Whenever politicians change camps, the loudest casualties are rarely the politicians themselves but the ordinary people whose hopes are tossed about like a canoe caught in a storm.
Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja’s defection has once again opened the floodgates of accusations, counter-accusations and carefully manufactured propaganda, leaving the electorate stranded in a marketplace where truth is auctioned to the highest bidder.
The Yoruba have a saying that when two elephants fight, it is the grass beneath them that suffers. Sadly, it is the people who bear the bruises while political gladiators sharpen their swords with words designed to inflame passions rather than enlighten minds.
In the race for political supremacy ahead of 2027 general elections, facts have again started to become sacrificial lambs on the altar of desperation.
What is even more disturbing is the growing culture of rewriting history to suit today’s convenience. Yesterday’s hero suddenly becomes today’s villain, while yesterday’s sworn enemy is dressed in borrowed robes of sainthood.
Another African proverb reminds us that, the chameleon may change its colour, but it does not change its nature. Character demonization has become the preferred campaign strategy, and propaganda now travels faster than the truth.
Instead of politicians engaging citizens with ideas, policies and vision grounded in reality of the people, some political actors have chosen to throw mud, hoping that enough of it will pile up and stick.
But the truth still remains that no amount of smoke can permanently hide the sun, and no matter how loudly falsehood beats its drum, truth has a very arrogant habit of arriving uninvited.
Of course, politics has never been a sanctuary for saints. It is in actual fact a marketplace of ideas where facts should outweigh fiction and where history must never be sacrificed on the altar of propaganda.
Unfortunately, the recent publication against Makinde as a reaction to Dare Adeleke’s postulation on on a Live radio program. This is not an exercise in historical reflection. It is an elaborate attempt to repaint reality with the brush of political bitterness.
As the Yoruba wisely say, “No matter how long a log stays in the river, it never becomes a crocodile.” Falsehood does not become truth merely because it is repeated loudly or wrapped in emotional rhetoric.
The authors of such publication seek to place Governor Seyi Makinde in the dock of public opinion while presenting Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja as the flawless custodian of political loyalty.
Such a narrative may satisfy partisan appetites, but it insults the intelligence of discerning Nigerians who have witnessed the political evolution of Oyo State.
The central argument of the so-called article is that Governor Makinde betrayed everyone who helped him to power. Yet, history tells a different story.
When Seyi Makinde emerged as governor in 2019, he inherited a fractured political landscape. Instead of governing for political godfathers, he chose to govern for the people. Roads replaced rhetoric. Schools received attention instead of slogans. Healthcare facilities witnessed unprecedented investments. Agriculture became an economic priority. Infrastructure expanded across the state.
An African proverb says, “The child who washes his hands clean eats with elders.” Governor Makinde earned national recognition not because of political intrigues but because of measurable governance.
Those who expected government to become an exclusive reward system for political loyalists soon discovered that Makinde’s administration was driven more by competence than by patronage.
Their disappointment should not now be rewritten as betrayal.
One of the greatest contradictions in the article lies in its defence of Ambassador Arapaja’s defection while simultaneously condemning Makinde’s political journey.
Political history is replete with leaders changing platforms when principles, ideology or prevailing circumstances demanded it. Governor Makinde never disguised his political decisions nor pretended they were acts of martyrdom.
The hunter cannot praise the eagle for flying and condemn the hawk for using the same wings. Therefore, what cannot be defended by logic should not be defended by hypocrisy.
The article repeatedly suggests that those who stood with Makinde politically deserved perpetual political compensation.
That reasoning strikes at the very foundation of democratic governance.
Public office is neither inheritance nor political settlement.
Governor Makinde repeatedly demonstrated that government appointments and opportunities would increasingly be determined by capacity, integrity and public interest rather than by who shouted the loudest during election campaigns.
As another African proverb reminds us, “The goat owned by many people dies of hunger.”
A government captured entirely by political compensation would ultimately abandon the people.
