Please, Stop Attacking My Person
I read with utmost disbelief the utterances of Alhaji Gboyega Arulogun against me and my party, Action Congress, in Oyo State in the Nigerian Tribune of Wednesday, 23rd January, 2008. And that was the second time that Alhaji Arulogun had attacked me.
The first time he did so over a week ago, I reported him to my good friend, Chief Areoye Oyebola, a nationalist and a highly respected elder in Nigeria and Ibadanland, in particular. Chief Oyebola had come to commiserate with me on that day over the death of my nephew.
Chief Oyebola later reported back to me that he got Alhaji Arulogun on phone and told him what I said – that nobody delivered any message of Ibadan Elders Forum to me and that nobody boasted that Action Congress would win the heavily-rigged April 2007 general elections. Despite this, Alhaji Arulogun again went ahead to lie against me.
Owing to my level of attainment in life coupled with my God-given maturity, I do not like to join issues these days with people, especially with those whose pastime is the PHS syndrome. But Alhaji Arulogun, by all standards, is a knowledgeable man. He had served brilliantly at the NTA for several years and he is quite familiar with the wise saying that facts are sacred; opinions are free. He is a man I respect.
I will therefore like him to answer these questions:
1. Who did the Elders’ Forum send to me?
2. Where did the person deliver the Elders’ Forum message to me?
3. Who boasted that the Action Congress had won?
Unfortunately, Alhaji Arulogun could not understand the true meaning of godfather in politics; neither did he know my position in Oyo State Action Congress. Chief S. A. Farinu is the Chairman of Action Congress in Oyo State. Prof. Taoheed Adedoja joined the AC as a member and he was finally selected by the party as its flagbearer in the 2007 April gubernatorial elections. I did not impose him on the party as I was not the person who made him join my Party. He came to join the party voluntarily. So, how can anybody call me his godfather? I do believe that English words have not lost their true meanings in Oyo State.
Alhaji Arulogun betrayed his partisanship by saying, “This is a naivete and aptless method of handling political issues that require deft handling, an approach that made Action Congress look stupid in the last local government Election in Oyo State”. This quoted statement shows Alhaji Arulogun’s dislike for Action Congress. And by this unfortunate statement, he has painted the Ibadan Elders Forum as a partisan organisation since he is their spokesman.
I hope that Alhaji Arulogun will read this rejoinder carefully and realise how much he has dented the Ibadan Elders’ Forum image in an effort to reply Professor Adedoja twice.
By all standards, I am a full-fledged Ibadan Elder. I advise that what all Ibadan Elders should do now is to unite and not divide Ibadan. Nothing prevented the Ibadan Elders Forum from inviting members from other political parties into their meetings before taking a final decision on who should be their gubernatorial candidate. That would have made the decision fair, near and non-partisan.
Alhaji Lam Adesina, former governor of Oyo State, Lam Adesina Close Felele, Ibadan.
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