AS BAO MARKS A YEAR IN OFFICE: LESSONS FOR ONDO PEOPLE By Sunday Olugbenga Abire

Leadership is tasking. It’s the ability to unite the odds for the well-being of the majority of the people. While power may be in the hands of brute, leadership should never be a business of tyrants.

The BAO template today in Ekiti state is so unique that both foes and folks are easily identifying with him. Rather than a divisive chant of ‘ẹ gbagbe ẹ’ rooted in winners take all mentality, BAO has raised the bar of friendship in inclusive governance where everyone thought it would have been impossible. BAO should be the unifier that Atiku stole in deception during the 2023 elections.

With little resources coupled with the virtue of ọmọlúwàbí, BAO soars today and he doesn’t need to spend money on ranters to propagate his good values in Ekiti state. I understand that it’s impossible to please everyone especially in a democracy but nobody could take away respect, civility and decorum from BAO. He remains a governor who has brought so much unity and honour to the Fountain of Knowledge.

Did he do well because he’s homegrown? Is he getting it right because he has a good wife who has seen her husband’s office not as an empire where she should be the empress? Where are the family members of BAO? Too young to meddle? What exactly is working for BAO who bows down to the led everytime? Ondo people must find out as we approach 2024 where a decision will be made. We must strategically return this state to the path of sanity and truth that we have hitherto lost. We must see evil as evil lest we destroy whatever our past heroes have labored to build.

Can we afford another governor who lacks civility? Can we risk having a leader who doesn’t care? Will this executive malfeasance continue unabated? Can Ondo people afford to pick someone who picks his words from the gutters always? Are we going to keep teaching the impressionable minds the negativities that come with arrogance of power, chicanery, lack of control and comportment, executive insults, rudderless jabs and poor management?

It’s a good thing that the mendicants in Ondo state are tired already. They are breaking away gradually from the shackles of despondence. But our collective pan must be on a very sane homegrown personality like BAO. We just have to tell our stories differently and the time is now.