Between Ayantunji's Mischief and the Reality
By Abdulsalam Ibraheem
One of the most imaginative prose writers of the 19th century, George Henry Borrow, helped make sense on the influencing factor for mischief. The renowned English writer in one of his several quotes, noted that "It has been said that idleness is the parent of mischief, which is very true; but mischief itself is merely an attempt to escape the dreary vacuum of idleness."
And reading a piece written by one Kehinde Ayantunji on the Iree Polytechnic Rector saga will confirm his hypothesis. In that piece, Mr. Ayantunji attempt so hard to sustain the corrosive narratives employed since the incident broke out. Although, Mr. Ayantunji claimed his intervention has nothing to do with politics, but the long and short of his misconception of the issue at hand evokes a straightforward conclusion– he is very poor in the trade of mischief.
All the while, people like Mr. Ayantunji come up with wrong notions on the suspension of the rector, in the hope of misleading the public about the true intent of the Adeleke administration. Time and again, the State Government have come out to clarify that Dr. Tajudeen Odetayo was not sacked, rather, he was asked to step aside pending an investigation into allegation made against him.
That is the process almost everywhere, but Mr. Ayantunji may not know this because the government he served in deliberately ignored a strong allegation of forgery against an official in that government. Even when the institution the person in question denied issuing the result she was paraded, she was shielded and made to continue administering a sensitive government agency. That was the law and the convention guiding governance that defined the government Mr. Ayantunji served in.
Much of the postulations of Mr. Ayantunji showed lack of grasp of the issue at hand or perhaps, he is just lost to bad politics. This is obvious in the manner he misconstrued the explanation of the Governor's Spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, on what informed the choice of Mr. Kehinde Alabi to act as rector pending the outcome of investigation.
It is funny that Mr. Ayantunji tried toove away from the lie peddled by his party and agents over time that a "Mr" can not be rector of a polytechnic with the example of former rector Mr. T.A Ibitoye stirring it right in the face. The excuse that he was already a Deputy Rector was an afterthought, which now exposed the deliberate attempt to misinform the public.
For emphasis sake, Mallam Rasheed at no point insisted that Mr. Alabi can be the substantive rector, his position, which can easily be assessed at the various platforms he made them, was that there is no law stopping him to be in acting capacity. Up till this moment, no one has been able to dispute that assertion, because the Polytechnic Act being gleefully portrayed by Mr. Ayantunji specifically referred to substantive rector, which is not the case here.
In fact, Mr. Ayantunji showed his shallowness when he attempt to dismiss the example of the Ilaro Polytechnic, ignorantly waving it aside as 'bad precedence'. Well, I am not too surprised by this brazen show of ignorance, because I am even made to believe he couldn't have authored the piece, going by his defects, especially in conveying thoughts and logical reasoning.
Otherwise, Mr. Ayantunji would have known the difference between an acting and a substantive head of an institution and not indulge in trading pettiness. If he is still confused, he should take some cue from the decision of President Bola Tinubu in appointing acting Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor following the suspension of Godwin Emefiele from the position.
Contrary to the erroneous deductions of Mr. Ayantunji and his co-conspirators, the interest of the Adeleke administration is eliminating corruption and wasted un public institutions so as to ensure that available resources count for the people. Anyone who truly has the interest of Osun at heart will be focused on seeing the outcome of the investigation, because not only will give the suspended rector a clean bill of health, if the petition, against him are found to be unproven, but also benefit the school the institution and Osun as a whole if it is established that public funds are not used rightly.
But Mr. Ayantunji and his party may not have interest in this, because of the brazen abuse of public funds under the government he served in, is one of the reason Osun is in this deep mess. So, let him spare us of his sanctimonious and false concern, as Osun people knows better and won't be swayed by disjointed narratives.
Abdulsalam Ibraheem, writes from Osogbo, Osun State.
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