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By Tope Odediran
Smarting from it’s loss of July 16 2022 governorship election in Osun State, the now opposition party in the state is still enmeshed in protracted internal crisis, looking so much insurmountable not minding the window dressed efforts of some of the gladiators to paint a nonexistent cohesion.
Prior to the election in 2022, the APC had been polarized into several factions, with former governor Oyetola engaging in a battle of wits with his former boss and predecessor, Rauf Aregbesola, on who controls the soul of APC in the state.
The war of attrition between the duo scaled down the fabrics of the party, right from the state executive committee, to the local governments, wards and even, poling unit levels.
Checks revealed that the immediate past governor, Gboyega Oyetola was banking on the ever willing federal machine, often deployed by his party at the center to muscle opposition at any major election in the states, the whirlwind of popularity of his main contender, Ademola Adeleke, the now executive governor of the state, became too much to handle, thereby flooring Oyetola, who had hoped to use forceful victory at the poll to politically bury his boss, Rauf Aregbesola.
Immediately after the woeful performance of the APC in the election, many of the party faithful, particularly at the grassroots pointed accusing fingers at the defeated governor who many of them blamed for the loss through his high handedness and inability to galvanize needed supports for the party due to what they saw as very poor performance in office.
Things got to a head as many of the agitated gladiators were hounded dangerously with assailants, so brazenly that many of them merely escaped with their lives by the whiskers.
Former Speaker, Rt Hon Najeem Salaam, former SSG, Moshood Adeoti, former Commissioner Kolapo Alimi and former Deputy Speaker of the house of representatives, Hon Lasun Yusuf amongst several APC leaders nearly paid with their lives as gunmen often trailed their weekly meetings at the Oranmiyan House, belonging to their leader, Rauf Aregbesola.
A year after however, one would expect APC to have learned from it’s structural squabbles, but nay, the war is rather escalating than any traces of truce.
Former governor Gboyega Oyetola, sources revealed, still maintains his hardline posture, waiting earnestly for 2026 election which as usual of his style, hoping to be spoonfed with some federal might to recapture the state and use the powers of his office to completely dismantle Rauf Aregbesola, who he sees as his prime target
However, the attrition goal being contemplated is a tall dream going by the unfolding intricacies. First, most of the APC stakeholders believed to be tested politicians are with Rauf Aregbesola. They are refered to as home based because of their constant touch with their followers and therefore hold the ace in their respective constituencies. This is so that it will take more than the whole avalanche of Nigerian armoury and army to break the ice of the long term bounding.
Second is the slippery but firm ambition of the Osogbo born former senator, Basiru Ajibola who now sits as the APC national secretary, whose political watchers in the state believe, is already warming up and positioning himself in poll position to wrestle the APC governorship ticket from Gboyega Oyetola, whose only strength is the president cousin’s tag.
Basiru Ajibola is believed to have steadied himself on a fast lane, convincing stakeholders of the party at the national level as the only candidate who can give the incumbent, Ademola Adeleke and the PDP a run for their money. In Basiru’s camp, Oyetola is taunted as a weak vessel going by the countable volume of vote in his local government as against SRJ, who sees himself as a state capital boy with lorry loads of vote.
Will Basiru Ajibola be able to pull any spring against the hurricane popularity level of governor Adeleke? that is seen as another rough ambition as the former is seen largely as a political burden, whose character deficits contributed to the APC losing the same Osogbo which he now dangles as a bait to beat Oyetola to the ticket.
The multifaceted crisis in the APC has also seen former Senator Iyiola Omisore who according to close allies, is grossly bitter over the way and manner he was deposed as the national secretary of the party.
The deposition as the APC NS has reduced to rubble, the political grip of the former PDP Senator in Ile-Ife, a constituency the APC earnestly require to ganer appreciable number of votes to be close to any form of reckoning in any election in the state.
The rapid consolidation of PDP in the zone is however proving to be another migraine for the troubled opposition APC. While the the party is planning to evacuate Senator Omisore out of the cooler in the last minutes to the 2026 election with a well dressed appointment or a one-off contract to placate the former national secretary as usual, it might become too late in the day with proactive tendencies of the ruling PDP already ravaging the political routes of Ife zone of the state.
Omisore again, sources further hinted, is tired of easy prey toga on the political image of the one time deputy governor of the state. Whatever carrot that is dangled at him this time will be viewed more as a take home package and not to put his name on the line anymore for a party that has failed to accommodate or integrate him other than use him for election purposes, pay him off and cage him
again.
The use and cage attitude of APC, who still have an ax to grind with Omisore over the gruesome murder of late chief Bola Ige, has further sent jitters to the spines of followers of Olode born prince, with many of them automatically scaled down the pecking order of consideration in the APC, as their leader is seen to have been reduced to indoor tiger, who is allowed to roar only when he is unchained by his handlers.
The principal in the crisis confronting the APC are members of the party at the grassroots, who are increasingly disenchanted with the movement without motion status of the party in the state. While the warring gladiators are pretending with some atmospheric love which was stage acted in Iragbiji recently, members of the party at the grassroot believe the party is in deep mess.
While many of the party loyalists are calling for immediate truce with former governor Rauf Aregbesola to stabilize the party and put it in good stead for future elections, the diehard Oyetola followers are harping on federal government influence to scale election huddles without input of Aregbesola and his faction of the party.
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