Osun and the Aregbesola Fiasco

Eddy Odivwri

With the drum beats of politics already echoing loud in the horizon, renowned wrestlers are already kitting up and prancing, just as aspiring wrestlers are gathering their kits to test their skills in the market square. That was probably what happened last weekend in Osun State when the All Progressives Congress (APC) held its governorship primaries to select who will be the party’s candidate at the governorship election on July 16, 2022.

A mini wrestler who was merely dressed in the kits of a giant few years ago suddenly wanted to prove that he not only wore the kits of a giant, but that he was indeed a giant. That was what Mr Rauf Aregbesola, the sitting minister of Interior succeeded in doing. He practically, in the words of Chinua Achebe, wanted to challenge his Chi to a wrestling match, after eating a bowl of fufu.

So what happened was that the wrestling match actually took place but Aregbesola who thought he was actually a giant and the star of the show, got into the ring but before long not only got undressed, but sent packing with bruised nostrils and bleeding lips. He was challenging his chi to a fight. As somebody succinctly put it, “you don’t attempt to drown your trainer in the stream”.

Although the visible contenders were Alhaji Moshood Adeoti and Adegbooyega Oyetola, they were mere puns in the chess board, representing Rauf Aregbesola and their overall grandmaster, Mr Bola Ahmed Tinubu; respectively. The former was an apprentice in the workshop established and run by the latter. But as they say, he had grown wings and thought he could over-run his master. He got trounced at the market square.

A week or so before the Open Primaries, Rauf Aregbesola, who prefixes his name with Ogbeni (simply meaning Mr) had burst open his bottled-up anger when he said sundry denigrating things about Bola Tinubu, calling him names with scathing imports. It was clear that whatever that held them together had long fallen apart and the centre was no longer holding and may never hold again.

Days before the election, Aregbesola was reported to have entered Osun State (from Abuja), like a mafia, with “federal might” with men in his convoy firing guns indiscriminately, to herald the arrival of “the new strongman”. But he forgot that even “area boys” have masters. Till date, they did not deny the reports about the shooting.

The story is that Aregbesola, a former governor of the state wanted to become the godfather of the state and not Tinubu, extending his political lordship all the way from Lagos down to Osun. The story was told of how at the end of Aregbesoila’s governorship, he wanted to “install” somebody different from who Tinubu had in mind. The minister had to be persuaded to allow Oyetola become the governor. Already. the signs of disloyalty was already showing. Reluctantly, Aregbesola conceded. But was said to have been peeved by the “upturn” of his policies and programmes by he Oyetola administration. What were the said policies: that all schools in the state would wear a single type of uniform, that Osun should have an airport, that the distribution of Opon imo tablets be continued in the state etc. Oyetola was not quite home with the policies and he changed them. Aregbesola was not happy with it and swore to give Oyetola the Ambode treatment. He forgot that he held only the shorter end of a very long knife. He could hardly cut with it.

Not only was Oyetola backed by Tinubu, whom sources say is a blood relation, Oyetola indeed had the power of incumbency. Aregbesola, having been a disciple of Tinubu for years, must be greatly naïve not to know how the Tinubu political machine operates. He was, like Lady Macbeth, drunken with raw ambition, and so ignored the fine dialectics of warfare strategy. He simply walked into the warfront, poorly kitted, and the staccato of the first volley wrecked his arsenal.

It is on record that two days after Aregbesola vituperated on his master, the House of Representatives, headed by another Tinubu apostle, if not a devotee, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker, given all the bulwark support by the likes of James Faleke, a fanatical Tibubu fan , began a curious probe into the budget of the Correctional Services (Prisons)…. How very often, the service has been over run by gunmen and brazen criminals…. It was meant to send the signal to Aregbesola that not only do people who live in glass houses not throw stones, he must be clear in his choice of war targets. As the plan would go, Aregbesola has been harangued and the House of Representatives may not progress further on that probe path.

By Sunday, a day after the results of the primaries had been announced, a swathe of hitherto supporters of Aregbesola, in the Alimosho area of Lagos organised a mock funeral for him, carrying a coffin with his name boldly inscribed on it, with banners, placards and posters “mourning his death”. In their belief, the scoreline ( Oyetola:222169, Adeoti:12,921 and Lasun :460) was a remarkable death sentence for Aregbesola’s political career. But is resurrection impossible?

It was adjudged as an act of utmost bad faith on the part of Aregbesola to have settled down to bite the fingers that fed him. Until Tinubu became Governor of Lagos State, nobody knew an Aregbesola. But because he was a good talker and controlled a pack of supporters in Alimosho local Government area, one thing led to the other and he was named Commissioner for Works. Now he wants to challenge his Chi.

As the then Editorial Page Editor of this paper, I know how many anti-Aregbesola articles I received and either toned down the attacks or altogether saved him from the embarrassments thereof, including being described as “a mere rewire posing as an Engineer”.

