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Tag: AREGBESOLA

  • Kwankwaso visits Aregbesola in Lagos

    Kwankwaso visits Aregbesola in Lagos

    The National Leader and Presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso yesterday  visited former Interior  Minister Rauf Aregbesola in Lagos for  what observers called a strategic meeting ahead of the 2027 elections.

    Aregbesola, a former governor of Osun State was recently expelled from the All Progressives Congress (APC) over allegations of engaging in anti-party activities.

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    National Publicity Secretary of the NNPP, Mr. Ladipo Johnson confirmed the meeting,saying: “Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola emerge from marathon one-on-one meeting in Lagos this evening, Saturday 8th February 2025.”

  • Make peace with Tinubu, PDP Rep member Oke urges Aregbesola

    Make peace with Tinubu, PDP Rep member Oke urges Aregbesola

    A lawmaker representing Ijesa North Federal Constituency on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Oluwole Oke, has admonished former Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola to reconcile with his political father, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Oke, yesterday, in a post on his verified Facebook page, noted that Aregbesola was a bride in the political landscape in Osun State.

    He said All Progressives Congress (APC) members should ensure reconciliation between the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola and Aregbesola.

    According to his post, “Egbon Rauf ‘Soji Aregbesola, a former governor of Osun State and minister of Interior is an enigma, a grassroots mobiliser, a singer and a dancer. He is a factor and a bride in Osun politics, truth be told.

    Read Also: Aregbesola’s controversial APC exit

    “If I am in his shoes, I will go and beg, prostrate and make peace with my Principal, PBAT. Assuming I am a member of APC in Osun State, I will make sure I reconcile Asiwaju, Gboyega Oyetola and Ogbeni. ‘Ija o dola’…”

    He said: “PDP needs to act fast and pay necessary dowry and take in this bride. ‘Symbol’, as he is popularly called, is not someone you allow to roam about. As our governor then, I wasn’t in his party AC, ACN and APC, yet I won my elections. The secret is just the Great People of Ijesa North.

    “In Ife-Ijesa Senatorial District, Ogbeni can still pull a minimum of 20,000 votes. In Ijesa North and Ijesa South, Ogbeni can put sand in any person’s ‘gari’. Any politician who has the capacity to invite 10 to 20 persons (voters or politicians) to a meeting, feed them and give them a token after the meeting, should not be ignored.“

  • Aregbesola’s controversial APC exit

    Aregbesola’s controversial APC exit

    Last week was a momentous time in the political career of Rauf Aregbesola, a former Osun State governor on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Interior minister. His group, the Omoluabi Progressives, sensing impending expulsion from the All Progressives Congress (APC), had resolved last Sunday to exit the party. News of their exit was published on Monday. Three days later, the APC wielded the big stick, disregarded the voluntary exit of the Aregbesola group, and expelled them. Whether voluntary or compelled, Mr Aregbesola is now in limbo. Soon, however, he and his group are expected to berth in another political party, for he is still determined to have the last laugh over his opponents whom he has continued to excoriate.

    Mr Aregbesola occupied a commanding height in the Bola Ahmed Tinubu political family for about 15 years, seemingly unable to put a foot wrong in the eyes of his political mentor. There was of course no foundation to his prominence, not ideological, though he pretends to some amorphous form of socialism, and not even private or public principles, for he was incapable of both. But he was mildly charismatic, voluble, self-absorbed, and capable anytime of promising more than he could ever deliver. His mentor, however, trusted him and canonised him. For eight years between 1999 and 2007 he was a commissioner in Lagos State, and worked quite well under supervision. But as governor of Osun, again for eight years between 2010 and 2018, he floundered badly, subjecting the state to all kinds of sophomoric Cuban-style regimentation, and strewing the state with half-baked social organisation experiments.