Makinde’s refusal to mortgage governance for endless political appeasement is a decision that may have offended entrenched political interests, but it undoubtedly benefited millions of ordinary citizens.
Critics have every constitutional right to question Governor Makinde but facts always remain arrogant and stubborn to yield to political convenience. And this is the only path to sustainable development in all of the society where economic growth have remained steady and consistent.
Across Oyo State stand reconstructed roads and road networks, upgraded hospitals, modern bus terminals, expanded educational facilities, improved workers’ welfare, enhanced security architecture, agribusiness investments and ongoing airport development to international standard aimed at attracting direct foreign investments and global investors.
These projects are not products of newspaper headlines. They are visible monuments standing where political accusations cannot erase them.
As the saying goes, the tree laden with fruits is the one that attracts stones. Governor Makinde continues to attract relentless political attacks because his developmental record has altered the political conversation in Oyo State, that is why those unable to confront performance often resort to personal attacks.
The attempt to sensationalise accommodation allegedly provided for Ambassador Arapaja raises more questions than answers.
If the National Secretary of a ruling political structure required accommodation while carrying out official political responsibilities, the issue should be examined through facts rather than insinuations.
Public discourse should never descend into innuendo without credible evidence.
He who alleges must prove.
Anything less amounts to political gossip masquerading as journalism.
The publication lists several politicians who no longer work with Governor Makinde as though political alliances are frozen in time.
Political relationships evolve, even across Nigeria, alliances change with circumstances, ambitions and ideological differences.
Indeed, many of those mentioned have themselves formed new alliances, joined different political parties or pursued independent ambitions but attempting to portray every changing alliance around Makinde as evidence of betrayal is intellectually dishonest and a display of intellectual bankruptcy.
If politics and actions of political actors are about service and the people, then leadership should ultimately be judged not by the number of politicians surrounding a leader but by the number of lives positively transformed.
History remembers Chief Obafemi Awolowo not because every associate remained permanently by his side, Nelson Mandela is celebrated not because every political ally stayed loyal forever, and history has so shown that great leaders are only remembered for what they built and the legacies they leave behind.
Governor Makinde’s legacy will likewise be assessed by generations yet unborn through the schools constructed, roads completed, hospitals upgraded, investments attracted, workers empowered and institutions strengthened; certainly not by today’s politically motivated accusations.
It is ironic that those accusing Governor Makinde of betrayal ignore the countless individuals across party lines who continue to acknowledge his fairness, accessibility and commitment to development.
One cannot claim that everyone who disagrees with Makinde is virtuous while everyone who leaves him is automatically a victim.
One cannot help but weep, not because politicians disagree; that is the heartbeat of democracy, but because the electorate have become unwilling spectators in a theatre of bitterness where insults replace substance and vendettas masquerade as public discourse.
The Yoruba say, “When the masquerade dances too close to the market, someone who knows the man beneath the costume will eventually recognise him.”
Therefore, today’s political actors should realize that politics and deceitful acts have a way of exposing carefully constructed narratives.
This debate should never descend into demonization of one another.
Governor Seyi Makinde is not beyond criticism. No democratic leader is or will ever be.
However, criticism must rest upon verifiable facts rather than selective history, political nostalgia or emotional revisionism, just because a larger percent of the electorate are still the illiterate and semi illiterate, who are the market women, traders, artisans, mechanic, vulcanizers, farmers and the ordinary day to day citizens.
History will not remember who shouted the loudest on radio or penned the harshest rejoinder, it will only remember who built institutions instead of merely building political camps.
History will remember who chose governance over godfatherism and investments in people rather than political entitlement.
Politicians should always remember a popular Yoruba proverb that says, “However long the night may be, the dawn will surely break.”
When the dust of today’s political battles finally settles, posterity, not propaganda, will render the final judgement on Governor Seyi Makinde’s place in the history of Oyo State.
Until leaders choose the language of truth over the noise of propaganda, it is the ordinary voter who will continue to pay the highest price for the dirtiest game in town.
Ibrahim Adekola, writes from Yemetu, Ibadan.