How Tinubu, Akande Settled Aregbesola, Oyetola

By GWG Staff

The face-off between Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State and his immediate predecessor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has been partly settled with both men told to sheath their swords in the collective interest of their common political affinity.

The peace meeting mediated by the National Leader of the All Progressives Party, APC Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and a former governor of Osun State, Chief Bisi Akande, according to multiple sources, however, will reconvene to settle some other deeper matters. Thursday’s meeting hosted in the Ila Orangun, Osun State country home of Chief Akande reportedly lasted about three hours.

The National Leader who is believed to have blood ties with Oyetola and fraternal political relations with Aregbesola, it was gathered, was put in a difficult position over the matter as the camps and associates of both men openly exchanged words in the days leading to the second anniversary of the Oyetola administration penultimate Friday.

At the meeting last Thursday, both men were said to have opened up on their issues with Aregbesola reportedly expressing concern over the reversal of several of his programmes and policies by the present administration in the state.

Mostly affected were policies in the education sector including the single uniform policy and the categorization of schools.

The incumbent was, however, said to have responded that his action in reversing some of the programmes were based on popular demand.

“The governor during his campaign when asked on whether he would change Aregbesola’s policies had said that he would only do so if the people desired the change and you would agree with me that the governor has acted according to what people wanted,” a source familiar with the developments confided in GWG.

However, beyond the issues of reversal of polices were alleged political undertones flowing from perceived challenges facing the former governor.

As the source said “You cannot dissociate his issues in Lagos from what is happening in Osun. He wants to sustain his legacy in Osun. After what happened in Lagos with the dissolution of his political network (Mandate Group) he needed to rebuild his base in Osun,” one source privy to the development said.

Another source while observing the former governor’s frustrations said:

“You cannot remove him in Lagos and also ask him not to cry.”

However, another source revealed that the differences between the two men were deeper and flowed from 2019 with Oyetola reportedly making friends with those who had been Aregbesola’s political enemies.

At least two sources said that one of the issues was that Oyetola allegedly nominated Senator Iyiola Omisore ahead of Aregbesola for the state’s ministerial slot in 2019. However, GWG was not able to confirm this.

Even more, the Aregbesola camp was said to have been peeved that the governor’s camp was allegedly not coy about its achievements as compared to his predecessor especially in the areas of provision of road infrastructure and regular payment of salaries.

The two political leaders, Asiwaju and Chief Akande it was gathered were able to mollify both camps despite deeper issues which sources said would still be resolved at another time in Lagos.

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