Former governor Abiola Ajimobi has confessed that he made Hon. Dapo Lam Adesina commissioner against his father’s wish, as the erstwhile governor, late Alhaji Lamidi Adesina never supported the move.
OYOINSIGHT.COM recalls that the young Lam-Adesina was commissioner in the ministries of youth and sports, before his redeployment to science and technology during Ajimobi’s first term as governor.
This revelation, provided by former governor Ajimobi himself, is on Page 100 of the book; Abiola Ajimobi: Architect and Builder of Modern Oyo State, authored by Sam Omatseye, veteran journalist and Chairman, Editorial Board of the Nation Newspaper.
The young Lam-Adesina has however refuted what he described as lie by Ajimobi. According to him, his father never said something like that.
Ajimobi had lamented what he called “maturity issues” facing the young Lam, stating his intention to control the party, because his father was leader was a thorn in their relationship. Dapo’s ‘hostility’, Ajimobi ascribed to his age.
This newspaper recalls that the young Lam-Adesina, had fallen out with Ajimobi, necessitating the former to write Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, before eventually decamping to the African Democratic Congress, ADC, where he contested and lost re-election into the Ibadan Northeast/Southeast federal constituency in the 2019 elections.
“I supported him to go to the House of Representatives, but he thought he could control the party because his father was the leader of the party,” Ajimobi said, querying that. “He said I made somebody chairman against his wish. Are you the one to tell me who to make chairman?”
Reflecting on the tiff between them, Ajimobi remembered Lam-Adesina told him Dapo was a “troublesome” boy, and that he (Ajimobi) couldn’t handle him.
But in a chat with OYOINSIGHT.COM, the young Lam-Adesina said it was his mother who was the only opposition to his being nominated as commissioner.
“Mummy didn’t like the idea of me working with Ajimobi. And that may be due to the fact that she knows the kind of person he is. Baba Lam said since it is Ajimobi who personally nominated me, that I should go; he said that would be a good starting point for me politically.
“I didn’t at any point attempt to control the leadership of the party with him. How would a small me had attempted such? Maybe what he referred to as my attempt to control the party structure was when I advised him to consider fielding some members of my late father’s political family as candidates in the build up to the council election in the state. Why has he not reacted to the points I made in the letter I wrote to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu?
“At least everything is now history. We have all sowed one thing or the other. I pray we all reap what he sowed,” he added.
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