TheCable

From a far, when you look at the Minister of Internal Affairs and former Governor of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, he cuts the image of a stoic and pious person. He went to great lengths to distinguish himself by using terms like Omoluabi and Ogbeni as appellations and even at one time attempted to re-arrange the name of Osun State to the State of Osun. 

The 2022 Osun State APC gubernatorial primary election has come and gone. Aregbesola’s candidate, Mr Moshood Adeoti, was expectedly trounced in the election held on 19th February 2022. His candidate lost  both in his ward and Aregbesola’s ward. Mr Gboyega Oyetola, the current Governor of Osun State, in contrast, won all the votes in his own ward in Iragbiji and was declared winner of the primaries. 

There is an idiom that says ‘what comes around , goes around’ . It means if someone treats people badly, he or she will eventually be treated badly. This is now the fate of Aregbesola. As Governor, he did not support free and fair party primaries but rather hand-picked candidates for most elective positions.  He was once Commissioner of Works in Lagos State. After, his term as Governor, he was rewarded with a Ministerial appointment. Life has been good to him. In a population of over two hundred million people, he has been blessed to keep getting important positions in Government. 

Aregbesola has been giving  lectures to the poor about how he is on a God-led mission to rescue the people of Osun State. He talks in messianic terms and justifies his action as God inspired. Nigeria needs patriots. People who believe in the country. People who will refuse to steal from their own country and take pride in it. Nigeria needs selfless and stoic leaders. Nigeria needs a detribalized leader, impartial, compassionate with  a sense of governance. Nigeria needs a new generation of accomplished leaders and not people of the old brigade. Aregbesola belongs to the parasitic brigade who bring nothing to governance and take everything away from it. 

He would like to be God Father of politics in Osun State like his benefactor in Lagos State. But he lacks the sagacity and people skill of his boss, Mr Bola Tinubu. He claims to have been a disciple of Tinubu and he was compensated with meteoric political rise. He, however, has forgotten the fate of disciples who went astray. History is replete with them.  Disgrace is always the end. Loyalty isn’t fair weather and a man’s depth is judged by this. His actions are corrupted by inordinate ambition. 

There is one other thing: nothing beats time and patience. Nobody is in power forever. No group keeps power forever. The trick is to know when to bow out or hand over the baton. I hope that Tinubu will look back, forward  and make a note of this in order that his closing chapter is not one like that of many past leaders: full of regret. The same blood runs through  him and his surrogate. Patience and time remains the answer.