The Soaring Eagle! Viva Rauf! Bastion Of The Left! And The Last Hope Of The Nigerian Leftist Movement?

• Tope Akanji

Before settling on the above title, we had considered Wither Rauf. Bastion of the left, and the last hope of the Osun Progressive Movement.  we, however, settled for the current title as the intent of this write-up is on one hand to celebrate, and on the other to heap the responsibility and burden of history on the legendary symbol of progressive struggle in Osun State at a national level.

In recent history, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, in our opinion is the most left-leaning politician in Nigeria. He demonstrates this in rhetoric, ideas and actual governance. At the core of his journey as the Chief Executive of the State of Osun as he christened it, was a desire to achieve the greatest good for the mass majority of the people of the state, irrespective of their social standing, creed or religion. This is reflected in the investments in school feeding, school uniform programme, youth empowerment, physical infrastructure, revamp across schools in all federal constituencies in the state. The biggest beneficiaries of these interventions are families with low incomes. Some will argue that some other parts of his programmes were not as successful, that however is a topic for another conversation.

He also set himself a task for the renaissance of the consciousness of the people of Osun, which when achieved would become an ignition of consciousness of the Yoruba race, given that the mythical source was within the state of the living spring and from there, the Nigerian State and at large and black people all over the world. This he pursued through symbols and anthems which provided an emotional and ideological underpinning for the path to this renaissance which no doubt will require patience, forbearance and sacrifice.  

In our opinion, recent events, starting with the governorship elections in Osun State and realignments around the 2023 presidential elections have left Aregbesola free to pursue what we believe is his Promethean purpose.  His stubborn ideological puritanism on matters of Yoruba political history as well a his refusal or rather, inability to abandon his left-leaning ideological grounding are responsible for the current impasse in his relationship with long-time political allies. We see this as an opportunity and the end of the beginning, rather than as some others have opined, the beginning of the end of this political pilgrimage.

The paradox of the 2023 presidential election was the fact the popular leftist platform, nurtured for years as a pipe dream of the Nigerian labour movement contested the presidential election as a surprisingly viable third force without the obvious involvement of the ideological left of our politics. The labour movement (which birthed and nurtured the party), ASUU and the student movements in all our ivory towers were absent as caucuses, or factions of the Labour Party. The general acceptance of the Nigerian incarnation of the global leftist platform, the Workers Party, and the Labour Party by the largest demographic in the country, the youth, in a fanatical and evangelistic manner is a pointer to the need for a seasoned operator with leftist ideological leanings to provide thrust to the clear yearning of the people for good governance.

Our opinion, therefore, is that Rauf’s Divorce or separation from the faux progressives provides a unique opportunity for him to be true to what we know to be his ideological constitution; vibrant, radical and leftist.

We believe he has a choice to make(some of us don’t even think he has a choice as it is his manifest destiny) to take advantage of this unique opportunity by going back to his ideological home, the working man’s party, and lead the awakening of the consciousness of the working people of Nigeria via a platform that is revolutionary in orientation, funded by mass subscription (Special Purpose Vehicle) dedicated to gaining political power to deploy the commonwealth to achieving the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

• Tope Akanji writes from Lagos

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not represent the opinions or views of OSUN DEFENDER.