Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State says he felt ridiculed contesting against the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate, Ademola Adeleke in the state’s 2018 gubernatorial election.
Oyetola said this on Wednesday, July 17, 2019, when he received the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) led by Prof. Yemi Farounbi.
The governor said Adeleke should have been screened out of the race, adding that lack of control in Nigeria’s electoral system gave Adeleke the opportunity to run against him. He said:
“The country’s electoral system is weak, especially regarding the screening of candidates which gave room for somebody like Ademola Adeleke to contest for governorship seat of the state,” he said.
“Sometimes when I sit down and realise that I was actually contesting with Adeleke, who is best at dancing, I felt ridiculed, very ridiculed. It would have been a tragedy for our state if the whole thing had turned the other way round.
“Anybody that is seriously concerned about the development of the state would at least be interested in whoever is going to pilot the affairs of the state.
“One wonders why the country’s electoral laws would have allowed that guy to even contest in the first instance. We don’t have control. Even in the north where we believe they’re disadvantaged in terms of education, they put in the best always. See whoever goes for any political office in the North is always the best of their stuck.”
Recall that Adeleke became the governorship candidate the PDP in the state’s gubernatorial election after the death of his elder brother, Isiaka Adeleke.
He later became known as dancing senator after videos of him dancing surfaced on the internet.