Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Former Osun Central Senator Olusola Adeyeye has declared that only divine intervention can resolve the bitter political conflict between President Bola Tinubu and former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, acknowledging that years of reconciliation efforts by himself and others have failed to heal a rift that has reshaped the political landscape of the South-West. Adeyeye, who is the South-West Coordinator of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, made the admission on Sunday, September 27, 2026, during an appearance on Channels Television's Sunday Politics, when asked whether anyone was capable of reconciling the two former allies. "I don't know; only God knows. When things get to be like this, only the two of them can forgive each other," he said.
The former senator did not hide his preference for a reunion. "My wish would be for my party and for the president, because I want the president to win, and if he must, we must bring everybody together," Adeyeye said. But he was equally clear-eyed about the obstacles. Aregbesola is now the National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, the opposition party whose National Chairman is former Senate President David Mark, and his position makes any return to the APC politically complicated. "It won't look good to his admirers, especially those who follow him to that party," Adeyeye said.
The depth of the rupture was underscored by Adeyeye's own account of the relationship before the fallout. He described a bond so intense that he deliberately kept his distance to avoid appearing as a rival. "I don't know anyone who loved Asiwaju as much as Rauf did, and I don't know anyone who would go to any extent for Rauf as Asiwaju did," he said. "They were intended for each other." He recounted how, upon returning from the United States, he made a point of never going around Aregbesola to see Tinubu, and as a senator, he sought Aregbesola's permission before major political moves. "Whatever I did as a Senator, Rauf knew. I took his permission for many things," Adeyeye said. He described Aregbesola's esteem for Tinubu in almost reverential terms: "As far as Rauf is concerned, the only person who takes precedence over him is God himself."
Adeyeye also suggested that Tinubu privately misses the partnership, even if he would never admit it publicly. "I don't think he will admit it, but I am sure he does," he said. He pointed to the unlikely alliance between Aregbesola and David Mark in the ADC as proof that politics creates strange bedfellows, recalling how Mark had once forced through a ministerial nomination that 17 of 18 South-West senators had rejected. "So if Rauf and Mark are now the best of political allies, that's what life brings," he said.
On the electoral implications, Adeyeye dismissed suggestions that Aregbesola's association with the ADC posed a major threat to the APC in Osun. He questioned the ADC's performance in the August 15, 2026 governorship election, particularly in Ilesa and Osun Central, while noting that Aregbesola was not a candidate in the poll. "How did the ADC perform, even in Ilesa? How did Aregbesola perform in Osun Central, where I come from?" he asked. But he acknowledged that Aregbesola's personal popularity remained formidable. "If Aregbesola is the candidate, it's a different matter," Adeyeye said. "The truth is he's still a magnificent person, much loved. If he were a candidate, believe you me, anybody would be hard-pressed to beat him in Osun." He nonetheless argued that Aregbesola's popularity should not automatically translate into support for another candidate. "Where he's not the candidate, even he must not deceive himself that he can automatically take the affection for him to another person."
Adeyeye also mounted a numerical defence of Tinubu's economic record, claiming that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company had remitted only about $13 billion to the national treasury from 1999 to the start of the current administration, but had already contributed $15 billion under Tinubu in less than four years. He broke down the earlier figures by administration, attributing roughly $4 billion to Obasanjo, $8 billion to Yar'Adua, $1 billion to Jonathan, and zero to Buhari. He acknowledged that fuel, food, and transport prices remained punishing for ordinary Nigerians, but pointed to better federation allocation practices that now allow states to pay salaries and fund projects.
The political rivalry between Tinubu and Aregbesola dates back to the 2018 Osun governorship election, when Tinubu backed Gboyega Oyetola, Aregbesola's former Chief of Staff, against Aregbesola's preferred successor. The fallout deepened after Oyetola's defeat in 2022 and Aregbesola's eventual exit from the APC to the ADC. In 2024, the Osun APC suspended Aregbesola over his "outburst against Tinubu." The rift has since become one of the most consequential political feuds in the South-West, with Aregbesola now aligned with the opposition bloc that Tinubu's campaign will have to contend with in 2027.
Adeyeye's intervention is significant because he is not a neutral observer. He is a Tinubu loyalist and a key figure in the President's re-election campaign, and his public admission that reconciliation may be beyond human effort is a rare acknowledgment of the depth of the crisis. His words also carry an implicit message to the APC: do not count on Aregbesola's return, and prepare for the 2027 election as if he will remain in the opposition. For the President, the loss of a political ally who once regarded him as second only to God is a wound that may never fully heal. For the APC, it is a strategic vulnerability in a region it must win to retain power. And for Aregbesola, it is a reminder that in politics, as in life, some bridges are burned beyond repair.
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