Inside Details Of How Southwest APC Leaders Outfoxed Buhari’s Cabal To Make Omisore National Secretary

The emergence of Senator Iyiola Omisore as the National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC at the National Convention that ended early on Sunday, March 27, 2022 was one that was laced with intrigues and deep political thinking among Southwest political leaders.

Four candidates were in the race for the job. Omisore, initially was easily not a consideration, given his deep conservative inclinations, past history of bellicosity with the Southwest progressives and recent emergence from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The others were Ifeoluwa Oyedele, the Executive Director (Engineering & Technical Services) at Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, Adebayo Shittu, a former minister of communications, and Professor Olaiya Olaitan who was the running mate of the deceased Alao Akala in the 2019 governorship election under the umbrella of the Action Democratic Party, ADP in Oyo State.

Olaitan said his interest in the race was based on the need to fill up the vacancy in the leadership in Oyo State following the deaths of the two immediate past governors of the state, Alao-Akala and Senator Abiola Ajimobi.

Oyedele, a longtime associate of President Muhammadu Buhari from the days of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC turned out to be the favourite of the president for the position of National Secretary. He easily jumpstarted another CPC ally from Oyo State, Adebayo Shittu. Though he was already holding a privileged position as the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Limited, CPC veterans thought that they could use him to continue to hold influence in the APC after the exit of Buhari.

Why Southwest Leaders Rejected The Insult Of The Cabal Appointing Secretary For Them

However, Southwest leaders thought otherwise. It was on this premise that Southwest APC leaders thought it an insult that the cabal around the president would dictate who would take up the position zoned to the Southwest.

It was this idea that raised momentum for Omisore who in any case had won support among Southwest leaders following his steadfast loyalty to the Gboyega Oyetola administration in Osun State. The position of National Secretary was thought as a payback for Omisore.

Another consideration was that the Southwest leadership, especially those inclined to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, thought that the Omisore was the kind of person needed to neutralize whatever influence that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola may have been brewing in the national leadership.

“In any case Omisore and Tinubu really never had any fundamental difference, it was just a matter of perception,” a remote associate of Tinubu’s told GreenWhiteGreen GWG early on Sunday.

Despite the growing agitation for Omisore, the Oyedele candidature remained a major challenge especially given the endorsement supposedly given to his nomination.

Oyedele according to multiple sources was one of the five persons that Buhari was said to have endorsed for the NWC.

However, Southwest leaders firmly rejected the move.

Akeredolu’s Knock Out That Made Omisore APC National Secretary

The major knockout for Buhari’s man came after Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in a major political move pushed forward his former political foe and scion of the Tinubu political clan, Isaac Kekemeke for the position of National Vice-Chairman (Southwest) of the party.

With that move which was once though improbable, it became untenable to have two Ondo persons taking up the two major positions zoned to the Southwest.

With that move the dream of the cabal in the presidency in holding on to the party secretariat after Buhari vanished and with it, Senator Omisore, once thought as a rebel among the progressives for his membership of the PDP became the chief scribe of the ‘progressives’ party.

GreenWhiteGreen GWG understands that the moves to anoint Omisore as APC national secretary, popular as it was in the Southwest, was, however, not universal.

Chief Bisi Akande under whom Omisore served as deputy governor is among those who were said not to have backed the move. Akande remarkably was said to have backed out of the APC convention for the first time probably as a result of this. He was not immediately available for comments.

However, Omisore, an engineer with a PhD comes well prepared for the job of National Secretary of APC and will be the engine room around which the national secretariat will revolve.

He is hailed for his revolutionary roles in evolving the appropriation process in the National Assembly when he served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation.

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