President Bola Tinubu has tightened his grip on Osun APC politics as seven governorship aspirants dramatically withdrew from the race after a closed-door meeting with him at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday, clearing the path for Bola Oyebamiji as the party’s consensus candidate.
In a show of presidential influence, the aspirants, including former Deputy Governor Benedict Olugboyega Alabi, Dotun Babayemi, Akin Ogunbiyi, Senator Babajide Omoworare, Kunle Adegoke, Babatunde Haketer Oralusi, and Mulikat Abiola Jimoh, agreed to collapse their ambitions to preserve party unity.
However, the reconciliation effort hit a snag as former National Secretary Iyiola Omisore boycotted the meeting entirely, intensifying internal tensions. Omisore, who was earlier disqualified from the primary, had dismissed the process as “a joke,” signalling a deeper rift within the party.
Tinubu’s intervention appears aimed at preventing a repeat of the internal fractures that cost the APC the 2022 election cycle. Yet Omisore’s defiance suggests that the battle for cohesion within the Osun APC is far from over.