As the commissioner for Works in Lagos State, Aregbesola was practically the “CBN governor” of the state. That ministry was the platform by which many things were done in the state. Yes, many things. He was in charge of the contractors, many of whom were mere party men and women who had to be settled. It was Aregbesola’s forte to handle that. That privilege further raised the niche of his importance, so much that he assumed, years later, that the butterfly can now be counted among birds.

His faction of the party in Osun State, the Osun Progressives, have vowed to challenge the outcome of the primaries in court. They allege that many of their members were disenfranchised, even as they complained that Governor Oyetola, as a contestant in the race, ought to have recused himself from the national Caretaker committee of the party before the contest, insisting that being a member of the Caretaker committee conferred on him some undue advantage in the contest. Considerable as the argument may be, does Aregbesola not know the way of the game? Is he hurting now because he is at the receiving end? As the campaign manager of Tinubu, those days, how many such breaches did he supervise and preside over, with the swiftness of a glide? What goes around, comes around.

All said, Tinubu remains Aregbesola’s political mentor. A mentee should ever remain loyal and submissive to his mentor, even in politics. Yes, Tinubu may be overbearing in his quest to have a fisty control of the political firmament under his control, yet, a market square brawl can hardly be the solution.

Canticles…

The Shifty APC Convention and Other Matters

Eddy Odivwri

Did you hear the latest on the APC national convention?

What has happened again? Have they said the convention will now hold in 2024?

How can it hold in 2024? Won’t there be election next year? Look, they have shifted it to March 26, just when everybody was ready for the convention tomorrow. Suddenly, it has been shifted agin. I fear that the party is upto something sinister. I can’t put my finger to it, but the fact that the date has suffered too many changes indicates that there is something to worry about

There is nothing sinister and nothing to worry about. Nigerians are too full of suspicion. They even suspect the rising and setting of the sun. That was how the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alleged that the delay in signing the amended Electoral Bill is because President Muhammadu Buhari is planning tenure extension. What kind of talk is that? Can’t you see Mr President is already tired and wants to go back to Daura? Or does the PDP think Buhari is Robert Mugabe?

You are fond of defending the status quo. How can you blame the suspicion of Nigerians? Have they not been taken for a ride by government, too many times? How do you explain the nearly two year tenure of the Interim chairman of the APC, Mai Mala Buni? Or how they keep shifting the date of the National convention? Just after a prolonged process and February 26 was fixed for the convention, it’s been shifted again.

Why are you trying to be more Catholic than the Pope? Are you a member of the APC? Why are you the one complaining for them? They are ok with the shift. They know what they are doing. There is no hidden agenda. And for those who think that Mr President is planning tenure extension because he has not signed the amended Electoral Bill, they will be put to shame today as he signs the Bill into Law, just to prove that he means well to the Nigerian public, no matter what opposition characters will say or think.

Hmmmm, Like Thomas, I will believe only after the National Assembly say that indeed the Bill has been signed. Don’t forget that the signing of the Bill has been a running subject of speculation in the media.

All I need from you is to spare some thoughta for Mr President. The suspicion is too deep. Everything he does is either smelt as mischief or with the intent to undo Nigeria. Until recently many of you did not even believe that the EFCC is working. They keep claiming no big man or known name ever gets prosecuted. But with the conviction of former Water Resources minister, Sarah Ochekpe and jail term of six years plus the interim forfeiture order of ten houses belonging to former Zamfara State governor. Abdulaziz Yari and the increased prosecution tempo against former Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, you can see that gradually and steadily the tempo is changing and those concerned are fast realising that indeed, it is no longer business as usual

Don’t be carried away by isolated judicial drama, my brother. Not much has changed. It is still business as usual. What has changed is the amount of IQ now needed to smartly circumvent the system. Put you ear on the ground and you will not only hear classified information you will see the perfidy called the Nigerian system.

My friend, don’t sound too sanctimonious. There is no system without filth. All hands must be on deck for the war against corruption to be won. To assume that one man will sit in Abuja and fight and win the war against graft and corruption will be like looking for the blood of a snail.

Well, I agree with you, but the party in power must be broad-minded enough to apply the same law against APC members and non-APC members. No man should be shielded

Nobody is being shielded. If you are caught, you go in for it. The era of join the APC and your sins will be forgiven has gone with its propounder, Adams Oshiomhole. Now it is be caught and be arraigned. You can ask Okorocha or Orji Uzor Kalu or Babachir Lawal. Or are you implying that the likes of Femi Fani-Kayode, the garrulous former Aviation minister who was alleged to have procured fake medical report from General hospital Kubwa, so as to evade being arraigned, should be ignored? Those are the vices that the government is battling. The government needs the support of all.