A former National Commissioner with the Independent National Electoral Commission and retired Professor of Sociology at the University of Lagos, Prof. Lai Olurode, has paid tributes to a former Osun State governor, Bisi Akande, as he clocked 85.
In a statement made available to The PUNCH, Olurode described Akande as prudent, saying he was an exceptional politician.
He mentioned that Akande belonged to the late Obafemi Awolowo political school of thought with the core values of being blunt and uncompromising.
This school of thought, he said “is not after power or political office for personal aggrandisement or power for its own sake,” but one with disdain for flamboyance and political jamboree.
Olurode recalled that when Akande served as the Secretary to the Government of the old Oyo State under the late Bola Ige, and later as the deputy governor, “he was guided by those political ethics which gave more attention to governance and substantive issues in place of the type of cars that officials of the state ride in.”
As the elected governor of Osun State in 1999 to 2003, Olurode said, “Akande, in the course of the political campaign for election as governor, didn’t spend up to N200,000. He drastically cut down on the cost of governance.
“For him, the office of the First Lady had no place in Nigeria’s constitution and he didn’t allow this constitutional aberration.”
He added that Akande, in just four years as the governor, built a “colossal state secretariat” which, he said, eradicated the practice of paying rents.
“During the inauguration of the architectural masterpiece, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, marvelled as to how Akande was able to achieve the feat without borrowing,” he added.
Olurode added that: “Akande is loyal to his political associates. Through thick and thin, and even after the death of Bola Ige, his loyalty to him didn’t whither. And throughout the hectic and marathon campaign travels and travails of the then Senator Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande, in spite of advanced age, stood by him.
“This man is an exceptional politician, indeed, out of the run of the mill. He deserves all the encomiums in a country where politics isn’t really about principle and service but centres around a rapacious money culture.”
