In the preparation for the state congress slated for 16th of this month, Oyo State APC elders’ Council announced the setting up of a zoning committee that will look into the possible zoning position for the incoming state congress, in her usual characteristics, one of the legacy parties, the defunct CPC, that merged to form the party in 2014 was never given consideration and was treated as scum!
Towards setting the record straight in the wake of general elections of 2015, merger took place among some prominent political parties in the country to form APC. The parties were CPC, ACN, ANPP and APGA. In Oyo state, at the time of merger talk, APGA was practically not on ground while ANPP too was barely existing in the state. The merger was actually between members of defunct ACN and the then CPC. And this really reflected in the contest between the 2011 candidates of the two parties in persons of late Gov. Abiola Ajimobi (of blessed memory) and Barr. Adebayo Shittu in 2015. The avoidable and practically needless fight between the duo, caused serious setback for the inclusion of CPC members in majority of decisions taken on behalf of the parties, because it was considered then that any position given to the CPC members was strengthening Barr. Shittu camp, distinction was not made between Adebayo Shittu Vanguard and the defunct CPC. In the 2014 exco, dubious permutations were created to give edge to the governor’s camp.
Positions were not distributed among the legacy parties, rather, the defunct ACN was bifurcated into two namely SENACO and LAMIST, the PDP members that came and joined the party were codenamed Reformed PDP. Thus, during congress, the positions were shared among these four entities including the defunct CPC members. This line of thought was the channel of administration adopted in apportioning positions within the party till the tale end of Governor Ajimobi’s government.
The crisis that bedeviled the party at the wake of 2019 general elections gave birth to unity forum. The unity forum at the inception was amalgamation of LAMIST, Reformed PDP and defunct CPC to fight governor’s camp, SENACO, during the 2019 party congresses, when it was evident that APC national office was throwing her back to governor’s camp, a decision was reached by entire Unity Forum to look for another platform to contest 2019 general elections, it is noteworthy that only the defunct CPC didn’t leave APC for another party. It’s worrisome today that those that left the party, to later rejoin the same, are given prominence far and above those of us that stayed back! As if that’s not enough, the Zenith Labour that recently joined the party was given positions in the recently conducted wards and local governments congresses across the state while we, members of the defunct CPC, fought all through before we could get positions in the said congresses. A cursory look at the recent nomination of members by Adebayo Alao Akala-led elders council into the Zoning Committee revealed that this ugly trend still subsists. The zoning committee has following 9 members with details of the group they represented:
Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle and Hammed Ayinla representing LAMIST, Olalekan Alli and Isiaka Kolawole are from the Abiola Ajimobi group i.e.SENACO, Monisola Tegbe is of the Zenith Labour Party, ZLP while Idris Adeoye is representing the Elders Advisory Council. Akeem Olatunji and Wale Adeleke are of the Reformed lPDP, while Musiliu Olaide Akinremi is a member of caretaker/extraordinary convention planning committee, CECPC, of APC. The question is who is representing CPC in this equation? Anytime this issue is raised concerning the lopsidedness of such formation, the lame response has always been “there is no more ACN/CPC/SENACO/LAMIST bla bla bla, We had become one!” As if it’s not the same groups being used to share positions.
The APC stands a good chance to reclaim her lost glory from the lackluster government of GSM, however, we should not take things for granted. I make bold to say that, as a group, we have structure across the 33 local governments, i won’t deride any group, search very well, how many of this group being given considerations have state-wide coverage? Even in the area they are, how many of them are still holding weekly meetings? As much as we are committed to the ideals of our dear party, we will not fold our arms and watch our rights to be taken away or be given to those who do not deserve it. We had paid our dues and members across the state deserve better treatment.
Sulaiman Abiodun Oyaremi is a Former State Chairman, the defunct CPC, Oyo State.
