The recent scenario in the political circle of the main opposition party, All Progressive Congress (APC) in Oyo State is quite similar to the tragic flaw of a notorious farmer, Alamu Seniyan at Oko-iparun village.
Alamu was a wealthy man and had an acre of land – which was obtained through inheritance. Many villagers frequently called him, “Alamu Seniyan ” due to his kind gesture for leasing out part of his land to the subsistence farmers without demanding anything in return.
These subsistence farmers were harvesting yams, peppers and other cash crops on the piece of land gotten from their benefactor. And fortunately for the farmers, harvest period and market days collided and they were able to sell all their farm products to urban people in exchange for hard currencies.
This good news about those farmers penetrated Alamu’s household, he (Alamu) thought for days and decided to make use of a plot of land to plant yam seeds, with the hope of exchanging yams for hard currencies during harvest time. However, Alamu was an introvert and did not seek for knowledge before delving into farming business.
One day, Alamu came with a hoe and seed-yams in a bowl to his unkempt land. He sat down and thought about ‘how-to’ for a few minutes. Suddenly, without weeding, he dug holes and started to insert the seed-yams into them. Two farmers were watching him from afar across the farm. “Is that not Alamu seniyan? asked by one of them, ‘I think he is setting-up traps for rodents, he likes bush meat so much’, the other jokingly answered.
Alamu left for home after inserting the seed yams into the holes and not knowing he had set a table for the rats in their abodes. And the rat did nothing but ate all the seed yams. A month later, Alamu revisited his farm – which was now covered with hard elephant grasses, and met the leftovers of the rats. What a pity for Alamu.
In a few months ahead, the local government election will be taking place in Oyo State and the State electoral commission, OYSIEC, has stocked its time table and promised to conduct a free, fair and credible election. In its big step, the Commission appears to have started the screening for all the candidates of registered political parties in the state this week.
However, the main opposition party in the state, All progressive Congress (APC) has borrowed Alamu’s philosophy and seems not ready to hijack power from the ruling party, People Democratic Party (PDP). And it is worth noting that the leadership of APC expressed their willingness to participate in the 2024 Local Government election after their awful performance in the 2023 general election in Oyo State. The general election ought to have taught the party leaders a big lesson because some of them do not get Federal appointments.
Now, you have pushed your candidates for the local government election to the screening stage and you are waving hands and turning back at them. We should not forget that Alamu did not weed and pesticide his farm before digging holes. In the same vein, leaders of APC are busy restructuring towards the 2027 general election and not strengthening efforts on the 2024 Local government election. Is that not a misplaced priority?
If there would not be absolute support of the party’s leaders to these young public office seekers, why did you put them on the field? Oyo APC leaders forget the fact that the 2027 journey starts from securing majority Council seats out of 33 Local governments. And the success of the 2024 election would rejuvenate the party’s strength at the state level.
Correspondingly, APC seems to overlook the fact that Omituntun administration is lacking at the grassroots because the State Government has made the current Local Councils as nonentities by hijacking their statutory duties. APC leaders should reasonably think the party has chances to secure majority votes at the forthcoming local government election.
In addition, Oyo APC is yet to be in accordance, their broom has scattered into different factions. Some of its aged leaders belong to the Progressive Movement while other leaders fall into other groups. No matter how a group strives for success, if there is a clash of interest, there may never be progress. As a result of this, the main opposition party in the State should solve its internal crisis before 2024 and 2027 elections.
Lastly, the ruling party, PDP is still salivating for more years in power and not ready to lose its guard. The good people of Oyo State are always ready to exercise their civil right and vote for capable political candidates that would wipe the tears of the grassroots.
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