The Osun State chapters of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday bickered over a campaign billboard seeking support for President Bola Tinubu and the state governor, Ademola Adeleke, erected in Iwo.
Osun APC, in reaction to the development, condemned the billboard, describing it as a fraud, the pairing of the picture of President Tinubu with that of Governor Adeleke on a billboard.
The billboard bearing the inscription ‘Continuity of Progress’ sponsored by a political body called ‘Osun Leaders of Thought’ was observed in Iwo on Wednesday.
The party, in a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Olabisi, said the billboard was an absurdity, noting that there could not be any acceptable reason for the sponsorship of the billboard “other than a flagrant display of irreverent attitude orchestrated by political Jews with a mission to compare the sky with the ground.”
But while reacting, spokesperson for the state governor, Olawale Rasheed, said APC was confused about the support Adeleke was getting across party lines and across local and national audiences.
Olawale said members of the public at home and abroad were impressed by the huge delivery of the administration across sectors, noting that the appraisal of performance was coming from federal and non-governmental bodies.
“The shock of national and local endorsements creates an identity crisis for Osun APC as it has lost credibility from the Presidency to key national caucuses. The opposition is therefore running amok, ranting over billboards from non-governmental groups, displaying ignorance over the investment drive and wandering over the reality of its unelectability,” Olawale said.
Osun APC, however, insisted that the masterminds of the controversial billboard had succeeded in exposing their lack of tact and diplomacy in the art of the use of strategy to achieve their targeted political goal through the misuse of propaganda.
The statement read, “We want to tell the whole world that we are vehemently condemning and dissociating our party from the nose and eye sore which exemplified political heresy in the heartland of the core progressive politics in the affected part of the state.
“If the rumour milling the round that it was one of those who are currently eating the crumbs from the table of Governor Adeleke by the way of the clinching of a political office who hails from the ancient town of Iwo is the one behind the erection of the controversial billboard is anything to go by, it means that the lingering socio-political challenges of the 34-year-old Osun State appear irredeemable.
“How can someone or a group of people without any sense of direction just wake up from the wrong side of their bed and pair a political Lilliputian like Governor Adeleke with the political oracle and giant who has seen it all in all the spheres of politics and politicking?
“We want to make it abundantly clear to our esteemed members and numerous supporters that the feigned billboard is a counterfeit whose origin did not emanate from us and therefore, should be discountenanced.”
Emphasising that the recent attacks and vituperations by the Osun APC against Adeleke were confirmation of the opposition’s identity crisis, Olawale said the opposition party was faced with weakness within the Presidency and frustrations about increasing breakthroughs of the current administration in the state.
“The Osun APC is busy complaining about a successful meeting with the UK Prime Minister’s trade envoy, a meeting with concrete outcomes that the trade envoy hailed as a major breakthrough. The APC is shocked that such a productive investment meeting happened right inside the House of Commons.
“The opposition is by now scrambling on what to say to another breakthrough recorded by Mr Governor – the deal on cultural tourism partnership at the British Museum and the linkage between the UK and Osun business through the Nigeria-UK Chamber of Commerce. The public awaits the lies and misinformation from the Osun APC.
“The imminent re-election of Governor Adeleke will be the outcome of unwavering people’s support, evidence-based performance in office, eternal vigilance of people to protect their votes and the divine grace of God. A Governor who has done so much for his people and who enjoys so much goodwill among national leaders is unbothered by the rantings of an unelectable opposition,” Olawale said.
