There is really no basis for Yoruba Ronu Advice, seeing it is a misguided and fraudulent argument in the case of the emergence of Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola as National Secretary of the ADC.
First, Aregbesola did not stab anyone, APC leaders were the ones who betrayed and stabbed him, like Julius Caesar was betrayed and stabbed by the same people he trusted, worked for and handed over power to.
So anyone trying to weave the fabric of disloyalty on Rauf Aregbesola is trying to invert the logic of the Caesar stabbing.
Secondly, there is nothing like working for the downfall of anyone in a democracy.
In a democracy, there is legitimate political competition between political parties. You work hard to defeat the incumbent – God willing and majority of the people voting for you.
President Tinubu (then AC) worked hard with Atiku (New PDP), El-Rufai (CPC) and others to defeat the then incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan, and torpedoed PDP for Buhari to become the president.
Thirdly, defeating someone in an election is not a military coup. People vote to prefer one candidate to another.
Winning is therefore conditional on a candidate connecting with and being preferred by the voters.
If Tinubu rules well and the people prefer him, he will win. If his administration is evil and oppressive, he will be defeated. That’s how democracy works.
It’s therefore in his hands, not what Aregbesola or other politicians do to him.
More fundamentally, the political association between Aregbesola and Tinubu is dead. It began deteriorating six years ago when Oyetola became governor and it will be illogical to refer to it now.
Aregbesola was expelled FOUR times by APC.
He was banned from coming to Osun by the APC government in the state.
He was shot at at Orisumbare Market in Osogbo.
His campaign office in Osogbo was riddled with bullets.
He was removed from Lagos GAC.
He was not included in the Osun Governorship and APC presidential campaign councils and warned specifically not to show up at the campaigns.
His coffin was carried in Lagos. He was undermined and then replaced in Alimosho.
His supporters were alienated, harassed, arrested and arraigned for criminal trial in Osun. They were also expelled from the APC.
So, where was Asiwaju and the author of this piece of disloyalty when all these were happening to Aregbesola?
For six years, he endured humiliation, embarrassment and persecution from Osun and Lagos APC in the vain hope that there would be reconciliation.
Now he has gone to another party. Suddenly he’s now being reminded of his long-standing relationship with Asiwaju.
Has the author of this piece ever reminded Asiwaju and APC of Aregbesola’s ‘long-standing relationship’ with them when they were running him through the meat grinder?
This just amounts to closing the barn’s door after the horse has bolted.
For the avoidance of doubt, Aregbesola and Tinubu are no longer politically together. They have been divorced.
People should please stop treating them as being politically together and stop placing demands on him as if they are.
It’s delusional to think so.
When you divorce your partner, it’s none of your business who they date thereafter. They can even date your brother or sister. It’s none of your business again.
Aregbesola had frozen his political life for six years but he is now moving on. It’s his right, it’s his choice.
I often ask people who raise the issue of their ‘long-standing political association’ what Aregbesola should do after they have pushed him out of their party.
They don’t have any answer. They just want him to retire from politics – he is not in APC and he can’t be anywhere as well. Sorry, I have bad news for you. He has moved on.
Life doesn’t work that way. When you are pushed out of where you are not wanted, you go to where you are valued.
His decision should therefore be respected and I hope this will put an end to the illogical sentiment of their ‘long-standing political association’.
Mufutau Atoyebi
Concerned Politician.
