Omisore’s Triumph And Vindication

For Senator Iyiola Omisore, the brand new National Secretary of the APC, his return home to Osun State was a hero’s welcome.

Ever a man of the people, the esteemed politician and statesman was greeted to large fanfare and celebrations from all and sundry in Osun state.

It was a demonstration of his standing as a beloved and celebrated political icon whose elevation the people saw as their own victory.

The rousing welcome also attests to his enduring political strength and broad acceptance, despite the best efforts of his traducers to smear his name and rewrite his political odyssey.

For years they have tried, cynically manipulating a truly tragic event and insisting on what amounted to a perversion of justice.

It’s a familiar story for political enthusiasts. On the 23rd of December 23, 2001, some evildoers cut short the life of Nigeria’s Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, who was unarguably one of the country’s finest legal minds and political trailblazers.

In the bid to unravel the cause of his death and rightly hold those responsible to account, the people joined forces with the security agencies, parsing the events that preceded his death for clues.

Aggrieved and hurt, they searched for truth and demanded justice. Political scores should be settled at the polls and determined by the ballots not bullets, they reasoned.

But in their grief, in the nation’s collective attempt to reject the primitive politics of violence, others saw an opportunity; a chance to set the angry mob against an opponent they sought to get rid of at whatever cost and have him swept away by the great tide into oblivion.

And so they framed and lined up Iyiola Omisore, the man they tried and failed to defeat at the polls. Distorting his political disagreement with the deceased in his lifetime, insinuations were rife that he was somehow complicit in his death. He had to be, they yelled, offering nothing by way of evidence.

Although their malicious plot was for him to be lynched and put in the ground so they can jubilate in evil glee, the modern justice system prevailed. Omisore was apprehended and subjected to trial.

His accusers were asked to make good their claim; the court invited them to provide evidence that he had a hand in the death of the great man. They came up short.

Nothing they brought before the judge incriminated Omisore, not even in the least. So he was acquitted. But it didn’t end there for these characters, as it ordinarily would have been the case if their targeting of Omisore wasn’t driven by malice and hatred.

Perverting justice, they maintained that his acquittal nonetheless, he must be treated as guilty until proven innocent. He should be denied full participation in everyday life and reduced to a pariah while they scramble around, in desperate search of the nonexistent evidence of this crime they claimed he committed.

They would repeat this perversion with his recent elevation as the National Secretary of the ruling party. Omisore, who is innocent and has been absolved by the court, should have been denied his due rights as a Nigerian because their groundless suspicion remains.

Unfortunately for them, every lie, big and small, encounters the truth and dies. This big lie has met with the irrefutable truth and has been thus neutered. It was far-fetched from the very beginning. There was nothing in Omisore’s illustrious record, both in the public and private sector, that suggested he believed in violence as a way to settle disputes.

As Senator representing Osun East at the National Assembly, Omisore facilitated crucial projects that heralded a new era of representation and continue to serve as a benchmark to gauge the performance of others.

He was responsible for the dualization of Ilorin-Ogbomoso-Ibadan road, the repair of Ibadan road, electrification of rural villages, the UNESCO Cultural Center, multipurpose dams in key locations including Ife-Ijesha, Oyan, Yemoji, Ijebu Ode, and Ogbe.

He also commissioned several beneficial projects at OAUTH, and was responsible for the Living Spring Free Trade Zone in Osogbo.

All of these he achieved because of his knack for building consensus and his extensive (and quality) network in the private sector. He was after all a widely acclaimed engineer, responsible for many of Nigeria’s monumental and defining projects, before venturing into politics.

Some of these projects include the CBN Governor’s /Deputy Governor’s Lodges; UACN Commercial Complex, Abuja; Union Bank (Stallion Plaza); UBA Headquarters; EIB Headquarters; Afribank Headquarters; British High Commission, Abuja; Brawal Shipping Lines Office Complex; NTA/NTI, Kaduna; Nineteen Nigerian Airfields

Others are NAF Base in Makurdi, Onitsha Flour Mills, several blue chip companies, and embassies.

As Deputy Governor, it was his generosity and appeal that brought the ticket over the finish line. Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa, the National Chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) at the time, affirmed that it was Omisore who in fact paid for Governor Bisi Akande’s nomination forms.

Political expediency and desperate opportunism may sometimes affect the recollection of some people. But Omisore’s decency and forthrightness do not lack corroboration.

Those who saw no way to defeat him at the polls, and callously tacked him to a crime they knew he played no part in, must now terminate their evil campaign. Truth triumphs over lies.

Omisore’s vindication is total. They can either accept this reality and their failure, or continue to shout into the void. The people of Osun State, and the South West in general, have warmly embraced their successful son.

Mayaki is a Journalist, Historian, Diplomat, Archivist, Documentalist, Communication, Culture and Media expert (Coventry University, England). He’s also an Oxford and Cambridge University-trained entrepreneurship, leadership and sustainability expert. A Professional Consultant on Communication, Management and Strategy (Chattered Management Institute, England)

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