APC member writes Buhari, asks president to intervene in Aregbesola, Oyetola feud

A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Taiwo Adebowale, has written an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, asking him to intervene in the feud between the two leaders of the ruling party in Osun State.

Gboyega Oyetola, the incumbent Osun governor, and Rauf Aregbesola, his predecessor and current interior minister, have been at loggerheads since the latter assumed office about three years ago.

Both men were allies with Mr Oyetola serving as Mr Aregbesola’s Chief of Staff when the latter was in office as governor. Mr Aregbesola also staved off opposition to ensure Mr Oyetola succeeded him in office.

Mr Aregbesola was recently seen on video addressing a gathering in Osun where he told them that the APC in the state had split into two and he controlled one of them.

In his open letter to Mr Buhari, Mr Adebowale, who described himself as a ‘dedicated member’ of the APC, said, “the unhealthy rivalry playing out today between two leading stakeholders in the state, if not quickly addressed by way of amicable resolution, will have negative impact on the governing APC, and ultimately for the state in the long run.”

He warned that the APC risks losing the governorship seat to the opposition party, PDP, if the feud between Mr Aregbesola and Mr Oyetola is not resolved.

“That the opposition is already warming up to exploit the disunity in our party to supplant us and install themselves in power in the July election is no longer in doubt. Mr President, sir, you must not allow this to happen,” Mr Adebowale said in the letter copied to other APC leaders including ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu and ex-Osun governor Bisi Akande.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the governorship election in Osun holds in July and Mr Oyetola is expected to seek a second term in office.

Read Mr Adebowale’s full letter below.

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI

RE: OSUN STATE APC CRISIS

Your Excellency,

First, I wish to express my deep appreciation for the outstanding leadership you are providing not only for our great country but also for our durable and vibrant party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the midst of a multitude of seemingly daunting challenges besetting us on all sides. To say you have more than enough headache to deal with on your us plate is an understatement. We appreciate the enormity of the difficulties and pay homage to your diligence in striving to get the best results for us as a people.

However, Mr President, in imposing perspectives to the challenges confronting us today, I wish to respectfully draw your attention to the worsening crisis in our party, APC, the ruling party in Osun State, which is my state of origin. For the avoidance of doubt, I am a loyal and dedicated member of the party in my state and that makes me, with all sense of humility, a deeply concerned stakeholder in the affairs of my state.

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Considering this established connection, it is incumbent upon me to point out with humility that the unhealthy rivalry playing out today between two leading stakeholders in the state, if not quickly addressed by way of amicable resolution, will have negative impact on the governing APC, and ultimately for the state in the long run.

It is for this reason, Your Excellency, that I passionately appeal for your most urgent and profound intervention – in the interest of our party and for the continued development of Osun State – in the very disturbing dispute between the immediate past governor, His Excellency, Rauf Aregbesola, now Minister of Interior, and his successor, His Excellency, Governor Gboyega Oyetola. These two distinguished and highly respected sons and leaders of our party in Osun State have been squabbling for some time now. Now, Your Excellency, is the time to step in and bring lasting peace as the pre-eminent leader of the party and father of the nation.

Your urgent intervention is imperative, Mr. President, in view of the Osun State gubernatorial election scheduled for July 16, 2022. Time is not on our side, sir. The crisis in the ruling APC in Osun State manifested in two leaders who are more like brothers but now at daggers drawn, is clearly in the best interest of the opposition party. Remember, Mr. President, that Osun State is naturally a progressive state, like its counterparts in the southwest zone. But the state is unique in the sense that it is the only state in the zone won by the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the 2011 presidential election. Incidentally, the ACN turned out to be a highly valued forebear of the APC, and significantly, its candidate in that sweet victory in Osun was none other than the beloved Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who is today an eminent and hugely treasured member of our party.

To that extent sir, we cannot afford to toy with such a state whose people so much cherish progressive politics that they cannot contemplate embracing retrograde conservatives in government. That the opposition is already warming up to exploit the disunity in our party to supplant us and install themselves in power in the July election is no longer in doubt. Mr President, sir, you must not allow this to happen.

If we allow the crisis to fester, the supporters of our leaders will turn against each other as they are already doing, and destruction of lives and property will intensify in the state. Fathers are turning against mothers, brothers against brothers, sisters against sisters and friends against friends and no one can predict where the cycle of violence will end. And much worse should it persist, the opposition will take over Osun, and the remarkable achievements of former governor Aregbesola and the consolidation of those achievements by the incumbent governor Oyetola will be reversed in a most disastrous manner and the good people of Osun and our party will be the worse for it.

Mr President, this is the predictable outcome of not acting now, sir. As our leader and our father, I beg you in the name of Almighty Allah to please act now by calling the two leaders to a table and resolving the quarrel once and for all.

Thankfully, neither Aregbesola nor Oyetola has said he is leaving the party. So, that makes the task of reconciliation a warm possibility.

I thank you immensely, sir, for all you have done so far to change our country, Nigeria, for the better. I look forward to your earnest intervention in the Osun APC crisis.

I am your loyal compatriot,