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By Tope Odediran
While some APC loyalists share in the bulldoze by force attitude of Oyetola’s clique towards the 2026 election, many others are skeptical of the shoot and run approach.
Those in the latter school of thought hinged their fear on the fast evolving electoral process in the country where it is becoming increasingly difficult to rig elections against popular contenders, owing to technological innovations of the electoral body and the increasing participatory awareness of the electorate.
The skeptics are deep realists in this context though, as no sane government at the center would in any case, contemplate rigging elections especially in Osun State for obvious reasons of Wild West history. The recent endsars protests that nearly consumed the nation actually was triggered from Osun State, with thousands of youth resisting intimidating stance of security operatives trying to quel the riots after one of them was killed in a police chase.
That said, in trying to broker solutions to barrage of miseries confronting the party in Osun State, APC appears to tinker with what political observers see as a tit for tat shot. The party moneybags are believed to be funding some PDP renegades with the aim of fueling external impression of internal feud in the ruling party, a replica of the TOP elements in the Oyetola led APC.
While a former PDP member in Ayedaade local government, Prince Dotun Babayemi is seen as being deployed to force some divisions in the ruling party, the warhorses in the APC are however not keen on such approach.
This class of thought condemned Babayemi as a more of political baggage than asset. The Gbongan prince as it were, is coming from a negative side of traditional history, as his progenitor was in the kingship lineages of he ancient town. Aside modern wavering of traditional beliefs as myths, siblings of a deposed king by whatever form in Yoruba land are believed to be cursed. They would wander laboriously, most times without defined purpose other than treachery for which royalty was terminated abruptly on their clan. That’s a topic for another day!
PDP in this stead has also played a fast one on the touchline without losing possession of the ball. Babayemi being propped to instigate crisis in the ruling party had long being fired. Though, still clinging to membership of the party by his own tricks, but in reality, he is a non-entity.
So, the strategy of using someone like Babayemi against the PDP is not only wrong but inept. The embattled prince, though a good political roundabout dancer but he doesn’t dance for free. In this case and considering his attitude right from his days in APC before he was ejected and consequent move to PDP, Babayemi has his eyes gazed on several fronts including the APC he’s dancing round now But ask Bayememi whether he knows what he really wants in the trajectory of the role assigned him by his users, I bet he doesn’t know.
Though not anywhere more than a house of assembly material, the political wanderer as many describe Babayemi would by now be prizing himself for APC governorship ticket, basically to be ‘dashed the impossible Osun West Senatorial ticket. How that pans out with more tested hands in the district or how such ‘pay as you move’ greenhorn impacts positively on the fortune of APC, remains a waiting conjecture.
Another interesting angle is the loud whispering of some APC forces, dangling the Ikire born Bola Oyebanji, the immediate past commissioner of finance, for APC governorship ticket in 2026. The immediate impression one may be tempted to sniff on this is perfect move by the opposition party. But do they have the tenacity to sustain the gamble? I doubt.
However, going by the outcome of the 2022 governorship poll in Osun, where the then ruling party did fairly well in the senatorial zone, it will not be out of place to have it’s candidate picked from the zone. After all, jettisoning the zone was the beginning of their troubles in the state. Former governor Rauf Aregbesola had reportedly settled for a possible candidate from the zone before Oyetola crawled to his uncle, APC leader and now president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu who coercively persuaded Aregbesola to have the defeated incumbent governor on the Apc ticket. How he was declared winner by the then FUTA VC, Professor Fuwape, the INEC returning officer in the 2018 guber context remained a dark spot in the map of elections in Nigeria till today.
Oyebanji however entering the fray does not automatically extinguish APC flames of misery, as the ruling PDP is also not leaving stones unturned there. PDP now boasts of a tested political guru in the zone in the deputy minority leader of the Senate, Akogun Lere Oyewumi. The Ikire born political technician is already setting a foot holding pace in his hometown as well as other communities in Osun West. It certainly will be a high mountain for Oyebanji to climb before 2026.
That again, perhaps will offer other contenders like Senator Ajibola Basiru a leverage on the argument that Oyebanji will in no way be a match for Lere Oyewumi who is believed to be a member of the inner chambers of the current governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
Basiru as mentioned in the earlier piece, is not letting go of the opportunity of grabbing the ticket with his vantage position as the APC national secretary. In this wise, he cannot be wrong too. Going by APC tradition, he is large in deciding on either direct or indirect party primaries for the tickets, depending on which best suits his whims.
As the opposition grapples with the obvious confusion in it’s fold, many of its bewildered members advised that it emulates the ruling PDP approach, who immediately after the loss of 2018 governorship election, picked Governor Ademola Adeleke as their candidate for 2022 election and followed through till 2022. The party eventually won the main contest regardless of challenges mounted by the likes of Babayemi and others enroute the election.
While helpless members are hoping for timely and workable truce, most of the gladiators in the Apc are seemingly at daggers drawn, with camps springing up and all working at cross-purposes.
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