Instead of us trying to tell ourselves the obvious truth about the 2026 election, we have decided to choose a route that will tear the party into shreds. But we can’t allow emotion to take centre stage, all in the name of fake peace. A ò lè t’órí kí ẹgbẹ́ má tú, ki ọmọ ẹgbẹ́ máa na ìyá alága ẹgbẹ́.
Let’s deal with the facts before we ask ourselves some important questions.
Let’s look at the home base of the National Secretary, Dr. Ajibola Basiru, which they keep hammering. APC lost in Osogbo by 6,006 votes and won in Olorunda by 1,157 votes. That’s a deficit of less than 5,000 votes.
In this home base that I just mentioned, we have Kunle Rasheed Adegoke, SAN, who is the APC senatorial candidate for Osun Central; we have Lekan Badmus, PhD, the current Executive Director at NPA; and we have Isa Niniola, SSA to the President, among other political stalwarts. Can we just say these three men also joined the National Secretary in sabotaging the party, or did they fold their arms and watch him damage the party?
Let’s look at Osun West, where the candidate was picked. APC lost by 44,955 votes. I want to believe all the leaders in that area also joined the National Secretary in deliberately working against the party.
APC lost Osun West Senatorial District by 28,000 votes in 2022, which was the total figure Governor Oyetola lost the entire election by. I wonder if the likes of Baba Ajao and Hon. Omolaoye, who were at the forefront of the Osun West agenda, also decided to sabotage the party in their local government, Egbedore, leading to the party’s loss by 8,000 votes.
APC lost in Iwo for the first time. The writers of the letter and their senders must also tell us the mercenaries deployed by the National Secretary to sabotage the party in that particular local government.
In the federal constituency of our candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, did people like Alhaji Jelil Adesiyan, former Minister of Police Affairs, and Hon. Taiwo Oluga, who are known close allies of our leader, Governor Gboyega Oyetola, also watch the magic hand of the National Secretary sabotage their efforts?
In Boripe Local Government, APC won convincingly in 2022 with an almost 14,000-vote margin. What could have eroded the popularity of the party to the point where it won by just 7,000 votes? Maybe the National Secretary also got involved in deciding who voted for which party in the area as well.
In Ayedire, where we have the Osun West senatorial candidate, Akin Ogunbiyi, APC also lost in his local government. I wonder if he was also planning to become the deputy governor in 2030 on a joint ticket with the APC National Secretary.
Did Hon. Remi Omowaiye, the campaign spokesman, also join the sabotage efforts of the National Secretary by watching the party lose Ilesha West?
Let’s take the absurdity of their letter to another level.
I wonder if Chief Bisi Akande, the pioneer chairman of the APC, was also planning to install one of his children as governor in 2030, which is supposedly the reason APC lost in Ila both in 2022 and 2026. That’s quite laughable though.
Is Kayode Adereti, the deputy governorship candidate of the party, also warming up to become governor in 2030, and is that the reason APC lost in Ife land? What role did the party chairman, Sooko Tajudeen Lawal, also play in helping the National Secretary to ensure APC lost in Ife?
Is the APC Campaign DG, Hon. Wole Oke, planning to become governor, and is that the reason he couldn’t deliver the two local governments he has represented in the Green Chamber for twenty years? Or was he also working for the National Secretary? I’m sure the answer is no.
All the weighty and visible efforts of Kehinde Olohunlalaaro, a known ally of the National Secretary in Ifelodun Local Government, could also be interpreted as internal sabotage by people who never appreciate good things in life.
If anyone decides to question the efforts of the National Secretary, they should simply ask the candidate himself. They should ask him how many times they met, the extent to which the National Secretary mobilised resources for him, and what transpired between both of them before and even after the election.
The National Secretary went to over 12 local governments with the candidate, where he was vocal about many failures and unfulfilled promises of Governor Ademola Adeleke. He told the Osogbo Elders Council, in the presence of the candidate himself, that no one should blackmail him or Osogbo people with any fake governorship deal. He reiterated the same position at the Ataoja Palace.
Dr. Ajibola Basiru, who was holding a senatorial ticket in 2022 and was blamed for the loss of the gubernatorial election, knew that the ticket he was holding would turn to “bread label” if the party lost. Is that argument logical? He is being blamed again. You can see that he is simply a victim of his personality.
Apparently, the greatest saboteurs of the party are likely those who went to sleep after they had insisted and ensured that the candidate should come from the West. Considering that the party lost the 2022 election by the deficit it recorded in the senatorial district and lost again in 2026 by 44,955 votes, could it be that they worked towards an agenda to favour Governor Ademola Adeleke and helped him emerge as governor for another term?
When they were creating needless communal issues between Ede and Ikire with the “Ẹ pana Ẹdẹ, ẹ tan ti Ikire” rhetoric, I wonder if it was the National Secretary who brought it up.
One thing was certain: if APC had won the election, the damage to Dr. Ajibola Basiru’s name would have been worse, with the narrative that he was not part of the success. What a victim. Whether the party wins or loses, there was a grand plan to make the national secretary a victim.
Instead of the party picking up the pieces and seeing how we can clinch some seats in the state and National Assembly elections next year, we are blaming one man for the responsibility of hundreds of men.
The group that wrote the letter are actually nonentities, but those who sent them should have come out for proper dialogue and let’s discuss what specific role was given to the National Secretary, Dr. Ajibola Basiru, that he did not play.
