Yusuf Oketola
THE Deputy Director-General of Senator Ademola Adeleke Campaign Council, Mr Kolapo Alimi, has asserted that the 2023 presidential ambition of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu prevented him from finding lasting solution to the crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the State of Osun.
Alimi noted that Tinubu tried his best to reconcile the aggrieved members of the party in the state but those involved refused to be reconciled which made the National Leader of the APC to pretend as if everything was fine due to his presidential ambition.
The former Commissioner for Local Government in the state stated on Wednesday in an interview with OSUN DEFENDER newspaper.
He said: “For those who are not aware of what is happening in Osun APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu tried to intervene in the crisis but the parties involved refused to be reconciled and there is a limitation to what he could do. At the end of the day, he pretended as if everything was okay with the party in Osun because of his 2023 presidential ambition.
“He does not want to offend some people and anyone who is close to Asiwaju well, even when he was the governor of Lagos state, will testify that whenever anyone offend him, he do look away and forget some things. That’s how a leader should be. Asiwaju is also not satisfied with the present situation of APC in the state
“Asiwaju is our leader but I will not be involved in any anti-party activities in the 2023 presidential elections. I’m a bonafide member of PDP now and I won’t do anything to work against my party. But if it is the resolution of the party to work for a Yoruba president, that’s the only way we can work for him.
“That has actually played out during the time of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, all Alliance for Democracy governors were directed to work for him while he was a PDP candidate. It was only Asiwaju as governor of Lagos state that didn’t buy the idea”.
Speaking on his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party, Alimi explained that Senator Adeleke saw a potential which Governor Adegboyega Oyetola refused to see in him as a result of his performance at the 2018 Osun governorship election tribunal.
Alimi stressed that the difference between Adeleke and Oyetola is that the Governor and his camp do not appreciate what they experienced at the tribunal in 2018.
He said Adeleke later discovered his values and contributions to Oyetola electoral and legal victory and approached him to work for the success of his governorship ambition.
The former APC stalwart said: “The difference between Oyetola and Senator Ademola Adeleke and some of other people in the All Progressives Congress is that they don’t know what we experienced during the 2018 election and at the election tribunal.
“However, Senator Adeleke witnessed all our performance at the tribunal and he then saw the potential in us, he discovered us to be a great material to his cause. He approached us to help him on his mandate.
“It’s not how long but how well. You can be with someone for long and if he/she refused to recognise your efforts, it is nothing. That I decided to join PDP, I wasn’t alone. I decamped with over 3000 people across 19 local governments in the state.
Commenting about Oyetola’s governance style, Alimi stated that local government administration under the current administration has been bastardised.
He said: “It is under Oyetola government that local government administration was bastardised. When I was there as commissioner for local government, we constructed 3klm roads across all the 30 local governments and one area office in the state and that’s the only things that is visible today.
“Some people do argue that local government administration has functioned in the past, I asked them that, is some of these towns no more in existence? Where are the boreholes, drainages and roads you claimed past administration before Aregbesola constructed?
“But the one we built under Aregbesola are still in existence. And we create LCDAs. When the LCDAs were created, we observed that the cost of running administration would be expensive, so we introduced Parliamentary System, so as to reduced cost and to have more money in the government treasury.
“Oyetola came and said the parliamentary system is not suitable and they want to introduce presidential system. So, you will see those who is more prudent in term of administration. You can compare what we have in local governments during Aregbesola’s administration to what the present administration of Oyetola is doing”.
