By Lanre Adewole
A tight governorship race is afoot in Osun State, which makes writing about its governance a risky venture. You can easily be classified and crucified! It is either you are for someone or against someone. In all honesty, an allegation of being on a particular side, if backed by empirical evidence, would not offend the spiritual stance of Jesus.
He actually warns about ambivalence. He is not a fence-sitter or one for a balancing act, which the Yoruba will reference as “ese kan ile, ese kan ode” (split loyalty). Jesus says in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (mammon)”. Even the Yoruba are not for osaka soko—pledging dual loyalties in a contest.
Politicians love to play god especially when grace has delivered unto them a good electoral run and political good fortune, but woe unto any man who makes the hand of flesh his strength (his god) (Jeremiah 17:5). So, the task today is basically unto God and for man, my Osun kin. But for those who would still think it a hit job, we just have to decide whether it is just to speak up for a people whose billions of naira investment by those entrusted to lead them, is being toyed with by powerful state and non-state actors whether in an election season or not, or to see and hear no evil as a whole state is being ripped off by a funny investor and a colluding institution, to not be tarred a partisan hack.
I choose the former.
In the matter of Osun State’s investment in LivingTrust Mortgage Bank and a funny partner, the Central Bank of Nigeria is not only being dubious and duplicitous, its Janus approach to what should be a strict application of global best standards, is the worst form of abuse of institutional leverage. How did I come to this conclusion? Let’s examine available evidence.
In 2019, then Osun State governor, Adegboyega Oyetola opened up the bank, which until then had been wholly owned by the state, to a consortium of investors under the umbrella of Citi Trust, doling out the majority share of 60 percent to the group, translating to 3 billion shares of the total 5 billion shares at 50 kobo face value. Osun, or more like Oyetola, got paid N1.5 billion for the partnership as he relinquished controlling shares to the new investors. The transaction is documented, and a stash of paper trail has been seen by Gibbers. While it was responsive governance tapping into opportunities for growth presented by the partnership, what Oyetola’s government did with the N1.5 billion should be made known to the people of the state. Thankfully, the man who superintended the inking of the partnership as the then Commissioner for Finance, Bola Oyebamiji, is the current candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, propped and massively backed by the former governor. As campaign trains of leading candidates in the August poll move around, it should not be difficult to ask the APC candidate how the N1.5 billion was utilized before he left office with his boss in 2022, following the drubbing the then incumbent received at the hands of his successor and current governor, Ademola Adeleke.
Until the Oyetola/Oyebamiji tag team speaks to this issue, the money should be deemed still in their possession. Having what belongs to the state after losing the gubernatorial authority to handle the state affairs and properties has just a name. The Yoruba will say that what is not good has no multiple names; it is what it is. Beyond struggling for political power with Oyetola and his “anointed”, Governor Adeleke owes the people of the state who he claims to care about, a word on the N1.5 billion, unless he has a “security” reason to be silent about it, which would make him an accomplice anyway, especially if any part of the “windfall” also fell in his path as part of what the Oyetola administration left behind.
Interestingly, the mortgage bank was a brainchild of Governor Adeleke’s older brother and the first executive governor of Osun State, now-late Isiaka Adeleke. It is a legacy the governor must protect at all costs. He owes that at least to the memory of his late brother; undoubtedly, the hand that opened doors of political and electoral opportunities and successes for the incumbent. That is why he should be daring in staring the eyes of a tiger with fire this time, to force institutional respect for the state again.
I have seen letters written by the governor and flagrantly disregarded with disdain by the CBN authorities in the triangular saga involving the mortgage bank which has almost been hollowed out by the investors. Where exactly did Oyetola, a fine gentleman, recruit the locusts tearing down a major heritage of the state in the name of investing, from? Who sired the corporate thugs? Sadly, CBN for whatever reason(s) is siding with a management that it indicted, not once. What exactly is going on with my beloved state? Who is bewitching it with cankerworms and caterpillars that pillage, all in the name of bringing investors on board?.
The Yoruba have a concern about the offspring of a cobra; it is poison wrapped in a crib. Why should anyone be surprised that the current management of the bank, supplied by the investors, is running riot with corporate governance? The promoters of the original investor, Citi Trust, whom Oyetola’s government handed the 3 billion shares for the “missing” N1.5 billion, have disappeared into thin air after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declared them wanted for fraud in the running of the bank. Curiously, while EFCC correctly froze their bank accounts and seized what was left of their assets, which covered nothing really of the depositors’ stolen funds, the criminal trial is practically in limbo even after the anti-graft agency declared the fleeing directors wanted.
And these are the corporate criminals CBN is taking their sides against the state! EFCC says it would not stop the successor management, which came out of the Citi sleaze, from functioning because they are a separate entity; an argument that could be morally punctured, considering that Citi was its parent company but even if the argument is accepted, is that why the commission is also refusing to file a reply to the Citi appeal against the judgement of the federal high court which held the money seized from it, proceeds of crime? Is someone somewhere playing the puppeteer? Is EFCC also dancing like iromi (seaweeds) with a drummer underneath the sea? For months, EFCC turned a blind eye to the appeal until the window for filing a reply officially closed.
Now, the court of appeal in Lagos, where the matter is domiciled, is willing to extend the time for the commission to file a reply, and someone within the commission was telling Gibbers about the swapping of external counsel, which caused the delay. Is EFCC saying there isn’t a lawyer in the establishment capable of filing an ordinary reply to an appeal against the case it won at the lower court? Whatever is playing out. Even the gentleman spokesperson of the commission, Mr. Dele Oyewale, couldn’t find words for Gibbers when contacted. I respect him for not lying to deodorise the stench. If the EFCC wants to be taken seriously, it should pick up the appeal gauntlet immediately.
Imagine Citi fugitives harassing the whole EFCC from their hiding place. Something dey! In the entire saga, CBN has been most odious. If the leadership keeps taking the state for granted by continuously siding with the management it indicted, I will start publishing very embarrassing documents in the crossfire between the involved parties!
Imagine the bank insisting that the state can’t go judicial, despite being clearly cheated by some bogus fancy suits and ties. If a party is violating the terms of an out-of-court agreement, why hold the hand of the other party? Imagine the threat that the state would not be allowed to sit its directors, including the chairman of the board, conceded to it at the point of appending the share-sharing agreement, until it complies with the apex bank’s order to withdraw the case in court. Who says such a thing to a constitutional entity? Not even when the one giving the order is just an agency of the federal government. It’s like a son threatening his father’s mate.
Then the most ridiculous, that a dismissed state official nominated to the board of LivingTrust must continue to represent the state for the next four years even when he has been terminated by the nominating party. Is CBN now running Osun’s 40% equity in the bank? Even after the other party had sold 19% of its dominant majority share?
What is so infuriating and disgusting is the tone of correspondence from the apex bank to Governor Adeleke as the constituted authority (apologies to late Governor Ishaq Ajimobi) over the state, including LivingTrust, which is still operating from the building owned by the state in Osogbo, without paying rent.
Is the apex bank not rating the governor because he is always of a buoyant spirit? Very likely. To the helmsman, I say, borrow the Yoruba wise saying about concentrating peeing on the same spot, for it to foam buoyantly. Kill a monkey for a monkey to see, for monkey to regard the hunter. CBN should retrace its step, starting with the prosecution of those indicted by its recent review of the bank’s activities. And pray, what is this nonsense about ‘reconciliation’ when a party has become a devourer?
- ADEWOLE is a columnist with Nigerian Tribune. (First published by Sunday Tribune on March 22, 2026)
