The elections in Osun West this Saturday is one of two faces. It has a sad side to it being an election to replace a prominent indigene of Osun who died due to some medical ignorance, as has been revealed.
On the other side, it offers Osun West another opportunity to weigh up options before them and choose another representative to continue and even better the legacy of the late Senator Isiaka Adeleke.
The options before the people of Osun West are various but two stand out of the bunch, Senator Mudashiru Hussein who is a former commissioner, member of the House of Representatives and senator representing the same district until stepping down for the now late Serubawon, as the late Senator was fondly called.
The other major candidate is Otunba Demola Adeleke, who, quite fairly, is brother to the late senator.
If it was lost on you, it is important that I point you to the distinction in qualification for the job description.
In order to portray fairness, I had scanned through records looking for signs that a vote for the “brother” will not be a wasted one (which was in itself an arduous task seeing as Demola Adeleke does not even have a Wikipedia page to start with) but almost all descriptions of him were about who he was brother to and rarely who himself was.
This has already created a massive gulf between both major aspirants, seeing as while we can hold Senator Hussein to his records since becoming a member of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the Fourth Republic, there is little or nothing to hold Otunba Adeleke to.
And it is a grave act of deceit for anyone to ask to be assessed based on the records of another man, whether brother or sister. Senator Mudashiru Hussein on the other hand has served in several capacities in public service, without once betraying his mandate, and has continuously stood out for complete loyalty to his ideology and party, without fear for whose ox is gored.
Senator Hussein, then a member of the House of Representatives, was one of the loudest lawmakers who fought against the rumoured third-term bid of President Obasanjo, being one of the few lawmakers in the opposition as at the time who resisted all advances to join the ruling party.
Not one to hide his opinions or back down from a fight, it was Mudashiru Hussein who said publicly in February 2004 that the House of Reps should invite President Obasanjo himself to account for the source of about N360m used in demolishing toll gates around the country. The courage behind that outburst will not be appreciated until one has an understanding of how carpeted the National Assembly was during the tenure of President Obasanjo.
Constantly using his representative seat as a megaphone, Hussein always spoke out for the people and against the government under the tenure of Obasanjo. He however was one to recognize good even if it were covered badly and this showed when he argued in 2004 that the rising number of military politicians in the nation’s polity would bring about a stable democracy.
In this age where discussions around restructuring are very loud, it is important to note that Senator Hussein has always been a vocal supporter of strengthening the regions to be more responsible for their people. Out of love for peace, Senator Hussein it was who once argued that a “Mineral Resources Commission Bill” which sought to allow regions control their resources, should be considered to halt agitations for resource control.
Senator Hussein had defeated an incumbent Senator Isiaka Adeleke by a very wide margin in a result that demonstrated the trust reposed in him by the people of Osun West and it was only sensible that, after stepping down his personal ambition to accommodate his then opponent to his party, he be allowed to replace Isiaka Adeleke after his unfortunate death.
Considering the antecedence, it is clearly a case of the man we know versus the brother we don’t know so much, and that this even looks like a contest among both options is enough disservice to what Senator Mudashiru Hussein represents. If there is a reason not to vote Hussein, I am yet to find out. Especially as not voting Hussein is essentially voting to make the senatorial seat of Osun West a hereditary one.
That, is something to vote against. So when Osun West goes to the polls this weekend, because I do not have a vote over there, we can consider it as one less vote for Senator Hussein. Hopefully it won’t matter much in what I expect to be a landslide win for the career servant over the brother.
The post One less vote for Senator Hussein appeared first on Vanguard News.
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