Why Oyo APC Must Wake and Stand Up Now

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews

The All Progressives Congress in Oyo State is in trouble. Not because of the opposition, but because of the very people saddled with leading it. What began as quiet compromise has snowballed into a full takeover. Today, the party is being run by men and women with no loyalty to its ideals, no history in its struggle, and no stake in its victory, they have no investment in the party. If we don’t wake up and stand up now, 2027 will be another funeral.

The crisis started at the top, with the emergence of the current state APC executive. Progressive politics is built on sacrifice, consistency, and ideological clarity. Yet instead of leaders tested in the trenches, we were handed a party chairman who can be easily manipulated. We got a state secretary who is not progressive, but a known follower of the former PDP governor and now kabiyesi. We were also presented with a woman leader and a youth leader who are both relatively unknown to the party structure.

This is the core problem. A woman leader leads women, and a youth leader leads the youths. But how can you lead people you have no connection with? How can you mobilize women and youths who have never seen you in the field, in meetings, or in the struggle? That was the first red flag. Leadership was handed to people who neither understand nor care about the progressive values APC was founded to defend. From that moment, the soul of the party in Oyo state was put up for sale.

The damage became clearer during the primaries. Due process was abandoned. Internal democracy was sacrificed. Rather than allow members to choose their representatives, the executive used money and backdoor arrangements to install all 52 candidates. Sen. Sarafa Alli, the governorship candidate, and Adesoji Adedeji, the deputy governorship candidate, were all products of this arrangement. None of them have no real investment in the party. The same goes for Zach Adedeji, the financier who made it all possible. His political history is not one of building APC, but of funding opposition against the party in every election year. Their emergence did not follow party process or ethics. It followed cash.

This is why the mood among APC members in Oyo today is one of fear and frustration. Every committed member knows the truth: with this lineup, we cannot win the general election. But instead of speaking out, many chose silence. Some kept quiet out of fear. Others out of compromise. A few held on to false hope that “maybe it will work.” It will not. And by the time the votes are counted, it will be too late to complain.

A political party cannot survive when it is rented out every four years to outsiders and political merchants. APC in Oyo must return to its roots: merit, ideology, and loyalty. We must put forward men and women, including youth and women leaders, who have paid their dues, who are known to the people they are meant to lead, and who believe in the progressive cause.

Oyo APC must wake up now. Wake up to the reality that money cannot buy victory. Wake up to the danger of handing the party to those who have worked against it. Wake up before 2027 becomes another chapter of regret. The time to correct this is now.