EDITORIAL: Time For Famodun To Go!

Simple time honoured logic really and it should not be observed in the breach.

Performance benchmarks are indispensable in any form of organisation. For example, when a football team is relegated, questions will be asked about the management capacity of the coach. Relegation comes with a huge cost and if not properly managed, it could be the beginning of a process leading to bankruptcy.

The same principle applies to the performance benchmarks set for private and publicly quoted companies. The reaction to an underperforming company is inevitably a swift dissolution of the board of directors and the ‘stepping aside’ of the Chief Executive Officer – pretty routine in order to avoid insolvency.

The performance criteria for a political party cannot be different. In the case of the Osun State All Progressives Congress (APC), any data-driven analysis over the last two electoral cycles presents a glaring example of managerial ineptitude.

The party, having just about to be scrapped through a governorship election with a contentious narrowest of margins, should have rebooted and brought in fresh managers. It did not do so with predictably disastrous consequences. In effect, the governorship of the State of Osun was given to the opposition.

A change is inevitable and those whose managerial ineptitude squandered a whole state and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory must accept responsibility and resign. This is not just the honourable thing to do, it is the only way in which to refreshing and rebuilding the party from the base upwards.

The state party chairman of the APC, Prince Adegboyega Famodun, demonstrably lacks the managerial skills and the political astute to lead any political party to victory.

After the debacle of 2018, his response was unfathomable. Under him, the necessary post mortem to learn from the lessons of a squeaky victory was not carried out. On the contrary, there was misguided triumphalism. The inability for reflection as well as matured introspection has now led to another electoral disaster. Famodun should not have been given the luxury of a second chance. He should have been sacked in 2018. He should to go now!

The Osun State APC is the end product of years of continuous struggle. It cannot and must not be held hostage to retrogressive forces whose lack of foresight, planning and tactical astuteness is so glaring.

Rebuilding work must commence with “the fierce urgency of now”. This cannot be done with Famodun and his crew constituting a debilitating impediment. He has to go and go now!

The State of Osun has to go back to the custodians of its antecedents and institutional memory. The party must be rebuilt from the grassroots as the voice of the voiceless promoting “life of abundance” for the overwhelming majority and their families. For this reason, progressive impediments such as Famodun and co must be shoved aside. Enough is enough!