Why Presidency, APC, Tinubu Others Shun Oyegun’s Birthday

There is a common Nigerian proverb that says that as one approaches elder status, he is expected to cease to indulge in battles, especially meaningless battles capable of robbing him of the dignity and honor that old age naturally and socially bestows on man.

At 80, Chief John Odigie Oyegun more than qualifies to be, by the natural state of aging, categorized as an elder. But his weird appetite for battles, especially against irrelevance which is considered the ultimate point of every man, is both startling and worth examining.

His reign as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress came to an end eons ago; his political days as a leader with real influence belong to a distant past. Even if this end and the new irrelevant status he just unlocked may not please him, as an elder with presumed critical analyzing and reflective thinking abilities, one expects Chief John Oyegun to understand that life is fleeting and if as a leader, one chooses to fritter away goodwill through abdication of responsibility and absolute lack of control, then he is destined to a quiet retirement filled only with performative ritual praises on occasions such as birthdays.

The ability to embrace this fragility and weakness, to show restraint and to resist the temptation to give rise to feelings such as envy and bitterness are hallmark traits of elders. But not Oyegun. Since he has been asked to use the door at the HQ of the APC, he has committed his time to launch weak missiles at the man who replaced him and fanning the embers of war, when in contrast, many actually expect him to be a uniting figure.

Considering his idle status, he has said a lot, many of which miss far wide off the mark, we are not but to take it as sloppiness of old age.

Pa Oyegun began by ironically accusing the National Chairman of the APC of ‘lacking the temperament’ to run a political party, even though significant members of the party think otherwise, before indicating his willingness to join a small bickering group of selfish and desperate political actors who are calling for the exit of Oshiomhole for daring to place party interests above theirs, and for insisting on discipline and order – contrary to the bedlam instigated and condoned by Oyegun.

He then went further to meddle recklessly in the Edo Assembly crisis by citing dodgy rules as justification for the midnight inauguration which has been jointly condemned by both arms of the National Assembly and the Presidency. Unable to cure his obsession with Oshiomhole, Pa Oyegun blamed him for the Edo Assembly crisis and accused him of ‘disgracing the party and Edo state’ by not letting ‘Obaseki to concentrate on the Edo people’.

Pa Oyegun comically called on other progressive governors to join in the supposed fight against the National Chairman and turned his house into the pilgrim center for the zealots in Edo State who, in their imagination, believed they were in the fight and were even considering a purported mass cross-carpeting into the opposition party.

With the unraveling of the plan and fight, especially as their point man has chosen a day meant to mark the celebration of Pa Oyegun’s 80th birthday as an elder to run to Iyamho to seek a peaceful resolution, the former National Chairman is left to wonder what to do with the lizards that has taken full occupancy in his compound after he, rather unwisely, brought home and upon himself ant infested faggots.

Enoch Powell warned that all political lives end in failure and disgrace, and as if on a mission to fulfill this political prophecy, Pa Oyegun has upended what should be a quiet retirement and trip into oblivion with unguarded speeches and as seen at his birthday which was deserted and largely ignored by the Presidency and those who really matter, he may yet lose all the honor old age offers men because he has, himself, refused to honor old age.

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