Every time, he was pushed down, he rose back immediately. The more they knock him down, the stronger and better he becomes. They try to force him into obscurity, but nay. The limelight is where he was meant to be and where he remains. He was hounded for his dancing, his merry heart remained optimistically buoyed. He was robbed of electoral victory at the Osun 2018 gubernatorial polls because of his educational qualifications, he dusted it off and bagged a university education in the US. A family member who had been an essential part of his campaign unceremoniously dumped him to now square against him in the ongoing gubernatorial contest in the state, Senator Ademola Adeleke remained as always, unflappable, unmoved and irrepressible.
To some in the Osun political elite, he represents a stiff challenge to the status quo. His huge wealth and that of the entire Adeleke family behind him, fan insecurity and unjustified biases amongst his traducers hell bent on casting unseemly aspersion on his person or embarking on smear campaign on his unblemished political career peppered with acts of love and loyalty to the people.
This is a trait synonymous with the Adeleke clan. Unlike recently, judging by the emergence of Bamidele Adeleke, his nephew on to the Osun political scene as a challenger to his uncle’s gubernatorial ambition in the state on the same political platform, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Despite all internal entreaties within the Adeleke clan to disallow family cracks, Bamidele refused to rescind this decision. He is determined to contest against his uncle in the party primaries to select the candidate in the general elections shortly.
This is a surprising move for many political observers. Bamidele played a central role in his uncle’s electioneering campaign in the 2018 polls. He was a key witness for his uncle in the electoral battle to reclaim his stolen mandate from the tribunal, appeal and supreme courts. His sudden desire to break ranks with his uncle and by implication, the Adeleke family, without briefing his family but suddenly announcing his intention to run gave pause for refection.
He could have felt the need to reassert himself in a family of high achievers by stepping into the limelight and carving a niche for himself instead of being a sideshow. This is especially so as his late father was Isiaka Adeleke, the noted politician in the Adeleke clan whose 2017 sudden death and enduring popularity the family leverage on to gain continuing political capital.
But, Bamidele did not intend to muddy the waters for his uncle originally. Doing so was outside his orbit due to his non readiness to cause disunity in his family, his financial dependence on the Adeleke family and lack of huge war chest needed to prosecute a guber ambition. Not until an equally over ambitious political vulture stepped in.
Investigations reveals that it is Seyi Makinde, the incumbemt governor of neighbouring Oyo state, that conditioned Bamidele to break ranks with his uncle and take his destiny in his own hands by contesting the polls. Like most political games, this support is not altruistic. Makinde is ready to deploy his financial muscle and ground troops’ support behind Bamidele in order to defeat Ademola Adeleke to further advance the governor’s fervent desire to spread his political influence across PDP south west as the new political godfather. Unbeknownst to politically-naive Bamidele, he is a means to an end and all indices point to the reality that he will end up as a political pawn in the hands of Makinde.
Already, he is being faced with allegations of party non membership because he is not associated with any ward in the state. His party registration forms, membership card and file are touted to be non existent so, he is not known to the party contrary to party protocols and INEC guidelines. It is not surprising too that he has no political structure, grassroots mobilization and popularity His foundation is already very shaky. If his intention is to attain popularity like the other members of his famous family, ovbiously he has achieved that.
Cheap popularity was distasteful for Ademola Adeleke though. Unlike the ants ignorant or willfully ignoring his elephantine profile, Ademola Adeleke rarely boasts about this pedigree. He opts instead for a humble, low profile life and unswerving sacrifice for the general good done while doing more and talking less as drummed into him by his late father.
Like wolfs baying for blood, his opponents started spreading malicious rumours concerning how he acquired his wealth. Ademola Adeleke, knowing it is most unwise to engage crazed dances in the market square with such distractions, chose to focus on the masses he is seeking their votes and not the noise of the market which these rantings are. He was unfazed. On Wednesday, January 26, he decided to turn this scenario created by his political blackmailers around to his advantage by submitting himself to the scrutiny of the Osun electorate. Those are who he always will be accountable to if elected. Those represents the bloc which deserves his explanantion. In line with global democratic best practices, Ademola Adeleke did not disrespect his people but submitted to their authority of by announcing the verifiable origin of his wealth.
The top contender the governorship ticket of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun state, revealed that he co-founded a very profitable company called Origin International Limited which focuses in production of fragrance and flavour in the beauty and food industry. Ademola Adleeke took that groundbreaking risk basically unheard of for a black man in the US and it paid off hugely. The confidence boost this success made spurred him to successfully penetrate several American markets.
