OBSERVATION: Untold Story Of Osun APC Quandary

BY ADEMOLA YAYA

THERE have been a lot of bickering after Osun APC abysmal performance in the last general elections, starting from the July 16, 2022 governorship election and after the homecoming of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola to Osun, having meritoriously served as the Minister of Interior. This piece intends to locate the fulcrum of the problem, its degeneration till election and inevitable defeat and collapse of APC in Osun.

In preparation for the party primaries for the 2018 gubernatorial election in the State, there were clamours and agitations by the party faithful and stalwarts to zone the governorship candidate to West Senatorial District, giving various reasonable and logical considerations. Amongst others, there were two heavy weight aspirants from the West – Alhaji Moshood Adeoti who was the incumbent Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Rt. Hon. Najeem Salam who was the incumbent Speaker of the State House of Assembly.

However, the National Leader of the Party and personal leader of the incumbent Governor Aregbesola had an interest in who should become the candidate and eventually succeed Aregbesola. And who he wanted was his cousin, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, who was the Chief of Staff to the Governor. Unfortunately, Oyetola was from the Central.

At the risk of APC losing at the election, Governor Aregbesola did everything not to provide a level play ground for other aspirants, especially from the West, so that his leader’s choice could emerge the candidate. These other aspirants were not fools. The Governor’s body language and orchestrations, permutations and machinations were clear as only being in favour of his leader’s anointed aspirant – Oyetola. Hence, there were protests and movement of some aspirants and their supporters out of the party to seek their ambitions in other political parties, apart from PDP.

Expectedly, Oyetola emerged as the APC flagbearer at the primary and won the 2018 governorship election. It is instructive to state that because APC strength had been decimated in the processes leading to its primary, it could not have a straight win in the first balloting as it lost. It was very lucky that there was a rerun because of some skirmishes and disruptions of elections in some wards which made INEC pronounce the election inconclusive. After the rerun, APC was declared winner by INEC and was eventually affirmed by the Supreme Court.

Instead of continuing with progressive and populist programmes of his predecessor and put in place processes to reconcile aggrieved party stalwarts and faithful (who had left the party) back to its fold, Oyetola embarked on unprovoked aggressive attacks against his predecessor’s person and legacy projects and alienation of any party member perceived to be Aregbesola’s associate, loyalist or sympathizer, but accommodated anybody that didn’t like Aregbesola’s guts. And what’s the issue? Oyetola believes that but for Asiwaju, Aregbesola didn’t want him to become Governor. And that’s the bedrock of his animosity towards Aregbesola throughout his tenure. What a petty perspective!

I will just list one or two examples for limitation of the space. When Aregbesola was turbaned as the Waziri Mumini of Osun State by Chief Imam of Osogbo at Oja Oba Central Mosque on 20 December, 2019, Oyetola did not attend but send a representative. Four local government chairmen that attended were later victimised by the government. Although, Aregbesola still defended him at the event saying he had told him he would go to lesser Hajj to thank God for the victory after Supreme Court Judgment; hence, his absence.

On 20th February, 2020, Aregbesola facilitated the building of ICT centre, toilet facilities and renovation and equipping of laboratories of Ogedengbe School of Science, Ilesa, by Huawei. Despite long time invitation to the Governor, Commissioner of Education and the Special Adviser on Education for the commissioning, they were all absent. At the August 2021 30th Anniversary of Osun creation with awards presentation to distinguished people, with former and sitting governors in attendance, Aregbesola was schemed out of the event. At a stage, ex-governor Oyinlola of PDP became Oyetola’s spokesperson, urging Aregbesola to desist from visiting Osun as he was distracting Oyetola!

To arrest this odious situation among others, the leaders of the party – Asiwaju Tinubu and Chief Bisi Akande – had a parley with Oyetola and Aregbesola twice in Akande’s country home in Ila. Instead of having truce and moving forward, the situation continued to degenerate. For instance, aftermath Governor Mai Mala Buni led APC Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) new registration and revalidation exercise, strange bird fellows infiltrated the party and held its jugular. Hence, the real progressives formed a caucus – The Osun Progressives (TOP) – to educate members on how the party could be more progressive and where party tends to derail, struggle with robust debates within the party with the objective to put it back on its tract of its progressive orientation and ideas.

