Inside the VIP arena of Eagle Square, in Abuja, a heated debate was raging simultaneously with the coronation of the new national leadership of the governing All Progressives Congress. A former deputy governor of Osun State had torched the raw nerves of others, with his lamentation that the emergence of Senator Iyiola Omisore as the consensus option of the South West wing of the party for the most senior party portfolio, allocated to the zone, was causing some party leader, so much pain, which he couldn’t say out. Yoruba will say, iso inu eku (masquerades must endure fart released inside the regalia). The former deputy was pontificating about progressivism and “unholy” alliances. An infuriated lawyer cut him short and off and in a burst of impulses, laid the argument before the agonizing progressive. You can’t go seeking umbrella from a fellow you are demonizing, when beaten by rain, then pontificate, when it is time to repay his kind deeds.
The outspoken lawyer berated the current leadership of the South-West progressives, for always preaching “do what I say and not what I do” and then forming traumatized, when those coming behind, try to handle their political alliances, the way of the leaders, by seeking help, anywhere they can. He was so riled by the blatant hypocrisy he would not stop even when an ally of the leader, who was also a former senior party official, tried to contain him from spilling the obvious truth. He damned the hypocrisy with a consequential threat that going forward, no so-called leader of the progressives, should try to stop any of them, seeking electoral and political help, anywhere, because the leaders, started the “unholy” alliance. Others in the cubicle, though less confrontational and vociferous, couldn’t fault him.
Though he had judicially, clashed head with Otunba Omisore, the new leader of the progressives in the South-West, in years gone by, the lawyer, applauded his (Omisore’s) return to the zenith of progressive politics, arguing that if as opposition element, before the 2018 open rapprochement, Omisore had always been there for the ruling class in the South-West, it is just fitting that he should be supported as a payback for his kind deeds, towards the establishment.
The lawyer, being a leading member of the South-West ruling class, challenged those in the favoured cubicle, to prove if they had done more than Omisore in securing APC’s hold on the zone, even before he eventually joined the ruling clique. His exploits in other South-West states, especially in Ondo State, which APC narrowly retained, were also laid bare by the fuming lawyer. By the time, he was done, the leadership of the ruling clique, was done and undone.
The stance of the legal luminary runs through the rank and file of APC in the South-West, over the emergence of Senator Omisore as the most senior party man, from the zone. After the initial shock of Omisore who, and for which position, APC members are gradually reconciling themselves with the fact that he had always been a part of them, without them knowing, despite the picture of an enemy, some of their leaders, were trying to paint of him. It is also beginning to dawn on many of them, that before he was eventually openly tapped in 2018 by the ruling APC in Osun, to heave the governorship candidate out of PDP’s pit, there was already a relationship. At least, someone was the go-between, that brought everyone together, before the deal to deliver gareeji-olode to APC and Abere, to Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, was sealed, signed and delivered. Ekiti governor, Kayode Fayemi, was said to be the facilitator. Oyetola himself and Omisore are said to have decades-long friendship. With politicians, never say never. Regardless of who played what role, what isn’t in doubt, is that, aside then-Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his core far-right base, Senator Omisore obviously had a good relational with many APC stalwarts in the state, while running two elections, to upstage the governing party. Politicians’ ways, are just odd.
Miscreants, who are always baying for blood because of their loyalty to a political figure should receive sense and learnt from the come-and-see-Nigerian-wonder, playing out in the South-West. In a ridiculous turn of event, today, all those who had ruled Ogun State, of course, including the incumbent, are now in the governing APC. Today, Musiliu Obanikoro is very close to a return to the Senate, on the progressives’ bill. How can this not demotivate the unflinching loyalists inside the party? But the argument is, what is the relevance of those inside? What value are they adding to the party’s electoral fortune? Do they have the capacity to turn a bad electoral situation around? Can they be relied upon to salvage an almost impossible situation? It is not enough to be inside, you must have add value.
There is a joke about the distinction between being backed by a crowd (ero in Yoruba) and eniyan (quality personalities) in political contests. One eniyan (a fellow with massive electoral value) is much-appreciated than gbogbo ero (a massive crowd of no consequence). It is just like the situation on social media. A political figure with millions of following, will run an election and get stuck in the thousands’ column in vote number, especially, in presidential contests, when scattered millions of followers, should ordinarily translate to the spread, needed for the arithmetic threshold for victory. But it has been learnt in humiliating ways, that huge following doesn’t always translate to huge poll numbers and votes.
Also, the current leaders of the progressives, would have to choose what they want to be. They are either osaka, (purists without pretenses) or osoko (the perverted). The osakasoko (philosophy of convenience) way they have chosen is robbing them of respect from the rank and file and the curses being rained on them, for being Pharisees in daytime and Nicodemous at night, should be too much for any individual in a lifetime.
The leaders are perceived as using the preachment of Progressive Puritanism to handcuff followers from seeking the same help these leaders crawl around for. If they don’t shake things up quickly and take a definite stand, very soon, their followers would be holding exclusive after-party for the unthinkable.
The mood in the South-West, right now, is “teacher, don’t teach me nonsense”. Progressives eyeing victory in next year elections are now seeking alliances, everywhere, including quarters, about which in the past, they would have said, “over my dead body”. Their leaders have taught them nonsense.
and then