    If his mentor and party began to doubt his administrative capacity and temperament, they did not betray their suspicion. But the boisterousness of his youth and his appointment as Interior minister for eight years soon led him to the idiosyncratic overreach that plagued his past, revealing the speciousness of his philosophy, the indiscipline that permeated his governorship and politics, and the wild assumptions that persistently undermined his judgement. In 2018, he was determined to impose a successor as Osun governor, but failed for a number of reasons that were not beyond his feeble ability to manage had he possessed the right temperament and judgement. In 2022 he also aligned his political group with the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to prove the point that he was a force to be reckoned with in the state. But his characteristic impatience made his victory Pyrrhic.

    By 2022, his fate was sealed. There was little he did in the past, including his contributions to the APC presidential election victory in 2015, that was capable of sustaining his self-confessed prodigious talents for political mobilisation. But circumstances propelled him forward and upward until he climbed the dizzying height from which he has now plunged to earth precipitately. Believing he had an unbreakable hold on his political group, and assuming that his popularity in Osun had not waned as much as his enemies imagined, he took on his mentor with the thunderous blather about how God abases the proud. Said Mr Aregbesola with inflated pomposity: “As it was in Lagos yesterday, so shall it be in Osun today. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. Only God can terrify us, not man. Go and tell them wherever they are, we own this party. We own this Afenifere group. We own this people-loving group started by our patriarchs, Obafemi Awolowo and Bola Ige. This was Elder Akande’s group before he temporarily left us. That was how it was in Lagos at a time; a governor derailed and the party members unseated him using the ballot boxes. We exalted him beyond his status and he turned himself to a god over us and we had sworn to ridicule anyone who compares himself to God. God has no competitor; He is enough to be God.”

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    The problem was not that he disagreed with his party or his mentor, or that he insulted everybody who did not kowtow to him. The problem was not also that he felt genuinely aggrieved that he was stripped of any significance in Osun, and castrated in Lagos Alimosho local government politics. The problem was not even that it was despicable that he looked his mentor and party in the face and imperiously cautioned them about their political choices. Mr Aregbesola’s problems are two-fold: his impatience borne out of his hubris, and his poor judgement borne out of his lack of depth, contrary to the impressions he had created since 2010 when the courts validated his election as Osun governor in place of the usually somnolent former governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola. Regarding his feistiness and impatience, they were intrinsic to his mental constitution. No surgery could help him, and no shrink could mollify his moods. As for his superficiality, he needed it to bamboozle the impressionable youths of the Osun backwater. He made casual allusions to Marxism and Fidel Castro’s Cuba to which he was unquenchably besotted, but without contextualising his beliefs within the global pushback which that ideology was experiencing. And to worsen his plight, he menaced the state and everyone with his closet fanaticism, leading the state’s intelligentsia to feel wearied by his propensities.

    Having fallen from his Olympian heights, and disdaining wise counsel to stop struggling when trapped in quicksand, Mr Aregbesola must now ponder his future. He could not conceivably jump into the PDP, for that major opposition party is itself engaged in a titanic struggle to stay afloat and remain politically relevant following the schisms that have skewered its administrative organs. The former governor had helped the party take Osun to prove a point, and would be tempted to cavort in it for the coming 2026 governorship election; but he cannot seriously see a pathway to any continuing relevance in the state through the PDP. Not only that, the PDP governor in the state, Ademola Adeleke, apart from being fundamentally incapable of ruling anything, has formed the atrocious habit of elevating trivia into a governing art and dancing the day away in the heat of competition among Nigeria’s governors. Osun has always been regicidal, but it is hard to imagine that they are also impervious to the national ridicule they are been subjected to on account of their governor.

