In the ever-theatrical landscape of Nigerian politics, where integrity often takes a backseat to survival, some figures are remembered not for their service, vision, or enduring legacy, but for their uncanny ability to bark on command.
Lere Olayinka, self-styled journalist and serial aide, epitomizes this class of men. His career trajectory reads less like a tale of public service and more like the story of a mercenary, whose voice and pen have been permanently leased to the highest bidder.
The early days: from Journalism to political errand boy.
Armed with nothing more than a diploma in Journalism, Olayinka carved out a niche for himself not by practicing objective reporting, but by lending his sharp tongue to the politics of invective. His early foray into political activism was not for reform or social justice but for partisanship.
As an aide to former Governor Segun Oni during Kayode Fayemi’s first term, Olayinka was infamously recognized for his role in inciting teachers and civil servants against the competency test introduced by the Fayemi administration. At a time when Ekiti’s educational system was crying out for reform and revival, he championed mediocrity by portraying basic standards of competence as an attack on workers.
This was not the act of a visionary, but of a provocateur eager to weaponize discontent for cheap political points.
BSES: A dark Chapter.
Olayinka’s later appointment as DIRECTOR GENERAL OF BROADCASTING SERVICE OF EKITI STATE (BSES) under Governor Ayodele Fayose exposed him further. What should have been an opportunity to uplift the state-owned station into a professional, credible voice for the people instead collapsed into its worst years of decline. Under his stewardship, BSES became little more than a propaganda factory, stripped of journalistic dignity and reduced to a megaphone for the whims of his master.
Worse still, his tenure was not merely incompetent but tainted by allegations of corruption. In March 2020, Daily Trust and other reputable news outlets reported that Olayinka was docked before an Ado-Ekiti Magistrate Court on a three-count charge of fraud, stealing, and abuse of office.
The police alleged that he failed to remit N13.5 million in commercial revenue to the coffers of the Ekiti State government and authorized N7 million in travel allowances for trips he never embarked upon. If stomach infrastructure were ever to find human embodiment, it would be in such tales.
The consistent Pattern: Survival through Sycophancy.
From Oni to Fayose, and now to Nyesom Wike, Olayinka’s career has been marked not by principle but by relentless sycophancy. His survival instinct is sharp, but it comes at the cost of credibility.
Today, as Senior Special Assistant to the embattled Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Olayinka continues his descent into irrelevance by serving as a social media attack dog, deploying vitriol against critics, while defending the indefensible excesses of his boss.
He has become what the ancients might call a “hireling of the pen”, a voice without conscience, a servant of power rather than truth. His loyalty is not to the people or to the future of Nigeria, but to whichever godfather secures his daily bread.
The Tragic Fool of Nigerian Politics.
In literature, there is a character known as the tragic fool: loud, brash, and ever eager to display borrowed wit, but doomed to irrelevance once the curtains fall.
Olayinka fits this archetype with unnerving precision. He mistakes noise for influence and invective for intellect. He inflates his diploma into the stature of a doctorate, yet demonstrates a poverty of reasoning in every engagement.
What remains of his public persona is a caricature: a once mildly witty commentator now reduced to a parody of himself; erratic, egoistic, and utterly dependent on patronage. History will not remember him as a builder of institutions or a defender of truth, but as a mercenary voice in the marketplace of political sycophancy.
Conclusion: A legacy of Irrelevance.
Every man is remembered for something: impact, courage, innovation, or betrayal. For Lere Olayinka, the legacy is sadly one of irrelevance, fraud-tainted service, and the shameless defense of mediocrity. He has left no footprints of value in Ekiti, no shining example of statesmanship, and no worthy cause advanced. His name will not echo in history for achievements, but rather as a footnote in the annals of Nigeria’s stomach-driven politics.
In the end, he will not be celebrated as a journalist, administrator, or leader. He will be remembered simply for what he was: a political attack dog who barked not for truth, but for his belly.
