Gboyega Oyetola, currently the
chief of staff to Rauf Aregbesola, governor of Osun state, is the All
Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the September 22 governorship
election.
Despite the rumblings over the
decision of the party to use direct primary to pick its candidate, members
trooped out to participate in the election. Moshood Adeoti, secretary to the
state government, and Babajide Omoware, senator representing Osun east,
withdrew from the exercise. Some would ask; who is Oyetola, the man in whom APC
is well pleased to succeed Aregbesola?
Some see him as a thoroughly bred technocrat; others say he is a politician
with a graceful flair for workers. But there’s more to the 63-year-old
politician.
FOUNDING MEMBER OF ALLIANCE FOR
DEMOCRACY
Born on September 29, 1954, in Iragbiji,
Boripe local government area, Oyetola attended Ifeoluwa Grammar School in
Osogbo before proceeding to the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
He is contesting a political
office for the first time. Oyetola is said to be among the prominent Nigerians
who founded the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in 1998, and was a chieftain of the
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before it metamorphosed to APC.
‘PILLAR BEHIND AREGBESOLA’
Seen as one of the pillars behind
Aregbesola’s administration, Oyetola has on several occasions denied being
endorsed by the governor. Yet, most political actors in the state taunt him as
the governor’s favourite.
At the flag off of his campaign,
he said, “If Aregbesola endorsed me, I will not need to struggle or campaign as
I’m doing now. I have toured every nooks and crannies of this state consulting
the stakeholders. I don’t discuss campaign issue with the governor. So, he
(Aregbesola) has been fair to all APC aspirants.”
He is also said to be close to
Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the APC.
UNILAG-TRAINED INSURANCE BROKER
Oyetola obtained a bachelor’s of
science degree in insurance in 1978 from UNILAG and a master’s of business
administration (MBA) in 1990 from the same institution. He is an associate of
the Chartered Insurance Institute, London and Nigeria and a member of the
Nigerian Institute of Management.
After he completed his National
Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Potiskum, Yobe state, in 1980, Oyetola started
his career as an insurance broker with Leadway Assurance Company as an
assistant manager.
In 1991, he founded his own
company where he was the managing director until his appointment as chief of
staff in 2011.
A PHILANTHROPIST
Rotimi Makinde, former member of
house of representatives, said Oyetola, aside being a complete gentleman and a
vast technocrat, is a silent philanthropist.
He said, “What if I tell you that
as a revered community leader in Iragbiji, he has sponsored well above 200
indigent students to tertiary institution who today are all doing wonderfully
well in their chosen career, that shows he has always been part of the
educational and human capacity development in the state.
In that respect, Oyetola said his
goal is to make the state known for employment and jobs in the country.
He would go head to head with the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the September poll.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete