As Osun State clocks 32 years on 27th August, a publishing outfit, The Erudio Alphabet Company, is set to release an epochal book on its evolution formally.
Titled Courage and Character: The Definitive History of Osun State, the 460-page coffee table book recounts the history of the struggle of the people for their state till military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, acceded in 1991. The book covers the activities of the various administrations, concluding with that of Rauf Aregbesola.
According to statement by Mr. Bayo Idowu for The Erudio Alphabet Company, there are sections on the governments of Colonel Leo Ajiborisha, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, and the military interregnum featuring Colonel Abel Akale, Navy Captain Anthony Udofia, Lt. Colonel Anthony Obi, and Colonel Theophilus Olufemi Bamigboye. The administration of Chief Bisi Akande brought back the civilians. The book extensively documents the government of Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Rauf Aregbesola.
The book is dedicated to the Omoluabi of Osun, described as “brave hearts, unrelentingly optimistic, and flinty in their determination”, and “to the abiding memory of the first executive governor of Osun State, Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke”.
“Courage and Character is Volume One of the Osun Trilogy. It offers a rich narrative in four parts” according to the statement.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari wrote the foreword, while former Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola authored the preface. Sections include the story of Abdulsalami Agbaje, an Ibadan high chief described as “the unlikely catalyst” for creating the Osun Division following a gang-up by the Ibadan nobility in the 1940s. There are accounts of the struggle, the creation of the state, and the highlights of each state administrator or governor from 1991 to 2018.
According to The CEO of Erudio Alphabet, Temitope Lakisokun, “the Osun story is essentially about a people’s rejection of subjugation and oppression; their quest for independence and sovereignty, and the struggle for survival and relevance”.
