Lasun Alagbe
For Aregbesola, is Osun election a victory or defeat?
The way the governorship election in Osun State has unfolded should ordinarily sadden the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola. His party, the All Progressives Congress, is embattled as the opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party, gave it the battle of its life in Saturday’s governorship election and the PDP’s candidate, Ademola Adeleke, has emerged winner as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Ironically, however, Aregbesola, deep down his mind, is a victorious man in the midst of possible defeat.
One can imagine how ‘joyous’ he will be in his heart and household – personal and political households. Based on the chronic fight he and Governor Adegboyega Oyetola have been engaged in, and the fact that he has lost all the stages of the battle, Oyetola’s victory would simply not have meant a dwonfall for him.
Analysts would think that an Oyetola/APC’s victory, which should be his, would, indeed, have a meant political burial for him. He – Aregbesola – has lost the leadership of the party in Osun, he is also embattled in his initial constituency in Alimosho, Lagos. He had declared a war by not joining the Osun election campaign and, as a matter of fact, by calling the party leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to a fight months back. So, if there is anything he was likely to have thus prayed for, some would believe, it would be the downfall of the APC in Osun; after all, he needed to be seen as a force, an inevitable force, so that he would be taken more seriously in the future.
Yet, his battle may not yet be over. Is he still a member of the APC? Will he be able to reclaim its control? What happens to his place in the national scheme of things? Will he join the Tinubu train or remain silent and, probably work for a PDP or any other party? For Aregbesola, therefore, the ‘victory’ may be understandable and sweet, but in a larger perspective, it may not yet be Uhuru.
