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It is now history that the All Progressive Congress, the party of the progressives, in Osun State, has lost or yielded ground to a supposedly conservative party, the PDP. Although the ideological distinction between the two political parties is tenuous, however, differences still exist in the two parties’ approaches to and speed of governance . Following this defeat in the 2023 general elections in Osun State, all has not been quiet in the APC camp as members of the party have continued to trade blame, on the loss of the elections largely due to the fact that, the Osun chapter of the party went into the elections an untied broom. But how did this schism start and fester? It has really been a long race to split.
In 2003, the Alliance for Democracy, the party to which we can trace the root of the APC, lost the gubernatorial election in the state to the PDP in an allegedly rigged election. This saw Chief Adebisi Akande out of office and Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola in as the governor of the state of the living spring. Following this defeat of the progressive AD, the party immediately looked like a chicken beaten by rains, but not a dead horse as the party was indeed still very popular in the state. All its structures were indeed intact. Before the party lost the gubernatorial election to the PDP in 2003, the AD in the state had split following the crisis between Governor Bisi Akande and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore. The crisis culminated in the impeachment of Iyiola Omisore. The aftermath of this was that, Omisore and his sympathisers exited the party to the PDP. In defeat, Chief Bisi Akande, being the former governor of the state from the party and the leader of Afenifere, the shadow authority of the party, unquestionably became the leader of the party in the state.All the party executives at the state and local levels still held on to their positions. After the 2003 general elections, the internal crisis that had rocked the AD before the elections escalated and the party factionalized. Eventually, the larger faction of the party metamorphosed to the Action Congress (AC). Consequently, the Osun AD members in their teeming number became AC members with all their executives at the ward, local and state levels retaining their leadership positions. Chief Bisi Akande still remained the leader and father figure of the party in the state among other grassroots leaders and elders of the party.
When the AD/AC was kicked out of power in 2003, though not dead, but it became weak due to lack of financial wherewithal. This was because, when the party was in power, as a result of financial discipline of Chief Bisi Akande, coupled with the fact that it is not the culture of the progressives to deploy state administrative resources into party affairs, he did not leverage on the resources of the state to run the party. The party was then being run on the sacrifice and charity of loyal party members. The implication of this then was that, soon after the party was kicked out of office in the state, it became a feeble elephant, though not in comatose. While in this state , the party was still hopeful of regaining power in the state in 2007 banking on its popularity.
To this end, there were underground moves to enliven the party. It was at this point that Raufu Aregbesola emerged on the Osun state political landscape in the cloak and symbol of “Oranmiyan”. Who was Raufu Aregbesola? How did he arrive the state’s political landscape? Aregbesola, an indigene of Ilesa, Osun state, was a Lagos based politician. He belonged to Bola Tinubu’s political family. He had, prior to his entry into Osun politics, served Bola
Tinubu in private capacity and notably as a commissioner in Lagos state. A gregarious politician, he had through his loyalty to Tinubu, wormed himself into Tinubu’s heart . Tinubu then took him as his confidant, a trusted ally, his alter ego and a foot soilder. Their relationship was so deep that, Aregbesola once said publicly that, Tinubu was second to God in his life. Although the details of the forces that pulled and pushed Aregbesola to his home state remain yet unrevealed, however, Chief Adebisi Akande in his book,’My participations ” provided an insight. He wrote that, when he was looking for another deputy governor after the impeachment of Omisore, he contacted Tinubu to release Aregbesola to him to be made a deputy governor. Tinubu chief Akande wrote, politely declined on the ground that Aregbesola was still doing a great political work in Lagos and that, hopefully, he would be released to Osun State in the fullness of time. No doubt, that singular move and exposition, is enough justification to convincingly conclude that, Tinubu and Akande might have laid the foundation for his pull and push to Osun politics and his eventual emergence as the governor of the state. Added to this was the information of the lure of Aregbesola to the state by some young Osun and Lagos based politicians. It was this mix of politicians that propelled him to power in 2010 after three years of the legal battle to retrieve his mandate from Oyinlola who had earlier been declared the winner of the 2007 governorship election.
No sooner than Aregbesola gained political power, when he began to manifest the tendency that he was not only out to govern the state,, but he was also on the mission to retire the elders and leaders he met in the party in Osun state and build the party in the state around “his own person” in the manner Aldof Hitler ( mixed with Fildel Castro ‘s strategies)built the Nationalist party around himself. But Aregbesola ‘s tactics and strategies were devoided of virulence and militarism. They were however, prone to the schism the party is harrowingly passing through today. I now narrate But before I do so, let me parenthetically insert here that, the AC had along the line, transformed to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which eventually dissolved into today’s APC, a merger party.
The first move that gave Aregbesola out as having a mission of towering over and above those he met in Osun State progressive family was his use of Oramiyan as his symbol and slogan of his political mobilization. Two, upon assuming power in the state, he announced that, he was not going to allow party members who were older than 50 years to hold political positions.He kept to this. For example, in constituting Local Government Caretaker Committees, he kept to this 99.9%. In another example, he metamorphosed all the members of the party executive that were above 50 years at all levels to what he called, Government Liaison Officers (GLO). At the end of their tenure, they were left to their political fate.Retired ! Three, in constituting his cabinet, it was grumbled that he positioned his Lagos team including those that were not indigenes of the state in juicy or well funded ministries,departments and agencies. Thus, empowering his acolytes more than the long standing party members he met in the state. Four, he embarked on a number of policies which were not discussed at the party level and which though lofty, were not popular on the streets of Osun State because of the phobia and reservation for their maintenance and sustenance in future.Some of the policies included: restructuring of the state school system and buildings which saw many primary and secondary schools wiped out of existence completely; introduction of a single school uniform throughout the state;. demolition of school buildings instead of renovation; dabbling into so many projects at the same time: incurring huge debt to meet the financial obligations of the state and non- remittance of pension deductions. Indeed, older members of the party who were used to prudence and transparency in governance only stomached all these in the interest of peace and the stability of the party. Five, in his strategy to entrench himself in the state, Aregbesola courted religion. Assuming that muslim population might be higher than the population of christians and the traditional worshippers, Aregbesola got involved in the politics of Hijab and public holiday to woo undiscerning people of the state.. To the chagrin of the true progressive elders of the party, Aregbesola not only created a deep sentimental wedge between muslims and other religions, but also created confusion àmong them as never experienced in Yoruba land Yoruba people are a people reputed for religious tolerance. In addition, he also courted many religious and traditional rulers in his bid to remain the leadership face of the party in the state in and out of office.
