Nigeria’s minister of interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Sunday, March 12, 2023, met with the stakeholders, leaders, and stalwarts of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Alimosho local government area of Lagos State, urging them to rally support for the re-election of Babajide Sanwo-olu in the forthcoming guber polls.
The meeting had artisans, the Igbo community, party leaders in Alimosho in attendance. Addressing the stakeholders, Aregbesola tasked them to ensure the victory of the party in the state by embarking on varying mobilisation and door-to-door campaigns to educate the electorate on the importance of voting for Sanwo-Olu.
He stated that a win for Sanwo-Olu on March 18 is a move to further attract massive developmental support for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s incoming Presidential administration, Lagos, and Nigeria at large.
Recall that Aregbesola has been active in Southwest politics since the return of democracy in 1999. He was commissioner for eight years under the leadership of Tinubu and later became Osun governor for another eight years. In 2019, he was chosen to serve at the national level as a minister.
His relationship with Tinubu, however, went sour as far back as June 2020. In 2022, Aregbesola tongue-lash Tinubu during a political event in Oriade LGA of Osun. He said the erstwhile political godfather was exalted “beyond his status and he turned himself to a god over us.”
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Not pleased with the disrespect of Tinubu by the former Osun governor, APC members in the Alimosho held a funeral rally for Aregbesola’s political career, with coffins bearing inscriptions such as ‘RIP’, ‘Alimosho says farewell to Aregbesola’. The coffins were also burned to signal what they described as the end of Aregbesola’s reign.
On Feb. 25, Tinubu lost Lagos. In fact he lost Alimosho which has always been the stronghold of the APC to Peter Obi of the Labour Party. In a bid to ensure victory in the gubernatorial election, APC appears to have mend fences in Lagos.
What does Aregbesola’s open support for APC mean to Sanwo-olu’s re-election? The outcome of the election will surely define what the future holds for the interior minister politically.
