Tag: Gboyega Oyetola

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.

As the Osun State governorship election holds in a matter of hours, the Osun Progressives, a faction of the All Progressives Congress loyal to the Minister of Interior Affairs, Rauf Aregbesola,has highlighted what it says is its travails in the hands of the Adegboyega Oyetola government.

According to the group, this is despite the fact that Aregbesola worked hard to ‘snatch victory from the jaw of defeat’ for Oyetola, who succeeded him in 2018.

The group, in a statement signed by one of its leaders, Sikiru Ayedun, however, said as far as Saturday’s election is concerned, it remained a committed member of the APC.

Although it did not categorically state whom its members will vote for, it noted:

“As the Osun Governorship Election comes up tomorrow, we The Osun Progressives (TOP) have been inundated with calls, questions and demands for our position by the media and our supporters and enthusiasts.

“Fundamentally, we are unabashedly democrats of the progressive hue. We live its credo and our entire being is in it.

“Our association, a caucus within the State of Osun All Progressives Congress (APC), was founded last year when we alarmingly saw the direction our party was going. It was like the falcon could no longer hear the falconer. We were filled with trepidation on the tempest long foretold.

“We were at this junction before, in the run-off to the 2003 General election. We feared that history might tragically repeat itself except we acted selflessly and forthrightly. Like-minded members and leaders of the party, therefore, came together to form the group.

“The administration of our leader, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, produced a successor in Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, against all odds, by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. We worked hard on the mantra of continuity, the continuation of the giant development strides of the Aregbesola administration, which endeared the party to the people of the state, producing the victory that brought Governor Oyetola into office.

“As a caucus within the party, we have consistently made strident efforts at peace and reconciliation within our party. For this, we have only asked for one condition, which is inclusiveness.

“The State Governor and his henchmen, most regrettably, have turned his office and our party into a zero-sum game. You are either with them or against them. They rejected any idea of inclusiveness. They rebuffed all propositions for peace and reconciliation and not even a Councillorship position was ceded to any other section of the party outside of the Ileri-Oluwa caucus.

“Any party member that is not publicly demonstrating obscene loyalty to the governor and attacking Ogbeni Aregbesola or anyone remotely or directly associated with him is branded an enemy and marked for alienation from government and party offices. Worse still, the independent-minded party members not praise singing the Governor are subject to insidious and malevolent attacks.

“The policy of exclusion in OSUN APC is so deep that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who is the immediate past Governor of the state and the current minister from the state was neither consulted, invited nor included in any party matter, the most recent of which is the APC’s Osun Campaign Council for this election. This posturing has riven the party.

“Nevertheless, we remain unflinching members of our party, the All Progressives Congress and stand by its ideals, irrespective of our travails or even the outcome of tomorrow’s election. We are long-distance runners and will not abandon the ship of our party, in calm or stormy waters.”