There is a distinct brand of political theatre that transcends ordinary opportunism and crosses into the realm of absolute self-mockery.
The recent performance by Hon. Bimbo Adekanmbi, the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) gubernatorial candidate on a local radio program, provided a textbook masterclass in this very dynamic.
In his calculated endeavour to vilify the legislative accomplishments of the Senator representing Oyo South, Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli, Adekanmbi instead manifested a conspicuous deficit in institutional literacy regarding fundamental political timelines, constitutional jurisprudence, and his own historical rectitude.
Hearing a former Commissioner for Finance deliberately manufactures falsehoods and peddle groundless allegations of financial misconduct for mere political expediency is deeply telling; both Adekanmbi and his principal are clearly terrified of defeat in 2027.
It is so sad that since Adekanmbi became Makinde’s anointed candidate, he has lost his usual self; he now embodies a disposition that is both fundamentally unstable and severely compromised.
Furthermore, Adekanmbi’s desperate claim that Senator Alli has ‘no single bill’ to his name is flatly deflated by publicly available legislative records, which can be verified with a simple Google search.
To mention just a few, Senator Alli’s active portfolio includes the Federal Medical Centre, Igbo-Ora (Establishment) Bill, the Federal Universities of Agriculture Act (Amendment) Bill, and the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria Act (Amendment) Bill—all tangible, public-facing legislative feats that render Adekanmbi’s assertions entirely fraudulent.
Even with all his fabricated lies, it was his remarks on local government autonomy that revealed a more sinister brand of constitutional quackery.
Adekanmbi launched into a bizarre defence of the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) framework, arguing that state executives are legally helpless to grant financial independence to local councils.
This uninspiring theory by Adekanmbi shamelessly ignores the landmark July 2024 judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The apex court explicitly declared the state-monopolised JAAC structures unconstitutional and ordered direct disbursements to the 774 local government areas.
For an aspiring governor to suggest that a definitive Supreme Court verdict remains frozen until a secondary legislative amendment occurs, it represents a fundamental misinterpretation of Nigerian law.
This legal distortion appears to serve a specific, subservient political purpose. Adekanmbi’s presentation reads less like an independent vision for Oyo State and more like a proxy script designed to defend the centralised fiscal overreach of his current patron, Governor Seyi Makinde.
Running as a consensus candidate under the unoriginal banner of “Omituntun 3.0,” Adekanmbi has proudly positioned himself to continue the exact anti-people policies that have stripped local chairmen of their constitutional roles and reduced local councils to mere salary-paying outposts under Makinde’s tight control.
This sudden ideological alliance becomes particularly striking and deeply ironic when contrasted with recent political history.
In 2019, Governor Seyi Makinde openly pilloried the financial stewardship of the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s administration, famously claiming he inherited a depleted treasury with a mere ₦19,000 in the state’s coffers.
This was a direct attack on the professional integrity of Bimbo Adekanmbi, who served as the Finance Commissioner at the time. Back then, Adekanmbi vigorously contested this assertion, releasing public balance sheets to dispute Makinde’s narrative of an empty treasury.
Unfortunately, today, that fierce battle over financial accountability and reputation has been conveniently forgotten in exchange for political expediency. The bitter critic who once accused the past administration of fiscal recklessness has now anointed Adekanmbi as his preferred ideological clone.
In turn, the former finance commissioner has completely abandoned the defence of the Ajimobi legacy, eagerly swallowing his pride to adopt the administrative framework of his former tormentor.
What Adekanmbi and his co-travellers in lies and manipulation don’t know is that Oyo State possesses politically sophisticated voters. And these voters will not tolerate such blatant revisionism and sycophancy.
Adekanmbi should be reminded that desperate legislative critiques and factual distortions are rarely successful strategies in the political arena.
If Bimbo Adekanmbi and his paymaster believe the people of Oyo State will willingly embrace a puppet governance structure designed to perpetuate the financial starvation of local governments, then they have drastically misjudged the collective intelligence of the good people of Oyo State.