Dear Oyo APC members,
I have decided to address this frank message to you all. I hope it meets you well.
It is deeply concerning how some APC members have been making derisive remarks against governorship aspirants they are not supporting simply because they (the members) support other aspirants. This is acutely unhealthy and is detrimental to the efforts of uniting the party being actively prosecuted by our leaders in the state.
Therefore, I humbly appeal to us to desist from running down aspirants for elective positions, especially governorship, in our party. At the level of aspirantship, we all have individual aspirants we support. But when a candidate emerges from among all the aspirants, the candidate becomes ours to support and work assiduously for to achieve victory during elections. Such a candidate may be your aspirant or another member’s aspirant. It may swing any way. It’s counterproductive to make enemies out of supporters of other aspirants because we have ridicule their aspirants. Calling aspirants ‘jokers’, ‘comedians’, etc. because they aspire for what aspirants we support gun for is a further polarisation of Oyo APC.
It is incontrovertible that Oloye Saheed Oladele is my governorship aspirant in Oyo APC. Yet, I won’t degrade, ridicule or run down other governorship aspirants as long as they emerge from my party. I reserve my acerbic engagements for oppositional candidates from other parties.
What has been eluding our party is unity. Disunity has ensured that we have been out of government for more than six years. Our refusal to work and walk together continues to batter us to crushing defeats. Aren’t we tired of being a defeating opposition?
Our leaders in the state are taking assidous actions to ensure that all grievances are addressed, all flying tempers cooled and all factions brought together. As members of the party, it’s incumbent upon us to assist our leaders in the process of returning unity to Oyo APC. We are making their efforts difficult by passing sardonic comments on aspirants that we do not support. We can actually help to bring our grudging aspirants together by seeing all aspirants as members of our party with right to aspire to any office. We can support our individual aspirant in peace and oppose aspirants we do not support with decorum.
As 2027 election approaches, it will be suicidal for us to re-carry over the bickering and skirmishes of 2019 and 2023 to 2027. I prefer being in the ruling party to being in a idly oppositional party. I believe you all desire same. Let’s bury the hatchet and hold hands to walk together and work our way to victory.
May God bless Oyo APC!
May God bless Oyo State!
May God bless Nigeria!
Your ardent fellow member,
Maroof Asudemade
Ward 3, Constituency 1
Ibadan SW LG
