By John Dike, Osogbo
Governor Ademola Adeleke on Monday said that the people of Osun State still suffer from the allegedly sordid and evil legacy of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as their governor.
He dismissed the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, interim national secretary and former interior minister’s threats to remove him from office in the 2026 elections as empty and hallucinating.
Describing Aregbesola’s tenure as “the worst in Osun’s history,” Adeleke accused the former governor of leaving behind a legacy of debt, deceit, and widespread suffering.
He said in a statement issued on Monday in Osogbo by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed:
“Mr. Aregbesola is a man who left a legacy of huge state debt, half salaries for workers, fraudulent learning tablets (Opon Imo), and numerous overinflated, abandoned projects.
“His administration inflicted years of hardship on Osun people through inhumane and reckless governance.”
To him, Aregbesola’s “empty boast” about 2026 is “the symptom of a troubled mind haunted by the consequences of his anti-people policies”.
Besides , he dismissed the former governor’s remarks as “a delusional rant from a man at war with his political benefactor and estranged from the people he once governed.”
According to Adeleke, “A man who should be offering public apologies for the ruins he left behind now dares to threaten the Governor who is cleaning up his mess.
“Mr. Aregbesola’s cruelty to workers and pensioners is well documented. From introducing half salaries to misapplying contributory pension funds and cooperative deductions, his tenure was a nightmare for public servants.”
The statement said that Adeleke’s administration has paid 28 months of the half salaries left unpaid by Aregbesola and cleared nearly N60 billion in pension arrears.
“These are debts created by the same Aregbesola, and the people of Osun will never forget,” it noted.
Also, the statement reeled out the achievements of the Adeleke administration within less than three years, all without borrowing.
It said, “Governor Adeleke has delivered more in three years than Aregbesola did in eight — without taking a single loan for infrastructure.
*The Debt Management Office recently confirmed a 40 percent reduction in Osun’s debt burden under Adeleke’s leadership.”
Rasheed reeled out some of Adeleke’s key achievements including:
- Over 200 kilometers of roads constructed;
- More than 200 schools and health centers rehabilitated;
- 30,000+ pensioners enrolled in free health insurance:
- 60,000+ Osun residents benefited from life-saving surgeries;
- Completion of abandoned Osun State University projects: and
- Full take-off of the University of Ilesa
He said, “If Mr. Aregbesola wishes to talk performance, let him visit the dualization from the Palace to Brewery Junction in Ilesa — a project he failed to deliver.
“He should inspect the flyovers in Ife and Osogbo, or the road dualisation ongoing in Iwo. These are realities, not fantasies”.
Reaffirming public sentiment, the Governor’s office stated: “The people of Osun are wise.
“They remember the horror of Aregbesola’s administration — when pensioners died in misery, salaries were slashed, and the state was plunged into crippling debt.
“No sane voter wants a return to that dark era.”
“We therefore dismiss Mr. Aregbesola’s threats as hallucinations. 2026 will be a payback year — a reckoning for those who inflicted hardship on Osun State.”
The statement rounded up with a stinging Yoruba proverb:
> “Asin tí kò mọ̀ pé ó ń run, ó ń fi ara rẹ̀ wẹ́.”
“A shrew that doesn’t know it stinks keeps washing.
