John Adoyi, PBA Journalism MenteeGloom and joy hung in the air when the Osun State governorship election reached its climax on Saturday. Joy in the camp of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and gloom in the tent of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The incumbent governor, Gbenga Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was defeated and the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Ademola Adeleke shouted to the heavens as he was certified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the Governor-elect.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelWhile Adeleke garnered 403,371 votes, Oyetola polled 375,027 votes. It was a trashing for Oyetola the incumbent who could not believe how and why he lost with a wide margin of 28,344.
It became a question of what went wrong in the camp of the ruling APC.
Analysts have put forward many reasons to explain the defeat. But one reason was very glaring. The internal crisis of APC that led to the clash of the titans in the party fold.
In the lead up to the election, the Osun APC had been at war against itself with Aregbesola controlling one faction and his successor, Oyetola controlling the other faction.
It wasn’t a surprise to many that Aregbesola jetted out to the United States while the Election was going on. So also, people were not surprised when a post on his social media handle suggested that he wasn’t shocked about the outcome.
The now deleted comment read “Osun Le Tente. This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and give it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men. – (Daniel 4:17)”.
Aregbesola had clearly rejected the second term ambition of the governor, endorsing the former secretary to the state government, Moshood Adeoti. Mr. Adeoti lost to Oyetola at the primaries held on February 19 2022.
Unhappy with the outcome of the primaries, Aregbeesola’s faction of the APC approached the Federal High Court in Abuja to seek the disqualification of Oyetola from the race.
The argument brought before the court for the disqualification of Oyetola who is the incumbent governor was that Oyetola did not resign his position as a member of the national caretaker committee before contesting the primaries.
To the greatest dismay of Aregbesola, the court ruled that the case is a matter within the internal affairs of APC, noting that the court has no jurisdiction to meddle in it.
According to media reports, the feud between Aregbesola and Oyetola started in 2018 when Aregbesola was done with his second tenure as governor of Osun State and wanted to anoint his successor.
Clearly, Gboyega Oyetola, his formal chief of staff was not his choice but once again, Tinubu showed up and asked Aregbesola to make sure Governor Oyetola was elected and like a true loyalist, he carried out his duty.
According to media reports, Tinubu in 2010, imposed on Aregbesola, Oyetola as his chief of staff even though Aregbesola had already told him he has a preferred choice for the position.
The election was declared inconclusive and there was a re-run between the top rivals of Ademola Adeleke of PDP and Gboyega Oyetola of APC.
APC won the supplementary election with a narrow victory through the help of an alliance formed with the Social Democratic Party candidate in the election, Iyiola Omisore who came third in the polls.
Aregbesola was blamed for the sloppy victory. It was believed that he was not willing to help his party that is why the election was almost lost.
The final nail to the coffin was hammered when Oyetola despite the appeals from Aregbesola, went on to repeal some of the reforms made by the formal governor.
According to news sources, the reversal of the controversial single school uniform that Aregbesola introduced for all public primary and secondary schools, reclassification of the public school system and the abolition of single-sex schools across the state, among 26 issues reviewed by Oyetola, fanned the embers of their acrimony.
During the 2022 Osun governorship debate, Oyetola said “When we were doing the debate in 2018, you asked me a question on single uniform policy, ‘people say they don’t want it, when you become the governor, will you scrap it or continue with it?’ It was tough for me to answer that question.
“What happened was because the people wanted that reform, I went for it. In doing so, we set up a committee to review the education policy and come up with recommendations. That was exactly what we did and implemented.”
Oyetola was also accused of not carrying the formal governor along while he was making key appointments to his cabinet.
A loyalist of Aregbesola Lani Baderinwa said “We worked for Oyetola in 2018 but he later ignored us. This time around, my support for anybody cannot be for free because in 2018 I did everything for the governor but there wasn’t any compensation.”
When he was asked about the feud between himself and Aregbesola, Oyetola responded saying “I have no particular grudge or animosity against my former boss, so there’s no problem about that. I think most times it is the people around making issues out of nothing. If there’s any difference at all, it’s purely on governance and nothing more.”
He claimed he bears no grudge with Aregbesola but yet, Aregbesola vowed to unseat him in the state even though the formal governor’s candidate lost the primaries.
He bears no grudge against the formal governor but when he was setting up the 86-man campaign council for the election, Aregbesola name was nowhere to be found.
This really shows that the internal crisis of the party contributed to its failure at the polls. Clash of Egos and people not ready to shift ground led to the party having two factions.
Party members and even the national chairman of the APC, Adullahi Adamu had tried to resolve the crisis but his effort proved abortive as all entreaties seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
This internal feud had led to members who are said to be Aregbesola’s boys living the APC to the PDP. The deputy speaker of the State House Assembly from Iwo, equally defected to ADP.
APC lost election in Osogbo for the first time in 12 years.
“Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”
While the party was being ravaged by internal feud, the PDP’s Adeleke was busy mobilizing support and building bridges of relationship of members in the party across the state.
READ ALSO: Osun 2022: PDP’s Adeleke Wins Election In 17 Of 30 LGAs
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