By Halimah Olamide
A new book, Courage & Character: The Definitive History of Osun State is set for a formal release as the publishing company promises to ignite fresh interests in the affairs of one of the 36 states of the Nigerian federation.
Described as “epochal book” by the publishers in a statement signed by Bayo Idowu on behalf of Erudio Alphabet Company, the 460-page book is also tagged a “coffee table book” which “recounts the history of the struggle of the people for their State till military president Gen Ibrahim Babangida, acceded in 1991.”
There are sections on the governments of Col Leo Ajiborisha, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, and the military interregnum featuring Colonel Abel Akale, Navy Captain Anthony Udofia, Lt Col Anthony Obi, Col Theophilus Olufemi Bamigboye. The administration of Chief Bisi Akande brought back the civilians. The book Courage and Character has extensive documentation on the government of Olagunsoye Oyinlola and that of Ogbeni 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,” the Publishers said
The publishers said the book is volume one of what they called “the Osun Trilogy.”
The publishers went further, “It offers a rich narrative in four parts. President Muhammadu Buhari wrote the foreword, and immediate past 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 Oshun 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.”
Chief Executive Officer of Erudio Alphabet, Temitope Lakisokun, described the book as “essentially about a people’s rejection of subjugation and oppression; their quest for independence and sovereignty, and the struggle for survival and relevance.”