Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Chief Moses Alake-Adeyemo yesterday reacted to insinuation by many people, especially politicians that he is a docile public servant.
Adeyemo, who was a guest on Political Circuit, a programme on a privately owned radio station in Ibadan,
explained that he did not need to be at loggerhead with his boss, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, before he would be seen to be doing his job as deputy governor.
Sunday Tribune quoted the Igboho-born politician as saying that “When people say I am too gentle, I don’t know whether people want rogues or controversial people to rule us in Oyo State which is an intellectual state. Gentility does not mean stupidity. Gentility means combining the attributes of godliness with whatever you are doing.
“I am simple because I have the fear of God in me and when you combine the fear of God with governance, you are going to succeed. Nobody should take me for granted. I can challenge issues,” he said.
Adeyemo also explained that he expected his boss, to anoint him as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for the 2019 election.
Adeyemo stated this in response to a question about whether he was disappointed that the governor was yet to so anoint as did Governor Ayodele Fayose, Ekiti State for his deputy, Professor Kolapo Olusola.
He added that apart from loyalty to his boss, he remained the best man for the job among those jostling for the seat from the APC, having traversed the public and private sectors.
On the clamour for power shift by his people from Oke Ogun, he said 2019 presented a golden opportunity for the zone to produce the next governor of the state, saying it was not fair to concentrate the governorship in Ibadan.
“Governorship should not be concentrated in one city or town and this is what obtains in other states. Even at the federal level, the presidency is rotated between the North and the South. It will be unfair to other for one section of the state to keep producing the governor of the state,” he remarked.
Reminded that disunity had been the bane of the zone holding the governorship of the state, Adeyemo said Oke Ogun people had drawn a strategy that would help them clinch the governorship of the state in 2019.
“There strategy of Oke Ogun is to present a consensus candidate for the primary. But I will not want to disclose that strategy now. We know the strategy to use. If we put only one person up at the initial stage like this, people will say Oke Ogun zone does not have eminent people who are qualified to run the affairs of the state. We have so many eminently qualified people form Oke Ogun who can govern the state very well.
“I am happy the governor has voiced preference for an Oke Ogun indigene to be governor in 2019. Oke Ogun people are very committed, intelligent and always very sincere in their political dealings with other parts of the state,” he said.
He called on the National Assembly to amend the constitution to assign specific roles and duties to the vice president and the deputy governors, explaining that the current situation was not good for the health of democracy.
