Alhaji Azeez Adesiji, the Chairman of Omoluabi Progressives, a group loyal to former Minister of Interior and ex-governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, speaks with OLUFEMI ADEDIRAN on why members of the group left the APC and why the crisis was irreconcilable
How will you react to the expulsion of your patron, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, from the party?
We thank God that Aregbesola is still alive, agile, and productive in all ramifications. The wish and plan of some people were to see him dead before now. We know some of his associates who are no longer with us today. But Ogbeni continues to enjoy the grace of God. …CONTINUE READING
Having said that, his purported expulsion from the party by a set of political marauders in the state mirrors the disregard for due process, arbitrariness, and confusion within the APC leadership in Osun. It is a known fact, according to the APC constitution, that a state chapter does not have the jurisdiction to punish a former governor or minister. However, the crop of people in Osun APC, since 2019, have consistently shown disdain for decency and the ethos of progressivism.
In any case, their real plan was not just to expel him from the APC but to outrightly kill him politically. They believed that ostracising him and his followers from the party would weaken him, but they soon realised that Aregbesola continued to grow stronger, enjoying immense love and support from the people. The announcement of his expulsion, therefore, holds no value or significance. The bird had already flown before they threw the stone.
Aregbesola and his followers, including you, were accused of working against the APC in the 2022 and 2023 elections. How true is that?
The allegations are unfounded; they were the ones who shut us out of their activities during the elections. When the elections came, they formed over 300 campaign committees and excluded Aregbesola and everything that had to do with him. They equally issued a statement that those they didn’t include in the committee must not near the campaign ground. As a result of this, we folded our arms and stayed in our houses during the campaign periods. Yet, Aregbesola never instructed anybody to support or vote for PDP. As a matter of fact, it is on record that the Osun Progressive issued a statement directing all APC members loyal to Aregbesola to vote for APC. APC won at Aregbesola’s polling unit, ward and local government. But the leadership of APC in their various local government areas failed woefully. Even as the sitting governor then, Oyetola won only two out of the 10 local government areas in his district. The then party chairman, Gboyega Famodun, lost his ward and Boluwaduro Local Government. The Oyetola reelection campaign Director General, Ajibola Basiru, a serving senator that time also lost his Osogbo local government. Are all that our fault? They are such confused, empty, and arrogant politicians, and that is why they continue to blame us for their failure.
Why did members of the Omoluabi Progressives leave the APC?
We left because we were marginalised and ostracised. Those who hijacked the APC leadership did not want to see our faces, and we were excluded from party activities for years. For instance, they did not allow us to participate in the party congresses in 2021. They also prevented our people from participating in the primary election in February 2022. Despite all these, we remained unperturbed. We sought reconciliation and peace, but they scuttled all our efforts to unify the party.
We held a series of peace meetings, but they ensured that no meaningful resolution was reached. We were also excluded from the governorship and national election campaigns. Imagine that Aregbesola, a former governor and minister within the same party, was omitted from the campaign list. Not only that, but none of his loyalists were considered for inclusion.
They spread falsehoods against us, alienated, intimidated, and even molested us. But we endured it all. We went as far as the party’s national secretariat to seek peace, but they dismissed us, telling us we were insignificant. When the 2022 election approached, they advised the national secretariat to ignore us, and we stayed away. However, after they lost the election, they blamed us for their failure. How could people they described as insignificant be responsible for their downfall? One of them, a boy whom Aregbesola made a commissioner, had boldly declared that APC would win the 2022 governorship election without Aregbesola’s input. They were arrogant and vindictive. But after their defeat, they turned around and blamed us for their electoral woes. Isn’t that baffling?
After the 2022 election, we intensified our reconciliation efforts because we foresaw a larger defeat coming. Aregbesola personally met several party stakeholders, persuading them to address the crisis in Osun. However, those afraid of reconciliation—those lily-livered politicians who had imposed themselves as party leaders—frustrated his efforts simply because they wanted to retain control over the party.
Before the 2023 general elections, all Aregbesola’s loyalists were denied tickets and excluded from the campaigns. The elections came, and all their candidates lost, except one who, through an electoral miracle, retained his seat. Again, those who alienated us said we were responsible for their defeat. Since then, we have stayed in our lane and continued organising our people.
These are the reasons we quit the party. We did not want our followers to go astray, so we collectively agreed to leave the APC and seek another platform.
Which party are you joining?
You will know very soon, but we are not joining the PDP.
Is it a new party?
You will soon know about it.
How true is the report that the disagreement between President Bola Tinubu and Aregbesola is responsible for the Osun APC crisis?
We cannot ascertain any disagreement between the two because Tinubu has never told us that Aregbesola offended him, and up until now, Aregbesola himself cannot say what actually transpired. The only narrative we have heard is that Oyetola claimed Aregbesola did not want him to be governor in 2018 and that he (Aregbesola) worked against him.
