Former Osun state Governor and the immediate past Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, is currently swimming in troubled waters. Will he survive the new onslaught? KEHINDE OSASONA asks
These are not the best of times for former Osun state Governor and the immediate past Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain may have incurred the wrath of the party and powers that be when he launched a scathing attack on his erstwhile ally and national leader of the APC Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now Nigeria’s president.
While addressing party loyalists in Ijebu-jesa in early 2022, the former minister was quoted as telling them that he acquiesced to Tinubu handpicking candidate (referring to Gboyega Oyetola, the immediate governor of the state) as his successor in 2018 because it was agreed that he would continue the legacies he had laid.
However, Aregbesola, who was addressing his supporters in Yoruba language, said Oyetola too failed to keep the agreement, insisting that the same treatment President Bola Tinubu and his group meted out to former Lagos state Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, should be meted out to Oyetola for derailing from the master plan too.
He stated further: “That was how it was in Lagos at a time; a governor derailed and the party members unseated him using the ballot boxes.
“As it was in Lagos yesterday, so shall it be in Osun today. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
“Only God can terrify us, not man. Go and tell them wherever they are, we own this party. We own this Afenifere group.”
We own this people-loving group started by our patriarchs Obafemi Awolowo and Bola Ige. This was Elder Akande’s group before he temporarily left us.
“This is our party. Stop calling yourself a factional group; you are not a faction; you are the authentic APC,” he stated.
At every interval, the former minister reportedly launched a song that was, apparently, targeted at his principal, Tinubu and his successor to drive home his point.
He sang “Bye-bye to jagba-jagba, bye bye to rede rede” (which literally translates to bye bye to nonsense) and was reportedly boastful all through.
Apparently referring to Tinubu, the former minister added: “Some people even thought that we were no longer Muslims because of how we cooperated with him. We dealt with him without treachery but we never knew he planned evil for us.
“We exalted him beyond his status and he turned himself to a god over us and we had sworn to ridicule anyone who compares himself to God. God has no competitor; He is enough to be God.”
His other ‘sins’
Despite rocking the party boat, unchallenged, using his clout as minister and influence in the state; Aregbesola was perceived to have taken the rebellion to the next level when he called for the cancellation of the primary elections held in the state.
Also toeing the same line, Wasseeu Adebayo, from his group asked the national leadership of the party to cancel the exercise and conduct fresh ones to elect the party’s candidates for the 2023 elections.
He said: “The information at our disposal is that all the result sheets are currently in the custody of Oyetola and they are being filled with the names of his cronies who never won the primary election.
“We call on the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, to correct the impunity and rape of democracy being displayed before it is too late.
“We also demand the cancellation of the primaries while fresh elections should be conducted.”
Adebayo said, “The committee saddled with the responsibility of conducting the election was not known to anybody. We considered that as a deliberate way of tactically excluding us from the race. The election is a sham, as it was marred by confusion and manipulation.”
Payback time
Although, Aregbesola had his way as his supporters and faithful upon his directives supported the current governor, Ademola Adeleke of the People Democratic Party (PDP) to emerge in the 2023 election.
Not only that, the minister and his group have been flaunting their new relationships with Adeleke, going round and claiming victory over Oyetola and Abuja.
But dissecting Aregbe’s new found love and Osun politics, a political commentator based in Ibadan who spoke to Blueprint Weekend told our Correspondent that his victory and that of the governor (Adeleke) is momentary.
Elder Akingbami Odediran told this medium that the progressives may likely return to Osun, saying the rebellion by Aregbe and his gangs of rebels cannot stand the test of time.
“I foresee the former minister going into extinction politically. Apart from severing his roots from the core progressives, the remnants of faithful he is currently parading will soon sell out and he will see only himself.
“Again, the peculiarity of political transition in Osun is such that the progressives will always have their ways. Where is former Governor Oyinlola today despite Obasanjo high handedness? He was shown the way out.
“Now, Oyetola who many regarded as a technocrat may find his way into President Tinubu’s cabinet in order to fortify and equipped him to oust Adeleke and render Aregbesola toothless and that would be it.”
And the last straw
Except the leadership of the Osun state chapter of the APC changed its mind, the former minister may be on his way out of the party any moment from now.
Reasons being that he was recently disowned by the party which claimed that he was no longer a leader of the party in the state.
Firing a salvo, former Senate Spokesperson, Dr. Ajibola Basiru, gave the hint in Osogbo while interacting with journalists.
Basiru was quoted as stating: “Aregbesola ceased to be the party’s leader in the state after he failed to work for the party or President Bola Tinubu during his electioneering campaign or election.
“I told you the immediate past Minister of Interior, was our leader but I don’t know which party he belongs to now. I don’t know, on a more serious note.
“Quote me, he was our leader but I don’t know which party he belongs to. For the past three elections, we have not seen him participating in any of our party’s activities.
“So, you can ask him which party he belongs to. Today, I am in the APC and I worked for APC, whether we win or lose.
“Go and ask him, which party he voted for in the governorship election, and which party he voted for during the presidential election and the House of Assembly election.
“He was our leader, but today, I am not sure whether he is still in the party. I am not abusing him. He didn’t vote for Asiwaju who is his benefactor.
“I can say today that the leaders of our party are Baba Bisi Akande and Gboyega Oyetola,” he insisted.
Apologise or go, party insists
For allegedly working against President Tinubu and APC in the state in the February 25 presidential election as well as the July 16, 2022 governorship election in Osun State, former Information and Strategy in the State, Sunday Akere, has advised Aregbesola, to apologise.
Akere, who served as commissioner during Aregbesola’s first term as Osun State governor between 2011 and 2014, said his former principal should apologise for his alleged anti-party activities, after which he and his supporters should appear before Prof. Isaac Adewole’s committee instituted to reposition APC in the state and thereafter await decision of the party on their matter.
According to Akere, Aregbesola and his supporters worked against Tinubu in the presidential poll, and they only changed their tune after the ex-Lagos governor had emerged victorious at the poll.
Akere said, “Everybody knew Ogbeni (Aregbesola) and all his followers engaged in anti-party activities in the 2022 governorship election and all the series of elections we had in 2023 and there is nobody that will engage in anti-party activities that will not be punished appropriately for it.”
Despite a rebuttal by the Chairman of the APC in Osun, Tajudeen Lawal, that the alleged plans by some people to suspend Aregbesola do not add up and is grossly illogical, the suspension scare may have rattled Aregbesola who is neither here nor there at present.
Checks by this medium revealed that Aregbesola may have contacted some powerful individuals to broker peace between him and erstwhile principal.
Recall that the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi had waded into the crisis before it escalated with party faithful pitching tents with their preferred actor.
A political commentator, Tunde Odediran, who spoke to Blueprint Weekend, opined that Aregbesola and his loyalists may have shot themselves on the foot the day they started hobnobbing with the PDP and Governor Ademola Adeleke when the APC was facing a dicey battle both at state and national level.
“Nobody dare abandon his foot soldiers and loyalists midway and he thinks the centre will still hold, I doubt it very strongly,” he stated.
