Why Label Aregbesola As A Traitor For Being Critical Of Tinubu?
- By Abimbola Daniyan
The most recent article by Abimbola Tooki, set down as a prosecutorial indictment of Rauf Aregbesola, and eliciting the attack and elimination of Rauf Aregbesola follows a similar threat to murder Rauf made a week earlier by one Gbonka Ebiri, albeit without Mr Tooki’s sophistry and rigmarole, calls for critical examination.
The psyche of these two men of Yoruba extraction who see politics purely as a tribal investment devoid of any principles that unite decent and genuinely progressive humanity is an indictment of the quality of politics which President Bola Tinubu’s ascent to power has brought upon Nigeria within the space of two years.
Mr Abimbola Tooki has obviously taken sides with President BAT albeit without adducing a shred of evidence of the facts of the genesis and development of the schism between the two prominent politicians to prove anything in his beautiful prose. The outcome of the six-year long schism organized in Osun APC by two close relations Tinubu (uncle) and Oyetola (nephew) and their supporters has been APC’s self-inflicted injuries- the 2022 Osun gubernatorial electoral loss, and six years after, the movement en masse of Rauf Aregbesola and his supporters to another political party, consolidating the National Opposition, the African Democratic Alliance (ADC).
This new group is made up of an array of formidable and experienced politicians with substantial followership. When the bases of these political personalities are joined together, as they should in a serious contest for power, they will upset the next Presidential and national elections and should change Nigeria’s political and economic trajectory by putting the Nigerian People’s Needs and Interests above all else.
The calls by the two men of the APC cited above clearly demonstrate the danger posed to Nigerians by fanaticism mixed with ethnic bigotry and chauvinism. These two men, basing their felonious positions on specious grounds ignoring the facts and the sequence of events leading up to the Aregbesola-Tinubu schism and their final parting of ways, should be roundly condemned for what they truly are, accessories to and organizers of murder and mayhem. If the next step in a disagreement with your neighbor or your brother or your wife, for that matter, is to call for their murder, might it not be then that the persons making these calls and those on whose behalf they are doing so have not only a murderer’s instinct but a history of murders trailing and prodding them along?.
However, examined, Mr Abimbola Tooki’s position is full of innuendo backed up by not a single factual evidence to make a case of betrayal of Bola Tinubu by Rauf Aregbesola. Mr Tooki’s assertions are a tissue of oft-repeated lies, unfortunately.
Those who threaten Rauf Aregbesola are only showing the World that all the ‘Renewed Hope’ they sold to Nigerians during their campaign was a lie and now their big failure has become evident to Nigerians as prices of basic needs like food and fuel soar beyond the reach of the absolute majority and the standards and conditions of living have become worse for millions of Nigerians over these two years of President Bola Tinubu’s administration. Many poor families go to bed hungry daily as they can’t afford money for food and transport fare, and they are unable to keep their children in school, and unable to meet normal obligations anymore.
Meanwhile, so much money is being made by Government and circulating around a few who live in luxury and the people seeing these things ask, where is the humanity and sense of justice of those governing this country? . If this Government has treated the Nigerian People well it should have nothing to worry about Rauf Aregbesola pointing out these facts and demanding correction of the errors. And this failure to care about the common man, the ordinary citizens is this government must face squarely.
Those threatening persons demanding the correction have no right to threaten anybody. The Nigerian People have the right to demand a change where those governing fail in their duties. That is one reason for democratic government. Mr Ebiri Gbonka making the threat and enjoining others to carry out this threat should be told that he is treading on the dangerous ground of murder which carries the death sentence.
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Nigeria’s ruling cliques are forever recombining themselves to remain in power without leading this country to success or improvement in any aspect of life in the last 25 years. Rather, they have been busy creating one disaster after another which people daily experience: the Economy, the Society, Schools and Education, Security, all have Nigerians in despair wondering when the nightmare will come to an end. They are making matters worse when they openly or covertly threaten to injure, maim or kill perhaps a leading politician who has thoughtfully developed and demonstrated his ideas and carried out bold programs to improve the lives of the ordinary citizens practically in Government.
Clearly, this particular ruling clique does not believe in the right to free and unfettered choice which a liberal democratic order guarantees by Law in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And by encouraging those threatening violence in the name of tribal loyalty, the APC Government is discrediting itself as a group that is unworthy to rule a diverse country with many competing interest groups. President Muhammadu Buhari, a retired soldier, never allowed any member of his Party to threaten to kill any political opponent simply because the disagreed with his Government in his time in.
