Yusuf Oketola
A former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in the State of Osun, Mr Adelani Baderinwa, has disclosed that genuine reconciliation and sincere restructuring will bring the All Progressives Congress (APC) back to power in the state.
Baderinwa said anything short of politics of inclusiveness and accommodation of all interests and tendencies in the APC would amount to exercise in futility.
He spoke in an interview with OSUN DEFENDER in Osogbo.
According to Baderinwa, the defunct The Osun Progressives (TOP) had three years ago forewarned the predicament that befell the party, noting that the acclaimed leaders of the party, instead of addressing issues, threw decorum into the wind and resorted to violent attacks on members with dissenting views.
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The former commissioner stated that the greatest undoing of former governor Adegboyega Oyetola was attempt to outrun the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and as a result destroyed the party.
Baderinwa said Aregbesola risked his life, spent his personal money, energy and time to make sure he handed over power to Oyetola as his successor, lamenting that it was unfortunate that the former governor did everything possible to bring down his benefactor throughout his four years.
Commenting on the repositioning committee set up by Oyetola, Baderinwa stressed that the former governor’s intention is to hold on to the party, stating that Oyetola wouldn’t have taken such step if he had won the second term bid.
He said membership of the committee is one sided, adding that the members are not well grounded in the political space of Osun.
“If you are going to constitute a repositioning committee, people who are politically savvy and well experienced and have done one thing or the other in politics should be the one in the committee, not all the kind of 11 people put together.
“Even if he want to restrict it to his group members alone, there are lots of other members that can handle the assignment far better than those he put in place.
“As an articulate politician who had gone into it practically in the past, we know what to do to bring our party back to life and we have been trying to do it”, he submitted.
Baderinwa advised that Aregbesola should be allowed to restructure the party and organise its members like he did after the Alliance for Democracy lost power to the Peoples Democratic Party in 2003.
He described the victory of Governor Ademola Adeleke at the Supreme Court as the will of God and the fairness of the judiciary, urging him to be magnanimous in victory.
