Brothers To Enemies: How Rosy Relationship Between Oyetola And Aregbesola Turned Sour

on From brothers to enemies: How rosy relationship between Oyetola and Aregbesola went so    Politics is not a game of emotion or relation. It is purely a game of selected interests. People come together to form a party or group because of interest or gain. Truly, there is no permanent friend or enemy in politics. Sometimes interest can be temporal too. When this happens, it sets even the ‘best of friends’ in politics against each other.

Things have really gone sour between Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and his predecessor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Despite visible actions and verbal exchange of followers including damning allegations which are gradually eating up the spinal cord of the All Progressives Congress in Osun state, creating possibility of an impending secession of a group called ‘The Osun Progressives’ from the ruling party, both politicians (Oyetola and Aregbesola) have not publicly acknowledged that there is a misunderstanding between the duo.

Inarguably, there is a ‘serious crisis’ between Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and his predecessor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. The crisis only escalated in early 2020 but findings revealed that it started when Gboyega Oyetola who was appointed as the chief of staff to Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in 2011 began his political sojourn into Bola-Ige House, Abeere-Osogbo in 2017.

How it started

In December 2017, Aregbesola placed an embargo on political activities and asked all his cabinet members not to distract him with politics because he wants to face governance squarely and completes ongoing projects. He further directed that politicking could commence around late March or early April in 2018.

A check revealed that only aspirants who were serving in his cabinet followed the directive while other aspirants like Ikire born politician, Benedict Alabi now Deputy Governor of the state, Osogbo-born politician Kunle Adegoke Rasheed (K-RAD), Ilobu-born politician, Lasun Yusuf who was the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives ignored the directive and declared their ambitions.

Aregbesola’s top aides and the then Speaker of House of Assembly, Najeem Salam who were known aspirants in the state did not ignore the directive but they secretly mapped out their plans and there was a major political alignment within the cabinet as commissioners and top advisers took side of interested aspirants.

The entire cabinet anxiously waited for the body language of Rauf Aregbesola but the wait was in vain. It was obvious that Aregbesola never wanted any person in his cabinet to be his successor. He wanted a new face and rumour has it that he had promised Adelere Adeyemi Oriolowo who is now Osun West senator the gubernatorial ticket, a reliable source told WITHIN NIGERIA.

Months after, Aregbesola lifted the political embargo and the battle for guber ticket of the ruling party, APC commenced. The battle started with political rallies with different demands from different quarters which completely changed the political narrative of the state.

Some APC members flagged ‘Osun West Lokan’ agenda and organised a well-attended rally to drive home their point which is, majority of party members prefer any aspirant from the ‘Osun West Senatorial District’ to become the gubernatorial candidate of the party. In response to this political move, supporters and followers of aspirants who are not from ‘Osun West Senatorial District’ flagged ‘Best Lokan’ Agenda and also organised a well-attended rally to prove their stand in the party.

How ‘Gboyega Oyetola’ got the ticket

Recall that Rauf Aregbesola who won his re-election victoriously in 2014 appointed his cabinet in 2017. It took Aregbesola two years to compile list of commissioners and special advisers to serve in his second tenure. Besides paucity of funds, power play was one of the reasons why the list came out late. Wale Bolunduro, an Ere-Ijesa born politician who was the commissioner for finance in Aregbesola’s first tenure was one of the casualties of the power play. He was not returned.

Alhaji Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji replaced Wale Bolunduro as the commissioner for finance. Findings revealed that Governor Gboyega Oyetola who was the Chief of Staff to Aregbesola influenced the replacement of Wale Bolunduro, citing poor financial advices which plunged Osun into debts as basis for his replacement. Bola Oyebamiji is also the current commissioner for finance and a member of the kitchen cabinet in the state.

Bola Oyebamiji was one of the first five people who founded ‘Ilerioluwa’, a political support group for Gboyega Oyetola before he picked up the guber form too. Infact, the first meeting of key players of Ilerioluwa group happened in Oyebamiji’s residence but Aregbesola later used Oyebamiji to cause confusion in Ilerioluwa’s camp when he asked him to buy the gubernatorial form too, a reliable source told WITHIN NIGERIA.

