The camp of All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on Tuesday replied the Interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola describing him as witnessing an avoidable psychological ‘LOW’ at the moment.
In a statement issued by a pro-Tinubu group, Movement Against Societal Hypocrisy (MASH), supporters of the former Lagos State governor said Aregbesola was fighting a hypocritical, lost battle against the establishment in Osun, his home state.
MASH in the statement by its Secretary-General, Hakeem Adisa, the group stated, “By Saturday, going by Nigeria’s most recurring standard political practice, his preferred person will lose the governorship primary against the state’s incumbent governor.
“And any contemplation of this adds to Aregbesola’s frustration, despite being a powerful sitting minister of the federal republic.
“His regrettably condemnable vituperation against the person of ASIWAJU BOLA AHMED TINUBU notwithstanding, there’s still hope of him retracing his steps, with forgiven consequences because of JAGABAN’s largeheartedness.
It also quoted Tinubu as saying, “I plan for betrayal: I plan for backstabbing: I also plan for reunion and forgiveness long before they happen.”
Meanwhile, Aregbesola had on Monday launched a scathing attack on his erstwhile political godfather, Tinubu.
Aregbesola, a former governor of Osun State, while addressing party loyalists in Ijebu-jesa said he acquiesced to Tinubu’s handpicked candidate as his successor in 2018 because it was agreed that he would continue the legacies he laid.
Upon assumption of office, however, he said Governor Gboyega Oyetola failed to keep the agreement.
Aregbesola said the same treatment Tinubu and his group meted out to former Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, will be given Mr Oyetola because “he had derailed from the master plan too.”
“That was how it was in Lagos at a time; a governor derailed and the party members unseated him using the ballot boxes,” said Aregbesola, addressing his supporters in Yoruba language.
“As it was in Lagos yesterday, so shall it be in Osun today. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander,” he said.
“Only God can terrify us, not man. Go and tell them wherever they are, we own this party. We own this Afenifere group. We own this people-loving group started by our patriarchs Obafemi Awolowo and Bola Ige. This was Elder Akande’s group before he temporarily left us.
“This is our party. Stop calling yourself a factional group; you are not a faction; you are the authentic APC.”
In the middle of his speech, the minister launched a song that was, apparently, targeted at Tinubu and his successor to drive home his point. He sang “Bye-bye to jagba-jagba, bye bye to rede rede” (which means; bye bye to nonsense).
“We came back home to reposition our party to where it was meant to be because we followed the leading of our leader that we thought was a noble and reliable fellow. We followed him dutifully with all sense of loyalty.
“Some people even thought that we were no longer Muslims because of how we cooperated with him. We dealt with him without treachery but we never knew he planned evil for us.
“We exalted him beyond his status and he turned himself to a god over us and we had sworn to ridicule anyone who compares himself to God. God has no competitor; He is enough to be God.
“We built this party on perseverance as well as sweat and blood. We lost a lot of people in this struggle but eventually, we came into government on November 27, 2010. We were in government for eight years and governed according to the measure of God’s grace, everybody in Osun enjoyed our tenure,” Aregbesola said, in clear reference to Tinubu