Rauf Aregbesola, the never-say-die Action Congress governorship candidate in Osun State in the flawed April 2007 election is a long distance runner, by every means. Suave, calm and calculating, Aregbesola has come to become a reference point in studious pursuit of progressive causes such that he has earned a high placement among democrats since he happened on the political scene some years back.

He was not deceived to believe it would be a tea party, as he enlisted as a contestant in the Osun governorship tussle. He knew the under-currents in the Osun politics, as in other South West states, as the former president Olusegun Obasanjo romanced the death wish to forcefully control the region that has never tolerated his kind of politics and person. He knew about the peaceful and golden era of Bisi Akande, the Spartan and openly honest former governor of the state and he equally knew that the control of the state and the entire region, consumed the brilliant Bola Ige. He knew that the South West, including Osun State were conquered in 2003 and he knew that the lot for the recovery of the state and indeed the South West rested on people like him who rose to pose a challenge to the rump of the reactionary renegades that were recruited to take over the South West by the Obasanjo pestilence.

But Aregbesola was prepared, as seen in his campaigns, which were rooted in the grassroots and the fear his coming provoked among the impostors who never ever matched his speed, his panache and his appeal among the common people of Osun State. He toured the nooks and crannies of Osun State with his new Oranmiyan Gospel, which spoke of change from the staid politics of the stomach, which the reactionary platitude that was forced on the South West in 2003 sought to domesticate. His boisterous campaigns and issue-driven political foray was enough to serve notice that indeed, an eclipse awaited the reactionary interregnum in Osun State.

But Aregbesola, like many other patriotic Nigerians, did not reckon with the absurd manner the 2007 elections were manipulated. He was a direct victim of this historical perfidy as his bright electoral sun was forced to dim in broad daylight. This was to bring out the fighter in Aregbesola, who endured so much persecution in the run up to that mangled exercise. Always prepared and ready for the next move, he headed to court with what should be an unassailable ton of evidence to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the man that calls the shot in Osun State today, like most of his counterparts all over Nigeria is a mere impostor forced on the people of Osun State by the very odd hands of do-or-die politics.

Aregbesola’s going to court was to expose another dark under belly of the country’s judiciary as it succumbed to the thralls of politics. The Justice Naron tribunal that sat in Osun State was openly biased against Aregbesola and in open court, they never hid their contempt for Aregbesola, his party and his agents. All these were to find openings to warm up to the juicy carrots that were allegedly extended to them by Oyinlola and company. One by one, the tribunal picked apart Aregbesola’s impregnable evidences as it sought fiercely to please the generous hands from which it fed as its term lasted. The height of this extensive project to frustrate Aregbesola was when forensic results from a tribunal-ordered forensic test were rejected on very flippant grounds and no one needed to know that the judges that sat in judgment had devoured rotten grapes and their teeth were set on edge.

The highpoint of this elaborate drama was when an indecent telephone conversation between Oyinlola’s lawyer and the tribunal members broke open and filling the jigsaw puzzle on the inexplicable maneuver that befell Aregbesola’s case fell in line. Even as both Oyinlola and his lawyers denied, threatened and swore they were not culpable, the visible signs and the many twists the tribunal adopted to frustrate Aregbesola pointed to the existence of a well-oiled plan to ensure that Aregbesola looses his claim for what many feel, rightly belongs to him. Till date, Nigerians are still asking what happened to Oyinlola’s and his lawyers’ threat to sue The News Magazine for the call log scandal. This points to the fact that a more sordid revelation on what came to be termed the ‘Osungate’ scandal was in the offing and these made Oyinlola and his lawyer to choose discretion as the best part of valour.

In all there were strong evidences to believe that Aregbesola was a victim of an elaborate plot to complicate a simple issue and thus, make his target unachievable. The rejection of forensic results after the tribunal ordered it and after Aregbesola has expended so much to have it carried out, is one of such strong pointers, as well as the various efforts to frustrate Aregbesola at every turn of the case. The tactics was to complicate the case as much as possible, introduce bulwarks and roadblocks through an arcane appeal to subjective technicalities and make justice unattainable. But these reckoned less with Aregbesola’s fighting spirit. This has been his greatest propellant as he battles man-made vicissitudes to electoral sanity in a badly raped country as Nigeria. They never fathomed that he would come prepared against electoral robbers and this has kept him on in the face of the extensive efforts to frustrate his case.

Presently, Aregbesola’s case is in the Ibadan Division of the Elections Appeal Tribunal. Both Aregbesola and Oyinlola have made their final submissions and are awaiting judgment. The judges are about now, writing that judgment and all eyes are on it. It is true that the Benin Division of the Appeal Tribunal, headed by the Appeal Court President, Justice Abdullahi has been the most active in assuaging the well-expressed desires of Nigerians for justice against the bacchanal maneuvers that attended the April 2007 election. That the President of the Court is giving out these progressive decisions that have inflated the integrity of the judiciary is no accident. He really knows that the alternative to righting the monumental wrongs of the April 2007 farce is a degeneration to either Kenya or Zimbabwe where similar electoral perfidies of lesser magnitude snowballed into national carnages that savaged lives and properties in both countries.

It may be a coincidence that not much of such progressive judicial activism has been noticed in the Ibadan Division of the Appeal Tribunal where Aregbesola waits for justice. This is redeeming time for the Ibadan Appeal Tribunal and the Aregbesola case offers them a great chance to get things right and dispense justice. The Oyo case involving Isiaka Ajimobi offers another great historical opportunity to the tribunal to set the wheels of democracy on right footing after the horrific show of April 2007 and following the great efforts of Justice Abdullahi. One believes that the judges would adopt the sober pose of dispensers of justice unlike Naron and company who left no one in doubt of their heightened interest in the case. the Ibadan tribunal must be dispassionate about dispensing justice and sieve Aregbesola’s thorny march, his evidences and facts and weigh them against those of Oyinlola to reach at equitable justice. The Naron tribunal never allowed his case to get to this critical stage. The Appeal Tribunal sitting in Ibadan must be guided by the mindset to do justice to all, irrespective of affiliation; political or otherwise and if they do, I see Aregbesola on a historical route to the Osun Government House in Osogbo.

Peter Claver Oparah.

Ikeja, Lagos.

E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com

Robot  # 1 | 15.03.2009 04:18

Rauf Aregbesola, the never-say-die Action Congress governorship candidate in Osun State in the flawed April 2007 election is a long distance runner, by every means. Suave, calm and calculating, Aregbesola has come to become a reference point in studious pursuit of progressive causes such that he has earned a high placement among democrats since he happened on the political scene some years back. He was not deceived to believe it would be a tea party, as he enlisted as a contestant in the Osun governorship tussle. He knew the under-currents in the Osun politics, as in other South West states, as the former president Olusegun Obasanjo romanced the death wish to forcefully control the region that has never tolerated his kind of politics and person. He knew about the peaceful and golden era of Bisi Akande, the Spartan and openly honest former governor of the state and he equally knew that the control of the state and the entire region, consumed the brilliant Bola Ige. He ...Read the full article.

segxie  # 2 | 15.03.2009 08:43

Peter,are you a paid agent of Aregbesola?What's the relevance of this write-up?Either he wins at the appeal court or not,what's the benefit to the people of osun state?Who's Aregbesola before 1999?Now a multi-millionaire overnight who want to be governor.He's in the same category of treasury looters and I don't care what happens to him at the appeal court.Niegria is a country that celebrates rogues and thieves.This is a stuggling man before he was Commissioner of Works for 8 years under Tinubu,now a multi-millionaire.Where does he get all the money?What was his salary within the 8 years.They are all useless and shameless thieves