BAYO'S PERISCOPE

Monday, May 3, 2021
[email protected]
Washington, DC, USA

SEGUN ONI, AN EPITOME OF TRANSPARENCY - A TESTIMONY

Chief Segun Oni

here have been rumors trending and therefore becoming cooked blackmails about the integrity of Chief Segun Oni. It started when he was contesting the Ekiti State governorship primary election under the APC in 2018. Then, a lie and blackmail was that if he wins the primary and therefore the Governorship election, he would take over the APC and its structure in the state.

This was a conspiracy of concocted lies against him, which branded another lie. This was the mischievous concoction that "Segun Oni has shared all the key positions of a government within his followers in the PDP. That was even when the primary election had not been conducted, how much more the state Governorship election. That was why he must be brought down at all cost - so, the dreamers then fantasized.

That was a silly enunciation that hooked the attentions of the few targeted audience who were of the same brain, mindset, thought-process and frame of mind as the conspirators all of which were from the factory of destructive lies. Now fast forward to the year 2021. Chief Segun Oni is now in another political party but with some characters who shared similar modus operandi. Those people who think they own the current political party, and who have bought and brought same manipulative strategies and tactics that the self-styled owners of the APC used against Segun Oni in the year 2018.

Here they come again; with the same cock and bull stories sold by some expired owners of the PDP. That Segun Oni doesn't have a structure in the PDP and they wouldn't allow him to take their delegates to win the primary and the general elections. That if allowed, he would flood his government with his followers from APC, who they feverishly referred to as SOCO people.

And as a matter of fact, these same people have now copied the script from the theatre of absurdity of their old friend. And declared that Segun Oni has shared all the positions, elective and appointive in a government that has not been formed, and to which elections have not been conducted. This is the same script and drama as that of 2018 but with different platform and different dramatic personae. One simple fact remains with the scripts of lies shared. That they are all afraid of Segun Oni in a clean, free and fair democratic elections.

Incidentally, both leaders of the two theater groups worked together against Segun Oni in the 2009 fraudulently orchestrated re-run election. And Segun Oni defeated them until when another judgment was purchase in the higher judicial market. But here comes the truth of the matter and why we shouldn't take them with kid's cloves. However subtle a lie may be and however innocuous it might be or seems to be but if and when repeatedly hammered, it may start getting momentum and an underserved attention and the more the believers, followers and co-travelers it will gather. An African proverb warned, if people persistently hit your stone with mud, before your eyes, and you don't stop them, it will create a dent before you know it. This is why Segun Oni, his admirers and followers should repel these lies and liars with all available might. These tragic conspiracy theories have now become an old wine in a new wine skin and have lost its good taste.

Can Chief Segun Oni do the alleged sharing of the CAKES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN BAKED? The simplest answer is no. He does not fit the character of his opponents. He has never been or pretended to be an emperor in a self-created empire. He is an OMOLUABI personified and per excellence. That has become his other name in Ekiti. A name known by traditional rulers, civil servants, teachers, retirees and pensioners, professionals and artisans, market women and traders, the entire Ekiti peoples irrespective of tribe and tongue. Unfortunately these liar-opponents are the very charlatans without the ethics and ethos of probity, and with whom anything goes. They are the ones who can sell one position to five buyers or conduct primary elections through telephone SMS messages.

But Segun Oni is different in his personality, character and demeanor; from his childhood days and upbringing at Ifaki Ekiti his home town, to his school days and college years. It is not a small fit for a grade II teacher of those days to become a Chemical Engineer, a corporate member, Nigerian Society of Engineers, a COREN registered member, with a Masters' degree in Business Administration from the prestigious University of Lagos. Everywhere he worked as a school teacher to his days in corporate management in Nigeria. From a 'turn-around' expatriate corporate affairs days in Kenya and East Africa sub-region, and to being the elected Governor of Ekiti State. He has never disappointed his staff and superiors.

And even at the rare opportunities of managing the affairs of the two main political parties of PDP and APC in Nigeria. Only words of praises, adorations and exaltations fill the mouths and paint the lips of the majority of the people who are lucky to have met him, in and out of Ekiti State, for the good and tireless work he has done. He has been tried and tested. Unlike those whose never held any supervisory positions in their lives before becoming governors. How will they not abuse, misuse and bastardized their sudden and unexpected rise to executive positions? After all, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely?

Is Segun Oni the kind of a person anybody will honestly arrogate untoward wrong doings about managing success? This is not a man who has never been anything before becoming something small or big. This is not a man who has never been a class captain or monitor before becoming a Governor. How therefore can anybody with reasonable thinking faculty say that such a person has shared political offices in a government that nobody has cast a single vote for its primary election? Segun Oni is not just a ceremonial Christian but the Baba Egbe of Ifaki Methodist Cathedral with the tenets of his faith embedded in his personal everyday life coupled with the humility and contentment of the Apostle Paul.

Chief Segun Oni is not the character his foes are painting him. He's heart is refined and pure as genuine gold. He has the peace of mind of a dove. He never sees or thinks evil of anyone even those who see him as a perceived foe. Ask him of anything he can do for himself, he will simply tell you, 'let's put everything in the hands of God.'

He is very fair and just, as he always allows the justice of God to determine his actions. The few who may not like him are those who said araldite glue was in his hand as Governor. Meaning, he did not dole out the state money to every beck and call or Tom, Dick and Harry; that he didn't just share the state money to himself, family members and friends including retinues of girlfriends, as some did.

I know a member of his own political party who campaigned against Segun Oni during the 2009 rerun election who said; 'imagine a governor who didn't built a mansion for himself in two years.' But stealing state money to build mansions on the land everywhere including the sky is not Segun Oni's definition of Good Governance. When is not stealing the people's money like them a crime in Ekiti state and Nigeria? That is the very definition of justice and integrity to Segun Oni. To Segun Oni, how do you share the game you have not hunted and killed? Like my father often asked me growing up? That is a purely childish thought.

Please count Segun Oni out of the allegations of the mischief makers that he has shared all or any political office. He is not the kind of man who would give undue advantage or preference for any consideration. That is why he is Mr. Due Process, which imbibes transparency, openness and integrity in every process.

Chief Segun Oni wants the best for all Ekiti people, politicians, civil and public servants even non-indigenes. If he didn't misappropriate the money given to him on the behalf of the Ekiti people, he cannot misuse the power of God, if given to him on the behalf of the people of the state. Let the merchants of lies look back to the tenure of Segun Oni as Governor of Ekiti State between 2007 - 2010 and review all his activities, they will all agree that Chief Segun Oni is an epitome of TRANSPARENCY. And this is why the majority of Ekiti people are waiting for him now for both the primary and the governorship elections of the year 2022.

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