The people of Ikire, in Irewole Local Government of Osun State, have criticised Senate Minority Leader, Akogun Lere Oyewumi, for using a left hand to describe his father’s house. The Yoruba tribe sees such an action as despicable only reserved for a foolish child. Oyewumi ruffled feathers when he disparaged the entire Ikire town as lacking competent natives to become Osun governor in 2026. Senator Oyewumi did not only sound dismissive, he deployed pejorative adjectives to describe the achievements of notable indigenes of the town who may be called upon to give leadership in the next dispensation.
While Oyewumi is generally regarded as an Ikire son, since he caused the public stir, two other versions of his origin have surfaced: while one claims the senator is from Ikire-Ile in Olaoluwa Local Government Area of the state, the other holds that his father is actually of Urhobo (Isobo) tribe. We will return to this discussion another day. .
Many Ikire indigenes have expressed their disappointment in their senator, stating that his selfish interest and second term desperation, have made him mortgage his hitherto hometown to his feudal lords in Ede.
According to a community leader in Ikire, Alhaji Suarau Adeniji, “What would Akogun Lere Oyewumi have become if not for Ikire and its people who made it possible? When he was brought to represent us in the House of Representatives in 1992, he wasn’t only a mere school teacher, he was a poor, young teacher, who was just out of the university. He was merely 32 years old when we elected him. Since that time, he has not done any job or business except politics. He was a jobber. We made him the Chairman of Irewole Local Government in 2004, a position he used to rehabilitate his life and that of his nucleus family.”
It was added that when Oyewumi left government, and faced financial challenges, a prominent indigene of the state, Rt Hon. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh, who was the speaker of the federal House of Representatives, Abuja, at the time, secured a Nigerian Customs Service job for Akogun’s son, who had nearly become a community nuisance and a local terror.
Adeniji continued, ” When Akogun Oyewumi was financially broke and could not muster the needed fund to purchase the PDP senatorial nomination form for the 2019 senatorial election, some Ikire patriots raised money for him to purchase the form to save him of the impending embarrassment. To us at the time, an embarrassment to Lere Oyewumi was an embarrassment to all of us in the ancient town.
“In fact, in the 2023 senatorial election, which made him the senator and later the minority leader of the senate, he begged many people to print posters and other campaign materials for him because he was not financially buoyant.
“Today, rather than being humble and strive for the common interest of Ikire town and use his new position to better the lives of our youths, he is busy amassing wealth to eradicate poverty from his immediate family while he gives pittance to our people.”
Adeniji said the height of Oyewumi’s ingratitude was projecting Ikire as a town with no successful children who could provide political leadership in this period of intellectual anomie.
In the opinion of a good governance advocate, Mustapha Olaida (Olipha), “Just like the old saying, Whoever said there is no Prophet, maybe that of his own compound is dead.”
He further said, ” There may not be anyone fit ( financially, physically, psychologically, mentally and politically) sound in his compound to assume the office, brilliant and successful individuals with high net worth abound here.”
He said if Governor Ademola Adeleke with clumsy education and vague work experience could be elected as Osun governor, “the least of us in Ikire can rule better.”
Another community leader, Architect Suleiman Loye, described Oyewumi as a greedy politician who because of self-interest, even without sufficient clout, troubled the system in an attempt to become a running mate to Iyiola Omisore, an Ife aristocrat and the PDP governorship candidate in 2014. In the primary contest, he worked against the interest of another indigene of Ikire, Dr Peter Babalola (Peter Power).
“When Oyewumi’s ambition was becoming too distant to be realized, he caused commotion and made the hell to loose on the day Omisore came to Ikire. He reportedly commissioned political miscreants to boo and humiliate Omisore. The man was pelted with stones and pure water sachets.
“When he was later compensated to lead the campaign of Omisore as the Director General, he paid a lip service to the campaign as PDP not only suffered humiliating defeat in Irewole Local Government, the party also lost in Oyewumi’s polling unit at SS Peter and Paul Primary School. APC secured more than 40 votes to defeat PDP in his polling unit.”
Loye explained that, “while it is understandable that everything is fair in politics, it is dishonourable to play politics with your native land. There should be a clear and distinct line between politics and general good of your place of birth.
“Oyewumi has really crossed the boundary of what qualifies as healthy politicking. He has thrown caution to the wind.”
A chieftain of the APC in Ikire, Abdullahi Ogunsola, in his own part noted that the action of the Osun west senator was a sign of frustration, revealing his current experience in the PDP camp.
“There is a high-level horse-trading going in the Osun chapter of the PDP. The governor’s sister, Chief Dupe Adeleke-Sanni is said to be eyeing the Senate ticket in 2027. So Akogun is feigning loyalty to Ede country bome, even if it requires casting aspersion on his people and calling them slaves of Ede.
“However, if anyone would declare political war on Ikire, it should not be a political opportunist with low self-esteem and lack of touch with the grassroots.
“Remember Ademola Adeleke lost scandalously in this local government in the 2022 governorship election. Oyetola defeated him with a wide margin of 3,982 votes. In the election, APC won 10 of the 14 polling units in Oyewumi’s Ikire Ward 9. APC also polled 17,991 votes in the 2023 presidential election as against PDP’s 13,130 votes. Even with the Ikire Agenda, the pathetic senator struggled to win with a handful of votes in Irewole.”
Ogunsola maintained that Oyewumi had probably realized that he would be the major casualty in 2027 if an Ikire indigene was offered the APC ticket in 2026 as any of the party’s chieftain would stop Governor Adeleke at the poll and the coast would be clear for APC flag-bearers in subsequent elections; hence Akogun Oyewumi’s latest agony that is driving him bananas against his people.”
