Our attention has been drawn to yet another report of rumoured defection to the APC by Honourable Oladipupo Adebutu, Chairman, House Committee on Rural Development, and member of the House of representatives from Ogun State, but sadly this is not from a faceless online media platform, but from a highly respected and widely circulating tabloid like The Nation newspaper of Sunday, 7th of May, 2017.
This is coming barely five months when we had to react to similar story which we strongly believe is the handiwork of some political detractors and a sinister plot to alter the political balance in Ogun State against the rising political profile of Honourable Oladipupo Adebutu.
Our initial reaction was to ignore this latest antics but the several phone calls and visits of eminent citizens and associates of Honourable Adebutu asking for clarifications about the news report cannot be ignored. Hence, the need to set the record straight once again.
The news report raised three main issues which bother on rumoured defection by Honourable Adebutu to APC; rumoured decision to drop his gubernatorial ambition for Senate; and sadly the most wicked attempt to cloak the cerebral, God-fearing politician in a garb of violence.
Let us state clearly and emphatically that Honourable Oladipupo Adetutu is a Social Democrat and a Humanist, he can choose to express his franchise under any political party of his choice. His major interest is about service and touching the lives of the highest number of people. This is his ultimate goal in politics.
However, we need to reemphasize once again that joining the All Progressive Congress (APC) is not even a remote option for Hon. Adebutu if he were to consider any other political party where he can actualise his aspirations. The reason for this is clear; the ruling party itself both at the national and State level is troubled at the moment, battling not only with credibility problems with the electorate over several failed electoral promises, but also having its own fair share of crises of confidence among its members.
It is equally important to restate that Honourable Oladipupo Adebutu’s entire political aspirations are God-driven and people-focussed; as such they are not within the control and manipulation of mere mortals, definitely not even from his detractors or those that are feeling threatened. So, their wild speculation and attempt to de-scale his preference and the Will of God cannot materialize.
Most importantly, the malicious attempt to attach violence to the politics of Honourable Adebutu in the said report is rather unfortunate, wicked and in bad taste. Honourable Adebutu’s brand of politics is people-centred; it fails logic that a man who spends all his years and resources trying to make people happy and uplift a greater number of people out of poverty even at the risk of his own comfort will be painted as one bringing or supporting violence with a potential to export same into a dying political party.
Since the question of seeking to join the APC did not arise in the first place, the attempt to paint such fearful disposition of bringing violence into the APC itself is unwarranted and uncalled for.
It will be desirous if the APC will desist from the culture of governance by propaganda. Why would someone who has successfully gained control of a political platform having structures in all the local government council areas and 236 wards of Ogun State relinquish that and become a joiner in a party that is deliberately being dismantled and dismembered by its leaders. We hereby seize the opportunity to welcome all our new members arriving from All Progressive Congress and other political partis, while assureing them that they have arrived on a platform where fairness and equity prevail and genuine participatory democracy thrives.
Lado Media Office
09/05/17
