OPINION:Is Dayo Adeneye [D-One]Ogun State Commissioner For Information A Square Peg In A Round Hole?

Pundits claim Dayo Adeneye is a brilliant music video jockey, but he knows as much about governance as a bus conductor knows of cardiovascular or open heart surgery. In their estimation, something is intrinsically wrong with his appointment into Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s new cabinet.

 The debate on Dayo Adeneye’s appointment resonates at the backdrop of greater contention about certain choices of Governor Amosun; critics of his administration claim that, some of his commissioners should not be given jobs minding mice at crossroads.

It is a peculiar happenstance therefore, that the Ogun State governor would appoint Dayo Adeneye a.k.a D-One of ‘Primetime Jams’ fame, as his Commissioner for Information.

While pundits attack the governor over Dayo Adeneye’s appointment claiming he is a ‘glorified disc jockey,’ loyalists to the governor earnestly defend his honour, claiming every appointment that he made, Adeneye’s in particular, was made in the best interest of the state. They claim Adeneye is not a ‘glorified disc jockey (DJ)’ but a competent music video jockey. Hence the argument continually drifts from worry about his incompetence to his perceived proficiency at managing Ogun State.

Notwithstanding the convincing arguments mustered in his defense by his loyalists, Governor Amosun ultimately passes as an extraordinarily gifted governor who has the knack for picking the wrong man from the wrong place, for the wrong job, at the wrong time under the wrong circumstances.

But is Dayo Adeneye actually fit for the job? The former presenter of a music show, Primetime Jams, on Africa Independent Network (AIT), flaunts vast experience in an aspect of broadcasting often scorned as the superficial facet of journalism. Yet his years of experience presenting local and international music videos alongside his partner and AIT Manager, Kenny Ogungbe, on popular TV is persistently cited by his apologists as a badge of his competence.

But the rigorous art and task of governance ultimately dwarfs whatever skills he might possess as a music video presenter on popular TV, according to pundits. Governor Amosun, the latter note, should have appointed a more competent and suitable hand for the job, someone in the mould of the immediate past occupant of the office, Yusuf Olaniyonu, a former Editor with ThisDay newspaper, or someone infinitely better and more experienced than he is.

Is Dayo Adeneye, Ogun State Commissioner for Information, a square peg in a round hole? Does he possess the necessary competence and administrative maturity required for his new brief? Has Governor Amosun committed an unpardonable gaffe employing a ‘glorified disc jockey’ or hip-hop aficionado for the tasking job of a state commissioner for information?

Notwithstanding the hullabaloo generated in the wake of his appointment as the state’s commissioner for information, I wish Dayo Adeneye a wonderful tenure in his new office.

DEBO POPOOLA