At the weekend, while rounding off a four-day retreat organised for his incoming political appointees comprising commissioners and special advisers, Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State announced the appointment of another deputy chief of staff.
This was coming many months after Dr. Charles Akinola and Mr. Abdullahi Binuyo had been appointed chief of staff and deputy chief of staff respectively.
The latest addition, Mr. Mikhail Adejare Adebisi, who was designated as the deputy chief of staff in charge of general administration, had been a member of inner caucuses of both the incumbent governor and his predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, now Nigeria’s Minister of Interior.
Prior to the submission of the much governor’s anticipated cabinet list to the state’s house of assembly, rumour had been rife that Adebisi had clinched the slot for Irepodun Local Government Area of the state. However, the ‘gamblers’ were shocked that Adebisi’s name was conspicuously omitted on the list.
Mr. Adebisi, who until his new appointment, was the supervisor in charge of general administration, local government and chieftaincy affairs, had also served during the administration of Mr. Aregbesola as assistant chief of staff and special adviser.
The 53-year-old lawyer, who hails from Ilobu, headquarters of Irepodun Local Government Area of the state, had earlier graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in 1993 with a B.sc Degree in Sociology and Anthropology. He also, in 1998, bagged a Master’s certificate in Public Administration from the same university.
In the year 2000, Mr. Adebisi enrolled at the university’s law faculty and graduated in 2007. He was called to bar in 2008, and had his Master’s in Law (LLM) from the same university in 2012, and he is currently on his PhD programme at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State.
Adebisi, who was elected a councilor and supervisory councilor for education in Irepodun Local Government Area in 1997, was also the chairman of the state’s chapter of councilors’ forum between 1997 and 1998.
Between 2003 and 2006, he was the publicity secretary of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Osun State, and served in various capacities since the formation of the Action Congress all through the party’s metamorphosis to ACN and now All Progressives Congress (APC).