Six, when it was getting to the time he was to conclude his second term in office, politics of succession began, Aregbesola, initially had his own preferred candidate. He therefore, covertly resented the ambition of the Secretary to his government, Chief Moshood Adeoti and his Chief of Staff, Gboyega Oyetola, who had floated the Ileri Oluwa group within the party to prosecute his primary election campaign. Aregbesola ‘s aversion to Oyetola’s ambition could not but be disturbing to Tinubu for Oyetola is said to be close to Tinubu. Along the line, Aregbesola had to temper his support for his most preferred candidate and reluctantly shifted his support to Oyetola, Yet, it was suspected and alleged that Aregbesola ‘s support for him was lacklustre and unwholehearted. Indeed, it was believed that Aregbesola ‘s light handed support contributed to the near loss of the 2018 governorship election by Oyetola. This tenuous victory could not but create in Oyetola a feeling of being unwanted by his former boss whom he had held in high esteem and served diligently and with whom he had come a long way. With this feeling harboured in him, Oyetola was compelled to put his stamp on the state through political appointments driven by him and excluding Aregbesola, his predecessor, who in quarter, it is beloved, was later made a Minister on the likely recommendation of Chief Bisi Akande, a respected former interim chair of the APC by president Muhammadu Even at that, Oyetola still yielded ground to some Aregbesola’s former commissioners as he appointed them as Supervisors(acting commissioners) for close to ten months into his tenure.
Afterwards, Oyetola opted for merit in selecting his cabinet without encumbrances.
This indeed continued to widen the the crack within the party as Aregbesola ‘ s camp could not bear this. At this point, the party elders attempted to reconcile both but they remained irreconcilable.
The situation grew worse when Oyetola reversed some of the policies of Aregbesola particularly his educational policies, based on popular demands by critical stakeholders in the state. However, this reversals did not go down well with Aregbesola who had believed there would be continuity.. Apart from these latent causes,. there might be some other remote causes of the tiff which the parties to this dispute have not blown open. Naturally, Oyetola is reticent. Aregbesola has been talking as if he is the only one whose toes had been stepped on. In his reaction also he has acted in a hurry and spoken unexpectedly in fury. Against all appeals, he formed The Osun Progressive (TOP) not to work for the party, but to work against the party. An enemy within it is said, is more dangerous than the one without.. The name given to the group, TOP, only buttresses the suspicion that Aregbesola is out to realize his long held ambition to be the godfather and a rallying symbol for the progressives in the state, including Chief Bisi Akande who takes precedence before him in the hierarchy of Osun politics and national prominence.. In promoting himself and his group, he is saying others outside his group are not progressive. In his tirade against Tinubu and Akande in Ijebu -jesa the other time, he said that the duo were no longer progressive but he is. While one will not act as interlocutor for the two giant politicians, let it be pin pointed that, Aregbesola ‘s political strategies and forays in governance have given him away as someone who is just familiar with the progressive ideology but not ingrained in it. His confused deployment of religion as a political strategy is one proof. His occasional profligacy is another. Beard, short trousers, street knowledge and unrestrained verbiage are not elements of progressivism.
In any event, it is abundantly evident that TOP group before it was said to have been proscribed by its promoters, actively worked against the APC during the Osun State governorship election of 2022 and the general elections of 2023. Following the trounce of the APC in these elections, many TOP members have been offered meaningful appointments in the current Ademola Adeleke– led PDP government in Osun State. It is therefore not true that the TOP as a faction no longer exists. This assertion can not persist as the truth as Aregbesola few days ago, announced that an “Omoluabi Caucus” had been formed within the party. In his inaugural speech of the so called Omoluabi Caucus, Aregbesola claimed that it is not a faction but an interest group within the party. He indeed likened it to the various interest and pressure groups within the Republican and Democratic parties in the USA. However, this is not totally correct as most of the interest groups and associations he cited in the American instance had been formed before they aligned or affiliated with the parties. They were not formed within the parties. More significantly, they don’t remain within the parties and be working against the parties as Aregbesola ‘s group has been doing within the APC. The Omoluabi Caucus is not only the renamed TOP, but now a faction strongly determined to destroye the APC. It is not also like the Ileri Oluwa group, which is not working against the party. It is unfortunate that Aregbesola can toe this path having politically benefitted so much on the APC platform. In any event, Aregbesola ‘s handlers need to caution him. In fact, in a much sterner political party, he would have been swiftly disciplined for anti- party activities. In any event, if Aregbesola had worked against his party in the recent past elections; if he is still digging the grave and constructing the coffin of his party before he finally kills it, methinks his party should constitutionally discipline him before he concludes his lethal operations on the party in the state.
Dr. Adebisi writes from Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State
