Opinion: Osun 2018: Neither Oyetola nor Adeoti is Governor Material – Olu Akaraogun

For a party that is not used to organizing primary election for the selection of its candidates, it is a challenge arriving at who represents the All Progressives Congress [APC] in the 2018 governorship election in Osun State. It is even more difficult when it concerns the issue of agitation for the zoning of the governorship seat to a particular district, zone or town, in the state. I really do not want to be in the shoes of Governor Rauf Aregbesola and the party Chairman, Prince Adegboyega Famoodun. However, I pray that may their roads be rough.

This is a period of speculations, a period of romour mongering, and a period when the credibility you have built over time is sentenced to continuous erosion. Few days ago, APC debunked speculations that it was planning to impose a candidate on the electorates during the forthcoming September governorship polls.

The party in a statement issued by its chairman, Prince Famodun also discredited rumours that the party had favoured a particular aspirant over others. He therefore urged the people of the state to disapprove insinuations that the party was trying to impose a candidate or favour an aspirant.

“The APC in Osun thereby announced that the public should completely discountenance speculations and rumours spreading in the state that one aspirant or the other is either going to be imposed or has been particularly favoured to be the candidate of the party for the next governorship election in the state.

“Nothing of the sort has happened or is contemplated. Currently, party leaders and elders are engaging in a rigorous process of consultation about how to identify the appropriate aspirant, capable of representing the party, preserving its heritage and continuing with the development agenda and programmes of the party.

“That candidate will eventually emerge through the constitutional process that the party has agreed to. The public is hereby reassured that only the best will be presented as a candidate of the party,” the statement reads.

However, it is assuring to note that the party for the first time in Osun state’s chapter recognized that its candidate must emerged “through the constitutional process that the party has agreed to.” This process cannot be other thing than holding a primary election.

In the imaginations of most politicians and analysts of Osun State politics, it is already a foregone conclusion that the race to Abere Governor’s office is between the “chosen one”, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, and the “cheated one”, the SSG, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti. Interestingly, the duo politicians are still serving in the administration of Governor Rauf Aragbesola.

For Alhaji Oyetola, his strength is in his closeness to the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu. Some are even quick to argue that Governor Aregbesola is left with no choice other than to support the insurance magnate’s ambition since Oyetola is Tinubu’s man Friday. Some supporters are even ready to swear by their great grand fathers’ names to prove their point, as if in some way, the emergence of Oyetola is the defining note of all human endeavours.

But ironically, what people considered as Oyetola’s strength is also his biggest drawback. The people of the state see the Iragbiji-born politician’s aspiration as yet another attempt to turn the state into a personal fiefdom and a vassal of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu.

Pius Adesanmi captured Oyetola’s candidacy in a recent publication thus: ”The people of Osun State have been crawling through a long dark tunnel at the end of which they expected a shining light and they are eagerly looking forward to it. But the bandits from Bourdillon are trying to ensure that there would not be any light, shining or not, at the end of this dreary tunnel. The ABAT LLC neocolonialists are trying to frustrate the hope of Osun people to be free from economic and political bondage.

“Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Bourdillon’s Ajélè in Òshogbo, the redoubtable anchor of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu mercantilist politics in Osun State, the ABAT LLC, is also in charge of the Alimosho branch of the plundering political merchants. He is actively planning and scheming to install fellow stooges across the political landscape of Osun State. Like his mentor ensconced in the cranny of Bourdillon, Aregbesola is trying to turn Osun State into his personal fiefdom and a vassal of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu’s ABAT LLC. Most importantly, he is determined to install a lap dog in Bola Ige House to cover his noxious tracks of the last eight years.“

But is the SSG, Moshood Adeoti, a credible alternative? The answer is CAPITAL NO. Ko le werk. Why is this so? Adeoti’s strength is in his history as the former chairman of the APC. Those who “sold” APC to Rauf are now “genuinely” aggrieved that the governor schemed them out of the “actions”, hence they must ensure that they hijack the party and the government from the “Ajeles”.

They only way to hijack their birthright from Aregbesola is for one of them to become the next governor. This is the whole essence of Alhaji Adeoti’s gubernatorial ambition.

Just as the party cannot afford to present Oyetola as its candidate, it must not settle for Adeoti. Adeoti only represents history, and history represents the past. Osun state deserves a governor that is dynamic, young, ambitious and forward-looking. Osun state deserves a governor that will focus his passion and his time in building the local economies so that the state can be self-reliant.

The task before the elders of the party and governor Aregbosola is to immediately appeal to Adeoti and Oyetola that they are not only too old at 65 and 64 years respectively, but that their candidature will tear the party into shreds.

Olu Akaraogun writes from Iragbiji,Osun State.