Adeleke or AMBO: Re-examining the Meaning of “Lackey” in Osun Politics

 

By Omolebi-Sunday Segun Tunde

Oriade, 23rd January 2026

By any objective measure, Osun State politics has entered an era of dangerous distortion,an age where language is weaponised, mentorship is mocked, and learning is mistaken for weakness.

Today, insults travel faster than ideas. Labels replace logic. And among the most abused words in our political vocabulary is one term now casually thrown across party lines: “lackey.”

In the unfolding Osun political debacle, loyalty has been caricatured as servitude, while inexperience has been repackaged as independence. This inversion of values now dominates political discourse across the state.

As the saying goes, “When learning is mocked, incompetence becomes confident.”

The real question before the people of Osun is therefore not emotional. It is intellectual.

Who is truly a lackey?

Is it Governor Ademola Adeleke, widely perceived to govern through proxies, family influence and external direction? Or is it Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamji (AMBO), the Osun APC gubernatorial candidate for the August 2026 election, whose loyalty to former Governor Asiwaju Gboyega Oyetola, current Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, is open, consistent and ideologically defined?

To answer honestly, politics must be stripped of theatrics and returned to first principles.

In political theory, a lackey is not a loyal associate. Loyalty has never been a crime in governance.

Rather, a lackey is a political actor who lacks independent judgement, possesses no institutional grounding, and functions entirely at the discretion of unseen power holders.

A lackey does not govern; he merely transmits instructions. He does not think; he echoes. He does not build; he waits.

In truth, is Osun not experiencing excessive waiting under the current administration?

Schools are waiting for teachers to be employed. Roads are waiting for intervention except in Ede and, by extension, Osogbo. Communities are still waiting for access to potable water in this century, despite the surge in the allocations to the state under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

As political philosophers warn, “Power without understanding is merely permission to make mistakes.”

The presence of mentorship does not define lackeyism. The absence of competence does. One of the strangest ironies in today’s Osun politics is the attempt to ridicule followership while elevating mediocrity shielded by emergency legitimacy.

Yet,no leadership system anywhere in the world functions without followership. Every leader was once a follower.

Presidents were once governors. Governors were once commissioners. Commissioners were once aides. Politics is not a talent show; it is a profession.

Charisma may be natural. Popularity may be inherited. Performance may excite crowds. But leadership is learned. It requires knowledge of public finance, exposure to bureaucratic processes, crisis management skills, institutional memory and administrative discipline.

When learning is skipped, dependence replaces independence.

Or, as the elders say, “The man who refuses to learn will eventually kneel before those who did.”

This reality amplifies what has become an open secret at the Bola Ige White House in Abeere, where it is alleged that files are transmitted to Country Home or Lagos for weeks to be treated by unelected actors who now hold decisive influence over governance in Osun. How real this is, remains a question only insiders can answer.

In contrast, the political evolution of Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamji reflects structured apprenticeship and sound tutelage.

Before aspiring to the office of governor, AMBO has passed through party grooming, executive coordination and governance exposure. His political alignment with Asiwaju Gboyega Oyetola was neither accidental nor opportunistic.

It was institutional.

In politics, independence is not the absence of guidance; it is the product of preparation. And governance is not strengthened by scorning mentorship, but by mastering it.

Osun must therefore decide whether it prefers theatrics without knowledge or leadership built on learning.