Tinubu/Aregbesola face-off: Civil society group, calls for reconciliation

As the face-off between the National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, continues to rage, a group, League of South West Civil Societies (LSWCS), on Tuesday in Lagos called for reconciliation between the duo, warning that such intra-party wrangling in the past had adversely affected the region negatively.

The group made the call at a press conference it addressed at Onigbongbo area of the state, saying it was already embarking on such option as it could not afford to fold its hands while things go wrong, even as it noted that the two personalities were very important to the South-West geopolitical zone and the country as a whole.

Taiwo Adeleye, who read the statement jointly signed by himself, and others, including Messrs Samson Adekoya, Wale Arogundade, Samuel Ogunsona and David Ajetunmobi on behalf of 17 groups comprising the Agbekoya and the Oodua Hunters Union, posited that reconciliation was imperative, recalling that such wrangling in 1964 between the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his deputy, Chief Ladoke Akintola and in old Ondo State between Chief Adekunle Ajasin and Chief Akin Omoboriowo had led to riots, arsonists and killings which had a far-reaching impact on the region and Nigeria.

“We do not belong to the school that thinks the crisis must linger. It is an ill wind that blows no one any good. It is a dispute that can set the entire South West on the path to internal combustion.

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“We, the civil society, grassroots organisations and community-based groups across Yoruba territories will set up a committee that will explore the potentials of reconciling the two personalities, bearing in mind that the disagreement is also on certain principles upheld for decades by Comrade Rauf Aregbesola. We shall be briefing the people and the press on the outcome,” Adeleye said.

The group, while insisting that there was no dispute that cannot be resolved, said it was of the belief that the attacks on the minister were unnecessary and must stop, declaring that Tinubu and Aregbesola had come a long way, and it was wrong for some to be alluding to the fact that one made the order.

According to Adeleye, the two of them had been proud of each other which they talk about publicly, warning those who believed they can benefit from the crisis by fuelling it to desist from such act.

“Our position is that the attacks on Aregbesola are unnecessary and must stop,” Adeleye cautioned.