According to Mr. Alabi, he was left stagnated on a level in the service for 12 years out of a potential 29 years he is entitled to before retiring as no promotion or one without financial consequences characterised the APC administration. “A particular era gave workers double or three promotions that they were due for, without cash-backing, they were just paper promotions. Nothing to show for it. I was on grade level 14, and I was earning level 12 salary,” he noted.

But he didn’t stop there. Mr. Alabi added that “Promotions have been regularised, the regularisation is beautifully done to favour Osun workers by the incumbent governor’s (Senator Adeleke) regime, and we are grateful for that. Now, it’s even beyond mere regularisation. It’s a reflection of the new minimum wage, and workers are indeed very grateful for this also. Many states that are economically buoyant than Osun have not implemented the new minimum wage scale.”

The impressive thing here is that Mr. Alabi was not the only one with such feeling as yet another civil servant, Mr. Sanusi Akeem, also openly acknowledged the significant turnaround in workers’ welfare under Governor Adeleke. Mr. Sanusi Akeem did not only appreciate the Governor’s positive attitude towards workers welfare, he also expressed strong doubt that any workers in the state will want to return to the past of pains. “This is absolutely the fact,” Mr. Sanusi corroborated the position of Mr. Alabi, before going on to note that “Not a single sane worker in Osun will ever pray for another government to overthrow Adeleke except those that have been entangled to poverty. The difference between level 09 in Kwara and Osun state workers’ salary is N50,000.”

Testimonies like the above abound, and as much as it may sound bitter for the Osun APC to swallow, it is the reality they cannot push away, no matter how hard they try to with the ridiculous lies and cheap blackmails they throw around. The Osun APC had 12 good year to have a lasting impact on the state’s labour force but they bungled that opportunity by treating their welfare with disdain.

Like a broken child haunted by its past misdeed, the Osun APC is doing everything to convince itself that only coercion (maybe because that was what it does while in power) could explain the overwhelming support for Governor Adeleke by the state’s workforce. No, Governor Adeleke does not need to coerce or induce civil servants into supporting him for re-election because he is fulfilling his obligations to them, ensuring they live with dignity.

That is exactly what is happening, but unfortunately, the Osun APC is still lost to arrogance to see it. Indeed, no civil servant in Osun will want to go back to the 12 years where promotion is not forthcoming, and when it comes, it is more like an audio promotion as it is only as good as the paper it was written on. And no worker will want to return to the past where benefits are shabbily treated and their entitlements are unnecessarily delayed.

Governor Adeleke has certainly prioritise the welfare of workers, reliving hopes and making sure they do not suffer unduly as was the experience under the APC administration. In Nigeria today, the minimum wage table implemented by the Adeleke administration is one of the best, if not the best. This underscores the Governor’s sincere interest to the wellbeing of workers in the state.

This is why the adoption of Governor Adeleke by Osun workers for next year’s poll make so much sense because it is in human nature to always want good things to continue, not the other way around. It would therefore be unreasonable for the Osun APC to expect that workers who endured so much pain while it held sway for 12 years not to embrace Governor Adeleke, who is doing everything to make life more better for them.

The lies and cheap blackmails spouted in response to the open support for Governor Adeleke by Osun workers by the APC is nothing but a knee-jerk strategy to conceal the erosion of support for it owing to past misdeeds. Unfortunately for them, it is failing to hold. By all indications, Governor Adeleke has shown sincere commitment to the welfare of workers in the state, and that is more than enough to earn him the full support of Osun workforce.

It is therefore necessary to stress for the understanding of the Osun APC that the people, be it workers or those in the other segment of the society, will continue to acknowledge and support the good work of Governor Adeleke and no amount of cheap lies or blackmail will stop them from publicly identifying and endorsing him and committing for it to continue. The past, which the Osun APC represents, is horrible and filled with pains, and no one is prepared to return to that era of locust.

• Sarafa Ibrahim is a Special Assistant to the Osun State Governor on Print Media and writes from Osogbo, Osun state.