Adeleke to APC? Wole Oke Ballooned Away from a Sinking Canoe Before It Became a Memorial Boat

In Nigeria’s politics, the first to escape is called a traitor; the last gets a red carpet.

By Oracle of the grassroots 

In the drama called Nigerian politics, survival is not a sin, unless you're the first to act. When Hon. Wole Oke quietly exited the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and boarded the political hot air balloon to safety, they called him names: betrayer, opportunist, defector. But as whispers grow louder that Governor Ademola Adeleke himself may be eyeing a similar journey to the All Progressives Congress (APC), one must ask: is Wole Oke the traitor, or simply the man who read the weather before the storm broke?

 

Let’s be fair, Wole Oke didn’t jump ship. He ballooned out of a sinking canoe before it became a memorial boat. The PDP, especially in the Southwest, is leaking faster than its members can find buckets. Rather than stay behind to mop floors on a tilting deck, Oke chose strategy over sentiment. That’s not betrayal, that’s political intelligence.

 

Yet while Oke is being strung up by the morality police of partisan loyalty, Governor Adeleke, the state’s crown prince of choreography, is being whispered about in hushed, forgiving tones. “He has a plan,” they say. “It’s part of a bigger strategy.” The same people who mocked Oke’s foresight are polishing Adeleke’s potential exit as if it’s the Second Coming.

Wole Oke, didn’t get there by waiting for smoke to become fire. He has always understood the political barometer. When the umbrella started leaking beyond repair, he didn’t wait for a rain of disgrace, he ballooned out, softly, quietly, and with purpose.

 

He won’t be the last.

And when Adeleke finally makes his move, if he does, watch the applause. Watch the headlines. Watch how betrayal suddenly becomes “strategic realignment” and “a necessary step in Osun’s development agenda.”

In the end, Wole Oke may have left first, but history will remember he was among the few with the courage to act early. The others are just waiting for someone to roll out the red carpet and cue the camera.