Oyo 2027: Adekanmbi Becoming a Pathological Liar | Yusuf Olatunji Alabi
I took my time to watch Mr Bimbo Adekanmbi’s interview, and a few things stood out. It was carefully structured. His speech was unusually guarded. His eyes moved downwards before nearly every response, as if he was checking notes. And his answers were cautious in the way of a man who is afraid of legal action.
That was not a man speaking from memory. It was a man reading a script. So let us look critically at what he said and find out whether this is just another political jab, or a tantrum from Mr Bimbo Adekambi, AKA Mr Gazzle.
Start with his claim that Senator SHARAFADEEN ABIODUN ALLI owed salary as a local government chairman. Before we even ask whether he has evidence, let us ask him a simple question: how old was he then? By my own account, he was about 16, preparing for admission into OAU. So whatever he is saying is hearsay that someone brought to him. If he has proof, let him bring those people forward. Let him bring the documents. While he is at it, he can also show us the Mr Gazzle real estate receipt. A claim without a witness or a document is gossip, and a former commissioner of finance should know the difference.
Then, a claim of fourteen months of arrears before he became commissioner under Late Ajimobi’s administration.. Where is that number coming from? When Adekanmbi became Commissioner for Finance and Budget in 2016, the figures being quoted at the time were nowhere near fourteen months. He himself told the public that as at May 2016 the state had recorded a N29bn deficit, which was responsible for the five months salary arrears. That was the commissioner’s own number, in his own mouth.
The labour said seven then. So which is it, Mr Gazzle? Five months, as you told Oyo people yourself in 2016? Seven, as labour said? Or fourteen, as you now say on camera? When a man gives three different figures for the same debt, at least two of them cannot be true.
The backlog story is where the interview really falls apart. Adekanmbi said the backlog of arrears was paid off before the end of the administration as a commissioner. In the same interview, he said the current governor will make sure everything is paid before he leaves office. Both statements cannot stand together. If everything was cleared before Ajimobi left, why is the present governor himself still telling us that backlogs are being paid? And why would anyone need to promise that “everything will be paid before leaving office” if nothing is outstanding?
Either the arrears were paid or they were not. He wants the first story to protect his old boss and the second to protect his new one. That is talking from both sides of the mouth.
Now to the part of the interview that should worry every ordinary person in the state; local government autonomy.
The governor himself has openly said he does not believe in local government autonomy, and he has said he is operating the State/Local Government Joint Account. His chosen candidate, Mr Adekanmbi, sat in that interview and confirmed it, echoing his godfather. He said he does not believe in it either. He said anyone promising LG autonomy is lying.
Think about what that means on the ground. The local government is the tier closest to the people. Autonomy is what lets a council fund its clinics, fix its feeder roads, pay its workers and run its primary schools without waiting for approval from Ibadan.
So when Adekanmbi says anyone promising autonomy is lying, he is not describing reality. He is defending a political choice. Those who do not want councils to control their own funds want you to believe the funds are safer in their hands.
Adekanmbi also confirmed in the same interview that Makinde is his godfather. Everyone knows this. Now he has said it himself. It explains the whole performance. This was not the independent assessment of a technocrat. It was the testimony of a godson defending the man who made him his choice of successor. Anyone who has watched Nigerian politics for long knows that godfathers and godsons do not disagree in public on the eve of election.
It also tells us something about 2019. The campaign edge that saw the late Governor Ajimobi lose that election did not come from nowhere. It came from the rejection of godfatherism.
Another blab from that interview was his claim that 3SC won the Continental Cup. If someone claims to be so invested and interested in a club, how come he can’t differentiate between qualifying for a continental competition and winning a Continental Cup?
Going back to how he sat. He was careful. He was scripted. He looked down before answering. There were no names, no firm dates, and every answer left enough room to deny it later. When a man is telling the plain truth about what he lived through, he does not need to read from notes. The more careful the language, the less comfortable the speaker is with what he is saying. People who are sure of their facts speak plainly. So Oyo people should ask why a former commissioner needed to be so careful about matters he claims to know so well.
I did not choose the title of this article lightly. A single mistake can be forgiven, but a man who gives figures that do not match, who says a backlog was cleared and in the same breath promises that another government will clear it, and who points at others’ arrears with his own fingerprints all over the record, has a pattern and not a slip. The challenge is simple. Produce your evidence on the LG chairman salary claim, or retract it. Explain whether it was five months, seven months or fourteen, and name your source. Tell us whether the backlog was paid or is still being paid, because you cannot say both. Then answer on LG autonomy and tell the people why their councils should not control their own money.
Oyo State deserves better than rehearsed interviews and recycled accusations. Mr Bimbo gave a performance, but the people are asking for accountability. As we move towards 2027, the voters of Oyo will not be fooled by a well-prepared script. They will look at the record, and the record does not agree with him.
