₦airaland Forum

Enough Of This Cult Loyalty Nonsense: Aregbesola Is No Traitor By Aare Amerijoye DOT.B

Yesterday, I engaged in an intense political dialogue with Hon. Akinbowale Omole, former Majority Leader of the first Ekiti State House of Assembly, former State Chairman of the Labour Party in Ekiti, and erstwhile Commissioner for Information under Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

In the course of our conversation, he lamented the worn-out, intellectually bankrupt tactic of labeling people as “betrayers” or “bastards” the moment they dare to deviate from the script written by the self-anointed gods of Yoruba politics. The speed with which dissent is criminalised and ideological independence punished is not only disturbing, it is tragic.

Tragic, because the very man now deified by these zealots has done nothing monumental for the Yoruba people, except trample the sacred ethos of Omoluabi, ridicule the principles of probity in governance, and drag us into the narcotic-forfeiture history of shame that is entirely alien to the Yoruba soul.

Let us state it clearly. Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s narcotics-related forfeiture of over $460,000 in a U.S. court is not a whisper of rumour. It is a documented, certified judicial fact. Yet his fanatics would rather gaslight the nation than confront the moral rot at the apex of their political cathedral.

If Bola Tinubu’s administration were performing, he wouldn’t need to conscript 1,000 social media writers he assembled a few days ago to whitewash his regime of kleptocracy and kakistocracy. I chuckled, yes, chuckled, when members of The Narrative Force bombarded my inbox, panicking over the recruitment of 1,000 online defenders.

I laughed, not in mockery, but in bitter irony. What exactly is there to defend? The hunger? The hardship? The hopelessness? The institutionalised incompetence?


That is not defense. That is desperate damage control. And in this sea of decay, Aregbesola was right, heroically right, to sever ties with the collapsing edifice and the mildew of arrogance that clings to its rotten throne.

When propaganda is stripped away and political loyalty is divorced from feudal subservience, history will not remember Rauf Aregbesola as a betrayer, but as the last honest remnant of Tinubu’s long-abandoned ideals. He is not Judas in this unfolding drama. He is the crucified one, bearing the sins of a political cult where gratitude is demanded like ransom and truth is punished like treason.

To Mayor Akinpelu, your piece is not an article. It is a disgraceful hymn of sycophancy. A cowardly beatification of a godfather who has long buried the ideals he once pretended to uphold. If betrayal resides anywhere in this narrative, it oozes from your pen, not from Aregbesola’s conscience.

Let’s shred your lazy revisionism point by point.

You mockingly described Rauf as a “scruffy man in tebliq trousers.” So what? That so-called “scruffy man” possessed more ideology in his bloodstream than the entire Lagos cabinet Tinubu ever cobbled together. Are we now evaluating political worth by fashion? (You can see how you goofed with such a nauseating assertion.)

By that logic, Mahatma Gandhi would never have liberated India. Aregbesola wasn’t one of your boutique politicians in velvet suits offering empty speeches for contracts. He was a man of the trenches, a NADECO warrior, while your Asiwaju was cutting foreign deals in exile.

In the trenches of NADECO, Aregbesola was not a mere spectator. He was in the engine room, distributing anti-military leaflets, organising rallies, evading arrest, and keeping the democratic flame alive. The same NADECO that Tinubu later hijacked for myth-making was the crucible of Aregbesola’s activism, not his inheritance.

You mention 1999 as though it was a divine coronation. Let’s correct you. Tinubu did not make Aregbesola. Their alliance was born of mutual necessity, not a kingmaker’s benevolence. If anything, Aregbesola gave Tinubu credibility, grassroots firepower, a movement’s soul. Without Rauf in Alimosho, BATCO would have died stillborn. Aregbesola’s command of the masses paved the political road Tinubu strutted on. Mayor, perhaps your frequent pilgrimages to Isaac John dulled your memory?

Aregbesola did not ascend through cocktail circuits or media branding. He earned his relevance through sweat and sacrifice. That “scruffy mobilizer” became Commissioner, Governor, and Minister, not by pity, but by unmatched competence.

You lament the infamous “contract story” as if it exonerates you. On the contrary, it exposes the decayed patronage ecosystem Tinubu engineered. That loyalty had to be proven through contracts is itself the problem. Aregbesola refused backdoor negotiations at midnight. So is this a rebuttal, or a lament of failed contract seeking?

