Elder Moses Adelowo Adebiyi is the immediate past Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State. He is currently chairman of a caucus in the party, The Osun Progressives. In this interview with TIMOTHY AGBOR, he speaks on why the caucus was formed, the crisis rocking Osun APC and preparations for the forthcoming congresses in the state.
The Igbimo Agba, an elder caucus of Osun APC announced your suspension after you and other Chieftains of the party formed TOP, why did you form TOP?
Before the formation of TOP, I met His Excellency, the Governor of Osun State and I gave him the 7-point agenda on the restructuring of the party. I think you are aware of what happened during the 2018 Governorship election where the Governor won by a very close margin and I believe there are lots of things to do in order to prevent a repetition of that experience. The party needs to be repositioned and restructured for future elections and I gave my proposal to the Governor. These are parts of my recommendations to the Governor: First, to identify the reasons for the poor performance of the party in 2018 during the Governorship Election.
I also recommended that the Governor should identify ways and proffer solutions in order to improve working relationship between the electorate, the party members and the Government. Third, set up a process of monitoring and evaluating government’s policies for feedback mechanisms. If we have any Programme at the party level or even Government, there should be a feedback from members and members of the public. Fourth, to provide effective means of ensuring synergy for the party structure; the monitoring of meetings of the unit, wards, local governments and federal constituencies, Senatorial districts to the State level.
Fifth, I asked the Governor to make party-based inputs into policy formulation of government; party policy implementation and evaluation for effective service delivery. Sixth, to reconcile identified aggrieved members of the party; to ensure smooth relationship between the leaders and the party structure for good performance in the forthcoming Ward and State party congresses, local government and state elections. To improve relationship between the party, private and public sector in the State; for example, labour union, artisans, transport unions, agriculture sector and market women. We should also come together to liaise properly with individuals, groups and political parties, sharing the same vision, wishing to collaborate, integrate or merge with the APC for effective service delivery. And the last one is to recommend to appropriate quarters, critical findings, gathered from the field, with a view of overall improvements on Government, party and interface relationship. All these were my recommendations to the Governor over a year ago and nothing has been done concerning them.
So, you and other leaders and Chieftains of the party decided to break away and form a caucus because of Governor Oyetola’s refusal to accede to your recommendations?
I don’t know why they are making so much noise about the formation of TOP. This is not the only caucus in the party. Nothing makes it different from Ilerioluwa caucus that is loyal to the Governor. When we discovered that the Governor was not ready to be serious with the recommendations, we went to Ila-Orangun at Chief Bisi Akande’s house, of which Chief Akande called us (APC leaders and Chieftains) for a meeting and all of us agreed that there are issues and there are problems in the party.
Chief Akande then set up committees, one per Federal Constituency. But till date, no report from those committees to make effective changes to party structure. After this, we believe we are all stakeholders and for me, I believe we have limited time to make necessary changes. If the Governor or others are comfortable, we in the TOP are not comfortable with the state of the party, hence, the formation of TOP. And we believe the objective of this caucus is to promote internal democracy in the party; that is the basis of our formation. That is, all political posts in this party should be democratically contested. We also seek effective and efficient party management. The party must be able to sensitise, mobilise and reconcile but nothing is happening in Osun APC. The party Secretariat has been totally deserted and the caretaker Chairman has been using his private residence as office. We formed TOP to promote equity, fairness and justice within the party.
Are you saying there is injustice in Osun APC?
Serious one. Recently, at the State Assembly, scores of APC members protested against our party over the Local Government caretaker nominees of the Governor. The members said the Governor was not just and fair in the appointments of the caretaker committee. We have been complaining of this injustice since and now you see that it’s manifesting. I was told that our members, APC members, not PDP, went to the house of the Chairman of the Elder caucus and almost set it on fire because of injustice. We say no to imposition of candidates. Let the party members have a say. In this forthcoming Congresses, all we are saying is that majority should have their way while minority should have their say.
The Congresses, according to the party at the national level, will hold on July 24. What are you doing in preparation for it?
We have been planning for that. The essence of TOP is to see to Congresses and not even the Governorship Election for now. After the party Congresses from the Ward, local government and State, then, we can start talking about Governorship Election.
We understand that the Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior is the one bankrolling you against Oyetola. Is this true?
Those are personal issues. With the objectives of TOP that I have stated, do you find anything relating to Aregbesola or Oyetola there? We are talking of party issues! What concerned me about their rift? That’s their personal issues. Let us have a party, we are all stakeholders. If they are friends, good, if they are not friends, that’s their personal issue. We are not babies. If Aregbesola believes in this course, he can support us. If Oyinlola believes in the course, he can as well support us. I met the governor first on my own and gave him these recommendations. So, I don’t have anything personal against anybody.
The party declared your caucus illegal and you were suspended by the Elders caucus. Do you think you are still recognised in the party?
I don’t want to use foul languages against elders. If my suspension is the sacrifice I have to make, I am ready. We have been trying to avoid the crisis we are experiencing now in Osun APC but since no one is ready to listen to us, it can’t be escaped. Since Friday, we have been having crisis across all levels of the party in the state. I have to appeal to people in my party not to go to PDP because a lot of people are going to PDP in Osun because of injustice. I have a leader in Osun here, a member of Igbimo Agba caucus, the son was the Chairman for nine months, he was appointed again for three years and again, now in the just constituted Local Government Caretaker committee. So, does it mean no one else can be the Chairman of that local government except the son of this elder? Is that justice? And that’s why party members are protesting because they are not fair to people, they only care about themselves.
Do you think this crisis will affect the chances of the party in 2022?
That’s why we are clamouring for the restructuring of the party before the election. We believe that at TOP, we are going to have our way by the grace of God. We have members of the party behind us; we have the people behind us. The Osun APC caretaker executives are just leaders by name. They have no followers and that’s why we have crisis.
What we now see is protest everywhere by members of our party against the caretaker committees appointed by the Governor because they were handpicked secretly without input by any party members. That is imposition of candidates. You have the girlfriends of some leaders in APC among the LG caretaker list parading as Local Government Chairpersons. How can we justify that? So, we believe that restructuring of the party will bring equity and fairness before going to the public because this is our internal crisis. And we have a lot of groups in Osun APC. We have Ilerioluwa group, we have Oranmiyan group, we have legacy, we have a lot of groups in the party, why are they against TOP? Because they believe we are saying the truth. They know what is happening but they want to keep quiet because they are gaining from this crisis. All we await now is the Congress. We are expecting the National Committee of the party from Abuja to come and conduct the Congress for us. They are the ones that will tell us the modalities. Whether it would be open, secret ballot, A4 among others. We are expecting the committee from the National Secretariat anytime from now. We are already paying into the account of the party to purchase forms for the ward congresses.
With this crisis in Osun APC, do you see peaceful Congresses in the State?
Of course. If it’s fair. It’s the normal policy in democracy set up. The Constitution says all party Executives should be democratically elected. That is the beauty of democracy and not affirmation alone, not consensus. If you have consensus, fine but if you don’t have, go to the field, let people elect those that will lead them. That’s the essence of democracy and that’s what we are championing.
Does your caucus have candidates for the Congresses?
Yes. From ward to state. We have good candidates on behalf of TOP. We only have two groups in Osun APC that would be contesting in these Congresses, TOP and Ilerioluwa. Whoever wins the elections will take over the management of the party. We will still reconcile. We have personal differences and when the time comes, we will come together.
One of Oyetola’s Commssioners once said that Aregbesola would lead the second term campaign of Governor Oyetola. How will you react to this?
It’s laughable! Like Obasanjo would say, ‘I dey laugh o’ Let’s wait till that time.
