Osun-based Civil Society group, The Osun Masterminds, has reacted to a viral exposé on City Mirror News (Citymirrornews.com) listing the group as one of fake and unregistered CSOs in the state.

Recall that City Mirror published an article titled, "Exposed: How Fake, Unregistered NGOs, CSOs Dominate Osun Political Space, Remain Tools For Politicians" on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, where The Osun Masterminds was described as one of the CSOs created by "some unscrupulous individuals.... thereby becoming instruments of political chicanery and manipulations of all kinds."

The story went on to describe the Osun Masterminds as an CSO "which practically remains unknown in the face of law and without legal permit to operate has been a loudest voice in criticising the governing party in the State, with opposing stance on every policy of the government."

In its reaction made available to journalists on Wednesday, the Executive Director of The Osun Masterminds, Prof. Wasiu Oyedokun-Alli described the publication as " comical" and "PDP sponsored".

The group added that the publication did not come as a surprise, regardless it will continue to interrogate government actions, lending support to positive steps and boldly criticizing negative actions without any care for whatever any egocentric agent of government feels about the actions.

The full release is reproduced below:

"Our attention as a group has been drawn to a rather comical publication on an Osun-based Blog, City Mirror News, wherein our status as a Civil Society group was challenged by the writer, obviously acting on the instructions of agents of the present PDP-led government in Osun State.

"We expected this day to come as we had known from inception that at some point in our activism, we would encounter arrogant, incorrigible and irresponsible strays in government, who would take our activities in bad faith and attempt to engage us in gutter fight. We saw this day coming and we are thus not surprised that it has come. We will however not join those strays in the gutter as ours is honorable engagement of respectable stakeholders.

"We first must put on record that unlike the cowards behind the badly put together comedy of an ‘investigative report’, we are able to easily spot smear campaigns when we see one and we are sure of the direction this particular attempt came from. We know the sponsors are arrogant, ineffectual hangers-on around the Governor calling themselves Media Aides, working under a Spokesperson who is known for bold-faced lies and deployment of gutter tactics to engage perceived opponents.

"As a point of education, we refer to Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution which states that “Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any association for the protection of his interests.”

"Under the above-stated section of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, our right to gather as citizens and associate with like minds under the aegis of groups such as The Osun Masterminds has been guaranteed. We have the right as citizens to associate and speak truth to government, in the protection of our interests as citizens, which in this case is the entrenchment of transparency and probity in governance.

"We must put it on record that The Osun Masterminds as a group has never and will never solicit financial favors from any person in government or outside of government. Whatever we do as like minds pressing for the development of our society is done with our personal resources and we challenge anyone who feels otherwise to present proof that we ever solicited financial favors from them.

"From the above, we thus establish that The Osun Masterminds is only a group of like minds, who are active citizens, pressing for positive change in a society whose navigation is not the exclusive preserve of anyone who gets lucky to serve in government at any point in time.

"To thus attempt to blackmail us like the Jacobs masquerading as Esaus attempted to do, amounts to ignorance and more severely, illiteracy. We know when it is Jacob’s voice, but Esau’s hand. We are accomplished technocrats and we are not strangers to such proxy fights.

"The bad news for the aggressors hiding behind a finger is that we will continue to interrogate government actions, lending our support to positive steps and boldly criticizing negative actions without any care for whatever any egocentric agent of government feels about our actions. Whoever has become too big to be criticized has no business in government to start with.

"Those who feel irked by our bold interventions, which have never incited violence or civil disobedience anyway, should rather cure their arrogance instead of attempt to silence our patriotism.

"Government is a never-ending continuum and no one must arrogate omniscience to themselves in a system of governance that is supposed to be people-driven.

"May God bless Osun State and the Federal Republic of Nigeria."