The real beef is that Aregbesola didn’t give you a contract? He asked you to see him at midnight. What is wrong with that? Midnight meetings are a metaphor for hard work in politics, not a sinister code. If you couldn’t wait till midnight, perhaps you were not hungry enough for the contract. And that was good but stop holding it against Aregbesola.

You glorify Tinubu’s decision to leave Rauf’s commissioner seat vacant “in case he failed,” forgetting this. Aregbesola was not a spare tire. He was the engine. Tinubu trusted his competence and considered it necessary to keep the position vacant for him. While Tinubu protected family ambitions in Lagos, Aregbesola fought the PDP’s election heist in Osun, laying a judicial precedent that reverberated across Nigeria.

You blame Aregbesola and Peperito for Ambode’s downfall. Laughable. What you interpret as sabotage was resistance to tyranny masked as internal democracy. Ambode fell not because of Aregbesola, but because the godfather cannot stomach independent thought. That’s the real betrayal, not Aregbesola’s defiance, but Tinubu’s allergy to dissent. Ambode’s fall was orchestrated by multiple intra-party dynamics. Blaming Aregbesola for Ambode’s political fate is like blaming the moon for tides. It’s a convenient scapegoat. Besides, Ambode never publicly alleged betrayal. That’s your inference.

You say Aregbesola owes Tinubu everything. False. It was Tinubu who depended on Aregbesola’s machine to conquer the Southwest. Osun was the crucible. Oranmiyan wasn’t a slogan. It was a doctrine. Aregbesola pulled Osun out of PDP clutches, empowered artisans, educated children, built infrastructure, and governed with vision. He owes the people, not a political deity.

And when the time came to hand over, Tinubu imposed his cousin, a man with no grassroots capital. Aregbesola, in statesmanlike restraint, accepted him. But that technocrat didn’t just differ. He dismantled Aregbesola’s legacy brick by brick. Tinubu? He watched. He smirked. He said nothing.

And you expect silence?

Then came the insults. The erasure. The sabotage.

The Oyetola Saga: Yes, Aregbesola disagreed with Oyetola’s candidacy. And? Is that a crime? Must loyalty mean silence in the face of disagreement? Even Jesus argued with his disciples. The Oyetola imposition was a classic case of power play, and the people of Osun paid the price. What’s disloyal about saying the truth?

You say Fashola kept silent. Fine. But silence is not always a virtue. Sometimes, it is cowardice. Fashola chose silence. Aregbesola chose courage. He confronted hypocrisy, rejected nepotism, and walked away from a one-way loyalty cult. That is Omoluabi, not of convenience, but of conviction. Fashola kept quiet even when hurt. So we are now benchmarking leadership by silent suffering? That’s not Omoluabi, that’s slavery. Aregbesola spoke up. That’s courage. Omoluabi doesn’t mean blind obedience. It means principled conduct. Fashola is entitled to his style. Aregbesola chose another, and history will judge both.

Now you ridicule his defection to ADC. Yet Tinubu himself built his legacy by defecting. AC, ACN, APC, ring a bell? His own style of “gang-up.” But now, no one else must dare realign?

Let it be known, I was once a proud PDP member. I carry no bitterness. The PDP was a vital chapter of my political growth. But today, I pitch my tent with ADC, not out of desperation, but conviction. Because men like Aregbesola, David Mark, Tambuwal, and Atiku are returning sanity to a political space desecrated by political cultism.

Aregbesola left APC with his head high, not as a defector, but as a reformer. He is now the National Secretary, not by accident, but by merit, vision, and moral clarity, the very virtues APC abandoned.

Mayor Akinpelu, hear this with finality. Tinubu is not God. He is not infallible. He is not royalty. And Nigeria is not Bourdillon Estate. His presidency does not wash away his sins. It magnifies them. And history, unbought, unbowed, and unsentimental, will write its verdict.

You say Aregbesola hasn’t made amends. For what exactly? Refusing to lick boots? Choosing principle over personality cult? Remaining progressive while Tinubu regressed into a patriarchal hoarder of power?

Mayor, the apology is yours, to the Nigerian people, for kneeling before tyranny and distorting the truth. Aregbesola needs no forgiveness from you. He remains what Tinubu used to be, a rebel with a cause, not a kingpin with a cult.

You ended with a Yoruba song. Permit me to end with a Yoruba truth.

“Bi ènìyàn bá fi ọwọ́ kan iná, ó un jó ni.” — When a man places his hand in fire, he must be ready for the burn.

