The Oyo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election, Teslim Folarin was no match for Governor Seyi Makinde, who contested on the platform of the ruling party.
The reaction followed a claim credited to Folarin in a statement which was circulated across various online media platforms, weekend, that he lost the election to APC’s arrangements to win the presidency.
Folarin also described the APC as the strongest party in the state, having won the three senatorial seats of Oyo South, Oyo Central and Oyo North, including nine federal constituency seats out of 14.
A statement by the Publicity Secretary of PDP in Oyo State, Akeem Olatunji, yesterday, described Folarin as a sore serial loser who was fighting hard for a political comeback by associating his political misfortune to whom he ought to regard as his political master and most successful politician in the history of Oyo State, having emerged in two consecutive governorship elections with unprecedented electoral records.
Olatunji, while going down memory lane, reminded Folarin that he lost his polling booth woefully by over 100 votes, same with his Ward and local government in an election he was the gubernatorial candidate.
“So, who threw him under the bus in his polling booth, Ward and local government? Furthermore, Folarin was a nobody as far as Oyo State politics was concerned in 2003 and 2007 when as an opportunist he became a Senator by chance,” the statement said.
The PDP PRO in the state stressed further that it was the late Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu who threw his political weight to push Folarin as an adopted political son, stressing that he could never have won any election on his own as Makinde did to emerge governor.
Describing Folarin as a mere featherweight overrated politician, Olatunji said similar opportunity presented itself in 2019 when the then governor, Late Abiola Ajimobi, did same for him as part of plans to kick him out of the 2019 governorship race among the APC guber hopefuls.
The party stated that if Folarin truly is politically savvy as claimed he would realize that the controversial electoral success of the three APC Senators was entirely a product of ‘Tinubu effect’ or what many now term Tinubu Tsunami.
Olatunji, who described Folarin as a political orphan having no political godfather to associate with him or do his political bidding, should humbly retire from politics and stop living in self-denial of obvious reality stressing that politics has advanced far more than the era of political hooliganism and reckless brigandage where ‘jagba’ or jagbajantis’ as the case may be was applicable in winning elections.
He narrated that the senator’s years of being an opportunist in public office, winning elections on the back of political godfathers had deprived him the privilege of learning real grassroots politicking and political teamplay stressing that it was Folarin’s ‘jagba’ mentality that gave him false impression and hope of having a chance in the last election.
“Ordinarily, we would have ignored this reckless outburst by the most ungrateful politician in Oyo State since the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999 being a political opportunist undeserving of the ground of merit and order of political ranking at the time on three different occasions.”
“How can a Folarin hate himself so much that he keeps punishing himself with the psychological pain? Why can’t he just wake up from his delusions and self denial of obvious reality that Seyi Makinde is a political godfather to him and does not belong to his political class or league of politicians? What’s so hard in doing these things?”
“The least Folarin could do for himself now is to hold his peace, stop talking abstractly, and if possible, retire from politics and face his private life because God has been so gracious to him to have offered him those three opportunities.”
“He was a monumental failure to the good people of Oyo central who were never proud of his exploit in the Senate for the three terms, even when he became Senate Majority Leader through the influence of late baba Adedibu, he still failed to make use of the exalted office once occupied by the Great late Senator Abubakar Olusola Saraki to facilitate notable projects for the people of Oyo State and most importantly the good people of Oyo Central Senatorial district.”
“Governor Seyi Makinde who has since become a nationalist and unarguably the most successful politician as far as Oyo State politics is concerned could not have been a match for such a political puppet who was merely an opportunist. Isn’t it very obvious now that there is no more political godfather to help him win election that Folarin has sadly become a political orphan?”
“We want to, for the sake of emphasis and record, state very clearly that winning two governorship elections back to back with such historical electoral victory were no mean feats and we urge Folarin and his likes to put respect to Makinde’s name each time it drops from their mouths because there is absolutely no basis for comparing father and son, it is in fact insulting to the sensibility of Oyo State citizens to do so. We won’t allow Folarin seek any come back from his political oblivion by associating his political misfortune to Governor Seyi Makinde,” Olatunji said.
In the same vein, a political pressure Group, Oyo Progressive Front (OPF), has advised Teslim Folarin to stop his lamentation over his loss of the governorship election in the state, he was the the architect of his misfortune.
A statement signed at the by the state Coordinator, Mr. Tunde Lawal and made available to journalists said, Senator Folarin was the architect of his misfortune and the misfortune of the APC in Oyo State, adding that: “He should keep quiet and stop his tale of woe that he brought on the Progressives family in the state.”
According to the group, Folarin should tender an unreserved apology to members and leaders of APC in the state and at the national level.
“Due to his inordinate ambition and his grab-all politics, he caused a major upheaval in the party. After grabbing the party structure, he followed up with the governorship ticket of the party. After which he started rolling out party tickets to his acolytes and sold the remaining tickets to ready made buyers.”
“While no one begrudged his ambition, he forgot that a tree does not make a forest. He neglected and ignored all other stakeholders in order to satisfy his ambition, that is what led to his misfortune.”
“Majority of the APC members in the State had migrated to other parties due to the injustice. So how did he think he could win the governorship election? In any case, there was a week interval between the Presidential election and the governorship election, so his loss had nothing to do with the presidential election.”
The group also noted that President Tinubu who was the party’s presidential candidate in the election had seen the situation and knew Senator Folarin could not win and had advised him to move around to reconcile with aggrieved members.
“But he did not heed the advice. He was not ready to concede to any other person in the party despite the advice for him to do so. Folarin’s past records was another reason he lost the election. It was clear to everyone in Oyo State that his personality was unsellable. The people of Oyo State made a right choice by choosing the incumbent over a man of questionable character.”
“We, therefore, want to advise him to stop his lamentation and retrace his steps by begging those in the party he had offended. For him to claim that the presidential ambition of President Tinubu led to his loss is not facing reality. No one threw him under the bus, he willingly walked into the path of an oncoming vehicle,” the group said.
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