Because of this, Oyetola became vindictive, destroyed Aregbesola’s legacies, and allowed his aides to publicly denigrate Aregbesola, the very person who brought them to power. As a minister, Aregbesola was openly attacked by thugs loyal to the IleriOluwa group in Osogbo. His people and campaign office were also attacked by these same thugs under Oyetola’s administration. We suffered about 20 violent attacks within Oyetola’s four-year tenure. It was a terrible period.
The President, who is the father of the nation, intervened in the crisis in Rivers State by calling Sim Fubara and Nyesom Wike to the State House in Abuja for a peace meeting, but he (Tinubu) did not do the same in Osun. This suggests that he has something against Aregbesola, which he has not disclosed. Up till now, Aregbesola cannot pinpoint exactly what went wrong between him and the President.
Do you mean Tinubu’s failure to intervene in the crisis led to what is happening now in Osun APC?
It may be part of it, or it may not. However, the treatment meted out to us culminated in what is happening now. We are not outcasts, yet they treated us as such in a party we built. We were frustrated out of the party. Those currently calling the shots in the APC were nowhere to be found when we were struggling to establish a progressive party and government after Chief Bisi Akande lost the 2003 election. Aregbesola restored the progressive party and led it to power in Osun, yet he was treated as if he was nothing.
Aregbesola and other APC leaders were suspended last year for anti-party activities. Why did you wait until now to announce your exit from the APC?
We believed that reason would prevail and that the APC leadership would see the need for reconciliation. The party’s constitution stipulates that before suspending or expelling a member, an investigative committee must be set up at the ward, local government, and state levels. The committee’s findings should then be submitted to the national body for ratification. However, in our case, none of these procedures were followed. We were never invited for questioning. To this day, none of us has been queried by the party. We only learned of our suspension on social media. We were never brought before any panel, nor was any committee set up to try us for alleged anti-party activities. These frivolous allegations cannot be substantiated by any of them. There is no internal democracy in the party.
In any family, if there is discord, the head of the family steps in to settle the issue amicably. But that is not the case with the APC in Osun State. They simply woke up one day and unilaterally suspended and expelled people. We waited for the national leadership to intervene, but they refused. Even the President himself listened to them. If the President had considered us important to his cause, he would have settled the crisis. But he did not, perhaps because he harbours something against us.
As a former Deputy State Chairman of the APC, you left the party in 2018 before returning in 2020. Why did you turn against the party?
I did not turn against the party. Before Oyetola emerged as the APC candidate in 2018, I saw that we were treading the wrong path because the principle of equity was violated. Chief Bisi Akande, from Osun Central, served as governor for four years. Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, also from Osun Central, spent seven and a half years as governor before being removed by the court. This means the central zone held the governorship seat for eleven and a half years. Meanwhile, the east, where I come from, had only eight years in power under Aregbesola. For the sake of equity, fairness, and justice, the governorship in 2018 should have gone to Osun West. It was a great injustice for the APC to zone the ticket to Osun Central again.
When the PDP noticed that Osun West was being marginalised, they picked their candidate from that zone—and they won. As the APC’s deputy chairman at the time, I opposed this decision, which was why I did not support Oyetola. Aregbesola did everything in his power to ensure Oyetola emerged as governor, but in return, they treated him unfairly.
Before the formation of Omoluabi, there was the Osun Progressives. Why did you dissolve TOP to form Omoluabi?
The Osun Progressive was formed to address irregularities within the party. We used the platform to mobilise APC members, highlight the excesses of the party’s leadership, and propose better ways to manage things. It was meant to correct the missteps of Oyetola’s administration. However, they saw TOP as a splinter group. Later, we dissolved TOP to demonstrate our sincerity in seeking reconciliation, but our efforts were not appreciated by those benefitting from the internal crisis.
We then decided to form Omoluabi Progressives, believing that if everyone upheld the core values of Omoluabi, we could bury our grievances, foster unity within the party, and set it on the right path.
There are allegations that Omoluabi is working for the PDP in Osun. How true is this?
The allegation is entirely unfounded. I personally toured all the local government areas in Osun State to refute this claim. We are not working for or with any political party. Very soon, people will see the direction we are heading. We are the true progressives in Osun and Nigeria. We will soon come out in our own colour.
What is the genesis of the APC crisis, and why is it irreconcilable?
The crisis began with the 2018 governorship election when Oyetola was imposed on the party, as directed by Tinubu. Due to the injustice and lack of fairness, some of us left the party for the ADP. Aregbesola persuaded us to return after the election, and we did. However, upon our return, then-Governor Oyetola did not want to see us. We cannot pinpoint the exact cause of the crisis, but we know that Oyetola saw all perceived loyalists of Aregbesola as enemies and treated them accordingly.
