The attention of The Truth Advocates, a group of selected Ogun youths where I belong has been drawn to the recent and continous attack on the person of Otunba Gbenga Daniel by some sponsored elements. The most recent one being posted on one Azeez Ebora's facebook wall where his co-travellers were tagged is a sad commentary on the state of our tertiary education. Reading through some of their recent grammatically-challenged posts, it's shocking how these guys brimmed with such ignorance and stupidity that left me utterly bewildered. Much as I have sympathy for them, I'm gravely worried about the future of a nation that consciously mis-educated his generation. Whilst I empathise with them, I enjoin them to be mindful of the implication of what they're doing for today's action is tommorrow's history.
In several of their recent unintelligent posts, they made many outrageous claims against the person of Otunba Gbenga Daniel (OGD) that shocked and annoyed even those who had nothing to do with OGD. Naturally, I would have ignored their baseless claims and moved on to address important issues of our polity but I equally found it historically important to scrutinize their claims and to expose them for what they are: falsehoods.
Falsehood 1:
In one article authored by one MacLawrence Odunowo and published on his facebook page on the 12th of May, 2015 and titled: THE GENESIS OF THE LION OF THE WEST PHAROAHISM REIGN.
The writer claimed that,"Otunba Gbenga Daniel, according to investigations from reliable sources is believed to originate from Delta State. He came to Sagamu and was helped by a man named Agenjo, with the support of Chief Bayo Oluwole who is an estate agent.
Fact 1:
For records, Otunba Gbenga Daniel's father, The Most Rev. Adebola Daniel is the son of Daniel Banjo whose father was Abamba Daniel Otesile, hailed from Agbele, whose previous location was where the Sagamu International Market, along Sagamu-Benin Expressway, is located. Around 1860, as history has it, there was Oresile/Agbele war, forcing eight daughters of Oje Compound to be dispersed in different directions. Some of them were later found at different locations in Ijebuland.
In the course of searching for the whereabouts of his children, Chief Abamba Otesile got to Ososa where he met and married another lady called Adetiloye. The couple, we were told, later moved to Omu for economic reason and it was in Omu that Daniel Banjo was born. Chief Abamba Otesile was said to have returned to Makun where he re-united with some of his family-members who had settled in Makun, on leaving Agbele, from where he had gone to Ososa in search of his daughters. Makun is part of the communities, constrained to come together and form Orisagamu. While Chief Abamba Otesile returned to Makun, his ancestral homestead, his son from Adetiloye, remained behind with his mother in Omu. It was in Omu that he flourished, married and gave birth to Adebola Daniel, OGD's father, who lived for considerable length of time, in Omu where he had married Esther Olaitan Daniel from the family of Mabadejo of Ago Quarters, Omu-Ijebu in 1945. Though his father had met and married his mother who passed on in 2008 at age 83, in Omu, the family, in search of greener pastures moved to Ibadan where OGD was born on Friday, April 6, 1956 in the house of late Pa Ogunsote in Ososami area of Ibadan..
It's important to add here that a certified history records in Omu-Ijebu and Sagamu supported this claim. So, all the hogwash about OGD coming from Niger Delta are baseless.
Falsehood 2:
Few weeks ago, one Austin who claimed to be calling the attention of the new IG to investigate the crimes in OGD tenure wrote that,"several criminal activities were perpetrated by the former governor and his acolytes when he was in power through the use of a killer squad that he set up and nurtured.."
He claimed many uncountable students of Olabisi Onabanjo University were killed through the killer squad. He based his arguement on Hon. Waliu Taiwo's claim that OGD maintained killer squad.
Facts 2:
Many persons voluntered to be used as macenaries in a bid to break the OGD Team that appeared too strong to be divided while OGD was in office. Hon. Waliu Taiwo resigned from OGD cabinet and went about heralding OGD kept and maintained killer squad.
