As interesting as partisan politics is, experience over the years has shown it to be the hardest of all games as some politicians never practise what they espouse. To some people, politics which is a mere vocation is however, taken as a full-time job by some others. The juicy pecuniary attraction attached to some political offices in Nigeria appears to be the reason why some political gladiators engage in a do-or-die approach to win elections.
Until something tangible and reasonable is done to water down the jumbo monetary attraction, there is every propensity for the nation to be in the position of inertia as far as developmental programmes are concerned. The highest percentage of the people are not in politics in order to serve the citizenry genuinely but to improve their own lots in terms of acquisition of wealth to the detriment of the people.
After the All Progressives Congress(APC) series of congresses in all the wards, local government and state levels, have been successfully conducted in Osun State, it is apposite to recall and analyse some of the happenings before, during and after the three congresses. Learning is a continuous process; one ceases learning the day he dies.
It would not be an overstatement to state that fresh lessons were learnt at the different stages of the Congresses. We had the good, the bad and the ugly. The period in question was indeed a time to prove that being unnecessarily loud is not synonymous with ability, capability and display of candour and that taciturnity which is a rare virtue in human beings could be a most potent attribute to outshine one’s opponent(s) wherever they may be.
It is no longer news that a splinter group of members of the Osun State chapter of the APC had formed themselves into a pressure group under the name, ‘The Osun Progressives'(TOP), which mission primarily is to distract Governor Adegboyega Oyetola-led administration and ultimately work against his re-election in the 2022 governorship election.
The qualification for the membership of the pressure group is simple as a peep into same shows that the leadership of the group comprises of members of the cabinet of the immediate-past state Governor Rauf Aregbesola who is now the Minister of Interior. As time went by, the APC members who could not make the list of the caretaker appointments into the local government, or failed to make the party’s list of either ward or local government executives in the state, formed a common front with those who could not make Oyetola’s cabinet, to form the rebellious group against the government and the party leadership in the state.
The bizarre thing is that the pressure group which meets on Thursdays has its office and meeting point in the Oranmiyan Campaign Office in Osogbo, belonging to the Interior Minister who is the Patron of the group. It was usual to see speakers after speakers at the venue, openly lambasting the governor and the state APC chairman, in a manner that could not be imagined to be coming from members of the same ruling party in the state.
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The unwritten open Memorandum of Understanding between this recalcitrant group and the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Adeleke Dynasty of Ede is no longer a hidden arrangement to discerning minds in Osun State and beyond as there had been reported allegations of nocturnal meetings and exchange of large sums of monetary gratifications between the TOP group and the said PDP faction. This is also usually noticed in the non-constructive criticisms orchestrated by the online brigades of the two emergency groups of political friends who have a common purpose of pulling down the performing government of the ever focused, urbane and talk-and-do Governor Oyetola.
There was nothing under the sun that these opposition within set of people in the Osun State APC had not done to get at the Oyetola government. Initially, they feigned non-concern about the government but the party under the watch of the quintessential party administrator, the Igbajo-born Prince Famodun. They said they wanted the absolute control of the party by preventing the reelection of Famodun as the state chairman of the party. But all their schemings ended up an exercise in futility as no one fights a God-annointed leader and gets away with it.
The intention of the TOP handlers to go for the jugular of the party was to do a deadly blow to the political spine of Governor Oyetola if Prince Famodun was successfully removed. Their invasion of the state party secretariat at a time turned out to be a monumental lack of tact and diplomacy as the resultant effect was what wasn’t bargained for. Series of lies told against the government of Oyetola in order to lower its esteem before the right-thinking members of the society by the pressure group all came to nought.
The last straw that broke the camel’s back was the brick wall they met in effecting a court service for the injunction against the state Congress of the party which was successfully conducted by Honourable Gbenga Elegbeleye-led State Congress Committee from the APC National Headquarters in Abuja under the supervision of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) and all the staturory security officers that produced Prince Famodun and other state officers of the party.
It was baffling that instead of the tactless TOP group to make it to the venue of the state Congress at the Osogbo City Stadium, its members assembled for what could better be described as a birthday party at a spot known for hosting beer-drinking jamboree at Ogo-oluwa area of Osogbo. It was not unlikely that there was an invocation of Top Beer for the so-called and confused TOP members and their leaders who, after they had taken the liquor to stupor, became intuitively disorganized, disorderly and rancorous due possibly to the evoking spirit of the Top Beer which is no longer in vogue on the occasion. The TOP people forgot that the occasion wasn’t supposed to be a rally meant for everyone but party delegates.
The simple interpretation of what transpired last Saturday was that the so-called TOP people willingly and flagrantly refused to participate in the state Congress by opting to go for a birthday party at a shrine somewhere at Ogo-oluwa area of Osogbo. It was also observed that it was because the group was confused that made the members not to know that they goofed by not knowing that what they were metaphorically looking for in far away Sokoto State was right inside the pockets of their trousers as far as the service of the court process was concerned!
As at that time before the Congress, the former state secretary of the party was a bonafide member of the state executive. My elementary knowledge of law informs me that a service on the secretary of any association is a good and lawful service. But because they were confused, the divine God of Ileri-Oluwa sedated their senses of reasoning.
If one doesn’t know where he is going, it shouldn’t be difficult for him to know where he is coming from. My appeal to the TOP handlers and its adherents is to instantly change over a new leaf by retracing their political footsteps. Must you inherit another person’s enemies. Behave like the Biblical prodigal sons today and come back to base where your sins would be unconditionally forgiven. Stop acting a spoiler. Let’s shame the common opposition by assiduously working together for the re-election of Governor Oyetola in the 2022 governorship election. Time is not on our side. Decide now as delay may be dangerous.
When two elephants fight, it’s the ground that suffers. May God forbid a bad thing to happen to our party. It wasn’t politics that made Oyetola comfortable. He is self-made as a successful insurance and actuarial practitioner before his foray into partisan politics. Whichever way the pendulum swings, Oyetola will answer the title of ‘Your Excellency’ for life. The same is the plight of former Governor Aregbesola now Minister of Interior whose appellation of ‘Your Excellency ‘ can also not elude him till eternity. What then is your stake, you the followers, that you are promoting and fanning embers of political discord?
It’s the auspicious time for the TOP members and their apologists to either shape up or ship out at this crucial time in the political history of Osun State. Half a word is enough for the wise.
*OLABISI is the Media Consultant to the Governor(Office of The Osun State APC Chairman).
