It is a fact that president Bola Ahmed Tinubu reserves the right to appoint people he deems fit to serve in various capacity in his government.
Such rights are however fettered by circumstances if indeed the president chose not to be autocratic.
Issues like due consultations, equity and fairness are enough to force the hands of a president who chose be Democratic in his choice of appointments.
The nomination of Bayo Adelabu for the appointment of Minister by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu was done “malafide”, (in bad faith), with due respect to the president.
The gentleman, Mr. Bayo Adelabu is more than qualified to be Minister but the circumstances under which he was chosen by the president is faulty.
Bayo Adelabu was the candidate of the APC in Oyo state for the 2019 gubernatorial election.
He was equally an aspirant for the same position in the build up to the 2023 general election.
He left the APC for the Accord Party to contest for the Governorship election having lost out in the APC and he was in the Accord Party until yesterday when the president announced his nomination as Minister.
Though a lot of funny claims were made immediately after Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was announced winner of the 2023 presidential election.
Bayo Adelabu was one of such those who made such claims.
To some of us in Oyo state, we were asking if it was the same Bayo Adelabu who vigorously campaigned against the APC calling the party all manner of unpredictable names and claiming he was ashamed to associate with the party that eventually got the president’s nod as Minister.
It is on record that the presidential candidate of the Accord Party was never in Oyo state to camping. Yet he got close to forty thousand votes in the presidential election.
Question is, who garnered the votes for the Accord Party presidential candidate?
In fact, Bayo Adelabu himself got less votes in the Governorship election compared to what the Accord Party presidential candidate got!
Bayo Adelabu’s nomination by the president is a further confirmation that the president has no iota of respect for the party in Oyo state.
The members of the party in Oyo were just pawns in a chess board and president Bola Ahmed Tinubu, some dissidents within the party and the opposition PDP were just toying with their emotions and political future.
It was such chess game that led to the terrible loss of the Governorship and state Assembly election.
Though, it looks like the president and his accolytes in Oyo have turned loyal party men to a laughing stock. Unfortunately for the president he keeps increasing a moral question about himself with the way he keeps mocking the party in Oyo.
“Eebu alo ni ti ahun, tabo ni tigbin”. There is a story about the tortoise and his father in-law.
The tortoise had gone to steal in his father in-law’s farm. He was caught and the father in-law, as punishment, tied the tortoise to a tree on the road to the market after beating him up.
Every passer by who saw the tortoise on their way to the market after learning what he did, condemned him and said his in-law did well.
Unfortunately for the in-law of the tortoise, he did not know when to stop. He left the tortoise tied to the tree and when those who went to the market in the morning returned in the evening and still met the tortoise tied to the tree, they started condemning the in-law. “Otooto eyi lana igbin” were their exact words, meaning if the thief was not a son in-law to the snail, would he have killed him? The snail was tortoise’s in-law in the story.
President Tinubu’s punitive activities in Oyo state is fast becoming the scenario between the snail and the tortoise.
He who is down needs fear no fall. The president, with due respect have done perhaps the worse to his party in Oyo.
At this point, it will be in the interest of the president to take a pause and reflect on his treatment of the party in Oyo state.
Why would the president unleash so much anger on a state chapter of the party that gave him the highest number of votes in the South West while he’s rosy with states who recorded losses?
Rewarding individuals who do not merit reward at the detriment of the party is a moral question on the president.
It is not too late for the president to redeem himself by correcting the injustice in Oyo state.
SOLA ABEGUNDE.