When the dust settled, same Hon. Waliu Taiwo who was the former Commissioner for Agriculture in Ogun State, after dumping the political group being led by the former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye and Prince Buruji Kashamu, retracted his earlier claim that a killer squad existed in the State in a letter dated 10th June, 2010 where he tendered an apology to OGD, saying he deeply regretted whatever the defamatory statement he made earlier may have caused him. He openly admitted he lied against Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
Asides this, how on earth would anyone embark on a mission of killing countless number of students for no reason? In this same Ogun State? The other time, the students of University of Ibadan disrupted activities within the campus while also blocking some public roads near the institution as they protested the death of ONE of their students named Mayowa. Is it possible for HUNDREDS of students to be missing in a school without students protesting and the management announcing it to the whole world? Or does it imply that the concerned students don't have parents and guardians? Sometimes, we need to check our facts and information source so we don't insult the collective intelligence of the general public while trying to pull someone down.
Falsehood 3:
In another article written by Oluwaseunfunmi MacLawrence and posted on his facebook page on the 12th of May, 2015, OGD was accused of many offences. The writer claimed OGD's "governance and presiding role as the former number one citizen of Ogun State brought nothing but carnage and casualities.
He concluded that "the life of an average youth means nothing to OGD as a person.."
Fact 3:
Throughout the history of the entire nation, OGD remains the only person who paid unemployment allowance to unemployed youths through Ogun State Unemployed Graduates Assistance Scheme (OGUGRADS) which he ran for about three years. It was through OGD-led government that some Ogun youths were sponsored abroad for various Masters programme through OGD's Human Capital Development Programme (HUCAP). How does anyone say the administration that built the first university of education in Nigeria brought nothing but carnage and casualities? Same administration built about 20 housing estates across the State. OGD-led government built one of the best NYSC orientation camps in Nigeria; built four ICT polytechnics across Ogun State and three new international stadia for the remaining ethnic division after MKO Abiola's stadium for Egba people.
Falsehood 4:
One of the major accusations levelled against OGD and his administration is the issue of forced oath taking, where it was alleged that OGD forced some of his aides and commissioners to take oath in some secret shrines in Ogun State.
Fact 4:
On this, I think OGD's response on "AGSOBA session with OGD" would clear all doubt as regards forced oath taking believed to be orchestrated by OGD.
"If you say you swear oath to someone, it is to either secure their maximum loyalty or keep some secrets, failure of which certain things were supposed or expected to happen. Many of these people who claim the oath or ritualist stories have since moved on, fought OGD, violently attacked his personality, but what has happened to them?
So, it is either the stories were false and fabricated or that the oath is not potent and effective..
Such is the conspiracy our administration had to contend with".
Falsehood 5:
Another recruit, one Femi Emmanuel Adebayo on his facebook page on the 20th of May 2015 foolishly wrote that, "Mr. Daniel will need to elucidate us how he acquired such wealth before assumption into office as governor.."
Fact 5:
When IBB said "the Nigerian youth is useless and cannot lead.." He was refering to the likes of Femi Emmanuel Adebayo. Poverty is a terrible plague and can limit reasoning thereby making an individual see fiancially successful people as those from other planets. It's shocking to hear someone in this age questioning how it was possible for someone like OGD to possess such wealth even before getting into office. But he was alive when OGD became the Deputy Managing Director of a german company (which made him the first African to rise to such position in the history of the company) at age 31. Same man they're querying became Fesojoye of Ile-Ife at same age. The edifice, Kresta Laurel that made the front page of one of the editions of Ovation magazine in 1997 was built by Otunba Gbenga Daniel when OGD was barely 41. Meanwhile, it's on records that he originally founded Kresta Laurel in 1990 when he was 34.
At 35, OGD was already an employer of labour. Few years after, National Concord listed him among 100 most successful businessmen in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, as far back as 1989, when he was only 33, Sam Omatseye of the then Newswatch, who now works with The Nation authored a story about OGD in its November 9th edition (page 33), where he called him a man 'to be watched!'
So, to our friend asking how OGD became so rich before he became governor, I think you need to start thinking big to achieve big.
Practical examples are all around us. Today, Chinedu Echeruo who sold his application to Apple for $1billion is much younger than you; the founder of facebook, Mark Zuckerberg should be same age with one of your children.
That you cannot achieve it doesn't mean it's impossible. It's all about determination.
SAINT-OLAWALE JIMOH
(The Truth Advocates, Ogun State)
08058257541
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