    Mr Aregbesola is not endowed with significant administrative acumen. To opt for the PDP despite that party’s troubles is to believe he possesses the magic wand capable of affecting the fortunes of the party positively or bathing and salving its wounds. As large as his hubris is, it is unlikely the former governor can be so optimistic. Worse, PDP leaders, though temporarily distracted by in-fighting and sloppy politicking, are unlikely to see a largely diminished Mr Aregbesola as an asset. To join the PDP would also mean adopting the frolicking Governor Adeleke as his party leader in Osun, a prospect so galling to even a fake communist that he has probably never contemplated it beyond using the party as a tool to exact revenge on the APC. Some media reports suggest that the former governor and his group, knowing full well that they must berth somewhere, might be considering an association with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) led by Shehu Gabam. Indications are that some key PDP leaders, including former vice president Atiku Abubakar, disaffected Labour Party (LP) leaders such as Peter Obi, and even New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) leader, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, might be eyeing the SDP if reconciliations in their parties proved intractable. But the fringe party also harbours a few acolytes of the late Gen Sani Abacha.

    The choices facing key opposition leaders regarding how to proceed politically in 2025 and 2026 are obnoxious. For Mr Aregbesola, they are horrendous. Not only would he go into the SDP, if it came to that, a very diminished man without party and shorn of reputation, the other party leaders who might saunter into the party would keep a wary eye on him and cast furtive glances at him. They would wonder whether he could be trusted, considering how close he was to President Tinubu but did not bat an eyelid in denouncing him violently and persistently. Unfortunately, once a politician acquires the reputation of a betrayer, rightly or wrongly, fairly or otherwise, it is hard to reignite confidence in him. Every step Mr Aregbesola takes will be dogged by his now sullied reputation. His new party may relish his role as an attack dog, especially against the president, but as reckless and ruthless and boastful as he has become, he would feel demeaned being turned into a feral beast. He would like to be rated fairly and highly, but there is nothing in him or about him to indicate that his new party leaders and associates would not prefer to see him through their own cautious lenses.

    What is certain about Mr Aregbesola is that he does not have a political party at the moment. It is inevitable he must find one very soon, where he can probably feel comfortable. But he is condemned to joining other aggrieved politicians united by their common animosity towards the APC, and perhaps by their common detestation of President Tinubu. With his long years of unprincipled politicking, Alhaji Atiku is now fated to be lumped together with other waspish firebrands like the inconsiderate Rotimi Amaechi, the intransigent Mr Kwankwaso, the stormy petrel el-Rufai, and the immoderate Mr Aregbesola. There are some associations in which one must never be found, and ideas one must never be associated with. It is the humiliating irony of life that all these eminent men started out well in their political career, but, given their famous lack of prudence, are now condemned to joining a motley crowd of jaded politicians united for the common cause of taking the presidency in 2027.

  • APC, Aregbesola’s final parting of ways?

    APC, Aregbesola’s final parting of ways?

    Was the exit from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) by two time governor of Osun State and former Minister of the Interior from 2019 to 2023, Ogbeni Raufu Aregbesola and his political tendency in Osun State, a development announced this week, inevitable and unavoidable? I don’t think so. The inability to resolve the festering crisis between Aregbesola’s ‘Omoluabi Progressives’ and his successor as Osun State governor who is now Minister for Marine and Blue Economy, Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola, a disagreement that degenerated to a rupture of the political rapport between Aregbesola and his erstwhile political leader and mentor, President Bola Tinubu, vividly illustrates the weak crisis resolution mechanisms within the APC and political parties in Nigeria generally. In the run up to the 2023 presidential election, Aregbesola had in an unguarded moment at a public rally in Osogbo launched a blistering verbal attack against Tinubu, under whose administration as governor of Lagos State he served as Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure for eight years.

    Widely regarded as one of the closest aides and passionate supporters of Tinubu throughout his tenure as governor of Lagos State and for many years after the end of his tenure in 2007, Aregbesola cast his lot with former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, in the latter’s futile bid for the APC presidential ticket in 2022. Under Tinubu as governor, Aregbesola was virtually in control of the APC political structure in the state through his influence in Alimosho Local Government Area and his leadership of the Mandate Group, a powerful tendency within the state APC. Tinubu could not be persuaded to whittle down the clout of Aregbesola by many of the detractors who envied the latter’s considerable stature both in the politics of the state and the administration of government. He enjoyed the absolute confidence of the then governor who was convinced of Aregbe’s unalloyed loyalty.

