Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke, has described the tenure of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola as the worst in the history of the state.
Adeleke was reacting to Aregbesola’s alleged threat to remove him from office in the 2026 governorship election.
In a statement released in Osogbo On Monday,through his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, Governor Adeleke accused Aregbesola of leaving behind a heavy debt burden.
He also listed half salary payments, scam educational tablets, and inflated, abandoned projects as part of Aregbesola’s legacy.
Governor Adeleke maintained that Aregbesola’s time in office was marked by waste, deception, and hardship for the people.
He reminded the former governor that the people of Osun would not forget the trauma they experienced during his tenure.
The statement reads in Parts, “The empty boast of Mr Aregbesola about 2026 is a symptom of a troubled mind who sees wrong vision, who is battling his benefactor and who is haunted by the pains and suffering he inflicted on millions of Osun people through his evil policies and programmes. A man who should be remorseful and tender public apologies for his years of maladministration has the audacity to threaten Governor Adeleke who is clearing the mess left behind by Mr Aregbesola after his eight years of anti-people, thoughtless leadership.
“Mr Aregbesola’s wickedness against workers, public servants, and Osun people knows no bounds while he wielded state power. A man who introduced half salary, misapplied contributory state pension fund and misused state cooperative deductions fund should be ashamed of his temerity to attack a Governor who is now paying up the half salary affliction, clearing the unjustified debt and rehabilitating brutalised Osun workers.
“The Adeleke administration has paid 28 months out of the half salary left behind by Mr Aregbesola. The present administration has paid close to 60 billion naira in pension debt, a legacy of this same Aregbesola. Pensioners and workers generally are not praying for a return to the evil days of a bad administrator who left his state in ruin after eight years.”
“Within less than three years, Governor Adeleke has surpassed government delivery of the eight years of Mr Aregbesola without borrowing a kobo for infrastructure projects. The current administration has reduced Osun debt left by Mr Aregbesola by 40 percent as confirmed by the Debt Management Office.
“Mr Aregbesola is invited to note that Governor Adeleke has constructed about 200 Kilometers of roads, rehabilitated over 200 schools and health centers, placed over 30, 000 pensioners on free health insurance care, provided critical medical surgeries to over 60,000 Osun residents, Completed several abandoned projects at Osun State University, made University of Ilesa a reality among several others.
“If Mr Aregbesola is to accuse Governor Adeleke of non-performance, we await his review of the dualisation of palace to brewery junction at Ilesa which he failed to achieve while in office. He should check out the flyover projects at Ile Ife and Osogbo and the dualisation projects ongoing at Iwo among others.
“Osun people know their present and past Governors. Our people are smart enough to know that the worst era for Osun state is that of Mr Aregbesola under whom many pensioners lost their lives, thousands of lives were disrupted, and the state plunged into unsustainable debt that is still hurting the state till date. No voter in Osun is ready for a return to the dark days.
“We therefore dismiss Mr Aregbesola’s boast as a blurry vision of another world other than Osun where Governor Adeleke has received accolades and awards for delivering on good governance and where Osun people have appreciated the local content policy, the non-borrowing policy, and the people’s first style of the current governor.
“Mr Aregbesola is a shrew (Asin ti o mo pe ohun unrun) who does not know that he is smelling. 2026 is a payback time when Osun people will punish the former Governor and his new party for wilfully inflicting pains and suffering on Osun people throughout his eight years rule”, the statement concluded.