Nigeria is a country of over 200 million people and it cannot be under the foot of anyone, no matter what position they now occupy. This has been proven time and again when it matters most. Let the People be free to choose who they want. It is the inalienable right of every bona fide citizen of Nigeria. To do otherwise is to invite chaos which bodes no one any good. Let the President act now to restrain the malign elements in his Party before they push the country into a bad place.
THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS LEADING TO PARTING OF WAYS
In 2018, Rauf Aregbesola (Governor of Osun from 2010 to 2018), against his personal conviction, imposed Gboyega Oyetola, (Aregbesola’s Chief of Staff and President Bola Tinubu’s nephew) from Iragbiji in Osun Central Senatorial District on the people of Osun, against what was the just and fair rotation of Governorship candidates in the All Progressives Congress (APC), upon the insistence of Bola Tinubu his then leader.
In the run–up to the APC nomination of candidates for the 2018 elections, political sensitization rallies were held throughout the Nine Federal Constituencies in the State of Osun in rotation over a period of three months which were attended by tens of thousands of Party members. I also attended to get the feelings of the People. Everywhere the chorus was the same “West lo kan”(meaning: it’s the turn of the West Senatorial District to present the Governorship Candidate).
Ignoring what the people said they wanted for what Bola Tinubu said he wanted was a big problem for the Governor who tried to be fair. Bola Tinubu simply told the party that he wouldn’t finance any other candidate if Oyetola was not the candidate. And that was it. Aregbe put his prestige on the line to carry out Tinubu wishes against the tide of the party members. Instructions were given from above to members vote for Gboyega Oyetola.
The Governorship position which rightly belonged to Osun West which had several qualified and capable persons was denied them, causing a serious schism which badly divided the APC all the way to the elections. A significant section of the APC left and contested under another party as the disagreement could not be resolved amicably. Having forced his way in as APC Candidate by the acquiescence of the Governor, what now remained was the elections proper and how APC could win it.
Some conveniently forget about the role of big money in that Osun Governorship election of 2018. Resources made available for the APC’s difficult electioneering campaign, (the direct result of wrong selection of the candidate ), but rather than pay attention to building bridges to reconciliation within the Party with the resources made available, they rather ‘fixed’ to make money by the mercantilist candidate, until the time for reconciliation was missed. Another unproductive role played by money in that election was the open bragging by the uncle and his nephew about how wealthy they were compared to the poor State of Osun in the presence of the Ataoja in his palace during a courtesy visit.
This was simply self-alienation by the conceited. All of these little things had impacts psychological and material on the outcome of that election. In the end, in truth the candidate from the West, Adeleke, won. A proof that ‘West lo kan’ was not just an ordinary mantra. An unholy alliance with Iyiola Omisore, held as persona non grata (whose Social Democratic Party was initially APC’s arch rival now dropped to third fiddle and spoiler for the two leading parties) was the only way out after the first ballot proved to be inconclusive. This was how far down the road to confusion the imposed candidacy took the APC till today.
In the end, even with all of the expenses, it took exceptional use of Federal Power by the VP Prof Yemi Osibajo to force that stalemate; otherwise 2018, the dancing Senator Jackson Adeleke won that first round, albeit by a thin margin. The re-run elections in Egbedore: Ilobu, and Ifetedo: Garage Olode managed to return less than 300 votes difference in the entire Osun for Oyetola to become Governor. And this was achieved only after unbelievable expenses of State resources and over-use of incumbency power. The matter went to the courts for adjudication as the PDP’s Governorship Candidate had good reasons to disagree with the outcome as pronounced by INEC. In the end, the courts found a way out and ruled in favour of the APC in a controversial ruling, and Gboyega Oyetola of the APC was sworn in as Governor on November 29, 2018.
Shortly after the swearing-in, Aregbe visited Osun to rejoice with Oyetola on his victory at the Courts and a rally was held at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, Osogbo in which Aregbe expressly told the crowd of his supporters to work with Oyetola by all means, if for nothing else, for the Party and for their love for Aregbesola. He even asked them to collapse his ‘Oranmiyan’ Group into a single force with ‘Oyetola’s Ileri Oluwa’ Group to become one undivided house. Members did all to cooperate with the new Governor as enjoined by Aregbe.
What did Oyetola do in response when he got into the saddle? He alienated everybody even when he knew the delicate situation of his razor thin margin of victory at the polls, a clear reflection of the delicate balance of political forces on the ground in Osun. Oyetola embarked on vendetta, ensuring everything Aregbe laboured to do for 8 years was discredited or dismantled systematically. Those mega Schools of very high standards were left to decay without any maintenance, and the one in Iwo was never completed till Oyetola left in 2022.
