Perhaps Senator Ademola Adeleke should have been acquainted with these immortal words of Dante Alighieri: Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction. Perhaps, then, he would have understood earlier not to throw all his eggs in the basket of popularity bestowed on him by the curious collaboration between popular apathy and a musician’s voice.
The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be incoming. This should have been warning bells enough for the dancing senator who became an overnight sensation as he duked it out with the APC candidate and Senator Iyiola Omisore of the SDP for the rights to the Osun State executive governor’s Seat. With disaffection against the outgoing government of Rauf Aregbesola at its zenith, it seemed like fate would smile on Adeleke.
Ademola Adeleke is a Nigerian politician. He was a senator representing Osun-west senatorial district until June 2019. He is from the Adeleke family of Ede in Osun State. In the state’s 2018 governorship election, Adeleke contested against Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress. And won — but only fleetingly as it turned out.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the election’s result inconclusive. It, thereafter, conducted a rerun after which the APC candidate was pronounced the victor. Screaming blue murder, Adeleke went to the election petition tribunal who declared that he had indeed won the election. Two more rounds of a legal tussle ensued, settled by the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the INEC declaration of the APC candidate as the winner.
Since then, the man who briefly captured the public imagination with his dance steps has lost his mojo. He is imperceptible now. He has become like the languid breeze blowing listlessly across withering meadows. With the candle of his ambitions snuffled out and further legal avenues closed off, Adeleke has lost the will for further dancing. He hangs limply in the shadows, as his opponent feasts on the largesse of acquired power.
