The big masquerade is back on stage in style! Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Oloye Bayo Adelabu, the gubernatorial candidate of the Accord in the 2023 general elections, and now the Minister of Power is set to lead his people back to the All Progressives Congress. The event is scheduled to hold this Friday, 15 December, 2023 at the party secretariat, Oke Ado, Ibadan.
In a letter addressed to the State Chairman of the party, Hon Isaac Omodewu, Oloye Adelabu recalled the events that led him and his supporters into exiting the party in the build up to the 2023 general elections. Firstly, the party congresses were brazenly manipulated to soothe the whims and caprices of certain interests. And secondly, the eventual primaries that followed were stage-managed by the power that be to the consternation of people of good conscience.
The injustice was effected in a barefaced and ludicrous manner. It deserved either to be challenged, resisted or avoided by employing any form of democratic means available. The perpetrators of the unwholesome political behaviors never took into cognizance that power is transient. They acted as if there would be no tomorrow. But to the glory of God, it has now become a part of our history.
The time has come to return home. The coast is clear! The home beckons! The return is expected to be like the triumphant entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into the city of Jerusalem. And, of course a replica of Prophet Muhammed (SWT) homecoming to the city of Mecca from Medina known as Hijrah. It will be a symbolic return. “After rain there’s a rainbow, after a storm there’s calm, after the night there’s a morning, and after the end there’s a new beginning” (Daystar.com).
This is the beginning of a new era.
Let’s forgive ourselves about the victimization and persecution of the past and embrace the new dawn. They are meant to teach us some lessons of life. There are even some persecutions that one may wish to happen in his lifetime because God has ordained it to occur for a destiny to be fulfilled. It may be a good reason for one’s story to be turned into glory. Just as Oloye Bayo Adelabu departed APC as a common gubernatorial aspirant, but now returning as a Minister of the Federal Republic. What an uncommon upliftment! It can only be God’s doing.
For those of us that are conversant with the story of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, he was exiled in Turkey for four years. He ran away for his dear life as a result of persecution and unfavorable political climate at home. But on February 1, 1979, he returned triumphantly to Tehran, the capital city of Iran. The hunter became the hunted as the Shah of Iran fled the country and never to return again. It was a moment that changed the country’s history for decades to come. It became a turning point as the dark era of Shah Muhammad Reza gave the way for the light of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to shine.
Oyo State deserves to be liberated from the darkness of the past and freed from the shackles of the present. The journey towards achieving that in the nearest future must start now. That was what informed the title of a recent edition of your favorite weekly nuggets, Monday Morning Reflections: It’s Time to Move Oyo APC Forward at all Cost.Thank goodness as the events have started unfolding.
Oloye Bayo Adelabu has pledged to be a part of the revival and rejuvenation of APC in Oyo State. He has extended his hands of fellowship to the Party Executive, Party leaders and Party members generally towards achieving the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President on one hand and towards installing an APC government by 2027 in Oyo State on the other hand. The Accord returnees are excited to go back home, while their brothers and sisters cannot wait to receive them. The battles are over! “Ija pari, ogun ti se, Edumare jagun molu, orin ayo la o ma ko…. Ha-lle-lu-jah!!!”
With the return of Oloye Bayo Adelabu and hundreds of thousands of his supporters to the APC fold without any strings attached, we are good to go. A united, vibrant, fair and cohesive Oyo State APC is what we need to tackle the challenges ahead and change the narratives. It was a big loss for the party in the 2019 and this graduated to a collosal failure in the 2023 gubernatorial elections. But 2027 presents another unique opportunity that may be too costly to be wished away. It is only a united force that can swing victory on the side of APC when the time comes. Therefore, let the work begin!
B. Aderemi Ogundele
(Jagunmolu)