    Indeed, after serving as one of the most powerful commissioners in his government, Tinubu backed Aregbesola to the hilt materially, logistically, politically and financially to run for the governorship of Osun State. When Aregbe’s strong challenge for the governorship against entrenched political forces of incumbency in Osun appeared to have run into irredeemable stormy political waters through widely rigged elections, Asiwaju was solid as the rock of gibraltar behind the candidate as he challenged the purported outcome of the 2007 Osun governorship elections in court. No less a person than Osinbajo revealed at one of the annual colloquia to commemorate Tinubu’s birthday in Abuja the extent that Tinubu went in mobilizing both internal and external, legal, intellectual and forensic support to ensure the judicial victory of the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Osun and other Southwest states where the polls were fraudulently manipulated.

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    That Aregbesola could not only refrain from supporting Tinubu’s presidential bid but would back Osinbajo’s presidential aspiration as well as openly campaign against his leader indicates the depth of the animosity between he and Oyetola and his belief that the latter enjoyed Tinubu’s tacit support. Aregbe’s fervent support for Tinubu before, during and after the 1999 elections in Lagos State was understandable and unsurprising. As a student union leader in his formative years, he was an active participant in protests against military misrule and was also a passionate advocate for the end of apartheid rule in South Africa and the promotion of the dignity of the black man. During the struggle for the actualization of the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential mandate of MKO Abiola and to force the retreat of the military to the barracks, Aregbe was in the thick of the struggle at home just as Tinubu was at the forefront of the battle in exile. They were ideological and political soulmates as Progressives.

    Aregbe no doubt delivered on his mandate as Commissioner for Works in Lagos State ensuring the radical modernization and expansion of several key roads and allied infrastructure in the Centre of Excellence. As governor in Osun State, his record was mixed. He initiated laudable infrastructure projects in the state in the area of roads as well as modernization and provision of infrastructure in schools and health care facilities. He launched several programmes to cater for the vulnerable including the school feeding scheme as well as cash disbursements to the elderly. However, Aregbe’s ideological fervency and vibrancy was not matched by the requisite administrative acumen and managerial astuteness. Thus, the Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge) scheme was a revolutionary initiative to make text books and examination questions in key subjects available to students in a portable format but foundered on the altar of poor planning and conceptualization despite the humongous resources sunk into it.

    His school reforms proved to be poorly conceived and engendered considerable confusion and strife among stakeholders such as old students of prominent schools and could not be sustained. His administration’s far reaching programmes were not calibrated with availability and sustainability of resources in mind and thus he ended up with a legacy of incomplete or staggered payment of salaries for different categories of workers, a situation that had negative electoral implications for his political party. His successor, Oyetola, was a more restrained and reserved personality as well as a more sober and astute administrator and financial manager. Hence, he was able to achieve a modest level of infrastructure provision while paying all categories of workers their full complement of salaries.

    But whatever were Aregbe’s faults or weaknesses were, in my view, failings of the heart and not the head. The critical thing was that he meant well and was faithful to his ideological convictions and the philosophical orientation of his party. His strength lies essentially in his immense capacity for grassroots political mobilization and effective party organization. Perhaps the ideal thing would have been for Oyetola to concentrate on governance where he had demonstrated commendable proficiency and allowed Aregbe to handle political organization and popular mobilization. Oyetola is more in the mould of a technocrat and board room operator who is effective behind the scenes but seldom musters the infectious charisma and capacity for grassroots razzmatazz to rouse large numbers of people into political consciousness and activism, an art in which Aregbe is adept. It is not surprising that Oyetola’s dream of winning reelection for a second term was dashed as a result of the APC going into that election as a badly fractured house.

