2014 is definitely going to be a defining moment in the political history of Osun State where the springs live and virtue reigns. 2014 will separate the political “boys” from the men and the true gladiators and home-grown democrats shall be in the true picture. Osun, home of political juggernauts; men of timber and calibre shall witness the mother of all elections. 2014 in Osun State, as far as the race to Bola Ige House, Abere is concerned, will be intriguing, hotly-contested but peacefully sorted out between the bubbling PDP and ACN, the current political “Bayern Munich” in the State. The governorship race for 2014 will bring to the fore, the difference between real political and judicial victory, as it obtains today in the state. The People’s Democratic Party, chieftains and members, have since 2010 learnt a bitter lesson from in-fighting, leadership tussle and political errors, which were committed with reckless abandon. All these, however, are part of the history of the party, which has been put behind it faster than it came. A new order and political re-engineering, are fast unfolding and being effected, to make PDP in Osun State ‘rev’ back to life and repossess its leadership positions in all spheres of political offices in the State, in a fair and free election in 2014 and beyond. The numerical strength of the party remains formidable. The leadership of PDP in Osun is back to the drawing board, strategizing. All without exception, are determined to work together in unison,. They are more than ever prepared, to marshall energies toward a common goal of bringing back the party to reckoning. They dare not fail. Anything to the contrary, God forbids, will send all PDP leaders in Osun on political exile for years to come. They should not take anything for granted. The Late Chief S.M. Afolabi it was, who championed the cause of the party at inception in 1999 until his death. He was principally instrumental to the victory of the PDP in the 2003 gubernatorial election. He was sagacious, resilient and committed. He gave all of his best to the emergence of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the governor. He was ably assisted by the likes of Alhaji Fatai Akinbade, who was then the party’s State Chairman. His tenure gave three senatorial seats, eight House of Representatives seats and twenty five House of assembly seats to the PDP. There was tenacity of purpose during that era. Chief Layi Ogunrinade, the pioneer chairman of PDP in Osun, having laid a solid foundation that Akinbade built on. Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, an ebullient and dogged politician of no mean repute, was also in the saddle. He gave PDP the required elderly roles in ensuring its victory at the polls between 2003 and 2007. He was a rock of Gibraltar. These qualities, Alhaji Oyedokun should be ready to re-deploy at this point in time, and prove to all and sundry, that he remains a prime factor in the politics of Osun State. Same could be said of Dr. Olu Alabi and Chief Ebenezer Babatope (Ebino Topsy), who were compelling factors and parts of the engine room that facilitated the PDP sweeping victory between 2003 and 2007. I am sure that Dr. Olu Alabi is more than ready, to put all his experience into play toward the 2014 governorship race in Osun. The fire-eater, that Ebino Topsy is, will afford the party, the much needed intellectual depth to match the ACN propaganda team, everything for everything. The history of the PDP in Osun State will not be complete without the mention of indegifatible Senator Felix Kolawole Ogunwale, the Asiwaju of Iragbiji. Without any fear of contradiction, and with all emphasis at my disposal, there is no politician in Osun State, now, or in the past, who could claim to having been more benevolent, charitable, consummate and philanthropic than Senator Felix Kolawole Ogunwale a.k.a JUMOKOL. He was at the advent of politics in the fourth Republic, and the emergence of PDP, one of its foremost financiers in Osun State, when the party was regarded as a political leper, that nobody wanted to touch with a long pole. He stood out and gave life-line to the party. Senator Ogunwale who was described recently as a political tactician of high pedigree, which I agreed with, provided all necessary logistics and financial muscles to gourd on the PDP in Osun. He stood firmly with the late S.M Afolabi of blessed memory and weathered the storm together. As the 2014 governorship race unfolds, Senator Ogunwale is to maintain his high pedigree as a political tactician. He is known to be well disposed to all the governorship aspirants under the banner of the PDP in Osun. Ogunwale was publicly acknowledged by former governor Oyinlola as the best Senator from Osun between 2003 and 2007. Senator Isiaka Adetunji, Adeleke the first executive governor of Osun State is a colourful charismatic PDP chieftain, whose roles in the 2014 Osun governorship race are indispensable. It was Otunba Isiaka Adeleke, who on September 20, 2012 held a PDP mega rally in his native Ede. The said rally as reported in newspapers was a huge success. The rally, indeed demonstrated that PDP is alive in Ede and also confirmed its rating as the darling party of the down-trodden masses of the people, who showered Adeleke with love and affection. The former Senate Committee chairman on INEC (2007 – 2011) would have to prove to doubting Thomases, that he is till the Serubawon, he was known to be. Adelekes financial muscle and political dexterity are being expected to give PDP a sweeping victory in 2014 Osun governorship election. The result of the governorship election will determine to a large extent, the fates of all other aspirants seeking one elective post or the other in 2015. Enter the effervescent Senator Iyiola Omisore. The Ife-born politician has made great waves in Osun political history, nay Nigeria. The never-say-die political strategist is a factor, which cannot be wished away in the 2014 Osun governorship election, either as an aspirant or a chieftain of PDP. Omisore’s factor is a major determinant. It should however be stated, that Iyiola Omisore needs the wisdom of Solomon to wriggle out of the antics of his opponents in ACN and manipulations from other sectors. He should de-emphasise his reliance, as it is being rumored, on the Presidency, to emerge as Osun PDP governorship candidate, going by the recent Nigerian Governorship Forum election experience, where Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State dusted the candidate allegedly backed by the presidency. Omisore’s pre-occupation like those of other PDP leaders in Osun, should centre on the way to send ACN out of Bola Ige House. No bickering. No half measure. He should be pragmatic and calculative in his politicking. He has the enormous financial resources to throw behind his party to come back to stardom in Osun. Hon. Wale Oke, Rt. Hon. Patricia Etteh, Chief Adejare Bello, Senator Rasheed Akinlabi, Papa Yinka Omilani, Chief Abiola Ogundokun, Dr. Yemi Farounbi, Engineer Olajide Adeniyi, amongst others, have enviable roles to play to bring back PDP to its old glory in Osun State. Engineer Adeniyi the current Chairman of FERMA, is enjoined to come back home and learn more of local politics in its real sense of it. He should be less of an Abuja politician. Hon. Ganiyu Ola-Oluwa, as the state chairman of PDP, is on the threshold of history. His tenure should effortlessly bring back, lost grounds to his party. He either swims or sinks with the political tides in Osun. But it is better for him to swim to the safe shores with the victory of his party to Biola Ige House in 2014. History is beckoning on him and other members of his executive committee to bail Osun out from further “Coloniasation” by the foreign administrators, now holding the ace in the state, running unusual government. Former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola is to me for now, more of a political god-father in Osun PDP. Together with other leaders, his roles in the 2014 general election to usher PDP back to power is very crucial and indispensable. Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola is still a very charismatic and humorous politician, whose depth of Osun politics could not be wished away with a wave of the hand. Erelu Olusola Obada, the Minister of State for Defence, is to me any day a goal-getter. A woman of substance, who is very penetrating in her style of politics. She should throw her ministerial weight behind her party. Erelu Olusola Obada is amiable and enjoys the support of womanhood in the state, because of her past and present benevolence and philanthropic gestures. Above all things, the absolute peace and progress of Osun should be paramount in the minds of all stakeholders. Reo
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 03:45:44 +0000
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