Have you noticed that the people of Osun love Senator Ademola Adeleke a lot. If you haven’t lets quickly tell you. Even those who didn’t vote for him are fast doing a rethink. This is because since he came into office he has been doing a lot to give the state a new lease of life.
Apart from his statutory duties, as a Governor, he always goes out of his way to reach out to many Osun indigenes, both male and female, both old and young. He has also been touching lives. Many of them like him because he has not changed one bit. He is a peoples man by nature and he has not stopped touching base with his old friends. He still attends the parties of his age long friends and political associates. And any event he knows will make his constituents happy he will go.
He attends church events and even sings. He is deeply religious. He loves to sing church songs and loves to dance. He is real. Wherever he goes, he likes to be free to mingle and he will tell his security aides to kindly loosen up a bit, so that he can mingle with his people. He is also known to be very generous. On a daily basis, he reaches out to many people who are in need help in one way or the other. Though generous to a fault, he is not wasteful. He is judicious and likes to help those who are truly in need of his help.
That is why Osun people are getting so used to his ways. He is said to be a down-to-earth person who will prefer to interfare with you and talk to you one-on-one than to let others pay that role for him. He loves to get results.
He will tell you that what you see is what you get. No pretences. With him, he will tell you as it is. He usually doesn’t promise what he can’t do. Many Osun people love the fact that they have access to him. He is so free with his constituents. He likes his friends to be with him. He is an easy going gentleman. He likes to be his real self. He loves to deliver speaches extempore. He delivers his speeches in English or Yoruba, as the case may be. He loves the grassroot a lot and its people. And he prefers to spend quality time with them. His home is usually a beehive of activities, as he likes to invite his friends over for drinks and will get real with them, asking them to tell him what is going on in town.
He likes to know the challenges his people are facing and once he knows he will give the affected commissioner marching orders to correct any anomaly he gets to hear about. He likes to be informal. He likes to get things done informally. That is why with the passing of each day, he is getting increasingly popular. He has no time for haters and those who criticise him for the wrong reasons. He likes critics who are constructive in their criticism of his activities and government.
Everybody knows he means well and even where he makes mistakes, they know it is genuine mistakes, that will be immediately corrected once it is pointed out. He is one person who does not mind to say Sorry when he knows he has erred.
He has served as Governor of Osun State since 2022. Before then, he was the Senator who represented the Osun-West senatorial district from 2017 to 2019. He is from the famous Adeleke family of Ede in Osun State. He contested in the 2022 Osun State gubernatorial election under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party and defeated the incumbent governor, Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola of the APC who defeated him in the 2018 Osun State gubernatorial election rerun.
Adeleke commenced his primary education at Methodist Primary School, Surulere Lagos State then relocated to Old Oyo State and attended Nawarudeen Primary School, Ikire. He progressed to The Seventh Day Adventist Secondary School, Ede also in the then Old Oyo State and later moved to Ede Muslim Grammar School Ede, where he finished his secondary school education before relocating to the United States. As he left Nigeria to continue his studies joining his two other elder brothers in the United States of America. He started higher studies at Jacksonville State University, Alabama in the United States where he majored in criminal justice and with a minor in Political Science. He went back to school and enrolled at Atlanta Metropolitan State College in the United States, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice in 2021.
Gov. Adeleke was a businessman who once served as an Executive Director of Guinness Nigeria Plc from 1992–1999, where his co-directors included General Theophilus Danjuma. He was the group executive director at his brother’s company, Pacific Holdings Limited from 2001 to 2016. Prior to joining Pacific Holdings Limited, Ademola had worked with Quicksilver Courier Company in Atlanta, Georgia, US, as a service contractor from 1985–1989. He progressed to Origin International LLC, Atlanta, Georgia, US, a flavours and fragrance manufacturing company as vice president from 1990 to 1994.
Gov. Adeleke is a community member and philanthropist. Adeleke started his political career in 2001 alongside his late brother Senator Isiaka Adeleke who died in April 2017. He contested at the Osun West 2017 by-election after the death of his brother, emerging as the winner under the People’s Democratic Party.
Gov. Ademola was a member of the All Progressives Congress until he decamped to the People’s Democratic Party in April 2017
On 23 July 2018, Adeleke emerged as the governorship candidate of PDP in Osun State after defeating Akin Ogunbiyi by seven votes. Adeleke ran for Osun State governorship election under the PDP against top contenders Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola of APC and Iyiola Omisore of SDP on 22 September 2018. The election was declared inconclusive by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and a rerun slated on 27 September 2018. The candidate of the APC, Oyetola was declared the winner after the run-off. Adeleke protested the result describing the election as a “Coup”. On 22 March 2019 the tribunal sitting in Abuja declared Adeleke the winner of the election.
The Supreme Court later affirmed Gboyega Oyetola as the authentic winner of the 2018 Osun State governorship election on Friday, 5 July 2019. In 2022, Adeleke contested in the gubernatorial election of 16 July under the PDP against incumbent governor Gboyega Oyetola. Adeleke defeated Gboyega Oyetola with 402,979 votes to 375,077 votes. Adeleke won in 17 local government areas, including Olorunda, Ede South, Orolu, Osogbo, Odo Otin, Ifelodun, Boluwaduro, Atakumosa, and Ila.
Adeleke who is happily married has lovely childing including B-Red. He is an uncle to music star, Davido.
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