The first executive governor of the state, Late Isiaka Adeleke who is a native of Ede, a town under Osun West spent barely a year in office. Bisi Akande who a native of Ila-Orangun, a town under Osun Central spent four years in office. Olagunsoye Oyinlola who is a native of Okuku, a town under Osun Central spent seven and half years in office. Rauf Aregbesola who is a native of Ilesa, a town under Osun East spent eight years in office’

Some APC members who are lieutenants of Aregbesola including aides continued their agitations that the next governor of the state must come from Osun West. But Gboyega Oyetola has the support of APC leaders in Lagos (second political home of Aregbesola) including Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the national leader of the ruling party. A check by WITHIN NIGERIA confirmed that Gboyega Oyetola was truly the desired and anointed candidate of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

A top chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) who prefers anonymity told WITHIN NIGERIA that Aregbesola travelled to Bourdillion, the Lagos home of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to meet the APC national leader and opposed Oyetola’s candidacy on the basis of ‘unpopularity’.

‘Leaders of labour movements and concerned citizens of the state forwarded a letter to Bola Tinubu, asking him to appeal to Oyetola and support his candidacy. Tinubu later called on Aregbesola to go and make Oyetola popular since Aregbesola too was not popular at the first instance. Aregbesola never wanted Oyetola. They forced him’, he added.

Some aspirants like Benedict Alabi who is now the deputy governor of the state stepped down for Oyetola while the likes of Lasun Yusuf, Najeem Salam, Moshood Adeoti engaged him at the direct primary of the party which was laced with a lot of controversies but Gboyega Oyetola eventually won. Out of all aspirants who contested with Oyetola at the party primary, only Moshood Adeoti, Iwo-born politician dumped the party and joined the Action Democratic Party (ADP) with his thousands of followers across the state. He later became the guber candidate of the Action Democratic Party (ADP). Aspirants like Lasun Yusuf expressed his grievances and vowed never to leave the party but sources said he was silent throughout the general poll.

Aregbesola’s attitude to 2018 Osun gubernatorial election

There are speculations among APC members who are loyalists of Governor Gboyega Oyetola that Aregbesola’s attitude towards 2018 gubernational election in the state was bad. They alleged that the minister of interior who was the governor of the state, Aregbesola did not want to win the election because his preferred candidate was not allowed to fly the party’s ticket.

An insider while addressing the speculations told WITHIN NIGERIA that Rauf Aregbesola issued a directive that there should be no rally until he came back to the country and the PDP candidate has already started campaigning from one town to another. I see such move as a deliberate attempt to frustrate victory.

While decrying the non-chalant attitude of Aregbesola towards the election, the insider also disclosed that Aregbesola deliberately delayed logistics fund on election day. Most party members got funds around 12pm on election day and efforts put in place to win 2014 were not done towards 2018.

‘Infact, Ajimobi and Ganduje had to take charge of the election from Aregbesola because they seem not to appreciate or like the way he’s running it’. The re-run election worsened the situation. He was angry about the coalition and never wanted Senator Iyiola Omisore in APC. He disliked the treating of Omisore as the power saver of the APC in the rerun, the insider added.

When contacted, a former aide of Rauf Aregbesola dismissed the claims and described them as false and untrue. They just want to ridicule his efforts towards the election. He was pragmatic and desperate for winning which was visible in his actions and attitude.

‘Aregbesola led Oyetola and others from town to town, appealing to people to vote for APC. Claims of such nature should be dismissed’, he added.

Iyiola Omisore’s coalition

The coalition between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Omisore’s caucus of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) aggravated the crisis. The caucus did not only benefit via appointments such as heads of ministry of youths and sport, political affairs, home affairs and others but they were also in charge of the party and their leader, Iyiola Omisore becomes one of the decision makers of the party. The recent caretakers appointment and party’s convention show that he truly has great influence in this administration. Findings revealed that Aregbesola and his lieutenants are not happy about this development.

Recall that barely a week after Senator Iyiola Omisore announced his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Rauf Aregbesola now Minister of Interior stormed his party’s ward in Ilesa, describing such move as a ridicule and mockery of Bola Ige’s death and grave. Aregbesola reportedly said killers and any person can become a member of APC because it is a political party but they would never handover the affairs of the party to them. As at the time of reportage, Omisore’s loyalist, Tajudeen Lawal is the secretary-elect of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state as recognised by the national body.

The crisis of appointments

Findings revealed that ‘appointment’ is one of the major causes of political crisis between the followers of the duo. Majority of Aregbesola’s direct lieutenants expected that they would be returned to office. A check into Oyetola’s cabinet revealed that some former aides of Aregbesola who only served as commissioners once were returned while others were asked to return home.

Aides like Remi Omowaiye, Rafiu Isamotu, Idiat Babalola (Resigned), Bola Oyebamiji, Lekan Badmus, Charles Akinola now Chief of Staff and others were returned to office while the likes of Sikiru Ayedun, Kolapo Alimi and others who had served twice were not returned to office.