You quoted: “Kò sí daríjì f’eni t’ó bà dà’lé…”Yes, but who betrayed whom? Is it betrayal to question excess? Is it betrayal to challenge imposition? The real betrayal is turning a movement into a monarchy. The real betrayal is punishing ideological independence.

You have touched the fire, by defending a fallen gospel with fake parables, and you will be scorched, not by us, but by truth, which, when unleashed, is ungovernable.

Rauf Aregbesola is not your villain. He is your mirror. What you hate in him is what you once respected in yourself,conviction, courage, and conscience.

May Nigeria have more Aregbesolas, and fewer Mayor Akinpelus.

Aare Amerijoye DOT.B is the Director-General of The Narrative Force.

https://osundefender.com/enough-of-this-cult-loyalty-nonsense-aregbesola-is-no-traitor/

Lobatan

Aregbesola is genuinely loved and respected in yoruba land than tinubu. Forget all the hyping on tinubu in yoruba land, it is aregbesola that helps him to win elections in Lagos .

Aregbesola withdrew his support for tinubu before the 2023 presidential election, that was why tinubu fell to Peter Obi all around alimosho, Alausa, the whole of mainland and even inside Lagos government house in Alausa.

Don't mind the bigots. Always hanging on ethnic strings, even in 2025.

He’s an ingrate then, if he’s not a traitor..

Head dey pain all of una..

"The worn-out, intellectually bankrupt tactic of labeling people as “betrayers” or “bastards” the moment they dare to deviate from the script written by the self-anointed gods of Yoruba politics. The speed with which dissent is criminalized and ideological independence punished is not only disturbing, it is tragic.

Tragic, because the very man now deified by these zealots has done nothing monumental for the Yoruba people, except trample the sacred ethos of Omoluabi, ridicule the principles of probity in governance, and drag us into the narcotic-forfeiture history of shame that is entirely alien to the Yoruba soul.

Let us state it clearly. Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s narcotics-related forfeiture of over $460,000 in a U.S. court is not a whisper of rumour. It is a documented, certified judicial fact. Yet his fanatics would rather gaslight the nation than confront the moral rot at the apex of their political cathedral.

Fear this with finality. Tinubu is not God. He is not infallible. He is not royalty. And Nigeria is not Bourdillon Estate. His presidency does not wash away his sins. It magnifies them. And history, unbought, unbowed, and unsentimental, will write its verdict.

“A person who has forfeited property on the basis of a crime cannot be entitled to indemnity. Forfeiture is a form of punishment. There is no indemnity in our criminal procedure,” the court further stated in a majority decision delivered. - (Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola).

Words on marble. Imagine a region demonized the clean Yemi Osinbajo for a man whose entire life is nothing but shades of unending criminality. Chai!
cc; Yarimo, Seunmsg, Sarrki, NgeneUkwenu, Hellineus, Omenka, Madridguy

PulaPower:
He’s an ingrate then, if he’s not a traitor.Head dey pain all of una..

As usual with blind defenders of baba soope sophicated agbero gangsterism brand of Lagos politics. Please read;

"You say Fashola kept silent. Fine. But silence is not always a virtue. Sometimes, it is cowardice. Fashola chose silence. Aregbesola chose courage. He confronted hypocrisy, rejected nepotism, and walked away from a one-way loyalty cult.

So we are now benchmarking leadership by silent suffering? That’s not Omoluabi, that’s slavery. Aregbesola spoke up. That’s courage. Omoluabi doesn’t mean blind obedience. It means principled conduct. Fashola is entitled to his style. Aregbesola chose another, and history will judge both.

Now you ridicule his defection to ADC. Yet Tinubu himself built his legacy by defecting. AC, ACN, APC, ring a bell? His own style of “gang-up.” But now, no one else must dare realign?

This is epic.Even Tinubu's grip on Lagos was challenged with the infamous Mudashiru Obasa impeachment scandal, but the real implosion is seeming underneath in 2027.

Racoon:
As usual with blind defenders of baba soope sophicated agbero gangsterism brand of Lagos politics. Please read;

"You say Fashola kept silent. Fine. But silence is not always a virtue. Sometimes, it is cowardice. Fashola chose silence. Aregbesola chose courage. He confronted hypocrisy, rejected nepotism, and walked away from a one-way loyalty cult.

So we are now benchmarking leadership by silent suffering? That’s not Omoluabi, that’s slavery. Aregbesola spoke up. That’s courage. Omoluabi doesn’t mean blind obedience. It means principled conduct. Fashola is entitled to his style. Aregbesola chose another, and history will judge both.

