Ademola Adeleke
Ademola Adeleke is flamboyant, gregarious and bohemian. A connoisseur of sort when it comes to choice drinks; he knows wines and cognacs as intimately as a child knows his sandbox. But funnily enough, Ademola has caught the funny bug. The new Osun State Senator cuts the sharp, narrow silhouette of an aggressive jester. He has two claims to fame; being music superstar, Davido’s uncle, and his predilection to burst into a dance move for the flimsiest of reason which earned him the nickname ‘ Dancing Senator’. He was in the news again last week when a video of him dancing and singing in a church in America went viral. As usual, he leapt and spin, bobbed and weaved in excitement while the audience cheered him on. Really, there is nothing untoward about an old man dancing. But eyebrows are sure to be raised when the man in question is dancing Yahoozee, a popular afro hip hop dance style, like a hip teenager in a church would raise many a brow. And it sure did. Only an old jester, can be audacious enough to be dancing like Ademola, throwing his hands back and forth in a rhythmic cadence while his head pans hither and thither. For effects, he raised his arms heavenward in a prayer format, with fingers locked together like a gun and start rolling it around both ears. However, trust Nigerians, they went for his jugular, the blogosphere was on fire. According to one of the critics, “I’d like to advise our “dancing senator”, Ademola Adeleke to start applying moderation to this dancing pastime of his. The indiscretion of always throwing himself all out each time a music is playing is becoming irritating, if not resentful. Personally, I hold the view that moderation is a compulsory demand of age at certain times and he obviously has attained that age, combined with his new status as a senator. Enough of his infantile exuberance. Dancing without a conscious attention to his immediate environment like a kid handed a long craved cup cake is no longer a cute sight to behold”.
The pulpit becomes the cradle and last resort of the disenchanted politician. Thus the idea that only a cleric can represent Christ at the altar is a most serious heresy in the parlance of the Nigerian politician. When push comes to shove and disillusionment sets on the erstwhile brilliant horizons of the career politician, the latter beats a retreat to seek comfort in unlikely places. Some would retire to the bosom of a woman. Many more would retreat to comfort and safe havens of their business dynasties. But a certain breed would rather mount the pulpit. As you read, Ama Pepple, a former minister of Housing, Land and Urban Development in former President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet, has embraced the pulpit. The Opobo, Rivers State born beauty is seriously enmeshed in the gospel of the Lord. She is currently preaching salvation and righteousness and devoting the better part of her days to preaching and living God’s word.
While information about her ordination remains sketchy, she is said to have mastered the art of mounting the pulpit to preach the gospel.
Until she retreated to the pulpit, Ama Pepple was one of Nigeria’s well- known female technocrats who rose to the pinnacle of the civil service. She was later named the minister of Housing, Land and Urban Development before the cabinet shake- up that relieved ministers believed to be loyal to the G- 7 governors who walked out of the People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) PDP convention in the build up to the 2015 election.