A recent article in the press by one of Oyetola’s apologists attacking Senator Iyiola Omisore is not journalism. It is a hatchet job, hurriedly put together after the August 15 electoral disappointment to shield Alhaji Adegboyega Oyetola from responsibility and to pin the APC’s collapse in Osun on a man who is no longer even in the party’s decision-making room. The entire narrative is political gaslighting. The allegations are baseless, and if the authors have any evidence to support claims of financial impropriety or anti-party activity, they should bring it forward. Until then, this is nothing but a smear campaign by a failed political structure looking for someone to blame.
To accuse Omisore of bitterness because he criticized Oyetola for the party’s loss is to criminalize dissent. Sharing a Yoruba Ewi video and holding leadership accountable for poor electoral performance is not “needless mockery” or “distasteful propaganda.” It is what party stakeholders do when a campaign fails. The real bitterness on display is from a camp that cannot accept that the people rejected its principal. Labeling Omisore a “frustrated bulldog” and “Atiku Osun” does not change the fact that Osun voters made a choice based on governance, not on WhatsApp statuses.
The claim that Oyetola “towers over Omisore by miles” because he was Governor collapses once you examine how both men arrived at relevance. Before 2018, Oyetola was largely unknown outside Osun Government House. He was brought into the state by President Bola Tinubu as Chief of Staff. His governorship and now his appointment as Minister of Marine and Blue Economy have all flown on Tinubu’s wings, not on any organic political structure he built himself. More importantly, the 2018 victory that made him Governor was not earned on his own strength. It was delivered on the goodwill, structure, and political weight of Omisore. The alliance with Omisore and the SDP in the runoff was what tipped the scale in Oyetola’s favor. To win two LGAs in Ifeland that year does not erase that debt. It only proves how significant Omisore’s influence was, even in his own base. To now turn around and mock the same man is political ingratitude of the highest order.
Blaming Omisore for APC’s failure also ignores the real reason the party lost: Oyetola’s miserable performance as Governor. Money is not everything, and there is a limit to what federal might can achieve at the ballot. People vote with their memory of governance. What did Osun people see in four years? A government that cornered federal appointments for his hometown and for his boys. All federal agencies and tertiary institutions within his reach went to his base. That is not leadership. That is greed, nepotism, and exclusion. The electorate were not ignorant. They knew what they wanted and they rejected a product of a lame duck administration. You cannot ride on a man’s structure to win in 2018, use office to concentrate benefits in one town for four years, deliver poor governance, and then blame that same man when the people vote you out.
The attempt to reduce Omisore to a “perennial loser” is equally dishonest and selective. Omisore is a self-made successful politician and businessman whose public life predates the 4th Republic. He was Deputy Governor in 1999, elected Senator, and has remained a central figure in Osun politics for over three decades. He has won elections, built institutions, and commanded a followership that sitting governors still court. Yes, he has lost elections, just like every major politician in Nigeria. But to cherry-pick 2011, 2014 and 2018 without context, to dredge up Agodi Prison and nullified polls, and to ignore the political realities of those periods is a lazy smear. The same APC that now calls him irrelevant courted him in 2018, rehabilitated him, and made him National Secretary in 2022. Was he competent then and suddenly incompetent now that he chose to speak on the party’s failure? The loss in 19 of 22 polling units in Moore Ward is being used to claim he has no grassroots, but elections are not won in one ward. They are won by movements, and Omisore’s movement has outlived many governments.
At the heart of this conflict is a difference in political philosophy. Omisore is a staunch believer in the rule of law, constitutionality and fairness. Oyetola is not. That is why he unilaterally imposed his preferred candidate on the party without broad consultation and expected the base to fall in line. When you govern with exclusion and run a party by imposition, you should not be surprised when the base revolts. The reckless claim that Omisore was removed as National Secretary in July 2023 over “issues surrounding the management of APC finances” is an allegation without proof. If there is evidence, publish it. If not, withdraw it. Sacking a National Secretary and then, two years later, blaming him for the party’s electoral misfortune is the height of cowardice.
Omisore cannot be held responsible for the greed, selfishness and poor performance that defined Oyetola’s tenure. Osun people have spoken. They voted for competence over entitlement, for inclusion over imposition. The APC lost because it took the people for granted, not because a video was shared on WhatsApp. If Oyetola and his handlers want to remain relevant in Osun politics, they must learn that there is a limit to what federal power and Abuja connections can buy. Eventually, the people will judge you by your record. On that score, Oyetola has nothing to campaign on except the wings of Tinubu. Omisore remains standing, not because of patronage, but because he built his name. And that is exactly what frightens them.