When it was very clear that Oyetola and the party were romancing these infiltrators who have no single progressive orientation and credentials, TOP of which Aregbesola was a patron, decided to rescue the party by democratically contesting every position in its leadership. The struggle for the soul of the party was so fierce that the then party state chairman, Prince Famodun, was alleged to have said that he was ready to dialogue with opposition PDP than reconcile with Aregbesola group within APC – TOP.

At the party ward primary election of 19th February, 2022, two factions were contesting – Oyetola/Famodun and Aregbesola/Salinsile. By virtue of registration and revalidation exercise of the party membership in 2021, the party membership register had been domiciled with Oyetola/Famodun led Exco. Up till the evening of the primary, it refused to avail Aregbesola/Salinsile exco the membership register with which election will be based.

Again, there were no proper accreditation and result sheets on ground throughout the 332 wards and no picture of candidates behind which their supporters were to queue. Where questions were asked on proper accreditation, threats and real violence were deployed to silence and disperse members. Members names were purged out of the bogus party register while membership slips were rejected for voting.

Despite OSIEC readiness to conduct council election to replace officials whose tenure would expire by 5th February, 2021, Oyetola looked away, as he wanted only his loyalists in council. Hence, he handpicked LG Caretaker Committee which he was renewing every six-month and everyone suspected to be affiliated with TOP was edged out and these were the presiding officers in all the 332 wards primaries against the traditional election ad-hoc staff. The slogan all through was “Kiko lama ko” – we shall write whatever outcome pleases us. Same episode repeated itself at the 31st July LG congress. 

Instead of putting the house in order after the primary and address some issues that had polarised it ahead of the July 16 governorship election, Oyetola/Famodun led faction’s arrogance and aggression against TOP hit the roof. Oyetola openly boasted that these infiltrators would force some politicians to early retirement. Under Oyetola watch, the state government arraigned Elder Lowo Adebiyi, former APC State Chairman; Hon. Rasaq Salinsile, Caretaker State Secretary of the party and others for trumped-up charges, following their leadership roles in the ward congress appeal committee with the intention to jail them.

Thugs were freely used to harass TOP members everywhere with some assassination attempts. In November, 2021, thugs were sent to attack Aregbesola Campaign Office in Osogbo but were repealed by mammoth crowd at the meeting; on February 3, 2022, same building was attacked by armed thugs with concentrated gun shots at the transformer in front of the building and the generator inside it so as to trigger power surge and inferno and also threw petrol-soaked bread into the building surrounding. 

Aregbesola himself, as a serving Minister, was attacked by thugs loyal to Oyetola in Osogbo but for his superior firepower of his security details, he could have been murdered. Oyetola/Famodun faction refused to conduct primaries but imposed its candidate where more than one aspirant collected forms to contest House of Assembly election even within its faction. It refused to sell intention to contest forms to Aregbesola/Salinsile faction; when same were bought directly from National Office of the party in Abuja, they were refused submission or incorporated in all electoral activities throughout. Oyetola/Famodun faction felt that it could single handedly win every election without one house. At every public meeting, it was mocking TOP by calling it “TOP biscuit” and “Erunrun akara.”

Who doesn’t know that only hard work, tolerance, cooperation and wooing opposition to one’s side having consolidated one’s house, with passable internal democracy, is the potent way to electoral victory? A parasite digs its grave, thinking it is wreaking havoc on its host. As action and reaction are always equal and opposite in science, so it is in politics. In bourgeois politics, you don’t play a game of alienation but accommodation as it is a game of number. When Sanwoolu’s electoral victory was threatened in the last general election, he sought Aregbesola’s intervention and today, victory is assured. That is a lesson in politics.

Today, unfortunately for progressive politics in Osun, instead of reviewing the journey so far and buckle up for future engagement, those who are supposed to be tried and taken to gulag for murder of the party and handing it over to the undertakers are now the ones lamenting and asking for Aregbesola’s head less than three years to another gubernatorial election in the State. Isn’t this perplexing? Anyway, there is time enough to right all the wrongs and recapture the progressive spirit and order necessary for electoral victory for the sake of good governance for the good people of Osun. However, time will tell.