The news of the demise of His Excellency, Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke in early hours of April 23, 2017 was a shocking news to me till today. I found it difficult to believe that I have truly lost a friend, a brother and political teacher and leader.
What first came to my mind was his stiff opposition to hero worship and slavery that is called God fatherism. It still makes me feel like im in a dream. He was only 62 years. Senator Adeleke was the first civilian governor of Osun state elected on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in the aborted Third Republic whose victory was devoid of the traditional rancour, violence and thuggery. He was in office between January 1992 and November 1993 giving everybody around him equal opportunity irrespective of where you hail from.
Senator Adetunji Adeleke came from the blues throwing the polluted political culture of God fatherism into the dustbin of history by relying solely on his ability to bring like minds of the erstwhile disenfranchised multitude of youths across length and breadth of the old Oyo state together to rearrange the system of political engineering in the South West under the political tutelage of Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu who was embarrassed to the extent of issuing death threat to Adeleke if he continued the pursuant of his ambition.
Senator Adeleke was unperturbed by the threat of political leaders who felt threatened by his political tsunami that was sweeping away their established followers until Osun was created and Adeleke became the first Executive Governor of the Young State based on the practice of full democratic process at the party primaries and general election.
Throughout the twenty months life span on that regime no single business of the government was taken without due process. This full democratic process earned Senator Adetunji Adeleke continuous acceptance as a politician without constituency boundary. What I mean by that is that you don't need to come from Osun West Senatorial District before Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke give you whatever you request from him, rather, your only qualification to be accorded respect and get dividends of democracy is to be a human being. He went into APC with this quality and this angered the leadership of his new party greatly. The fact remains today that if Senator Adetunji Adeleke didn't die APC believed he would have been elected as the sitting governor of Osun State today but God knows the best.
We are celebrating his death today, Senator Adetunji Adeleke's spirit lives on in the minds of his admirers. He was a loved leader whose vacuum will be difficult to fill.
Signed.
Hon. Soji Adagunodo,
PDP Chairman,
Osun State Chapter.
