How Disunity, Imposition, Leadership Failure Aided APC’S Defeat

THERE is a new poli cal order in the State of Osun. The Peoples Democra c Party (PDP) has clinched all the elec ve na onal offices in the state, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) is le without a single na onal assembly seat. This is a reccurrence of the 2011 general elec ons in which Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who was just about five months as the governor of the state, led the Ac on Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to win all the na onal assembly seats, and the presiden al elec on.

OSUN DEFENDER had predicted in its last week edi on that the PDP was posi oned to win two senatorial districts and six House of Representaves seats. The newspaper submi ed that Osun Central Senatorial District and three Federal Cons tuencies would be a ba le ground for both APC and PDP. However, the ba legrounds were all won by the PDP.

The defeat suffered by APC was foreseen and the party had been forewarned. OSUN DEFENDER had in its previous edi on reported that the party was approaching the general elec ons with a divided house. The medium noted that there was no ceable disunity among members of the APC.

OSUN DEFENDER noted that former governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s camp known as IleriOluwa and loyalists of the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, did not close ranks in spite of the dissolu on of The Osun Progressives (TOP).

Besides, the medium noted that part of the factors that contributed to the failure of the APC in the general elec ons was a weak campaign planning.

Findings revealed that the APC candidates were le to their fates by the party leadership. Unlike the PDP candidates whose campaigns were led by Governor Ademola Adeleke and other leaders of the party, the APC candidates had no party leader to lead their campaigns. It was noted that Oyetola did not lead campaign for any of the candidates, while other leaders of the party were no ceably passive during the campaign period.

One of the House of Representa ves candidate of the party in Osun West Senatorial District confided in the medium that Oyetola and the party leadership did not support them for the elec on.

The candidate who spoke under condi on of anonymity yesterday said: “I don’t know how to say it but the blunt way to say it is that Osun APC is in disarray. We don’t have a leader at all. We were le to campaign alone. The party did not support financially or morally.

“I need not to tell you that former governor Adegboyega Oyetola didn’t campaign for anybody through the elec oneering period, not even in his own local government. Was that how the party did in 2019? Some of us knew defeat was steering us at the face but we summoned courage.”

OSUN DEFENDER gathered that the Presidentelect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had few days to the general elec ons, gave each of the candidates of the APC huge amount of money.

According to sources, Tinubu gave a sum of N10m to each House of Assembly candidate, N20m to House of Representa ves candidates’ and N30m to the senatorial candidates.’

A House of Assembly candidate in Osogbo Federal Cons tuency told the medium yesterday that all effort to appeal to Oyetola to augment the cash gi from Tinubu proved abor ve.

He said: “Both the party and former governor Oyetola did not give us anything. Tinubu gave us N10m and we went to former governor Oyetola to inform him and ask for the party and his own support. He told us point blank that he could not give us anything; that he was instrumental to the money given to us by Tinubu. In spite of the cash crunch, if we had enough money before elec on, it would not have ended up like that. We hope to change the situa on this coming House of Assembly elec on.”

OSUN DEFENDER also noted that the manipulaon of the primaries of the party which produced the candidates of the party for the general elec ons also cumulated to the APC’s loss in the last Saturday’s elec on.

Members of the party who spoke with the medium across the state were unanimous on their submission that imposi on of candidates was the bane of the party’s defeat in the elec on.

Mr. Lekan Afolabi of Ward 5, Iwo, told the medium that APC leadership had imposed unpopular candidates on members of the party for the general elec on, saying that resulted into apathy and protest votes.

Afolabi said: “We knew it would result to this failure when the party leaders were imposing candidates everywhere. People kept silence since then and decided to show the pepper on elec on day.

“For instance, the senatorial candidate in Osun West is not popular but the power that be imposed it on us; that is the situa on in other zones of the state. How do you want a candidate who is not popular among his own people to win an elec on?

“Unfortunately, we do not have vibrant party leaders who could drive campaign. Your candidate is not popular and your party is also weak, how will you win an elec on? That is the situa on currently in Osun APC, and the former governor put us in this mess.”

Another member of the APC in Ila, Mrs Abosede Adegoke, said the party was out to fail in the elecon right from the beginning.

Adegoke said: “You don’t need any soothsayer to tell you since last year that the APC will fail woefully in the general elec ons. But the leaders and selfish people have been deceiving themselves and misrepresen ng facts. The poli cs of division and imposi on of candidates led us to this.

“I know so many members of the APC who voted against the party’s candidate in the last Saturday elec on as a protest against imposi on. The party should learn lesson from this. Let us allow internal democracy to thrive; imposing unpopular candidates will con nue to lead us to defeat.

“How do you appeal to somebody who cheated clearly during the kangaroo primary last year to work for your favourite now? Go and check every local government, members of the party are the one working against our candidates because they are imposed on them.

OSUN DEFENDER also noted that majority of the electorate in the state voted for all the PDP candidates to prove that Governor Ademola Adeleke actually won the July 16, 2022 governorship elec on.

However, the Director of Media of the APC, Chief Kola Olabisi, a ributed the electoral defeat of the party to violence allegedly unleashed on members of the party by the PDP.

According to Olabisi, the APC would have had a be er show in the elec on if there was a level playing ground.

He said: “We all saw what happened in the naonal assembly elec on; there was no a level playing ground at all. If there was a level playing ground, APC would have recorded such result. You know how members of the APC were killed in Ijesaland, Ila and other parts of the state.

“We have cases where some of these PDP thugs were chasing away electorate with dangerous weapons. There were instances where thugs declared that anybody that wanted to vote for APC should leave the vo ng centre”

The coming House of Assembly elec on might also go same way of the last na onal assembly elecon except for about three cons tuencies.

The medium noted that anger was s ll raging among the APC members, par cularly followers of aspirants who were denied cket by the party.

According to sources, members of the party were poised to work against the emergence of some of the House of Assembly candidates to show that they are not popular within the party.

But Olabisi appealed to members of the APC to put aside their grievances and work for the victory of the party in the coming House of Assembly elecon.

Olabisi said: “It is be er to fight inside the house rather than outside the fence. We all need to put out differences behind and work for the progress of the party so that we can enjoy the dividends of democracy together. In the spirit of party loyalty, I want to appeal to our people to work for the victory of the party.

“In every contest, only one person will emerge, once someone is pronounced the winner, I don’t see any reason why somebody who called himself or herself a complete party man to work against the interest of the party. There is internal mechanism to se le all grievances with the party and there is court of law too. Working against the party is not the best.

“To say that you are not vo ng or working for your party because your aspirant was not considered or given the cket is absurd. These people who are complaining, will they be happy if they were the candidate of the party and another set of people inside same party were working against them?

“My appeal to every member of the APC is to close their ranks and work together for the victory of the party.”