Time, like light, is a revealer; in fact nothing tests the quality of any human or scientific inventions like time; that a product would endure to serve intended purpose could only be guaranteed by ability to withstand the test of time. Same way, the extent by which a social or human identity can survive depends largely on time and the capacity on the side of the drivers.
In Oyo State, everything was assumed alright within the fold of the All Progressives Congress, APC, until the trick of time subjected the structure of the ruling party to test, especially after the 2019 general elections.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi, the famed ‘koseleri’ former senator favoured to have broken the two-term jinx of leading the state was believed would annex the privilege of longer stay on the seat to navigate Oyo in the mold of Lagos where political leadership have constantly been in the hands of political base with progressive leanings regardless of how much it had metamorphosed.
Managing the APC in the ‘Pacesetter’ state should not then be a difficult task if the right thing had been done. Ajimobi should ordinarily have it all; the maturity that should come with age and of course, the privilege of sharing the same political structure with the government at the central among many.
But while it is Infantile to lay all the blames for the dislodgement of the party from the Agodi Governor’s Office on him alone, the outgoing governor played also disturbing role in allowing his garrulous dispositions to leadership derail him from focus and successfully drove away loyalists that could help him from the party.
Not just Ajimobi, the Saki-born Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu, a long-term associate of President Muhammadu Buhari from the days of Congress for Progressives Change, CPC, cannot also be exonerted from the collapsing fortune of the APC in the state.
For differences perceived to be irreconcilable, both Shittu and Ajimobi have failed to mend fences in the interest of the party; while Shittu not only wanted to replace the ‘koseleri’ occupier of the seat of government, he similarly vowed not to see any of his proteges replacing Ajimobi should he lose the bid to be governor and true to his words, although Shittu worked for the success of Buhari in the presidential election, not same could be said when it got to the governorship poll where the party lost to the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Already, the party is in shambles without a unifying face to retool and bring it back to reckoning.
Sadly, an Ajimobi that should do the magic has lost out and Shittu that should be the its reconciliatory icon is also faced with calls for his recall from the Buhari cabinet and frequent attacks on his competence as minister even as he continues to lose political relevance at home.
The question now is, who will mend the stitches? The hope that the gubernatorial candidate of the party in Oyo State, Oloye Adebayo Adelabu would do something seems to have crashed, not because he lost at the polls, but for touching base with the Ajimobi political machinery for which he was punished at the polls and for keeping distance from the party and reverberating accusation about his arrogance. He is feared to be more repulsive than the fading regime led by Ajimobi, therefore may not be the best with the Midas touch.
But some have looked in the direction of Chief Joseph Tegbe, a former governorship aspirant who was favoured to replace the governor until the last minute intrigue of his swap.
Friendly, generous and politically neutral, observers believe that if Tegbe was the one with the ticket of the APC in the March 9 contest, Engr. Seyi Makinde most likely would not be the governor in-waiting today.
In politics, another election starts the day one is won or lost, the APC in Oyo therefore stands the chance to reunite for a formidable battle in 2023 if it can trust the best hand which Tegbe represents today in uniting the party as a rallying figure.
Fortunately, the party still has controlling presence in its membership at the national assembly although with dwindled fortune in the state, this can redefine the fate of the APC in Oyo if the right person can man the job of reuniting foes and building party bridges in the days starting from now; I believe it will require a personality in the mold of Joseph Tegbe to achieve this daunting task.
The tickling of time starts now and one hopes those that should know will also act before it’s too late. Let Tegbe rebuild APC in Oyo.
