To say that the All Progressive Congress’s Presidential
rally in Ogun State was a disaster would be over flogging the issue. It
was a complete national embarrassment. The president of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria was almost pelted with missiles at the Moshood
Abiola Stadium, the venue of the event at Abeokuta.As expected,
immediately after the event, the national leadership of the All
Progressive Congress blamed the whole show of shame on the amiable
governor of Ogun State, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun.The governor was accused of organising thugs to disrupt and embarrass the president when he rallied in the state.
But
if my memory of the event would serve me right, I found this
accusations ridiculous! How can the organiser of an event while planning
for it, plan also how to embarrass his guests? As a well brought up
Yoruba man, Amosun would never do that.Aside from sharing the
same political ideology and colour with President Mohammadu Buhari,
Amosun has came a long way with the sitting president before now.The
relationship the pair shared is beyond politics. According to the
governor in an interview, he claimed to have known the president before
venturing into politics and described him as a family friend.Whatever
happened at the rally was a premediated attempt by those trying to
drive a wedge between him and President Buhari. It was callous and
unacceptable by all standards.I followed the rally from
beginning to the end and after reviewing other pundits’ comments on the
event, I came into the conclusion that nobody was to be blamed for the
national embarrassment but the former governor of Osun State, Rauf
Aregbesola, the national chairman of All Progressive Congress, Adams
Oshiomhole and the national leader of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.The
event which was smoothly anchored with supporters to loyal to the APC’s
gubernatorial candidate, Dapo Abiodun, and his Allied Peoples
Movement’s counterpart, Abiodun Akinlade, on the rally ground with each
bearing placrads of their principals in peace took a sharp turn when
Aregbesola took the microphone to address the crowd.Recall that
there is no love lost between the two gubernatorial candidates, Amosun
during his address ensured he made it clear that the gathering was meant
to honour the Nigerian president and whatever grudges being nursed by
the two parties should be buried for the sake of that.There is a
proverb that says you can’t beat a child and expect him not to cry. The
peace gained by Amosun’s admonition was disrupted by one of the leaders
of the APC, Aregbesola, when he claimed that anyone bearing the
identities of any other party but APC were hypocrites and such were not
recognised.These statement and more he made were unnecessary and
Aregbesola’s countenance that fateful day showed that of man on a
mission to destroy and embarrass the Nigerian president and his VP,
Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, both present at the event.One would have
expected for a leader of his stand to campaign for the president, but
alas no. He insulted the crowd while Asiwaju Tinubu looked on and
proudly took his seat. And ofcourse the crowd reacted, called him thief
and threw missiles at him.Amosun, despite not his turn to
address the crowd, came back to calm them and pleaded with them to
ignore the jabs for the sake of Buhari and Osinbajo present, stressing
that all were in an attempt to embarrass him.After which Adam
Oshimhole came up and tow Aregbesola’s line; he insulted the already
aggrieved crowd and insisted on focusing on the APC’s gubernatorial
candidate regardless of whatever happened. To him, the crowd responded
again and stoned him.Throughout the event, Governor Ibikunle
Amosun was seen appealing to the crowd to remain calm but the deed had
been done. The evil plans of the Lagos warlord and APC national chairman
had been achieved as the crowd became uncontrollable, tearing down each
other’s placards, throwing missiles at the podium and exchanging
fisticuffs.Amosun and President Muhammadu Buhari were embarrassed while the actors strolled away unconcerned.
It
was so clear that the target of the evil campaign was the president and
Asiwaju, who already nursed hatred for the governor way back but made
worse by his recent attempt of the former to foster his stooge,
Olamilekan Adeola popularly called Yayi, as governor on the people of
Ogun but was roundly rejected before Yayi ran back to Lagos, didn’t not
mask his pleasure at what happened.It may spell doom for the
party if it doesn’t desist from trying to put the blame on Amosun and
start putting its house in order as presidential election draws close.
Source:- Newtelegraphonlineng
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