Bolanle Sarumi also known as BASSA came into political consciousness in Oyo state when she pretended to be interested in the governorship seat in the state, having emerged the governorship candidate of National Interest Party in the 2019 governorship election after she unceremoniously quitted ANRP where she fought dirty to pick the governorship ticket. Her façade of bold entrance into the race as a woman brought a fleeting feeling of hope for the womenfolks in the state who thought a jinx breaker had come to break the monopoly of men in helming the affairs of the state for the first time. Though how Bolanle Sarumi eventually emerged as the candidate of her stillborn party was hushed in conflicting controversies, this isn’t the focus here. The focus here is how the noisy neophyte and a serial political turncoat turned out to be a pretender to Oyo governorship race.
The first sign of Bolanle Sarumi’s incompetence to ascend the governorship throne was her lacklustre performance at the governorship debate organized by Splash FM for governorship candidates in Oyo state. It would be recalled that Bayo Adelabu of the APC, Seyi Makinde of the PDP, Femi Lanlehin of the ADC, Sarafadeen Alli of the ZLP, Abiola Ayorinde of the ANRP, and Bolanle Sarumi of the NIP were the candidates of their respective parties who mounted the rostrums to sweat it out in the debate. Apart from Bayo Adelabu of the APC who exhibited brilliant expression of his programmes and policies for the state, and perhaps, Femi Lanlehin of the ADC, who showed few flashes of fecundity of mind in marshalling his manifesto, even if a bit fractured, others were not at all impressive as they reeled out their misaligned manifestoes. Seyi Makinde of the PDP was as incoherent in speech as he was in propagating his programmes and policies during the debate. Abiola Ayorinde spoke without direction during the debate as he addressed ‘irú’ – locust beans – when he was asked to address ‘ìrù – tail. Sarafadeen Alli came with outdated ideas of how to govern Oyo state. As for Bolanle Sarumi’s performance, what she lost in astounding ideas, she made up for in excess of noisy excitement of comedy and boring humours. Her presence on the stage ensured that the debate was alive with laughter even as her ideas were unapologetically lukewarm. It was at the debate that she came across to any discerning mind that she wasn’t at the debate to contest governorship election but to prepare a ground for political patronage after one of the serious contenders like Bayo Adelabu or Seyi Makinde might have become the governor.
Bolanle Sarumi surely had prowess in gambling permutations as her forecasting paid off and Seyi Makinde emerged the governor. Then, few months into the juvenile administration of Mr Seyi Makinde, news filtered in that Bolanle Sarumi has crossed over to the PDP from her stillborn party. Four months after becoming a member of the ruling party in the state, Bolanle Sarumi has her dream of political patronage come true as she was appointed as the Special Adviser on Diaspora Matters to Mr Seyi Makinde. Then, the next thing is for the saucy sensation to start junketing all over radio stations in Ibadan as she brings more life to the propaganda of falsehoods already erected by Governor Seyi Makinde. Wasiu Olatunbosun, the Information Commissioner, and Taiwo Adisa, Seyi Makinde’s press secretary must be green with envy as Bolanle Sarumi takes over the airwaves, beating the two men with ‘cognate’ experience in media professionalism, to propagandistic vibrancy.
As Bolanle Sarumi jettisons her Diaspora Matters’ role as the special adviser and takes on the role of a noisy propagandist, this has continued to be her undoing. She comes to radio programmes to defend the policies and programmes of the government she serves with noisy aggression that confounds listeners. One doesn’t need to rack brain to know that the devilishly beautiful woman continues to give herself away as lacking in intellect and robust ideas as she runs out of arguments and good points easily to support her defence of the incompetent administration she serves. She is quick to resort to insults and impudence against her opponents on radio after her porous and preposterous defence must have been torn to shreds. Bolanle Sarumi comes handy as a neophyte in politics and propaganda who is still far removed from happenings in all sectors of governance. What attests to this is her failed references to the sterling achievements recorded by the immediate past administration as not being seen around again! Yet, her paymaster continues to claim undeserved credits for even the projects either completed or almost completed at the twilight of the immediate past administration’s tenure.
As this analysis of Bolanle Sarumi’s political misadventure comes to a close, it is noteworthy for Oyo people in general and the womenfolks in particular to thank their stars that our dear state is not misfortunate to have a saucy sensation like Bolanle Sarumi at the helms in the state. Seyi Makinde’s present administration would have been a lesser disaster compared to what the woman would have done to take the state many steps backward. If any woman at all must have a shot at Agodi in the future, it had better not be that noisy neophyte with her reckless tongue and disturbing aura.
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