Just when you think the worst has happened, the authors of EXCLUSION in Osun APC will spring deadly surprise.
Yesterday, APC Elders Forum met in Chief Bisi Akande’s Ila-Orangun home and you wonder if indeed it was the forum which its originator had in mind that is in operation.
Both Baba Akande and the Chairman of the Forum had reiterated the essence of their existence to ensure peace in Osun APC. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola established and facilitated the council till he left office. He expected that the party would need the experience of the elderly in running the affairs of Osun APC in making it calm and solemn.
By every imagination, the Igbimo Agba seems to have degenerated and reduced its relevance to Governor Adegboyega Oyetola Vanguard in charge of ensuring a second term ticket for the Governor. Though Chief Akande played the true elder and leader that he is, the rest of the elders has shown partisanship in favour of Governor Oyetola and will do anything to achieve that, not minding whose ox is gored within the party or amongst the people of Osun.
The contributions of the Igbimo Agba to the crisis in the party are not in any small measure. In fact, their actions were the combustible element that started the seeming irreconcilable situation today.
If they hated Aregbesola who, out of his clear thinking and political prowess, created the elders council in the first place, they should have been circumspect in their reasoning in resolving a bludgeoning party crisis, if they have any experience at all. It is only a cranky father that will punish his hated child at the expense of the one he loves. Yoruba has a name for that action.
It is also apposite to note that it is possible that genuine mistake be made, even by the elderly; it is part of Yoruba reasoning that a counter measure to correct the situation be made. But what did we have in the case of Osun APC Elders Forum? They rather would prefer to follow their blunders through, if possible, not caring the cost to the party. The way many of the so called elders forum savagely seek favour from Governor Oyetola goes to show that their selfish interests matters more than the general interests of the party. They were simply incapable of showing discernment and moderation to their desires as against the interests of the party. You wonder, with some of their decisions, if they actually have any wisdom or experience with which to temper raging issues within a community of people to ensure peace, harmony and cohesion. Really, they seem to have not realised any longer, or that they are ignorant of the fact that the office you hold, no matter how high, your position in the party is your position.
To all intents and purposes, it s either the Igbimo Agba, as presently constituted, lacks the wherewithal to live up to expectations, the needed capacity, or they are simply aping Governor Oyetola, whatever his desires are, and or not particularly interested in corporate goal.
Otherwise, how elderly is it to suspend one of their own who was shouting hoarse his observation on the weakness in the party? Because Reverend Adelowo Adebiyi, the successful immediate past APC Chairman in Osun was suspended by the elder’s council. It stands logic on its head to have that as the response to joining others who saw the coming armageddon and decided not to keep quiet about it. And with that, members of APC Elders Forum started to scramble for personal gains from the Governor’s quarters.
The so called elders, with the cry of hullabaloo between Aregbesola and Oyetola kept quiet till now. They have not lifted a finger at seeking what has gone wrong between the two personalities. It seems they have a mischief to make by supporting the Governor against his predecessor, instead of finding a way to resolve the problem as it were then, as against the monstrous crisis it has become. One of the so called elders was ridiculously enough to conclude that “there is no honour for the yesterday’s man of power”. Whatever he meant by that.
The worst has been that the so called elders were in support of all the shenanigans carried out by Governor Oyetola and his group, IleriOluwa all through the APC congresses. They constituted themselves, along with appointees of the governor, to the party stakeholders meeting. No rational elder, especially of the progressives will subscribe to that. The Osun APC elders subscribed to “consensus” when the National Secretariat sold two sets of forms to members in Osun. They even supported the Elegbeleye congress committee which “clapped with one hand” in its invidious operation and hailed it as the best.
The Osun APC elders have granted more interviews on radio and television in support of an inept party leadership that almost ran members mad with the rerun election in 2018, unable to solve quarrels talk less of crisis and refused to convey meetings, a very important tool of politicking, at any level in at least, in the last three years.
Now wait for this, the Igbimo Agba, as presently constituted, sidelined not a few senior ranking members in the meeting they called to the house of our ultimate leaders in Osun, Chief Bisi Akande. It is unimaginable that, Chief Abiola Morakinyo, Hon Dosu Oladipo, Chief Tunji Laoye, Chief Oyalakun, Alhaji Moshood Adoti and host of others who seem not to share their views were not invited.
If we may ask, what is the basis for adding Senator Ajibola Basiru to the Elders Council when it is clear that he is an ‘omode egbe’, a political juvenile? How many former and present Senators in Osun have been added to the Igbimo Agba? You don’t need a fortune teller to tell you that the Igbomo Agba is now a congregation of hypocrites. Just show your readiness to dissociate from, attack, abuse and curse Aregbesola, then you are already a member of Igbimo Agba and a favourite of Governor Oyetola.
Well, our society has degenerated to the extent that the might is now right, rationalizing is being thrown to the dogs, experience is lost and only our desires are right; but whatever it is, it is inhuman to use a tortoise knife to kill it, even when it is commonly said. To turn an attacking dog on Rauf Aregbesola, the creator of Igbimo Agba Osun is the least they could do. History beckon!
