The Day of the Jackal
The election day arrived wrapped in heavy cloak of resistance by the people and unalloyed resolve to vote in a peaceful manner. People trooped out in thousands and multitudes of them trekked long distances to cast their votes in places where they were actually registered to vote. All efforts to rig the election failed as the people put into effect the popular aphorism that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”. Old men and women who were bent by age trooped out in large numbers to polling units while youths, in thousands defied the gun-totting uniformed terrorists of the PDP and ensured that no one was allowed to vote more than once and no one had the opportunity to perpetrate any form of rigging.

Around noon on that day, information filtered in from reliable in-house sources from Aso Rock about the Federal Government’s directive that APC’s votes should be swapped for PDP’s votes at the Local Government collation centres. This we promptly broadcast and we gingered popular resistance. In places where rigging and swapping of votes were attempted, the inglorious efforts were rescinded when the mass of the people threatened a complete showdown.

It was too clear that all efforts by the Federal Government and PDP to re-enact the Ekiti scenario had failed. Unlike the people of Ekiti, the people of Osun were not cowed by the jackboot terrorism of the Federal Government. While majority of Ekiti people shunned the electoral process on the day of their gubernatorial election which eventually ended in the lowest turnout in recent history, the people of Osun proved their mettle by not only turning out to vote their candidates but put triggers to shame by monitoring the election to the end. While Christians staged mini crusades and praise worship from the point of accreditation of voters up to the declaration of results at various polling units, lots of muslims observed their afternoon prayers and asalatu programmes at the polling booths and collation centres and the two religious groups provided shield for each other.

The tension-soaked, suspense-filled collation process was a turning point in the history of electioneering in Nigeria as the end finally justified the legitimate efforts of the people in ensuring that an election could be conducted in Nigeria without being rigged contrary to what happened in 2003 and 2007. The subsequent jubilations, the wild celebrations and general ceremonies organised by individuals, groups and organisations definitely were everlasting statements of democratic importance which showed that the people are the last and immercurial architects of their political future once there is a complete guarantee of leadership by example capable of re-energising the waning confidence of the masses in the leaders of this country.

Few days after the election, Professor Attahiru Jega admitted that the military had no business in election conduct or monitoring and assured the populace that any attempt in future by the Federal Government to deploy soldiers for election purposes shall be resisted by his organisation.

What Was the Winning Formula?
The most important tool which tilted the scale of victory in our favour in the State of Osun is the democratic nature of Ogbeni. His emergence as the candidate of the party in 2007 was via a democratic process devoid of imposition. His emergence in 2014 as the candidate to beat was through another democratic process which produced him as a most popular candidate.

His sterling and outstanding performances as governor in the past four years have really stood him out. He not only shows exceptional passion for service, he demonstrates uncommon and unrivalled dedication to selflessness in public governance. His O-concepts like O-Yes by which more than 30,000 unemployed youths have been gainfully employed, O-Meal by which thousands of pupils in primary schools are being fed with most qualitative and hygienic meals at the least cost remain unrivalled in public administration in the world. For the latter, he has been invited by the British Parliament to discuss how this uncommon feat has been successfully implemented.

The history of Osun in the past four years is incomplete without the mention of the Opon Imo tablet by which otherwise costly and inaccessible educational materials and resources have been put at the fingertips of every student in public schools. This has made the State the cynosure of all eyes and a recipient of multiple awards both nationally and internationally. The new O-Schools have been masterpieces in public education not only in Nigeria but in Africa as they are beautiful structures equipped with modern teaching tools fully complemented by adequate welfare package for the teachers.