Now you ridicule his defection to ADC. Yet Tinubu himself built his legacy by defecting. AC, ACN, APC, ring a bell? His own style of “gang-up.” But now, no one else must dare realign?

This is epic.Even Tinubu's grip on Lagos was challenged with the infamous Mudashiru Obasa impeachment scandal, but the real implosion is seeming underneath in 2027.

Mtchew..

Park well jare..

PulaPower:
Mtchew. Park well jare..

"....What else does any sane person expects? The office of the president of Nigeria should never be associated with such a character as the one there today - implicated in a heroin drug running scandal in Chicago Illinois in 1990s - a miasma of dubiety.

What’s the message to aspiring future leaders of Nigeria? That they can make the wrong choices in life, live a less-than-honest life, and still become president provided they have deep pockets and can manipulate the system?

No one who truly loves Nigeria can ignore the damaging precedent that Tinubu’s emergence as president has set for the moral bearings of this country.
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2023/08/tinubus-government-where-is-nigerias-soul-moral-compass-by-olu-fasan/

This is what happens when the truth seared the hardened conscience. You got no epistle to written to defend a drug baron, certificate forging crook, bullion vans lootocracy and identity theft demigod.

Validated:
Don't mind the bigots. Always hanging on ethnic strings, even in 2025.

This real omoluabi fella has them in mind when he wrote thus;

"Now, we come to the ‘sophisticated’ South-West, and to a great extent, the South-South. I wept for Yorubaland! The region proved to be the most unfortunate group in the ‘protest’, which ensured that everything about the hunger in the land is as a result of the ‘hatred’ for Tinubu!

I feel so ashamed each time I come across the state-sponsored narratives that have emanated from the South-West over this ‘protest’. Again, the pro-government groups and individuals in the South-West have also shown that Nigeria is a super glued nation!

For many of these ‘Hallelujah’ groups, it doesn’t matter if Tinubu performs in office or not as long as it is a Yoruba man that is there! They don’t care if or not their man would be leaving behind any legacy.

These are the set of people (very many of them hungry and beggarly), who have taken the “Èmilókán” campaign to a level that no matter how fatuous a government policy is, as long it is Tinubu that initiated it, ‘all true sons and daughters of Yorubaland’ must embrace it!

To them, with that kind of thinking faculty, the hunger in the land is because people lost elections. The inability of farmers to go to their farms because of farmers’/herders’ clashes can be traced to election losers. The floating of the Naira, poor economic policies of the government and the extravagance at all levels of government is all about 2027. Pity!

https://tribuneonlineng.com/protest-that-restructured-nigeria/

For Tinubu/Aregbeshola matter, Aregbe remain a traitor. I don't need other people opinion because Aregbe really messed up. Go Egbeda and make people point to you house Aregbe dey live before God uses Tinubu to define his life.

Racoon:
“A person . - (Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola).

nothing but shades of unending criminality. Chai!

idguy

has done nothing monumental for the Yoruba people, except trample the sacred ethos of Omoluabi, ridicule the principles of probity in governance, and drag us into the narcotic-forfeiture history of shame that is entirely alien to the Yoruba soul.

Let us state it clearly. Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s narcotics-related forfeiture of over $460,000 in a U.S. court is not a whisper of rumour. It is a documented, certified judicial fact. Yet his fanatics would rather gaslight the nation than confront the moral rot at the apex of their political cathedral.

This aptly describes Tinubu and his Agbadoos.

In the Southwest, anyone that dares to chart a pathway for himself will be immediately termed a betrayer and the full weight of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway propaganda machinery unleashed upon them. Case studies abound. Ambode, Fashola, Fayemi, Sanwo-olu, Osinbajo, etc. Dear Yorubas, after Tinubu, who would be your next leader? No, don't say you will cross the bridge when you get there. Who's Tinubu's successor(s)?

Kwankwaso went against Buhari and decamped out of the APC yet no Northerner calls him a betrayer or traitor. Northern politicians are strategically placed in every major political party and heads or tail, the North will be ably represented.

madridguy:
For Tinubu/Aregbeshola matter, Aregbe remain a traitor. I don't need other people opinion because Aregbe really messed up. Go Egbeda and make people point to you house Aregbe dey live before God uses Tinubu to define his life.

In politics of a nation, which one should come first?

Loyalty to ones Nation or Loyalty to the President?

AMINDA:
In the Southwest, anyone that dares to chart a pathway for himself will be immediately termed a betrayer and the full weight of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway propaganda machinery unleashed upon them. Case studies abound. Ambode, Fashola, Fayemi, Sanwo-olu, Osinbajo, etc.