    There are those APC members in Osun and beyond that have described Aregbe’s exit with his group as good riddance. It is hasty and rash to come to such a conclusion. Is Aregbe’s disagreements with Oyetola and his subsequent fall out with President Tinubu final and beyond redemption? I don’t think so. There is nothing like an irredeemable or irreconcilable conflict where there is the requisite will, generosity of spirit and maturity. In the first Republic, Chief Obafemi Awolowo as leader of the Action Group and Chief Ladoke Akintola as Premier of the Western Region fought each other to a standstill until democracy in the West and ultimately in the whole country came crashing in January 1966. Surely, if they had the opportunity to relive their lives over again, they would have responded to issues, personalities and events differently and with greater maturity and tolerance. It is instructive that in the Second Republic, Awolowo was far less rigid in handling conflicts and differences.

    Perhaps Aregbe’s greatest error was the vehemence and bitterness with which he publicly excoriated the President publicly during the campaigns in a quarrel that was essentially between him and Oyetola. As a fallible human being prone to errors like all mortals, he can reach out to the President and make necessary amends. Luckily, one of President Tinubu’s most admired attributes is his largeness of heart and expansiveness of spirit which makes it easy for him to forgive repentant adversaries and genuinely reconcile with them. From his body language, Oyetola desires to stage a comeback as elected governor of Osun State. If so, having the Aregbesola political structure in his corner will be a valuable asset in terms of grassroots mobilization to achieve his objective. This will of course mean eating the humble pie of accepting Ogbeni’s status as a key political leader in the state.

    On his part, Aregbe has invested too much of his time, talent and energy in building the progressive political structure in the Southwest and beyond as well as projecting the Tinubu persona over the last two and a half decades for him to abandon his political habitat at this time for an unfamiliar political dwelling. There is every possibility that his considerable talents, experience and abilities can still be brought to play in President Tinubu’s ongoing quest to lay a solid foundation for the restructuring and modernization of Nigeria. With the present state of affairs, both Aregbe and Oyetola will be the ultimate losers in the unfolding politics of Osun State as there will be no stopping the dancing governor’s Second term.

  • APC expels Aregbesola for anti-party activities

    APC expels Aregbesola for anti-party activities

    The leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC) has formally sacked erstwhile Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola from the party over anti-party activities.

    Aregbesola, who served as Osun State governor for eight years, had created a faction, The Osun Progressives (TOP), now Omoluabi Caucus, to fly another interest within the party. The development caused the party to governorship seat in 2022.

    On Sunday, Aregbesola presided over an Omoluabi Caucus meeting where he announced that the faction had quit APC because the party was no longer popular in Osun State.

    Also, a letter sent to Aregbesola by the party’s leadership, titled: ‘Allegations of Anti-Party Activities – Conveyance of State Exco Decision to You’ said the former minister was found guilty of anti-party activities.

    Read Also: Aregbesola, allies set to quit APC

    “At the end of the investigation, the State Executive Committee (SEC) considered the report of the Disciplinary Committee.

    “Having carefully considered the findings and recommendations of the committee, SEC has resolved to accept the recommendation of your immediate expulsion from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    “The decision was predicated on the clear evidence of your actions, which undermined the unity and integrity of the party in violation of the provisions of Article 21 of the APC Constitution guiding the conduct and discipline of members.

    “As a result, with the approval of your expulsion, you cease to be a member of APC. Consequently, you are not to hold yourself out as a member or act in any capacity on behalf of the Party in any manner whatsoever.”

  • BREAKING: APC expels Aregbesola over alleged anti-party activities

    BREAKING: APC expels Aregbesola over alleged anti-party activities

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has officially expelled former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, from the party over allegations of anti-party activities.

    Aregbesola, who governed Osun State for eight years, had formed a faction within the APC known as The Osun Progressives (TOP), now rebranded as the Omoluabi Caucus. 

    The group was accused of contributing to the party’s loss in the 2022 governorship election.

    On Sunday, the Omoluabi Caucus, in a meeting presided over by Aregbesola, announced its decision to leave the APC, citing the party’s declining popularity in the state.

