When Loyalty Becomes a Muzzle
By Wahab Kazeem
Mobolaji Sanusi’s recent commentary, “Of Aregbesola’s Hypocritical Musings and Tinubuphobia,” published in The Nation on 5 July 2025, attempts to cast Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as a political traitor. On closer inspection, however, Sanusi’s article exposes more about the insecurity of a political class that equates obedience with loyalty, and silence with gratitude.
Let us begin not with emotion or political theatre, but with clear-eyed analysis and factual grounding. In an era where perception is often mistaken for reality, it is essential to interrogate claims not by volume, but by veracity.
Principle, Not Opportunism
Aregbesola’s political trajectory, from his activist roots in Lagos to a transformative governorship in Osun, and later federal leadership as Minister of Interior, has been grounded in consistent ideological conviction. He has long embraced social democratic ideals: public welfare, grassroots empowerment, and equitable development.
What Sanusi hastily brands as hypocrisy is a repositioning born from disillusionment, not disloyalty. For six years, Aregbesola endured an orchestrated political assault: shot at, ridiculed, ostracised, and his allies systematically expelled.
He remained hopeful for reconciliation. But when he was excluded from the APC’s Osun and presidential campaign councils, and as his symbolic coffin was paraded in Lagos, it became clear this was exile, not a misunderstanding.
When a man is pushed out of his own house, where should he sleep?
The One-Way Street of Loyalty
Sanusi paints Tinubu as a benevolent mentor betrayed by an ungrateful student. But history suggests otherwise.
In 2011, Tinubu, then leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), supported the PDP’s Goodluck Jonathan over his own party’s candidate, Nuhu Ribadu. The result? Jonathan swept the Southwest, except Osun, where Aregbesola stood firm with the ACN.
So what, truly, defines loyalty?
Tinubu has changed political platforms no fewer than four times: AD to AC to ACN to APC. He has allied with Atiku, El-Rufai, and Wike, each once labelled adversaries.
Loyalty, it seems, is a ladder for some and a leash for others.
Let the Record Speak
While critics spin emotional narratives, Aregbesola’s record stands on performance, not patronage.
As Governor of Osun, he pioneered a governance model that placed people at the heart of policy. His Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) directly addressed youth unemployment and became a reference case for the World Bank. His homegrown school feeding programme nourished over 254,000 pupils daily, earning praise from UNICEF and DFID. Under his leadership, over 3,600 classrooms were built across the state, and through the World Bank-supported RAMP initiative, hundreds of kilometres of rural roads were constructed to open up isolated communities.
He introduced “Agba Osun”, a first-of-its-kind welfare programme for the elderly, ensuring that even the most vulnerable were not left behind.
By 2018, when he handed over the reins of power, Osun had become the state with the lowest crime rate, lowest poverty rate, and second-lowest unemployment rate in Nigeria, according to independent data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
This was not accidental. It was a deliberate model of leadership that prioritised social welfare, community development, and institutional reform. It was a leadership that understood the true meaning of public service, to protect and empower the people.
This is not a man grasping for relevance. This is a statesman whose achievements continue to provoke discomfort in those who had hoped his political chapter was closed, because his legacy, grounded in substance, remains difficult to ignore.
Ideology and Its Pretenders
Sanusi mocks Aregbesola’s ideological declarations. But who truly governs with ideology in Tinubu’s camp?
Was it principle that led to Tinubu’s support for Jonathan in 2011, or political expediency?
Was it shared values that brought PDP defectors into APC’s top ranks, or mere consolidation of power?
When loyalty is demanded without shared values, it morphs into cultism, not democracy. Aregbesola’s defection to ADC is not revenge, it is a restoration of principle.
The Question of Ideas vs Idols
Sanusi’s essay is not critique, it is a symptom of a political culture allergic to independent thought.
Aregbesola did not betray a cause. The cause betrayed him.
The question is not whether he has changed, but whether the house he helped build still resembles the foundation he once believed in.
From Fashola to Ambode, Osinbajo to Aregbesola, a pattern emerges. Independent thinkers are celebrated until they begin to think independently.
So ask yourself:
Are you loyal to ideas, or enslaved to individuals?
When truth becomes treason and ambition becomes a crime, can democracy still breathe?
Sanusi’s piece is not a warning to Aregbesola.
It is a warning to every independent mind still orbiting the Tinubu galaxy.
Tomorrow, it may be your turn.
Wahab Kazeem writes from Lagos.