Earlier, he had a one-man courier service firm that outbid and won a major courier contract at the time against all other white-owned businesses in the United States through sheer business acumen and savvy. To those questioning his management ability to govern the south-western state, he challenged, “How can an incompetent hand compete and win a competitive contract against a white man?”, adding, “I started those businesses on my own without any support from my family members. As a business minded individual, I pushed hard to record successes that even shocked many…my brother and his friend, Alhaji Aliko (Dangote) visited my warehouse in the United States in one of those years, they were surprised at my activities. Both of them asked why I never briefed them of my business efforts. I told them I wanted to demonstrate what I am capable of doing.”
His older brother was suitably impressed. He headhunted his younger sibling to return home to help replicate such groundbreaking efforts at Pacific Holdings; his own organisation. After a lot of reflections and following series of negotiations, Ademola Adeleke agreed. So, he became an Executive Director of Pacific Holdings.
Undeterred, Ademola Adeleke sought greater challenges outside the family business. This thirst led to his emergence as an Executive Director of Guinness Nigeria Limited. “…At the age of 32, I was on the board with the likes of General TY Danjuma. I played many critical board room roles including being selected to lead a company team to negotiate for expansion loans from the Dublin headquarters. I not only negotiated and secured the loan but deployed my experience in the negotiation. I was a major asset to the board where I served for two terms”, Ademola Adeleke said.
They cast aspersions on his educational qualifications. But, it is on record that the court threw out and dismissed the suit challenging his education records for want of proof. So much dust raised over the legality of Jacksonville State University where he studied criminal justice and politics idun the US as if Ademola Adeleke was responsible for the school’s registration and practices. If his foes thought they have emasculated him, they obviously did not reckon with the rock solid determination in Ademola Adeleke to never give up. To avoid further controversy about his credentials later on, Ademola Adeleke shrugged off the attacks and enrolled at Atlanta Metropolitan State College where he proudly bagged a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice in 2021.
Faced with verifiable proofs of a sterling education, excellent management and leadership skills, the hounding propaganda machine reduced their idiocy to eve more disgraceful levels by beaming their dimmed “falsehood torchlight” on his political career. These upstarts deride his political ascendancy as a fluke. But their ill-prepared machine of fabrications and distortions fail to prepare them for cold facts of the situation. Ademola Adeleke is a political blue blood. His late father was a Senator of the federal republic. He grew up drinking positive political intrigues for breakfast and campaign th plus good governance ideas for dinner. He had political grooming from childhood. Little wonder, his late brother, Isiaka Adeleke, was a governor of the state upon the advent of the 3rd Republic, midwifed and stymied by the Babangida administration, and remained a constant political fixture as a Senator representing Osun West at the national assembly until his death. It whe as the seat vacated by this painful exit that Ademola Adeleke filled as a federal lawmaker.
The fact that Ademola Adele’s weighty stature and wide popularity is evidenced at the regulatory body tasked with the forthcoming primary in PDP. Out of a total nine petitions written against six aspirants, four spurious ones were filed against him. Already, the astute politician had correctly gauged and wrong-footed his traducers with stating allegations his they were bandying around the state. Yet, the bile of these basically faceless petitioners did not stop them from filing petitions on these same baseless claims.
Some of his enemies are already being stripped of their dignity. The chapter of the party at Olorunda local government area recently disowned Akin Adeyi following his verbal attack on Senator Ademola Adeleke during a television show in Abuja. This was jointly signed by Olorunda ward one chairman, Lateef Ibrahim, Olorunda LG PDP Chairman, Nathaniel Ojetola and the state secretary in the LG, Bola Ajao. Consequently, the Executive Committee of the PDP, Osun state ratified a resolution submitted to it by the Olorunda ward executives. The entire PDP apparatchik in the state adjudged Adeyi’s utterances and actions in a strongly-worded memo as “Judas Iscariot confessions…stupid and utterly irresponsible behavior of a chronic busybody.” Osun’s state chapter of Senator Ademola Adeleke’s party expressly states that Adeyi’s records are not found in Ward one, unit 2 of Olorunda LG where he claims party membership and thereafter, totally dissociate itself from Adeyi’s antics, describing him as a “a non-living thing” in the 11 wards in Olorunda LG.
Whoever shakes a tree stump would only sway himself endlessly, never the tree stump. This is the perennial testimony of Adeyi and his ilk everytime they fruitlessly try to attack Ademola Adeleke. Now, it is very glaring to all that irrepressible Ademola Adeleke is unshakeable.