    A letter obtained by The Nation from the APC leadership, titled “Allegations of Anti-Party Activities – Conveyance of State Exco Decision to You”, formally communicated Aregbesola’s expulsion, finding him guilty of working against the party’s interests.

    “At the end of the investigation, the State Executive Committee (SEC) considered the report of the Disciplinary Committee. 

    Read Also: Aregbesola, supporters working for PDP in Osun – APC alleges

    “Having carefully considered the findings and recommendations of the Committee, SEC has resolved to accept the recommendation of your immediate expulsion from the All Progressives Congress, APC. 

    “The decision was predicated on the clear evidence of your actions, which undermined the unity and integrity of the Party in violation of the provisions of Article 21 of the APC Constitution guiding the conduct and discipline of members. 

    “As a result, with the approval of your expulsion, you cease to be a member of APC. Consequently, you are not to hold yourself out as a member or act in any capacity on behalf of the Party in any manner whatsoever.”

    APC acknowledged Aregbesola’s past contributions to the party urging him to comply with his expulsion from the party. 

  • Aregbesola, supporters working for PDP in Osun – APC alleges

    Aregbesola, supporters working for PDP in Osun – APC alleges

    The Osun state chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has accused the former governor of the state, Rauf Aregbesola, and his Omoluabi Progressives Group of serving as agents of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

    APC spokesman, Kola Olabisi, stated that the Osun APC is not bothered by the exit of Aregbesola’s group from the party, alleging that the former minister had left APC since 2022.

    He said: “The preposterous announcement of the so-called Omoluabi Progressives to quit the APC is a good riddance to bad rubbish. They have either been expelled or suspended from the party. How would any rational human being who has been suspended or expelled announce his resignation to the whole world again?

    “We, in the Osun State APC, shall be happy to miss the political irritants and deviants who had since left the party by way of body and soul before the 2022 governorship election in the state. You are agents of the PDP in Osun State and they are still of service to the ruling party in the state.”

    He added: “Osun APC is waxing stronger by the day. Our message to the frustrated Omoluabi Progressive handlers is that whoever wants to bury his elder brother nakedly should take along his younger brother to show the latter how he too would be buried at the end of his journey of life.”

    The Nation reports that Aregbesola, who served as Osun State governor for eight years, formed a faction within the APC known as The Osun Progressives (TOP)—now renamed Omoluabi Caucus—which opposed the re-election bid of his successor, Adegboyega Oyetola. 

    In response, the APC leadership expelled and suspended Aregbesola’s allies who either accepted appointments from Governor Ademola Adeleke of the PDP or were perceived to have worked against the party during the 2022 and 2023 elections. 

    Read Also: Aregbesola, allies set to quit APC

    Aregbesola cited his reason for leaving the APC as the party’s declining popularity and claimed that its leadership had sidelined him and his supporters. 

    The Omoluabi group led by Aregbesola, in a statement by the group’s spokesperson, Abosede Oluwaseun, on Sunday announced the exit of the group from the APC in Osun State.

    The group stated that their exit from the party was caused by ostracisation and the suspension of the group’s leaders from the APC.

  • Aregbesola, allies set to quit APC

    Aregbesola, allies set to quit APC

    Former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola and members of the Omoluabi Progressives may be on their way out of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    This followed the resolution of the caucus after ratifying an earlier resolution to exit the political platform on which Aregbesola governed Osun State for eight years.

    The former governor created the Omoluabi Progressives in 2023 after the dissolution of The Osun Progressives (TOP). He served as patron of TOP before its dissolution.

    TOP, which had been in existence within the APC since 2021, was the platform used to frustrate the re-election of former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.

    The leadership of APC alleged that Aregbesola, a former Interior Minister,  and his faction worked against the party in the 2022 governorship poll and   during the 2023  general election 

     TOP members were suspended from the party.

    But after its monthly meeting in Ilesa, the Aregbesola-led group said it reached a consensus to pull its members from the 332 wards of the state out of the APC.

