Osun Election Fallout: Aregbesola’s Aide Dumps APC, Joins PDP

By Ayodele Oni

A former Commissioner during the administration of Rauf Aregbesola in Osun State, Dr Wale Bolorunduro, has announced his resignation from the All Progressive Congress, (APC).

Dr Bolorunduro, who has joined the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP) explained that he deliberately deferred his resignation till after the governorship election.

In his speech, the former commissioner for finance stated “Today, I hereby resign the membership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) after eleven (11) years of active partisanship in the party.

“While my deportment, in August 2011 to ACN and APC (now) was by fate, I remain mortally grateful to Aregbesola for that singular act. I had used the opportunity to serve my state diligently and with the whole of my heart.

“As a top management staff of the current biggest bank in Nigeria, I had used my contacts in the industry to raise funds to modernize my state.”

The banker turned politician did not give reason for his dumping the APC, but from the tone of his speech, it is one of the fallout of lingering crisis within the ruling party in the state.

“My expectation from Utilitarian view is that the most ethical choice, no matter how difficult it is, should be the one that produces the greatest good for the greatest number, and I can say to a large extent, this had been met in Osun despite the meagre revenues, under the administration that I served (between 2011 and 2014).

“Unfortunately, this can not be said to have been met by many other APC-led states with humongous revenues. Likewise, the recent reckless abandonment of the developmental projects by the Administration that succeeded Aregbesola, the outgoing APC administration in Osun lends credence to the doubt, some people have on the sincerity of the progressive tendency.

“I have resisted the emissary sent to me, to look the other way, when they stripped off Aregbesola and continued to defame him on projects and programs that they were jointly and severally responsible for.

“I among very few others, resisted them and my resistance was based on moral value and disposition that truth must always prevail over fiction.

“After the 2022 Gubernatorial election, the recent vituperations and venoms, including spells, coming out of the party men, (who worked with the current Governor) have exposed the underbelly of the party in Osun and what to come.

“While I remain truthful to my values, it’s like the APC party at the Osun state level has gone beyond salvage with deceit, injustice, lack of fairness, unhealthy/needless rivalry and poor reward system that are aliens to what Awolowo stood for.

“There is a mortal departure from the old time progressive ideologies culminating in a loss of election by the incumbent APC governor, who was the Governor- in-waiting, during the eight year of the Administration of Aregbesola.

“My people in Oriade and Obokun Federal Constituemcy, the old time beacon of Awolowo’s progressivism in ijesa land have responded in the last governorship election through their votes in the two local governments and seriously, by their about fifty-five thousand (55,000) votes.

“I need no other proof of the clarion call of my people to align with their aspiration without changing my values, which I hold sacrosanct.

“The progress of the 2014 election had been reversed in my local government (Oriade) with APC loosing 9 wards out of 12 wards; exact opposite of what we had, when we started retrieving the popularity of APC Oriade in 2011, from PDP.

“Such is the fate of the APC party in many other local governments in Osun, now.

All politics is local and It is normal in any political clime that when, a councillor, the junior most government functionary leaves his position, he will have a saying in his ward (as part of the ward leadership caucus) on, who becomes next councillor and ward party executive.

“In APC, Osun, it was a complete aberration; as a former commissioner in a ward, who is yet to produce another, subsequent state officer, I don’t have a saying in the party exco at ward and local government levels.

“Likewise many party stalwarts. They took the party to the valley of shadow of shame, but some of us decided to fly to the TOP. Yes, they made bones and may God bless their little souls.

“The only option, is to disown the man, who led us to the party (in the first instance) and to join their Lordship, within the same party. This is morally bankrupt and “conscienceless” for me.

“Having served at the highest statutory level of the state, as the former commissioner of finance, it is no longer my wish to offer myself for state cabinet position in any administration of the state, so let no one make a mistake or an insinuation about my current compulsion to resign my membership of APC and to join the People Democratic Party (PDP).

“I have been in APC for eight years (after I left office) without any patronage, benefits or appointment, yet I worked for the party in the 2015 and 2019 federal election.

“I have consulted wisely and widely with my followers, admirers, friends and families, who felt we should pitch our tent with PDP, to join this party and to work with them to shine the light (Imole Osun).

“We would have done this before the 2022 Gubernatorial election, but knowing “them” it was better “to err on the side of caution”, for us to have Today, Tomorrow and future.”