APC Leadership Crisis: Ajisafe Criticizes Ondo Governor

This intervention arises from conviction, not from malice, not from revenge. I write this out of love for our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the progressive democratic struggle in which I have dedicated the last three decades of my life. I am a product of struggle but you are a product of collective sacrifice and a beneficiary of collective effort. I came into this movement through struggle, not advocacy, and I have benefited from the work of men and women who toiled in the trenches long before you arrived.

You came later and benefited from that same legacy of sacrifice and struggle. Now seeing that heritage dismantled by exclusion, division and executive arrogance will be a betrayal of my conscience and our history. Those of us with institutional memory cannot pretend that everything is fine. It would be a moral failure for men who still value the party, principles and legacy to remain silent. Silence in this moment is complicity. I refuse to stay silent. That is why I must call you, Mr. Governor, and ask you to retrace your steps before the damage becomes irreversible.

Mr. Governor, you are guilty. Not guilty in the criminal sense before a court of law, but guilty in the deepest political and moral sense of failing to fulfill the duties and responsibilities entrusted to her by the people of Ondo State. Guilty of abdication. Guilty of exclusion. Guilty of administrative and political dishonor. Guilty of presiding over a government that has lost the pace of the party, governance and vision.

The first accusation is against the party. A governor is not just the chief executive of a state. He is, by tradition and necessity, the leader of his party in that state. Leadership in politics is not a title that is inherited. It’s a duty you perform every day. You failed in that duty. Instead of rallying the troops, you have chosen exclusion. The leaders who built the party, the stakeholders who stood rain and shine for the APC have been pushed to the margins. Those who challenged you in the primaries have not reconciled.

Their grievances were not remedied. The bitterness was allowed to fester into division. The result is what we see today. I mean a party so fractured that your own offended supporters opted for anti-party activities and, instead of condemning it, you went on national television to support it. “I have nothing against the Rainbow Coalition as long as they work for Tinubu,” you said. The question is simple: what about the other candidates? When the head of a party authorizes division, the body cannot be whole.

The second accusation is against democracy itself. His tenure was characterized by encouragement of violence and anti-democratic practices in the conduct of party affairs. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit soon after the burial of his predecessor Aketi turned into a show of violent division rather than unity. The events of the congress of February 17 and 18, 2026 were not accidental. Ditto for the primaries.

They were the product of a climate in which force is substituted for process and progress. Where criminals are preferred to delegates and where the will of the people is negotiated behind the scenes rather than expressed by open ballot. When those who are supposed to protect democratic norms become those who subvert them, the entire structure begins to rot from the inside out.

The third charge is against representation and integrity. Government without consultation is an autocracy in civilian clothes. You have chosen, on your own, the city councilors and the presidents of the local governments. You attempted to handpick National Assembly candidates until the Abuja center had to step in and reverse the illegality. This is not leadership. This is imperialism. Beyond that, you have been guilty of subterfuge and deception. You talk about reconciliation in public but you have created a weak reconciliation committee made up of your apologists. You say one thing openly while your body language and private expressions contradict you.

Today, APC in Ondo State is a party that is constantly under pressure due to your lack of leadership experience. You, for example, are not in tandem with the three state ministers. You are not at peace with the 12 national legislators and majority in Ondo State Assembly. You are not at peace with the party leaders. The party is now divided between pros and cons. This is not coalition building. This is isolation.

The fourth accusation is against governance and resources. Despite the huge amount of money accumulated by the state from the Federation account, your performance is below average. You have failed to allow local governments to function as an autonomous tier. Their allotments are spent from your office in Alagbaka.

You have mishandled every opportunity to bring the party together through inclusive governance. You have appointed almost 1500 collaborators and transformed many of them into instruments of anti-party activity rather than of service. You created the presidential election campaign team without consulting ministers, members of the National Assembly or party elders. You have failed to fund about seven support groups you created, and are openly hostile to about 17 support groups formed by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. You also showed lethargy by honestly working for the re-election of Mr. President.

Words alone don’t matter. Actions do that. And your actions show a preference for control over collaboration, division over inclusion. You have the sense of “I know too” (ITK) and suffer from “Messianic Syndrome”. That is, if it weren’t for me, otherwise I would be your savior.

The fifth charge is against the economy and future of Ondo State. A governor must be the chief marketer and chief guardian of his state’s potential. You have failed on this front. The Olokola FTZ, a project that is supposed to be the economic heart of the Southern Senatorial District in particular and Ondo State in general, has been left adrift. Eba Island, where Ogun State has already begun exploration and placement, has suffered from your lukewarm attitude. You were silent. You were casual, you were docile and noncommittal. You have transformed silence into an art of government and lies into an instrument of government.

And the saddest thing is that you watched in silence as the Coastal Highway was diverted from our path without consultation and without a fight. The minister in charge offended our sensibilities so maniacally that he said he had “no regrets for his actions”. He said it and did it because we have a governor with no weight and no political scruples. Yet we have a ruler given to speaking in tongues and dancing. What mistake?

These are no small issues. They are about jobs, investments, the next 50 years of Ondo State. To remain silent in the face of such strategic losses is to be complicit. To be nonchalant is to be guilty. I refuse to be part of the foolish and “jekuredi” elite of our dear State always involved in the habitual “penkelemesis”.

The sixth accusation is against our children and our educational institutions. Our universities went on strike and for weeks our students were sent home. These are issues that could have been resolved on a table, with good will and urgency. Industrial disharmony is not inevitable. It is the product of failure of commitment. You waited months before making monetary promises as if you were doing workers a favor.

You shamelessly went to Abuja to receive an award celebrating you on education. Many of your paid and atrophied Vuvuzella have gone to town to sing your praises. Check recent education results and other statistics and you’ll find that the prize is worth less than a tissue paper in the dustbin.

Worse, you deliberately appoint and encourage your appointees to blackmail, abuse, and intimidate government critics. When a government uses state resources to harass dissent rather than address it, it loses both trust and legitimacy.

Mr. Governor, guilt isn’t just about what you do. It’s also about what you can’t do. It’s about meetings you didn’t call. The reconciliations you did not pursue. The projects you didn’t defend. The voices you didn’t listen to. The future you didn’t protect. The right steps you failed to take.

Therefore, if you truly care about the party and the Renewed Hope Agenda, I, Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe, ask, on behalf of the 5.4 million citizens of Ondo State, on behalf of the loyal, hardworking and suffering members of the APC in Ondo State and the generations yet to be born, the following immediately;

First, disband, dismantle, expand or establish a new reconciliation committee composed of men and women of integrity, not your appointees and political apologists. Secondly, convene a round table of all members of the National Assembly, party leaders and ministers to discuss how we can achieve a massive victory for President Tinubu and other candidates of our party. Third, take open, convincing and verifiable steps to distance yourself from your supporters who have defected to other parties based on your instructions and support to contest across the state from other parties. Fourth, visit Abuja and convene a meeting of ministers, national legislators and some selected leaders (not your apologists but credible leaders) at Owena House or anywhere else to demonstrate that you are acting in line with your public pronouncements.

This is the only way the wise men of Abuja will know, because the Owl is watching and taking note for Abuja. Just know that very soon there will be a day of reckoning.

Ondo State deserves a governor who unites rather than divides, who consults rather than dictates, who funds institutions rather than starving them, who fights for our economic interests rather than watching them fade away and who treats governance as a service and not as an achievement. Until you act, the verdict must stand.

Mr. Governor, you are guilty.

I am Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe, scion of the Olukoro family, Oraa Ikanmu, Oka-Akoko. First of his name, seventh of his generation.