Osun APC: Time for Aregbesola to shape in or shape out

By Muyiwa Olopade

With Osun State Gubernatorial election and State House of Assembly election just few months away, the politics of the elections is already reaching high pitch. Within the ruling All Progressives Congress gladiators are taking positions for and against the incumbent Governor Oyetola.

Leading the internal opposition within the governing APC is former Governor Rauf Aregbesola who is currently the Minister of Interior. Aregbesola recently declared in Ilesa that he is the leader of a faction opposed to Governor Oyetola and his second term ambition. The Osun Progressives (TOP) where the former governor and those still loyal to him have become the enfant terrible is led by Rasaq Salinsile. The Aregbesola faction is bonded by only one objective and it is to stop Oyetola at all cost. The TOP band members are behaving like a rattle snake because their egos have been badly bruised having lost control of the party.

As It stands today, the momentum is on the side of Governor Oyetola. He is loved by the people of the state. The Governor is at peace with the masses who are massively in support for his people oriented programmes across sectors, the workers and pensioners in the state have a love affair with Oyetola for removing their pain of modulated salaries and lack of pension, traditional rulers whose kingdoms are being transformed are effusive in their praises of the extraordinary leadership Oyetola has brought to the State. Transport Unions, market Unions and various groups want continuity of good governance Oyetola represents.

It is becoming crystal clear that with or without Aregbesola and his faction, Oyetola will win his second term. The likes of Aregbesola, Mr. Moshood Adeoti, the former Secretary to the State Government, Hon Yusuf Lasun, former Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives and others who think they can stop Governor Oyetola with their belligerence may find out they over over trading on their political currency or misreading the political temperature in Osun State.

What is best for Aregbesola and his TOP people, if they are true progressives, is to find accommodation with with Governor Oyetola and the current leadership of APC in Osun State. If they don’t find accommodation with the Governor and realign with the current party structure, they may end up singing their own political Nunc Dimittis in August during the elections.

Muyiwa Olopade, a Public Affairs commentator writes from Osogbo