APC party agents and officials were all ignored as Oyetola nursed all kinds of grudges, saying that Aregbe didn’t want him as Governor, even with all he did to impose Oyetola on party members who all had wanted the Party to give contestants from Osun West their due right as the Party’s Governorship candidate. Meanwhile, politically he said he will not want Aregbe around Osun, and that he should keep away from the State. Just as Oyetola was embarking on dismantling everything done by Aregbesola in Osun, so did Bola Tinubu engineer and insisted on dismantling of Aregbe’s Group from the Alimosho base in Lagos State. In so doing, they forced Aregbe into a limbo everywhere.
Political power can be so sweet it intoxicates the untutored faster than any chemical drug and this why it is so dangerous to leave it in the hands of one man. But the question must be asked: Where was Oyetola when Aregbe was facing Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s bullets in the run-up to the 1997 elections in Osun under the nascent Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) under which Aregbe against all the odds mobilized and changed the face of politics in Osun in a manner never seen before then? All those who helped plant the party in Osun were alienated and sidelined and turned into foes by Governor Oyetola, but to what end? Aregbe decided that it was not proper for him as Governor to contest and become a Senator following the tradition of Governors staying in the official political institutions by becoming Senators after their terms. He kept quiet for three years, until the bubble burst in 2022.
Both Oyetola and his uncle Bola Tinubu, and Chief Bisi Akande were always valued, honoured and eulogized and elevated at every opportunity by Rauf Aregbe while in office. But at the end of it all, they connived to sideline Aregbe, and didn’t even bother to nominate him to be in President Buhari’s second-term Cabinet when this was the reasonable thing to do. Instead, they nominated Omisore and Prof Isaac Adewole, the former UI VC who whom Aregbe had nominated for Buhari’s first term cabinet and became Minister of Health.
When Chief Akande met President Buhari with the list of nominees, Buhari asked him “Where is Rauf?”. That was how Buhari who had visited Osun while seeking omination and also during his first term to see the projects and programs implemented by Aregbesola, put Aregbe in his second term Cabinet as Minister of the Interior. In that role, he again shone like a star as he had in Osun as Governor and became an object of unnecessary envy by his detractors. His works speak for him. Buhari’s APC administration adopted at least three key programs implemented by Aregbe as Osun Governor showing how visionary and effective he is a political leader. Rauf Aregbesola’s loyalty, political knowledge and administrative skill had no equal in APC, and remains so today.
They can envy him all they want and call him bad names and paint him as a traitor. It is their charge before God and at the appropriate time they will each one answer. Aregbe never begrudged them, but Aregbe is miles ahead of them because of his sterling personal qualities, his genuine love, strong and deep human feelings, principles, good character, honesty and faithfulness as a leader who can be trusted, besides his natural charm and brilliance. This is in stark contrast to Tinubu as President and his nephew as Governor, their greed for money, position and power and envy and enmity however camouflaged, which forbids anyone else to progress unless they say so, are not desirable qualities in a good leader, even at the family and community levels. There is only so far that money, guile, plotting and maneuvering driven by greed and envy can carry a leader.
Please, tell me, who is the traitor? Aregbe has been bold enough to advise his former boss to approach things differently several times in his career, and has worked to burnish his image even when many know him differently. It is true that we will find no perfect man living, but we do find approximations here and there among us to make us reflect at moments like this and inspire and encourage us on the road in this by no-means-certain journey of life.
The litmus test for anyone who cares to find out why Aregbe is still so popular years after office is to ask anyone in Osun, by starting a discussion in the Korope public transport ride common in Osogbo about Aregbe, Oyetola and Tinubu and get their feedbacks. Character is the key thing in life. It is the marble on which all of our life’s true worth and value will be written. It cannot be substituted by anything else. It is the lack of character, issues of basic honesty, not sparing a thought for others’ needs, the dodgy lifestyle of indiscipline which has hobbled many in public life.
My prayer is May God protect Aregbe and lift him to a higher level to do the things he has demonstrated abilities and character strength to do for Nigeria at this delicate time in which only the criminal elements and their wicked friends are ruling Nigeria having taken over the land by force with consequences of growing poverty and their indifference to the people’s plight. In the end, love wins, and this is a lesson Aregbesola’s life and his name reminds us about. Genuine Politics is not do or die.
- Engr Abimbola Daniyan, an old friend, School Mate and Comrade of Rauf Aregbesola is the Past Chairman, Osun Tourism Board.
The opinions expressed in this publication are solely those of the author. It does not represent the editorial position or opinion of OSUN DEFENDER.
