BIMBO ADEKANMBI — Governor Seyi Makinde may have unwittingly handed the biggest political validation yet to the late Abiola Ajimobi by reportedly settling for Bimbo Adekanmbi as his preferred governorship candidate. Politics has a way of exposing hypocrisy, and this development appears to have cornered the governor into embracing a man who was not just a peripheral figure in Ajimobi’s administration, but one of its principal architects.
For years, Governor Makinde built his political narrative around the demonisation of the Ajimobi years. From 2019 till date, his administration consistently painted the previous government as financially reckless and morally bankrupt. Every opportunity was seized to accuse the former government of corruption, maladministration and economic mismanagement. The impression deliberately created before the people of Oyo State was that the eight years of Ajimobi represented a dark era from which the state needed urgent rescue.
Yet, in what appears to be a dramatic contradiction, the same Governor Makinde now finds himself promoting one of the most powerful officials of that supposedly “failed” administration as worthy of succeeding him.
This is not about a minor aide or an obscure appointee. Bimbo Adekanmbi was at the very heart of government under Ajimobi. He served as Deputy Chief of Staff during the first term and later became Commissioner for Finance in the second term; arguably the most influential cabinet position after the governor himself. The finance commissioner is the custodian of the financial soul of any administration. He knows where every kobo comes from, where it goes, how debts are incurred, how projects are funded and how priorities are set.
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If Governor Makinde truly believed that the Ajimobi government was corrupt and fraudulent as repeatedly alleged, how then does he justify elevating one of the chief custodians of that government’s financial operations as the face of continuity and competence?
One cannot forget that there was a period when Adekanmbi vigorously defended Ajimobi’s financial records on radio and in public discourse. At a time Makinde’s government was throwing allegations around, Adekanmbi stood his ground to defend the administration he served. He neither disowned Ajimobi nor apologised for being part of that government. Instead, he consistently argued that the financial decisions taken under Ajimobi were lawful, strategic and aimed at long-term development.
Today, Governor Makinde’s apparent adoption of the same man sends a loud message that perhaps those accusations against Ajimobi were exaggerated political rhetoric after all.
After all, if an administration was truly rotten, would its finance commissioner suddenly become qualified to govern the state under the endorsement of its fiercest critic?
Politics is often driven by convenience rather than conviction. But this development exposes the dangerous inconsistency that has become common in Nigerian politics. You cannot spend years condemning an administration as a monumental disaster and then turn around to market one of its central figures as the best candidate for the future. Such a move either means the earlier criticisms were dishonest or that present political calculations have overridden principle.
Either way, the biggest beneficiary of this unfolding scenario is the legacy of the late Abiola Ajimobi. By embracing Bimbo Adekanmbi, Governor Seyi Makinde appears to have admitted, directly or indirectly, that the Ajimobi government produced competent hands capable of leading Oyo State.
And perhaps, beyond all the propaganda, that administration was not as terrible as it was painted to be.
