The travesty of democracy in Osun APC
The practice of democracy in Osun All Progressives Congress (APC) is today a mockery to democratic principles.
It appears that Governor Gboyega Oyetola and Gboyega Famodun; the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the party in Osun, want to stop democratic ethos and institutions that promote and defend mass participation and rule of law in Osun APC.
These duo and their hangers-on do not want members of Osun APC to freely choose candidates for elective offices within party. All they want is the imposition of themselves and their favourites through dubious consensus, on the party.
The Osun progressives have rejected this antic. Several undemocratic norms have been deployed to the federal constituencies in Osun State by Famodun and Oyetola to adopt the two of them as the sole candidates of APC for chairman and governor.
This plan to scheme out the progressives in Osun through persecution and harassment will make Osun not peaceful and unstable in the years to come. A paradigm shift in Osun politics in 2022 means that Oyetola faces the greatest threat to his second term from within his party.
The last election in 2018 was characterised by an increasing projection of power change which Oyetola won with less than 300 votes. The 300 votes in 2018 communicated directly and indirectly the threatening message of rural voters and their families. But the intensity of violence being witnessed within the ruling party in Osun in the run up to the 2022 election is unprecedented and worrisome.
Recently, some political parties, under the aegis of Association of Progressive Political Parties (APPPs) in Osun State have warned Oyetola to put on hold, any dream of seeking re-election in 2022.
The group said Oyetola should instead ensure he fulfilled all his campaign promises he made to the people of the state in 2018.
The Caretaker Secretary of the APC in the state of Osun, Rasaq Salinsile, has stated that those who destroyed the billboards he sponsored to felicitate with the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on his 64th birthday, are members of the party. In an exclusive interview, Salinsile stated that some members of the party, who suddenly developed hatred for Aregbesola, were behind the vandalisation of the billboard erected at Old Garage area in Osogbo, the state capital.
With this prevailing scenario, it is crystal clear that, this is a trying time ahead of the party in the state of Osun towards the 2022 governorship election. Famodun, whose tenure has expired since 2018, who hails from Igbajo is from the same Osun Central Zone as Oyetola. And the argument of the opposing camp is that, in the spirit of fair play, equity, justice and rotational principle, both the governor and the party chairman should not come from the same senatorial zone.
Inwalomhe Donald wrote from Osogbo, Osun State.
