Where and How “Immediate” Is Used in Governor Ademola Adeleke’s Inaugural Address

After a 12-year absence as the ruling party in Osun State, the People’s Democratic Party returned to power on November 27, 2022, with the inauguration of Senator Ademola Adeleke. The Osogbo City Stadium swearing-in ceremony has been described and discussed in various ways, from the physical to the virtual sphere. According to our observations, Senator Ademola Adeleke’s emergence as the new governor is well deserved, given the various battles he fought between 2018 and 2022.

Meanwhile, in this piece, our analyst examines his inaugural speech in order to determine where and how he used the word “immediate” in his speech. Our analyst became interested in this term as a result of a netnography analysis conducted on Facebook and Twitter, which revealed that the new governor has begun taking critical actions. Some of his supporters on the two social networking sites have frequently mentioned his cancellation of the State of Osun, implying that the state will now be known as Osun State.

According to an analysis of the speech, Governor Adeleke used 2, 198 words, 863 of which were unique. According to our analytical tool, the governor’s ability to have a variety of vocabularies to support his submission and arguments on the issues and needs he discussed during the inauguration is represented by his use of unique words. State (38), Osun (27) and administration (18) were more frequently used than people (13) and immediate (12).

Contextual analysis of these words reveals that Governor Adeleke frequently referred to state development whenever he used the word ‘state.’ This also applies to instances where he used the words ‘Osun’ and ‘administration.’ The word ‘people’ was frequently used by the governor when discussing how he would build human capital and thanking those who had supported his ambition since 2018.

Analysis of the 52 paragraphs he used reveals that the word ‘immediate’ appeared in 7 of them. The word was mostly used to announce the presence of people who supported him and to express gratitude for their relationship with him. Our analyst also discovered that Governor Adeleke appropriated the word for criticizing the previous administration’s last days decisions, which he believes were not appropirate and were made with the intent of creating early crises for his administration. Aside from that, Governor Adeleke used the term to signal his intention to investigate the Gboyega Oyetola administration.

The Word Placement

28. No form of illegality will be allowed to stand and all acts of impunity committed by the immediate past administration on local government administration will be reversed following due process.
29. Let me therefore announce an immediate return to status quo of all fresh appointments, placements and other major decisions taken by the immediate past administration with effect from the 17th of July, 2022.
30. It is therefore my desire to ask for your patience and understanding to give my administration a few weeks to review and sort out all the actions and malicious confusions which the immediate past administration has created since July 17th 2022. Those actions were indeed vindictive measures against the people of Osun State for voting them out of office.

39….

1. Immediate freezing of all government accounts in banks and other financial institutions
2. Immediate establishment of a panel to carry out an inventory and recover all government assets
3. An immediate establishment of a panel to review all appointments and major decisions of the immediate past administration taken after the 17th July, 2022
4. Let me also thank the state chapter of the PDP under the able leadership of Dr. Adekunle Akindele, the immediate past leadership under Hon. Sunday Bisi and all party leaders in the 30 local government areas and Ife East area office. I thank you for your steadfastness, loyalty and commitment to the ideals which the Peoples Democratic Party represents.
5. My deep sense of appreciation goes to my immediate family members beginning with my elder brother Dr, Adedeji Adeleke, my immediate elder sister Yeye Modupe Adeleke-Sanni, my wives Titi and Ngozi, my children, nephews and nieces especially David Adedeji Adeleke A.K.A. Davido for their love, support and sacrifice towards ensuring that we got this far. May your sacrifices never be in vain. I assure you that the selfless services of our late father Sen. Raji Ayoola Adeleke, our mother Prophetess Esther Adeleke and our late scion of the Adeleke family, the first Governor of Osun state, His Excellency Alhaji Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke will always guide my actions as I serve the good people of Osun state.