Gbenro Adesina
A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Oyo, Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN), said that under normal circumstance, the former governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala is the leader of the party in the state.
Akintola, who spoke at the monthly breakfast chat of the South West Group of Online Publishers, (SWEGOP), in Ibadan said that the demise of Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the erstwhile governor of the state has not created any vacuum in APC.
According to him, the party is well structured to the extent that the death or the exit of any member can not create any vacuum because the party’s constitution does not allow it.
He said, “There is no vacuum in the leadership of APC and there is no problem in the party. If you want to know the party leader, go and read our constitution. Article 11 and 12 answer the question. That is why I said most of the times, many of our leaders are either political illiterates, legal illiterates, or social illiterates”.
He explained, “If they are well educated on the constitutionality of our party, such doubt will not exist in their minds. Our constitution is very emphatic about that. The highest decision making body is the national convention, followed by the Board of Trustees (BOT), followed by the National Working Committee (NWC). At the state level, the state executive is under the state congress of the party but unfortunately, nobody has interrogated that aspect of our constitution. Nobody has ever asked any of our leaders why those bodies are not in place. Who are the members of state congress? All past governors, who are members of the party, all past Senate presidents from that state, all past speakers of the House of Representatives from that state, all past state speakers, all past deputy speakers. By the virtue of my position, I am in number five. In other words, the state executive of the party is responsible to us, and should report to the state congress but the power that be does not want that structure to exist”.
“From the state congress, we are responsible to the zonal congress of the party. But we have never had state congress meeting in this state. By the virtue of the position of Alao-Akala, being the former governor of the state, he is a member of the congress and came before people like us. We have never had former Senate president from this state. We have not had former speaker of House of Representatives from this state. So technically, Alao-Akala is the leader of APC. The governor does not want that body because they will not be able to control the body as they will control the state exco. So, there is no vacuum. The vacuum only exist in the minds of political illiterates not the minds of the educated ones. Ordinarily, the state congress should be meeting. We are all ex this, ex that but we have never been inaugurated”, he concluded.
