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As the Osun Governorship Election comes up tomorrow, we The Osun Progressives (TOP) have been inundated with calls, questions and demands for our position by the media and our supporters and enthusiasts.
Fundamentally, we are unabashedly democrats of the progressive hue. We live its credo and our entire being is in it.
Our association, a caucus within the State of Osun All Progressives Congress (APC), was founded last year when we alarmingly saw the direction our party was going. It was like the falcon could no longer hear the falconer. We were filled with trepidation on the tempest long foretold.
We were at this junction before, in the run off to the 2003 General election. We feared that history might tragically repeat itself except we acted selflessly and forthrightly. Like-minded members and leaders of the party therefore came together to form the group, with the following objectives.
1. To promote internal democracy in the party
2. To ensure effective and efficient party management
3. To mobilise, reconcile and network for party development
4. To promote equity, fairness and justice within the party
5. To ensure transparency and accountability in party management
6. To foster level playing ground; and say no to imposition of candidates; and
7. To initiate programmes and activities for party development
The administration of our leader, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, produced a successor in Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, against all odds, by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. We worked hard on the mantra of continuity, the continuation of the giant development strides of the Aregbesola administration, which endeared the party to the people of the state, producing the victory that brought Governor Oyetola into office.
As a caucus within the party, we have consistently made strident efforts at peace and reconciliation within our party. For this, we have only asked for one condition, which is INCLUSIVENESS.
The State Governor and his henchmen, most regrettably, have turned his office and our party into a zero sum game. You are either with them or against them. They rejected any idea of INCLUSIVENESS. They rebuffed all propositions for peace and reconciliation and not even a Councillorship position was ceded to any other section of the party outside of the Ileri-Oluwa caucus.
Any party member that is not publicly demonstrating obscene loyalty to the governor and attacking Ogbeni Aregbesola or anyone remotely or directly associated with him is branded an enemy and marked for alienation from government and party offices. Worse still, the independent-minded party members not praise singing the Governor are subject to insidious and malevolent attacks.
The policy of exclusion in OSUN APC is so deep that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who is the immediate past Governor of the state and the current minister from the state was neither consulted, invited nor included in any party matter, the most recent of which is the APC’s Osun Campaign Council for this election. This posturing has riven the party.
Nevertheless, we remain unflinching members of our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and stand by its ideals, irrespective of our travails or even the outcome of tomorrow’s election. We are long distance runners and will not abandon the ship of our party, in calm or stormy waters.
God bless us all.
Lowo Adebiyi
Chairman TOP