By The August 15 governorship loss has cracked open old fault lines inside the Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, with senior figures now trading blame and, in some cases, refusing to show up in the same room. Reports indicate that Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election has intensified finger-pointing among prominent APC members, including the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, National Secretary Ajibola Basiru, and his predecessor, Senator Iyiola Omisore, with each camp suggesting the other worked against the interests of the party and its candidate, Bola Oyebamiji.
That tension has spilt into a paper trail. Over the past two weeks, petitions and counter-petitions have reportedly flowed from various factions of the party straight to President Bola Tinubu. Sources close to the situation say allies of the immediate past governor have gone further, accusing Basiru of undermining the party’s election effort because of his own 2030 governorship ambitions and a broader push to pry control of the Osun APC away from the President’s nephew.
The clearest sign of the rift came Saturday, when a stakeholders’ meeting convened by Oyetola at his campaign office in Osogbo drew a noticeably thin crowd. Oyebamiji attended alongside members of his IleriOluwa camp, where Oyetola was ratified as the party’s state leader, but the list of no-shows told its own story. Basiru and Omisore stayed away, as did former Deputy Governors Titilayo Laoye-Ponle and Benedict Adegboyega Alabi. Two former Speakers of the Osun State House of Assembly, Professor Mojeed Alabi and Adejare Bello, were also absent, along with former Deputy Speaker Akintunde Adegboyega and APC Osun Central Senatorial leader Adeoye Adelakun. Even the party’s own state chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, and several members of the state working committee stayed home.
Whether the absences were coordinated remains unclear, but the optics are hard to ignore: a meeting called by a former governor and sitting federal minister that so many senior party figures chose to skip. It’s the kind of turnout that tends to feed speculation rather than settle it, particularly against the backdrop of unresolved grievances over how the party handled its governorship primary and the subsequent contests for State and National Assembly seats. It’s also a reversal from the picture just days before the election, when more than 70 party leaders, led by the National Secretary, had been ushered into a meeting with President Tinubu after reports surfaced that the Oyetola-led state party was polarized heading into the poll.
Basiru, for his part, has taken a different approach entirely, choosing reconciliation over confrontation, at least publicly. He paid a congratulatory visit to Adeleke at Government House, Osogbo, to acknowledge the governor’s election win and, notably, to seek his backing for President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid. Basiru didn’t pretend the visit erased where he’d stood during the campaign. “I must also come as a Democrat to congratulate you on your election, and I must say that I did not want you to win. In fact, I wanted Bola Oyebamiji to win that election. He was my candidate that I voted for,” he told Adeleke, framing his presence as democratic sportsmanship rather than a change of loyalty. “But as I said, God is the one who gives power to whoever He wants. As a student of Bola Tinubu, we are Democrats, and we must also, at every point in time, recognize that in a democratic contest, one must win, and the struggle continues.”
The 2027 calculation sat at the centre of the visit. Basiru thanked Adeleke for endorsing Tinubu’s re-election, noting that some had doubted the governor would keep that commitment after winning. “The re-election of President Tinubu is very crucial to me as a party administrator, and whatever is necessary to be done to ensure that is what I am after,” he said, adding that the APC still commands a real base in the state. “We also have a base. Because we are also not a pushover in combating this contest. To win 46% in the election is not easy. I look forward to you delivering for us with our support.”
He was equally candid about his own role in the just-concluded governorship race, acknowledging he’d campaigned hard across 12 local governments for Oyebamiji. “I followed my candidate vigorously. I campaigned against you, sir. Unfortunately, God gives power,” he said. Adeleke, in response, thanked Basiru for the visit and reaffirmed his commitment to governing for all of Osun regardless of party lines, a gesture that, set against Saturday’s boycott, only underscores how differently APC’s own leaders are choosing to navigate the moment.
