A former Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Jumoke Akindele has called on the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to begin genuine reconciliation within the party in the State or face imminent defeat.
In a statement released to newsmen in Akure on Wednesday, Hon. Akindele said the time to address grievances of aggrieved members is now before it’s too late.
The former Speaker said, “I write as a concerned member of the APC in Ondo State. I am not a candidate, but God has placed me in a position in which I can not but be concerned about the events of my party and my state”.
She said it was no longer news that, “certain members of the APC in this state have decided to court and work for members of opposing parties seeking election into the various offices being contested for ahead of the February 2027 general election”.
She questioned why party chieftains in the state are yet to intervene and raised concerns about the position of some leaders, including Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on the brewing crisis.
“While some opine that the Governor is aware and indeed in support of those decisions, methinks it may be disingenuous for anyone to think so. Regardless of what I think of his politics, even he must be aware that to do so will be a suicidal move politically; a political harakiri for him to even contemplate it!”
Hon. Akindele however, dissociated herself from any move that may disrupt the plan for an overwhelming return of votes for the APC presidential candidate, President Bola Tinubu, but “fear that these anti-party moves may inadvertently produce that unwholesome consequence”.
“I did warn then that urgent reconciliation moves must begin immediately”, she added.
“That was more than three months ago. People who are bereft of the lessons of history pooh-poohed the idea. I will insist even now that unless appropriate reconciliatory moves are urgently put in place by the party at the national level, what obtains now is what may continue to happen across the state”.
She maintained that, “a party is a function of the people who are her members. If the machinery of the party is moved in a way that it is at disconsonance with her people who, mind you, are flesh and blood, what you see right now in Ondo South, is what you may see all across the State before December. I may condemn it and I do so in no uncertain terms, but I also understand it. These people have been hurt. They are flesh and blood. They have a right to cry foul and they certainly have the propensity to exact revenge on the party. You can not beat a child and also tell him when and how to cry. It will amount to injustice”.
The former Speaker also criticised the party for what she termed a lame efforts to reconcile members lately.
“You see the reconciliation committee set up by the state party? It is nonsense. It is a whole set of candidates from a whole line of leadership that were ‘robbed’, it is now them that are setting up a reconciliation committee?! Who is offended? Who is seeking reconciliation? Who is supposed to appeal to whom? If the national party and/or the candidates themselves do not quickly set up their respective reconciliation committees, they will continue to experience these ruptures all around”, she asserted.
She appealed to all disgruntled members of the APC to sheathe their swords, insisting that, “all we do, we must realise that we all have future that must be protected. We have names which we hope will outlast us for good. To stay in a party and work against it is not only unconscionable, it is dishonourable. You can not allow yourself to be likened to the insect which lives under a leaf and yet feeds on the leaf. Let an untainted conscience be your guide”.
Hon. Akindele also enjoined members to cooperate with any reconciliation effort by the party. “When the committees, local, state or national gets to you, please allow yourself to be appeased knowing that you cannot kill the future of your own children in party politics by your present dissatisfaction.
Nkan ti a ba se l’oni, itan lo o ma da l’ola (whatever we do today becomes history that can be told tomorrow)”.
She concluded that, “I’m neither for Paul nor for Apollo. I am for APC. I stand on the mandate of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for continuity. Whatever it takes!”
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