A chieftain of the All
Progressive Congress in Osun State, Alhaji Fatai Diekola has said that the
ruling APC in the state is sharply fragmented, saying the future of the party
is uncertain and bleak.
Diekola was reacting to the a
newspaper report , which quoted the spokesperson of APC, Mr Kunle Oyatomi as
saying that the party in the state is one and united, with unalloyed loyalty to
the governor.
This is contained in a press
statement Diekola made available to journalists in Osogbo on Monday, saying
members of the party are divided and that the party cannot win the governorship
election of 2018.
“There is nothing romantic about
crisis within a political family, but we can’t afford to condone a lie that has
a tendency to drag us backwards in our quest to genuinely reposition the party
ahead of 2018.”
“As a concerned party member, I
have studied the press statement, I wish, I could maintain silence after
reading the poorly calibrated speech. The urge to respond to some of the
political notes extracted from the statement, is irresistible.”
“With much reluctance to believe
that Barrister Kunle Oyatomi genuinely meant some of the notes averred in the
party press statement. Further, it’s very doubtful that Barrister Kunle Oyatomi
had all round consultation with party bigwigs before he rushed to the press and
tagged the ‘brains’ behind the electoral success of Osun APC in the past, and
before things fell apart ‘dissidents.
“The diction and tone of the
press release worries me, it doesn’t reflect that important lessons had been
learnt from the concluded Osun West Senatorial bye-election.”
“However, I’m politically tempted
to sympathise with Barrister Kunle Oyatomi, as APC spokesman; he’s
understandably handicapped and under intense political pressure to promote a
facade of unity within Osun APC.”
“Recall, the same Barrister Kunle
Oyatomi issued a press statement before the concluded Osun West Senatorial bye
election where he dismissed and downplayed the existence of the aggrieved bloc
within Osun APC. The outcome of the bye election pointedly punctured his lie
and dismissed him as a naive party member constrained by the party position.”
“While I cautiously agree with
Barrister Kunle Oyatomi that unlike Osun PDP, we have one chairman in the
person of prince Gboyega Famodun and our Secretariat headquarters is along
Gbongan- Ibadan Road in the heart of Osogbo, unfortunately, Oyatomi forgot
albeit deliberately, to tell us the number of times the Famodun led APC state executives
had met, when last it held meeting at the state party Secretariat and how many
of its members in the state executives are currently aggrieved and
uncomfortable with the leadership of prince Adegboyega Famodun?”
“The time has come to say the
truth. Whist it might be inconvenient for the political cotton weights, and a
handful of politicians without a solid political base, masquerading as friends
and loyalists of governor Rauf Aregbesola. I believe we need to speak the
truth. And the truth is this: Famodun’s leadership is the biggest albatross on
the neck of Osun APC.”
“The failure of Osun APC state
leadership became manifest when we lost Osun West bye election to the Peoples
Democratic Party. If the leadership of the party in the state had guided the selection
process of the party without public display of bias against one of the
aspirants, may be, the result could have been much different.
“How would Barrister Oyatomi
convince party members and political watchers that party leadership is in
charge of a ruling party where a cabinet member gleefully appointed his brother
in-law as SSA legal without a murmur from the party leadership.”
“Quite to the contrary, we are
divided in Osun APC, but unlike PDP; we have one chairman whose politics and
leadership style have divided the party into two major blocs.”
“With the tone and diction of the
press statement released by Barrister Kunle Oyatomi, dismissing the ‘home based
politicians’ in Osun APC as ‘dissidents’, there is nothing suggesting that the
‘hawks’ in Osun APC are comfortable with the reconciliation process initiated
by the National Secretariat of our party.
“Notwithstanding this temporary
setbacks, we, the home based politicians in Osun APC have absolute confidence
in the national leadership of our party and strongly in support of its
political efforts to reposition the party in the state ahead of 2018
governorship election,” the statement reads.
How can the progressive lose election inspite of their change mantra? You dont need a prophet to see the hand ..... clearly
ReplyDeleteSai Baba!
Chanji Dole!
APC! Banza chanji!