Oyetola defeats Oyetola: Five reasons why APC lost Osun election

Governor Gboyega Isiaka Oyetola has lost the 2022 governorship election that was to return him to office for another four years.

I was privileged to cover the election last Saturday and learnt a few things about the state. By the way, Osun is my state of origin.

Ahead of the poll, I interviewed several people randomly, and my finding is that the outgoing governor did not lose to PDP; he lost the election to himself.

In many ways, the PDP candidate, Ademola Adeleke Nurudeen Jackson, cannot measure up to Oyetola in intelligence and decorum, many people have said.

But the governor committed several blunders he had chances to correct, which he failed to address for nearly four years.

First, Oyetola ignored the cry of the Osun people when the economy was biting harder, especially during COVID-19.

The matter got worse when people discovered that the food items shared in 36 states by the Federal Government and CACOVID were kept away in a warehouse in Ede.

And some of the food items had become rotten before people could break into the store during Endsars protest in 2020.

Also, a commercial taxi driver said to me that the governor introduced a tenement rate similar to what former governor Ambode started in Lagos.

“Government officials came to my apartment asking me to pay a tax of N15,000 on my house while I barely had enough to feed my family.”

Many others believe that it was unthinkable for the government to levy taxes on them when they needed palliative to survive COVID-19.

Okada taxi riders in the state also accused the government of sharp practice.

My bike man said the riders were asked to pay for uniform for the purpose of identification, but the government is yet to provide the uniform after collecting money.

More so,the government let lose some tax collectors that harassed them for daily levies.

Secondly, Oyetola is considered to be inaccessible.

Unlike former governor Bisi Akande who interacted with people through his public television programme called ‘L’abe Odan'; former governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola organised 'Gbagede Oro' as his way of interacting with the people, and his successor got feedback from the people through his television programme called “Aregbe Till Day Break”, but Oyetola did not engage with the people for feedback. Some saw him as a recluse.

Even APC members complained that there were no party exco meetings during his tenure. The party secretariat was always empty until election time, a member told me.

The poor access to the governor contributed to his political fall on Saturday.

Thirdly, Governor Oyetola failed to fix his broken relationship with the former Governor Rauf Aregbesola before the election.

Oyetola was Aregbesola’s chief of staff for eight years. He ran the state affairs with his former boss. People of Osun State believe that Oyetola influenced government policy in ways more significant than he was ready to take credit for.

For example, Oyetola reportedly was the architect of the half-salary policy of the Aregbe administration that got the former governor in trouble with the people.

As a member of Aregbesola’s kitchen cabinet, Oyetola got the ears of the governors more than many other appointees of Baba kabiru.

But when he became governor, he criticised his predecessor’s policies and actions in private and public. Even when close allies told him to manage his relationship with Aregbe for political expediency, he turned deaf ears.

Aregbesola now is having the last laugh.

The fourth, reason why he lost at the election is the perception of the people about Tinubu’s influence on the governor.

In the last four years, Osun people believe that Oyetola is one of the representatives of Tinubu political dynasty in the Southwest.

An average Osun man/woman, the state where many people obtain higher education, derides that kind of arrangement, especially when the leader is perceived as arrogant, manipulative and acquisitive.

In 2018, Tinubu said Osun state was not as rich as he was. It was a statement that many citizens of the state took to heart, waiting for a time to teach Jagaban a political lesson he would never forget.

That opportunity came Saturday July 16.

The fifth reason was the governor’s choice of campaign director-general in the person of Ajibola Basiru, a senator from Osun Central.

Basiru is often described by people I spoke to as disrespectful and arrogant. And his self-assured hubris cost the ruling party in the state an election they could have won without stress.

I got access to an audio file of discussions among APC members after the election. The conclusion was unanimous: Bashiru helped Gboyega to lose the election.

They said his effort to assemble 50 lawyers to contest the election would spell another defeat for the incumbent governor.

If Governor Oyetola were more discerning, perhaps he might not have met his Waterloo in a political battle he could emerge as victor.

Welcome Governor-elect Ademola Adeleke Nurudeen Jackson.