The crisis of credibility threatening the All Progressives Congress in Oyo State has returned with a familiar and troubling pattern. Those who should be guarding the integrity of the party’s internal processes now stand accused by many stakeholders of undermining them. If the lessons of 2023 are ignored once again, the consequences will be predictable and severe.
Party members still remember how internal selfishness, manipulation, and exclusion weakened the APC’s electoral strength and pushed it out of power in the state. That painful outcome was not imposed from outside. It was manufactured within. The refusal to learn from that failure now threatens to repeat the same political disaster.
This is happening at a time when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the national leadership have been working to reposition and stabilise the party ahead of 2027. The intention is clear: rebuild structure, restore discipline, and ensure cohesion. Yet at the state level, those efforts risk being sabotaged by conduct that signals business as usual.
Serious concerns have emerged over the handling of the just concluded ward congress. Familiar figures including Alhaji Fatai Ibikunle, Afeez Bolaji Repete, Bayo Adelabu, Zach Adelabu Adedeji, Alhaji Sina Alabi, and Alhaji Akeem Olatunji Akogun have been accused by multiple stakeholders of influencing and doctoring congress lists in ways widely seen as contrary to the party’s collective interest. Even more troubling is the reported intention to entrench these disputed outcomes ahead of subsequent congresses.
If these allegations reflect reality, then the party is once again preparing the ground for internal implosion. Manipulated processes do not produce unity. They breed resentment, fragmentation, and eventual electoral punishment. A structure built on exclusion cannot sustain victory.
The truth is stark. APC in Oyo cannot afford another cycle of internal sabotage disguised as strategy. The state chapter must either conduct credible, transparent, and inclusive congresses or prepare for the political consequences that inevitably follow manipulated outcomes.
There is no middle ground left. Reform the process now or repeat the defeat of yesterday. The warning signs are clear. The responsibility is immediate. And the cost of failure, if ignored again, will be written at the ballot box in 2027.
