Between Basiru and Aregbesola – THISDAYLIVE

In Osun State politics, everything important can seem complicated. And then, it can seem so simple. Such is the case of Senator Ajibola Basiru, National Secretary of Nigeria’s ruling APC and a rising gubernatorial hopeful.

Basiru has been doing the political equivalent of sidestepping banana peels: denying any romantic political overture towards his once-estranged godfather, Rauf Aregbesola.

“No emissaries,” his camp insists. “No secret alliances.” Nothing to see here—just a man with principles, and a 20-year loyalty handshake with President Bola Tinubu still firmly intact.

And yet, whispers swirl.

Insiders in both the Basiru and Bola Oyebamiji camps murmur the same tune: “We are in touch with Aregbesola.” The former governor—once exiled from Osun APC politics, now a free radical in the field—has become the gravitational centre of unlikely rapprochements.

Basiru’s supporters say reports of contact are fiction. But politics in Nigeria, like jazz, often sounds off-beat until you learn to listen. Recent political moves—like Tinubu’s open-armed reception of Governor Ademola Adeleke and family—have set off fire alarms within Osun APC ranks. The Adeleke-Tinubu moment didn’t just irritate—it rewrote the room.

In this new light, Basiru’s denials seem less like declarations and more like choreography—each word carefully balanced to avoid offending Tinubu, alienating Aregbesola, or surrendering strategic ambiguity.

Meanwhile, the Oyebamiji camp hums the same hymn, pointing fingers and whispering of deals being struck “in principle.” Allegations bounce back and forth like table tennis in a smoky parlour. It’s not a courtship, they say. But the dance looks familiar.

Both aspirants, once antagonists in the intra-party drama, now eye the same outcast kingmaker. Because in Osun, politics has no memory—only momentum.

For now, the Basiru-Aregbesola story remains Schrödinger’s alliance: denied in public, whispered in private, politically alive either way. It’s all complex—until it’s simple.

And simple may arrive in 2026.