Beneath the euphoria of “successful and peaceful” congresses recently conducted accross the country by the ruling All Progressives Congress Party, lies a deep rooted suspicion that the Oyo State governorship ticket may have been put on the shelves for the highest bidder.Reports from Oyo State blame those using their privileged positions to influence the choice of a particular governorship aspirant for Oyo State.Even more, it appears to be an unfolding bazaar allegedly involving financial inducements.
An NGO – “Oyo Watch”, through its political intelligence gathering unit has authoritavely revealed that, certain gubernatorial aspirants, prominent among them is a current serving Senator from Oyo South senatorial district has been boasting around that his securing the gubernatorial ticket of the party “remains a done deal”, peddling the support of the Villa and other key stakeholders of the party in the state, including a topmost monarch from the state Capital, Ibadan.
This cautionary note, according to the State Director, Dr. Abdul-Salam Oyewole, is coming on the heels of the party’s serial electoral losses in the state since 2019, which was as a result of perennial disunity within the party resulting from “lack of internal democracy, cultish, instead of broad-based consultations amongst major Aspirants and party leaders in the state”.
“No decision can be exactly consensus without due consultations with all interest groups and tendencies within a political field”, this, according to the organisation remains the sine qua non condition for unity, mutual trust and internal cohesion.
Influence peddling, merchandising, impunity laced with excessive arrogance may undo the party’s success in the state, come 2027, if not curbed, the statement concluded.