    Spokesman for the group Abosede Oluwaseun announced the decision in a statement last night.

    The statement reads: “Members of the leading political organisation in Osun State, Omoluabi Progressives, have in a consensus vote agreed to quit the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    “This was the consensus of stakeholders after a session ratifying the earlier resolution of members from the 332 wards of Osun at its monthly meeting in Ilesa on Sunday.

    “Some of the reasons adduced for the resolution include ostracisation from the party, suspension and expulsion of the tendency’s leaders without fair hearing, and continuous denigration of the structure, among others.”

    Read Also: Aregbesola attempts political redefinition

     The group criticised the management of the Osun APC intra-party crisis which led to its loss in the last election cycle, a situation they consented has waned its strength and popularity among the people of Osun.

    Abosede noted that the members of the faction were put to a voice vote by the leadership of the fold where they affirmed their readiness to switch allegiance to another political camp ahead of the 2026 governorship election in the state.

    The statement further reads: “Addressing members of the tendency, immediate-past minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, commended them for their commitment and steadfastness to the principles of character, integrity, and good governance.

    “Aregbesola, while affirming the resolution, noted that it is time to work aggressively for the success of Omoluabi Progressives and its vision to entrench good governance in Osun.

    “He also assured that in no distant time, results of ongoing efforts by the leadership of the tendency to properly position it for the task ahead will materialise.

    “I am indeed happy that all of you have spoken with one voice. It is not just one voice but a united front to lead the way to our collective victory in the journey ahead.

    “I wish to remind you that the journey we are embarking on now is to further raise the level of prosperity of our dear state through responsible leadership. The path we have toed is smooth, highly reassuring and full of good tides that will propel our dear state to greatness.

    “Therefore, you must show more commitment and attract genuine people who are ready to walk this path of righteousness with us.

    “We are open to all regardless of political, religious, or socio-cultural leanings. We have the numbers, strength, and political acumen to provide leadership that will make Osun the toast of its peers. By the grace of God, we shall succeed.”

    Chairman of the group, Alhaji Azeez Adesiji, thanked members for their consistency.

    He told the gathering that with the resolve of members to align with a novel political platform, efforts should not be spared to reorientate them on the ethos of true progressivism, which is the hallmark of the group.

  • Alado backs Saheed Aregbesola for Osolo stool

    Alado backs Saheed Aregbesola for Osolo stool

    Alhaji Taorid Faronbi, aka Alado has thrown his weight behind the candidacy of Prince Saheed Ishola Aregbesola as the Osolo elect.

    Alado, who currently heads the Papa Alagbeji family in Osolo, enjoined Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Dr. Kadir Hamzat, and Hon.  Bolaji Robert to make Aregbesola the new Osolo.

    Farounbi has affirmed that Prince Aregbesola is the sole candidate of Papa Alagbeji’s family to assume the throne of Osolo.

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    According to Alado, some people have been going about alleging that he signed letters endorsing certain persons vying for the Isolo throne.

    However, Alado has denied such claims saying that such a claim was absolutely untrue and urged the government to disregard any correspondence outside the one with the name of Saheed Ishola Aregbeshola as the family’s choice for the royal stool.

  • Aregbesola attempts political redefinition

    Aregbesola attempts political redefinition

    Former Osun State governor and Interior minister, Rauf Aregbesola, has managed to retain some public attention as he continues to project his unique brand of politics in which he is accountable only to himself. His Oranmiyan political group has become more active than before, and he remains its lodestar. A man of slight build but immensely opinionated and charismatic, he is unapologetic about his brand of politics and takes his falling out with his mentor, President Bola Tinubu, with great poise. Video clips of his recent political junkets around some Osun cities, including Ejigbo, Osogbo, and Iwo, among others, have suffused the social media. They show him being serenaded by feisty groups of dancing supporters almost eerily casting him in the mould of Western Nigeria’s political icon, the late Adegoke Adelabu, alias Penkelemesi. That parallel may not have crossed his mind, but in some of the videos, he had, like Penkelemesi, sung and danced with his supporters as they whip themselves into frenzy.

