The above titled opinion piece by Mobolaji Sanusi published in The Nation of Saturday,  July 5, 2025, reads like a desperate attempt to hold Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola to account for being betrayed by the All Progressives Congress leaders, while conveniently forgetting the many times he was politically flogged, ostracised and abandoned by the very people who now expect him to remain loyal, silent and obedient.

It is baffling that anyone would write about Aregbesola’s recent emergence as National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as though he owes an explanation for choosing to remain active in politics after being barred from the APC FOUR times. This is the same man whose legacy in Osun State sits firmly in the consciousness of the people. In 2018, when he was leaving the office of governor, he handed over a state with the lowest poverty, lowest crime and second-lowest unemployment rates in Nigeria, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations Development Programme. That was a leadership that put PEOPLE FIRST at the centre of the party and government. The same man whose political relevance continues to trigger discomfort among those who hoped his political career had been extinguished.

The critics would have us believe Aregbesola betrayed a so-called bond with President Bola Tinubu. But what exactly is betrayal in politics? When Aregbesola was governor of Osun State, he governed with the support of his then-leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That much is true. But he did not govern as a puppet. He brought his ideas, his style, and his grassroots connection into the job, even his fiercest critics never doubted his ideological leanings or his passion for development.

To the writer, Ogbeni is incapable of waxing philosophical about his leanings and ideas because of his loyalty to his then-principal. The angst stems from the trending speech delivered during his acceptance as the Interim National Secretary of the ADC, a coalition platform aimed at wrestling Nigerians out of the failure of governance and politics being midwifed by the current APC administration. The ruling party has lost the social focus and conscience that it inherited from the original APC coalition. People are hungry and angry because the programmes being implemented by the ruling party lack the human element, and politics have become much less democratic. Where are the school feeding and N-Power programmes, amongst other social investment programmes, pushed by the previous administration? This current administration does not espouse the welfarist and social policies that Chief Obafemi Awolowo stood for. The bone of contention is actually ideological and not personal.

Almost everyone who has read that Ogbeni’s speech understands it is in tandem with his beliefs and actions while he held political office in the past. The records are well documented. His social democratic leanings of pursuing the maximum good for the public are well known, an idea that inspired his populist programmes while he held sway in Osun State.

It was in line with this that he promised to ‘work to build a party that has a clear ideological compass’ and build ‘a party that is rooted in democratic values, social justice, accountability, and national development’. There is no crime in trying to create a ‘party that listens to the people, not only during elections, but every single day’. With this in mind, he emphasised extra scriptum that, “power is not a prize to be seized, but a responsibility to be shouldered. It is not a throne to occupy, but a burden to bear with honour. True power lies not in what we can claim for ourselves, but in what we can deliver for our people. This is our covenant with history: power is responsibility,” Aregbesola noted.

It may interest readers to know that shortly after his tenure as governor, Aregbesola took up a federal role as minister of interior under President Buhari. During this period, the political relationship between him and Asiwaju Tinubu began to sour. The tension became public during the build-up to the Osun State governorship election in 2022 and the subsequent federal elections in 2023. Those who now talk about loyalty did not raise their voices when Aregbesola’s political structure in Osun State was systematically dismantled by the same Tinubu-aligned forces. They watched, some even cheered, while his men were shut out of the party, expelled, harassed, humiliated and in some cases, imprisoned.

Aregbesola was not only sidelined, but he was openly attacked. In Lagos State, his symbolic political coffin was carried in the street like some medieval warning. In Osun State, his offices were shot at, his allies arrested, and his political voice drowned by those who had the machinery of the party and the ears of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

For six long years, he waited. For reconciliation, for some form of political restoration, despite being the victims of the aggression. He even swallowed his pride and apologised both in private and public, but reconciliation never came. All interventions by well-meaning Nigerians failed to reconcile him with his erstwhile leader. He attended reconciliatory meetings and attack remains. He visited Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu twice with no solution in sight. Instead, the hostility grew louder, more public and increasingly bitter. And now, after all of that, he is expected to continue waiting, or worse, fade quietly into political irrelevance.

What moral ground does anyone have to accuse him of betrayal now when he has simply chosen to chart a different path? Is he to remain permanently bound to an organisation that has made it clear he is no longer wanted? Or is his political future to be dictated by those who preferred him humiliated rather than empowered?

Politics is not marriage. But even in a marriage, when a partner is abused, pushed away, ignored and ridiculed, no one expects them to stay. They are encouraged to leave, to find peace elsewhere, to rebuild. That is exactly what Aregbesola has done. He has moved on. His decision to align with the ADC is not treachery; it is boldness. It is a man refusing to be buried alive. If the same people who showed him the door now feel threatened by his resurgence, they should ask themselves what exactly they were hoping for.

The idea that Aregbesola should suspend his political ambitions simply because of a past association with President Tinubu is not just lazy, it is offensive. In a democracy, everyone has the right to participate. That includes contesting, campaigning, and yes, even criticising former allies. If President Tinubu could work with Abubakar Atiku and Nasir El-Rufai to defeat Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, and Iyiola Omisore to defeat Ademola Adeleke in 2018, then the logic is quite simple: in politics, alliances shift. Political goals change. What matters is not where you once stood, but where you are now.

The real issue is not Aregbesola’s new position. It is that his political relevance persists. It unsettles the assumptions made by those who thought his political end had come. That is why his emergence in ADC stings. Not because it is morally wrong, but because it shatters the myth that political survival is only possible within one party.

And what of loyalty? Loyalty is not slavery. It is not blind. It is not forever. When it becomes one-sided, it becomes toxic. The same people asking for Aregbesola’s loyalty have shown none in return. Not when he was attacked. Not when his name was dragged. Not when his political family was broken. If loyalty must be discussed, let it be honest. Let it be fair. And let it be mutual.

Rauf Aregbesola has made a decision. He has evolved politically while maintaining his values and principles. He has found a new coalition, where his experience, structure and ideology are welcomed. That is not betrayal. That is courage. That is conviction. Those who cannot understand it are free to disagree. But they must stop pretending that his departure from the APC was not long overdue. He did not leave out of haste or bitterness. He left after six years of being told, in every way possible, that he was no longer wanted. Where was Mobolaji Sanusi when he was expelled four times by the APC? I refuse to understand how you expect someone you have cast out to be loyal to you. It defies logic and reasoning.

Let the man breathe. Let him be. If the worry is that his new party may gain strength, then perhaps the focus should shift from attacking him to fixing the fractures that made his exit necessary in the first place. The real betrayal is not Aregbesola leaving the APC. It is the APC pushing him out and expecting him to act like he still belongs. That is not how politics works. And certainly not how human dignity operates.

Ileowo Kikiowo writes from Abuja.