Since the conclusion of the APC senatorial primaries in Osun Central, one thing has become increasingly obvious: the attacks against Kunle Rasheed Adegoke (K-RAD) are no longer about the primary election itself.
They are about fear. Fear of K-RAD’s rising popularity, growing political acceptability, and expanding grassroots influence across Osun Central senatorial district.
The recent sponsored write-ups circulating online against K-RAD are full of contradictions, propaganda and manufactured conspiracy theories aimed at reversing a victory freely secured at the polls.
Curiously, the same people who preached party supremacy before the primaries suddenly became defenders of “justice” only after their preferred interests suffered defeat at the delegates’ level.
Many within the APC know where these coordinated attacks are coming from. Senator Ajibola Basiru has reportedly remained deeply unsettled since K-RAD’s emergence.
Those familiar with Osogbo politics understand that this is not the first time Basiru would allegedly move against people perceived as politically rising around him.
In 2020, when Muideen Raheem was nominated by former President Muhammadu Buhari for appointment as Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC from Osun State (a process facilitated by K-RAD), it is a public knowledge that Basiru, then a serving Senator from Osogbo, maliciously orchestrated petitions that eventually frustrated the nomination.
Ironically, K-RAD, Basiru, and Muideen Raheem all grew up together in Osogbo. Yet political observers believe Basiru has consistently struggled with the emergence of independent political figures capable of commanding mass support outside his direct control.
Many party members now see the present anti-K-RAD campaign as another attempt to politically suppress someone whose popularity may eventually dwarf Basiru’s existing structures within Osun politics.
Even during the buildup to the primaries, there were strong rumours that efforts were made to sponsor multiple Osogbo aspirants into the race simply to divide K-RAD’s home support base.
Yet despite those alleged schemes, delegates across the district still rallied massively behind him. That outcome alone explains why certain forces have now resorted to petitions, media attacks and propaganda after failing at the polls.
The irony however is that while these individuals are busy attacking the only long-standing APC loyalist who secured a senatorial ticket in Osun State, genuine aboriginal members of the party remain bitter that two out of the three APC senatorial tickets were handed to recent defectors from the PDP.
If there should be outrage anywhere, many party loyalists insist it should be directed at the systematic marginalisation of foundation APC members, not at the emergence of K-RAD, one of the few aspirants whose roots within the party cannot be questioned.
Surveyor Kazeem Salami,
Kola Balogun Area,
Ward 8, Olorunda Local Government, Osun State.