    Mr Aregbesola served two terms as Lagos State Works commissioner, two terms as Osun State governor, and two terms as Interior minister of the Federal Republic. Longevity in public office, he has proved over and over again by his political boisterousness and unguarded utterances, seldom makes politicians humble or wiser. Instead, it makes them messianic. The mobilisation videos psyche his supporters to prepare to retake lost grounds in Osun, probably ahead of the next governorship poll. Of course, Mr Aregbesola does not have presidential ambition. How could he? When his second term as governor was about to end, he had attempted to foist a successor on the state whom he obviously felt would both do the job of governorship well and be accountable to him. His effort was, however, frustrated. To accentuate this failure, he was made to support the party’s chosen successor, Gboyega Oyetola, a bitter pill he was disinclined to swallow.

    The former Osun governor does not believe he lacks political and ideational depth. But he actually does, whether he agrees or not. What he has in abundance, and which could make up for his deficiencies, is his immense talent for grassroots mobilisation, which dovetails into bucolic cockiness that seems to impress the Osun rabble. For a man who loves to hear himself speak as well as declaim against the ideological vacuousness of his opponents, especially being himself a tenuous ideologue of the Cuban socialist genre, he seems capable of offering brutal and effective leadership in a state and at a time no one else, not even the dancing mimic at the state’s Government House, has stepped up to give. He has not indicated whether his mobilisation is to reclaim the APC, especially considering that his group has always insisted it is the authentic APC, or to set up a new party, or to transmute into a bargaining chip in the next election as he indeed did in the last election. He will, it appears, take one step at a time. Armed with this wisdom, he and his men have become very prolific in composing partisan dithyrambs to lift up their spirits and conversely dampen the enthusiasm of the leaderless, if not also rudderless, APC in the state.

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    But the likelihood of returning to, or regaining, or repossessing the APC is very slim for Oranmiyan. The chances are in fact next to zero. Mr Aregbesola may be an ideologue suffering from messianic complex, but he can be so naïve to believe he still has a role or a place in the APC, whether he thinks he is the authentic APC or not. He burnt his bridges when he joined a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) coalition to rob Mr Oyetola of second term; and when he displayed aggressive iconoclasm by denouncing then candidate Tinubu’s presidential ambition in terms that made many but his diehard supporters wince, the rebellion was complete. It requires boyish optimism to think that he would be allowed to seize a chapter of a party led by political leaders he had turned into archenemies. They won’t let him, and there is little he can do about it. He tried valiantly to reclaim Alimosho local government in Lagos State where he cut his political teeth and flowered, but he was checkmated. Reclaiming Osun APC will be a bridge too far, regardless of how courageous, iconoclastic, and charismatic he thinks he is. It will have nothing to do with whether anyone likes him or not; it is indeed a spectacular matter of how tragically he had let his impatience and characteristic triviality damage his brand.

    His political leaders always thought him a special breed and politician, partly because of his seeming and enthusiastic commitment to his mentors and the party, but he later demonstrated that his loyalties were at bottom flaky and conditional. Making the same mistake Nigeria made by denying MKO Abiola the presidency in 1993 at the cost of six agonising and bloody years, Mr Aregbesola could also not abide the reelection of Mr Oyetola for a few years in order to keep his enviable place in the party and sustain the indescribable awe in which his mentors and leaders held him. It was a small price to pay; but typical of his excesses and supercilious disregard for others, he launched heedlessly into the political abyss. How he does not see his present predicament as a correlate of his unfathomable inadequacies is hard to understand. One guess can be safely ventured: Mr Aregbesola is already locked in a vicious orbit of perfidy, and there is no amount of charismatic posturing or musical improvisations that will bring him out of it. Alas, he now wallows in infamy; but it is apparently a fate far better than the public ridicule he has continued to relive.