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To Win In 2007 General Elections
+ The Many Hurdles Before The Party
The Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has embarked on a reconciliation mission. The party is putting behind its failures in the last election in other to put its house in order ahead of the 2027 general elections. The party’s leadership are said to be currently in talks with the agrieved members. For those who had left and those still within the party to be properly harmonized back as one family. Of course any serious political party should do that. This is as the next main election is fast approaching. The only time left for the next electioneering year is a little above two years.
However, the dimension which the reconciliation/restructuring would take has remained a bone of contention within the party. Especially now that Bayo Adelabu’s nomination and confirmation as Minister of Power has brought another narrative. Adelabu, the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it would be recalled, left APC to contest the guber election under Accord Party. So his nomination came as a rude shock to many. Everybody knows that Bayo enjoys a cordial relationship with President Ahmed Bola Tinubu. He (Tinubu) was instrumental to his emergence as Oyo APC guber candidate in 2019. But not many though he could be nominated for ministerial appointment at the detriment of the loyal party members who stood still despite the crisis before and after the party’s primaries prior to the 2023 election. The traditional members of the party obviously felt insulted with Adelabu’s nomination and eventual confirmation as a minister. Even though leaders, particularly those from the camp of the guber candidate of the party in the last election, Senator Teslim Folarin, have kept mum over the development, their body language shows that they are not happy. Adelabu’s appointment, to many of them, further confirmed the narrative of the party’s guber candidate being thrown under the bus as far as the last election was concerned.
While some aggrieved party members who were not happy with the way the Teslim’s camp conducted the affairs of the party as regards emergence of candidates in the primaries are said to be happy about the development. The believe in some quarters, however, is that the it will not but divide the party even the more. Just last week, a former senator from the state, Ayo Adeseun and Chairman of the party, Isaac Omodewu were engaged in a war of words. They both shared contrary views about restructuring of the party. Adeseun, on a live a radio interview, said for the party to be repositioned, the current Exco must give way for an interim committee.
He said: “Those calling themselves EXCO members in Oyo State will be removed. It is a question of time. We are just waiting for the announcement.
“20 percent of party members constituted the EXCOs at the ward, local government and state levels. They took control. “We need to put in place holistic arrangements that will ensure unity in the party. There must also be equity”.
Responding to his remarks, Omodewu, however, described Adeseun’s assertions as a mere wishful thinking by some political players. Saying that it is regrettable that Adeseun threw caution into the air while speaking on the issue.
He categorically stated that Adeseun, as far as he’s concerned, is not an APC member at the moment as he worked assiduously for his party (Accord Party) during the recently-concluded general elections.
“We can recall that Sen. Adeseun emboldened others to reject all efforts made to let them remain in the APC following their disappointment at the end of the party primaries conducted to pick candidates for the 2023 general elections,” Omodewu said in a statement.
Speaking further, Omodewu said: “The current APC executive committee is a product of a legitimate congress and there is no place for fiat in our democracy that would empower an individual to order the dissolution of party executive committees.
“As far as we are concerned, we have our eyes on the ball and we will not leave any stone unturned to ensure that all aggrieved members who left our party in 2022 and new members from other political parties are attracted to Oyo State APC.”
But whether the current Exco of APC in Oyo State will be dissolved or not, one thing that remains sacrosanct is the fact that the party must put its house in order. If turly the party wants to make a meaningful political impacts in 2027, there must be a repositioning. What is unclear now is how the repositioning would take place or the form it would take.
-Dare ADeniran
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