Picking APC pieces in Oyo

Oyo state has been a progressive state even when it was under premiership off and on. It was the seat of the defunct Action Group, AG, in the First Republic when the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, showed the way forward as the most progressive Nigerian politician in the class of Odinga Odinga Jaramogi in Kenya, Kwame Nkruma in Ghana and host of others. Administrative changes occur where there were infractions on the part of the office holders who failed to be proactive and ensure that they retain the state where they have been holding forth politically. In the present circumstance, the loss of Oyo state to the opposition was very painful and attributed to irresponsibility of the passive leaders.  Self-centeredness, myopic ambition and egoism were parts of the factors that caused the party the defeat.  

All Progressives Congress, APC, was well positioned, loved and embraced by all and sundry in the state and the party ought not to have lost out in the last election but the state emperor and his cronies were carried away from doing the needful as politicians, engrossed with personal ambition that has failed them. They were full of themselves, self-deception and overrated which no politician of repute ever contemplated because of the repercussions which the party has suffered unjustly. They were self-acclaimed grassroots mobilisers who have now shown that they don’t have what it takes to mobilise the grassroots for support. When a man rules out God in the affairs of people and elevates themselves to all-knowing-politicians, their defeat is imminent as it played out in the last general elections in Oyo state. They were advised to reconcile with the splinter group and close ranks with true progressive leaders in the state because the sheep know their shepherd and vice-visa but they remained adamant. The election results have proved them wrong and others right that the party executives in the state and their emperor have nothing to offer the party, therefore, cannot lead us again. Their era and that of their emperor is over in Oyo state APC. We have to mobilise the scattered members, regroup, assuage and persuade them to return to base for the fortune of progressivism.      

The general elections of 2019 have come and gone, and all hands must be on deck to restructure, rebuild and re-strategise for a stronger APC in Oyo state. Those who took us to the slaughter slab definitely cannot dictate the tunes again because they have nothing to offer progressive camp in the state any longer. We know them as squatters who came under the guise of being progressives but retrogressive politicians who have brought the party to its knees in the state. Should we treat such individuals with kid and gloves again? Because they don’t have any stake in the party from the onset, we cannot afford to have them ruin the party. So, there is no point romancing and having them as party members again.

If the national secretariat takes census of the genuine progressives in Oyo state, the present state executives of the party will not be counted among the real and genuine progressives. How can a sitting administration that has administered the state for eight years, riding on the crest and credibility of true leaders to political stardom come and scatter the ranks of the party in the state? Lagos, Borno and Yobe states should be commended for the good works they have been doing in the past two decades for not allowing the cankerworms and scavengers to devour their states unlike Oyo state party administrators and others; kudos to the three states party executives.  Those that paved the way for our party’s defeat after benefitted cannot determine the fate of the party again except we plan for another defeat. When they were in power they failed, how much more when they are not in position of authority.  The emperor’s popularity has waned and continues to slide further, the more no one should consider such person and his losing team to lead the party in the state any longer.

APC failed in Oyo state because the national secretariat allowed it happen as the latter failed to act as at when necessary. If the party had sanctioned or rejected the imposed executives by the emperor and made them to follow the party’s constitution at the composition of the executives, those who campaigned against the party would have reconsidered their actions in favour of the party at the poll. The bye-election in Ibarapa East Local Government [Eruwa/Lanlate] of the State House of Assembly where late Michael Kolawole, the speaker hailed from was lost to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Instead of treating the matter will sense of seriousness and dialogue with the political forces concerned in the area, the emperor and his lily-livered foot soldiers trivialised the defeat and attributed it to the old political rivalry between Eruwa and Lanlate which was not the case as the former administration opined. The administration covered its shame under that circumstance rather than dealing with the issues involved. The matter festered and the burble burst as the party lost all the important elections like the presidential, governorship and the house of assembly. What a shame and empty boast. Pride exhorts a nation and sin is a reproach to anyone. These episodes and several others are enough to knock losers off the party.

They are Lilliputian politicians who have overrated and prized themselves as the master-strikers. They damned the voters’ factor at the poll thinking they have what it takes to win election but have learnt to be dwarf politicians as their political center cannot hold and lost woefully to the oppositions in the state. Oyo state APC today is in tatters and disarray courtesy of bad leaders that have been administering the party as neophytes, hence, the party’s defeat. This wakeup calls on the national secretariat to act and wade as a matter of priority, urgency and importance to immediately takeover the administration of Oyo state APC chapter pending when substantive leaders will be elected to reposition the progressive camp for better electoral future. Also, to ensure that, structures across the levels are manned by the grass root politicians instead of these self-acclaimed politicians whose intention is work for the opposition at the expense of our party.  

Adelowo writes from Oluyole Estate, Ibadan, Oyo state.

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