News Update
Muniru Raji’s recent fixation on the internal affairs of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is as ironic as it is revealing. What appears, on the surface, as principled criticism is better understood as political desperation. A figure who once showed scant concern for Osogbo’s collective interests now seeks to reinvent himself as the town’s most vocal defender. Fortunately, the people of Osogbo are not burdened with short memories, and history cannot be rewritten through loud rhetoric.
Mr. Raji’s political past tells a different story from the one he now attempts to sell. The same individual who today claims Osogbo’s identity once worked assiduously against a son of the soil, throwing his weight behind an outsider motivated largely by personal advantage rather than communal loyalty. His record reflects a consistent pattern: attacking emerging leaders from Osogbo, undermining rising political figures, and repackaging personal bitterness as activism.
Yet, he accuses the APC of marginalizing Osogbo, a party that, within twelve years, produced a Deputy Governor, a Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly, and a Senator from the town. By contrast, the political platform he now champions has offered Osogbo little beyond the position of Secretary to the State Government and a commissioner widely perceived as politically inexperienced. His own political journey has not extended beyond minor appointments, not as a result of victimization, but due to limited political relevance.
In a bid to remain useful to his political benefactors, Mr. Raji has reverted to a familiar role: that of an aggressive partisan attack figure.
He simultaneously praises Rauf Aregbesola while condemning the APC’s twelve-year stewardship of Osun State. Such contradictions betray not conviction or ideological clarity, but sheer political convenience.
More troubling is his increasing reliance on insults and derogatory language. For a man of his age and professed stature, such conduct is unbecoming and corrosive to any moral authority he claims. Elderhood should symbolize wisdom, restraint, and guidance, not resentment. Resorting to expressions such as “awọn oloriburuku” diminishes the dignity expected of a senior political actor.
Ironically, during his period of political influence, Osogbo lost the Speakership of the State Assembly despite having a ranking legislator well-positioned for the role. Rather than engaging in introspection over such setbacks, Mr. Raji has chosen to sow suspicion and hostility against every rising political figure from the town.
Osogbo deserves better. It deserves politics rooted in ideas, dignity, and genuine progress, not politics driven by envy, calumny, and personal vendettas. Muniru Raji would do well to embrace decorum and allow the people to make their choices freely, without the contamination of bitterness and manufactured outrage.
