Kunle Oyatomi is the Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, for the All Progressives Congress in Osun State. He tells TIMOTHY AGBOR how Governor Gboyega Oyetola will win the 2022 governorship election with a wide margin despite the crisis rocking the ruling party, which he blames on the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
The Osun APC has never been this divided. What actually caused the crisis the party is currently battling with?
Honestly, if you ask me as you have asked, I cannot say I know what took place and exactly where we got it wrong for the party to have been this divided. There is nothing wrong in being ambitious but be ambitious to some level of reasonability and rationality.
In politics, number is the game and this situation around, we don’t want a situation where you need to win with 5,000, 100,000, like Aregbesola did in 2014, with 100,000 votes. We are one house, one family, we should be treated as such. I wonder why we will have a party, the chairman goes this way, the secretary goes the other way. It is not healthy, no matter what. So, I am saying this thing faithfully and sincerely, I have my loyalty to the current regime of Adegboyega Oyetola. If we don’t allow division to happen, we will see how smooth our victory will be. This next election, I am not bragging, we will defeat the opposition with a wide margin that will be shameful for them.
You mean with the current division in the party and many splinter groups?
I tell you, nothing is there forever. It is permanent interest, not permanent political affiliation or whatever. If there is anything that the TOP (The Osun Progressives) wants to do, it should be done within the ambit of the party’s constitution. In fact, for all the people I know in TOP, there is no way they will leave the APC and join other parties;
they are essentially members of the APC. They know what we have gone through, and they know where we are today. If people have not tested Governor Gboyega Oyetola with that leadership role, they wouldn’t know what he is capable of doing. Governor Oyetola has garnered support so fast than when he came in. Being a Governor today, he has done fantastically well. I am not given to say things half way, but I tell you that the man has proved himself to be competent and capable and very honest in the governance of this state.
But some of those who broke away from the party alleged that Governor Oyetola caused division in APC and that he has been seeing those loyal to Rauf Aregbesola, former Governor of the state, as enemies. How do you react to this?
It is the other way round. This is Kunle Oyatomi, I have no inclination of becoming either commissioner or adviser in his government, and Oyetola knows my worth. Everybody cannot be in that government and we don’t need to fight over this issue. The soul of APC is what everybody is striving to have but it shouldn’t be a do-or-die matter. Don’t be shocked that, at the end of the day, my former governor, Rauf Aregbesola, will head the campaign of Governor Gboyega Oyetola. So, what we are saying now is that people must not go into roforofo (dirty) fight, we don’t need it if we have to go further.
Are there efforts being made by the party or even the governor for true reconciliation?
You heard what the governor told them (aggrieved members) a few days ago, that in unity, we could achieve more, better results. He was pleading with members of the party to reconcile. APC is so lucky and we should not throw away our luck. The only way that your efforts can be seen is for you to support the candidate that we have now (Oyetola). I know the opposition likes the kind of thing that is happening in APC and PDP are even sponsoring some (APC Chieftains) to cause chaos. Osun is a state that has been so lucky with the progressive movement, what you are seeing today didn’t start yesterday, and like I said, Oyetola even surprised the opposition.
“If we don’t allow division to happen, we will see how smooth our victory will be. This next election, I am not bragging, we will defeat the opposition with a wide margin that will be shameful for them”
Feelers have it that those who have been fighting the party, allegedly including Rauf Aregbesola, may be suspended after the state congress, do you also see that coming?
Has anybody said that? No! That kind of thing will not happen except they have gone to the extreme. And in fairness to everybody, nobody wants to go that far. In destroying the party, you are destroying yourself. Is it when APC is no longer in power that I will walk freely in Abeere (State Government Secretariat)? It’s a pride that we still have APC government in the state and it must be protected. The governor has been doing the right thing in the party. Adegboyega Oyetola will do far good things to make the party stronger and purposeful. That’s why I said that even the opposition party doesn’t have anything to campaign with. So, it’s a herculean task for anyone to say Oyetola won’t do second term. Who then will?
What do you think will happen in the party after the parallel ward congress held recently?
The aggrieved will eventually come home. You may be surprised that Aregbesola will lead the campaign for Oyetola’s second term. He (Aregbesola) is not struggling to become governor again. He has done his bit and done it beautifully well and to advance that beauty, that is why you have Oyetola.
