“Bamidele speaks for himself always,” say activists
Adeolu Macauley
Ekiti House of Representative Member, Hon Bamidele Opeyemi has been described as a ‘desperate and opportunistic political figure’ that has a notorious track record of putting personal interests beyond the collective.
In an interactive session with human right activities at Ibadan, renown journalist, Adewale Adeoye and Michael Awopetu, described Opeyemi as a conscious traitor whose base political instincts were first noticed in the mid 1980s during the glorious era of student unionism in Nigeria.
While Adeoye was a member of the NANs leadership at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Awopetu was at the University of Ile Ife the school attended by Opeyemi. The later, Awopetu was Opeyemi’s personal assistance for nine years when the lawmaker was the Commissioner of Information and Strategy in Lagos.
The two activists spoke after an interactive session with human right activists in Ibadan, a meeting called at the instance of student leaders of the 1980s and the 1990s when all, including Opeyemi were icons in the historic student movement campaigns.
“Every generation has its own traitors. We have known him since we were young. We can speak about him and caution the vulnerable young people which he is misleading to beware, that a traitor is on the loose again. Our concern is not that Opeyemi wishes to be the governor of Ekiti State, our worry is that he has risen up to the open hands of history’s most reactionary elements, persecutors and tormentors, including those who have spent their entire lives destroying the moral foundation of the progressive movement in Nigeria. We think all genuine people who have fought to sustain the new changes in our corridors of power, should dim the ignoble light being lit by Opeyemi,” Adeoye said.
The described Opeyemi as a smooth speaker and orator, who unfortunately allows rabid personal ambition to colour the utilitarian needs of the greater society. Both said Opeyemi lied by claiming that he was the one that introduced Dr Kayode Fayemi to Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, when in reality, Dr Fayemi had known Tinubu long before Opeyemi ever knew him.
“Opeyemi will look for every reason to say that he has been marginalized in Ekiti State, when in reality, his treacherous gubernatorial ambition began in the midst of the campaign to reclaim the stolen mandate after the 2007 elections.”
Awopetu said “When the case was on-going, Opeyemi was busy distributing goodies across Ekiti State and plotting to ensure the case was lost so that his parochial ambition would be realized. He never wanted the then Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN) to win the court case, all for his ambition. If the current governor of Ekiti is not doing well, we would be the first to pull him down. But for a man who has uplifted Ekiti from the state of stupor into global reckoning, we wonder what Opeyemi wants to do that would make the difference. Adeoye said that at present, Opeyemi has no master plan on how to develop Ekiti state.
“He has nothing superior to the 8-point agenda, he was no superior position on the basis on which the people would support him. He has rather been instigating violence in the bid to seek public sympathy and demonise the regime in Ekiti State to the detriment of the entire Yoruba nation. He has a sizeable number of followers whose main grouse is that the government of Dr Fayemi is not ‘distributing cash to be guzzled by private individuals “ and that the government has created a paradigm shift from “chop and chop” tradition to a policy driven by public interest.
