By Tunde Gbadamosi
As the race towards the 2027 general elections gathers momentum, there is growing concern in the Oyo State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC).
The once domineering party in the Pace Setter State is already looking in tatters with many leaders of the party being sidelined from federal appointments as well as excised from the party’s activities.
The genesis of the APC problem in Oyo State is the appointment of Adegoke Adelabu as Minister of Power.
Adelabu, it could be recalled, left APC and contested the Oyo State Governorship election under the Accord Party’s platform in 2023.
Unfortunately, he was the first to get an appointment at the centre as the Minister of Power.
Since his appointment, he has been boisterous telling those that care in the APC in Oyo State that being a Minister, he is the leader of the party in the State.
He has also been heard saying that he has the ears of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This latter claim now appears right –if the fact that most of his cronies who followed him to Accord Party have got federal appointments, is a parameter to gauge same. One of them is even holding more than one appointment.
Since his appointment as Minister and deploying his claimed closeness to President Tinubu, Chief Adelabu has been nominating and securing appointments and party patronage for only the people that went with him to Accord Party, thus totally abandoning the loyal and dedicated APC members who stayed in the party despite losing in the primaries.
It is this stance that led to the humiliating defeat of the APC in penultimate Saturday’s by-election of Ibadan North federal constituency (House of Representatives seat).
The seat was earlier occupied by the APC legislator, Prince Olaide Akinremi Jagaban, who unfortunately died last year.
APC lost in all the 12 wards in the election, according to results publicly released by the electoral umpire.
This wasn’t a surprise to political watchers and politics analysts who had seen the way Adelabu personalized the nomination of the APC candidate, Hon. Adewale Olatunji Murphy–a development that caused ripples among other aspirants before the by-election.
He also sidelined APC leaders in the state in the build-up to the by-election, probably thinking victory at the poll would give him an automatic ticket to contest the 2027 governorship election in the state.
Now that he has failed, and woefully too, some concerned APC members are calling on President Tinubu to consider the removal of the Minister of Power, Adelabu, allegedly owing to the growing concerns about his capacity, leadership style, and poor decision making.
To these concerned APC members, his continuous actions may seriously harm the government and APC in Oyo State ahead of the 2027 election.
Reacting to the outcome of the by-election in Ibadan North federal constituency, where the Minister led the APC to a humiliating 12-0 defeat, the Concerned Progressive Leaders in Oyo State said the unimpressive growth in the nation’s power sector and the reality that many parts of the country are still in darkness, affecting livelihoods, among others, might not be totally unconnected to the failure of Adelabu’s handpicked APC candidate at the poll.
The leaders, who expressed sadness over the party’s abysmal performance in the election, disclosed that the unilateral imposition of the unpopular candidate on the party for the election, what they described as alleged arrogance, poor human relations and allotment of positions and government patronage allegedly crippled the party in Oyo State.
In a press statement signed by the Chairman of the Concerned Leaders, Chief Tejumola Adisa, the leaders averred that APC failed woefully in the by-election allegedly as a result of the Minister’s poor decision of single-handedly picking an unpopular candidate out of “the more qualified and popular aspirants that bought forms” for the APC House of Representatives contest.
“In a reckless display of naked power, the Minister without any recourse to party leaders in the Local Government and the state, arrogantly imposed Mr Adewale Olatunji, who had not been associating with the party, against more reputable and acceptable active party members, that included former Local Government Chairmen and former members of House of Assembly.
“At the end of the day, Adelabu’s imposed candidate was roundly defeated in all the 12 wards, including his polling unit, where he struggled to win just 6 votes. Insensitive to diverse perspectives, unmindful of plurality of the state and total neglect of the loyal and dedicated members of the All Progressives Congress,who worked for the success of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the party in 2023, when Adelabu abandoned the party to take the gubernatorial ticket of the Accord Party, the Oyo State Minister gave the three major appointments allocated to Oyo State to only members of his Accord Party in just one Local Government.
“Exercising his power as a Minister, Chief Adelabu made Mr. Rasheed Adegboyega, a failed House of Representatives aspirant of the Accord Party in Oluyole Federal Constituency, the Executive Director, Corporate Services of Rural Electrification Agency.
“Adelabu also made the President appoint the leader of the Accord Party in Oluyole Local Government, Hon. Ibrahim Olaifa, as the representative of Oyo State in the all-important South West Development Commission,” the statement read.
It added: “Capping his inane appointments, Minister Adelabu misled President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in appointing another person from Oluyole Local Government as the Oyo State Commissioner for Federal Character Commission. This position was given to the failed candidate of the Accord Party, Mr. Ayodeji Abass Aleshinloye. Unbelievably, Aleshinloye already had another federal appointment facilitated for him by Adelabu before last week’s appointment.
“In a state of 33 Local Government Areas, it speaks to fatuousness, height of insensitivity and recklessness, which bordered on poor leadership, meagre thinking for a so-called leader to give three available appointments to persons from just one Local Government and all from his former political party,” the leaders noted.
They therefore urged the President to consider the immediate removal of the Minister for what they alleged was his obvious lack of capacity and ability to take good decisions and lead effectively before further harm is done to the government and the APC.
In addition, the APC stalwarts called for the annulment of all the weird appointments done by Adelabu, urging for a sharing of the positions “reasonably and justly among the three senatorial districts of the state.”
The President and party leadership should act now before the Minister destroys the party completely in the pacesetter state. A stich in time…
*Gbadamosi is a public affairs analyst based in Ibadan , Oyo State .
PHOTO CAPTION: Adelabu.
