Aregbesola Testing Waters

Rauf Aregbesola is back on the road. The former Osun State governor, expelled from the APC and now the national secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), will tour every federal constituency in Osun from November 18 to December 10. The man who once ruled the state is now knocking on its doors again.

The ADC calls it a “grassroots mobilisation drive.” Political observers call it a test run for 2026. From Ila to Iwo, the convoy will roll through nine constituencies, meeting party loyalists, wooing defectors, and trying to turn a minor party into a credible force. It is both symbolic and practical: a comeback measured in miles.

Aregbesola’s decision to lead the tour himself feels like drama and strategy combined. His voice, still sharp and animated, carries the nostalgia of his “Omoluabi” days. But his political footing has shifted. The once-powerful governor who built Osun’s mega schools and wage controversies now operates outside the APC’s vast machinery.

His exit from the Tinubu orbit left him politically homeless. The ADC offers a new banner, though one light on structure and heavy on ambition. The party has a single federal seat nationwide, no deep pockets, and internal squabbles. Yet Aregbesola, ever the mobilizer, sees opportunity in the vacuum left by weary voters.

Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration dismisses him as a man of old debts and half salaries. But Aregbesola remains a name that stirs reaction: cheers in some wards, curses in others. In Osun politics, he is both legacy and lesson: proof that loyalty fades, but recall power lingers.

So he is touring again, microphone in hand, testing whether the crowd still listens. The real journey, though, may be quieter. It is the walk back from exile, through the same streets that once crowned him, and toward an electorate deciding if it remembers him fondly or merely recalls him.