Kwankwaso went against Buhari and decamped out of the APC yet no Northerner calls him a betrayer or traitor. Northern politicians are strategically placed in every major political party and heads or tail, the North will be ably represented.

Aptly said. This disturbing trend with the SW is really not a wise political strategy. Yet they said the SE that does not do or tolerate any baba soope political is always demonized as being unwise. See how the thread dry because their demigod is being roosted red red hot.

Apt!!! How can I not align with this beautiful piece of masterpiece and retort. Nothing to add, Nothing to subtract.

Well-done Author.



ADC: HERE WE COME!!!

OSUNADC:
Apt!!! How can I not align with this beautiful piece of masterpiece and retort. Nothing to add, Nothing to subtract.

Well-done Author.



ADC: HERE WE COME!!!

Aregbe is doing the lord's work in the grassroots of the Southwest with the ADC. Contrary to what Batists will have us believe, Aregbe is fully on ground! Look at these people, the love is pure and genuine.

Nobody knows for a fact where it went blue in the relationship between Tinubu and Aregbe

Most are just conjectures and people taking sides pushing their own narrative

The basic fact is that in politics, there is nothing like betrayal since there can be no permanent friend. Only permanent interests

Kukutente23:
Nobody knows for a fact where it went blue in the relationship between Tinubu and Aregbe

Most are just conjectures and people taking sides pushing their own narrative

The basic fact is that in politics, there is nothing like betrayal since there can be no permanent friend. Only permanent interests

I feel aregbe expected Tinubu to support Osinbajo. Because aregbe is a big fan of the former VP. He so much respects him. But baba sope ambition is too important to him.
Same thing is playing out between Atiku and Obi.

OneCandleAway:
I feel aregbe expected Tinubu to support Osinbajo. Because aregbe is a big fan of the former VP. He so much respects him. But baba sope ambition is too important to him.
Same thing is playing out between Atiku and Obi.

I doubt
They already had strains before then

AMINDA:
In the Southwest, anyone that dares to chart a pathway for himself will be immediately termed a betrayer and the full weight of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway propaganda machinery unleashed upon them. Case studies abound. Ambode, Fashola, Fayemi, Sanwo-olu, Osinbajo, etc. Dear Yorubas, after Tinubu, who would be your next leader? No, don't say you will cross the bridge when you get there. Who's Tinubu's successor(s)?

Kwankwaso went against Buhari and decamped out of the APC yet no Northerner calls him a betrayer or traitor. Northern politicians are strategically placed in every major political party and heads or tail, the North will be ably represented.

Your argument is flawed and illogical. You Igbos know nothing about politics but will never admit it.

Unlike Tinubu who played a pivotal role in making Aregbesola a governor for 8 years, Buhari never made anyone in Nigeria's history a local government chairman, let alone a governor.

Likewise, your claim that Northern politicians don't call themselves betrayers on deflection is also false, as Kwakwanso's hatred for Ganduje stems from the fact that he felt betrayed by the man whom he made a governor. The same is presently happening in Kaduna State, where El Rufai is feeling betrayed by the incumbent governor, Uba, whom he helped install as a governor. We have recently seen similar cases between Wike and Fubara and in many other states.

Loyalty is loyalty, not cult. It's when you are not allowed to disagree that's a cult. People have disagreed with and still disagree with Tinubu.
About Aregbe, sorry he's not consequential in the big scheme. No point discussing him. He said himself that apart from God, Tinubu made him.

"After God, it is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu" AregbeSola
Watch & Retweet pic.twitter.com/lmzBGt6xy9

— ENGR JAY UMAR (@enevene2003) July 4, 2025

Shall we pic.twitter.com/ozJqXPruhn

— Pst Okezie JAMES Atañi 🦨 (@Onsogbu) July 8, 2025

We are know the truth.

The side we take on this matter is of full knowledge

Bulabu has not done anything good to this country

He deserved not this worship he gets

Traitor or not, Aregbesola is just wasting his time. As at today, he can't defeat Adaleke in Osun state. Adeleke is supporting Tinubu as well.

Loyalty should only be to the country ànd not one Godfather somewhere

Chai! So it is true that Tinubu forfeited hundreds of thousands of dollars to USA, which were proceeds of drug trafficking.

Okay, but the pictures speaks louder than voice..
Kkk

When Tinibu and his band of ACN Rogues were planning Evil against Jonathan a Southerner,
where they not traitors?