Ogun West: Before Another Political Misadventure Like a reoccurring decimal, the clamour is again loud and high-sounding. Political jobbers in Ogun State are chorusing and mouthing the slogan. ‘Yewa-Awori must produce the next governor of Ogun State’. They even elevated the agitation to the level of slogan ‘Yewa l’okan’. Indeed, the clamour is never short of zeal.It has always been. The agitators have good reasons to flaunt. They argue that since the creation of Ogun State in 1976, no politician, dead or alive, has ever ruled the Gateway state. To curry public sympathy, they liken the Yewa-Aworis to the Igbos of Nigeria’s national politics. The agitation, to say the least, is welcomed because over the years, the zone has often being shortchanged when it comes to sharing of infrastructural projects. The agitation is not new in the state. It has been on since the second republic, but it gained prominence and profitability during the aborted third Republic. During the days of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), fierce arguments were canvassed on why a politician from the Yewa-Awori axis of the state should be allowed to lead the state. Happily, it found a listening ear and a sympathetic heart in SDP leaders and they were about to zone the governorship ticket to that zone. The late Professor Afolabi Olabimtan was in pole position to clinch the ticket. Suddenly, as if possessed, an array of politicians from the axis rushed forward struggling to grab the same ticket. All efforts to placate them to drop the dangerous ambitions failed. SDP leaders then decided to conduct a primary to choose its flag-bearer among the 11 politicians jostling for the ticket. However, among the ticket-chasing pack was a certain politician from Ogun Central by name Olusegun Osoba. Osoba, a journalist, stubbornly kept fate to his ambition ignoring calls that the ticket should be contested exclusively for by politicians of Yewa-Awori extraction. The argument of his proponents was that it is undemocratic to exclude anyone from a contest because of where he hails from.The insistence of Osoba in that race suddenly altered the political calculation. Alarmed by the danger, elders from Ogun West made spirited effort to appeal to the aspirants from the zone to allow just one or two aspirants from the area contest the primaries. They labored in vain. Like a raging bull, ten Yewa-Awori aspirants charged into the battle and were worsted by Osoba for the SDP ticket. The general opinion was that Professor Afolabi lost the ticket due to the obstinacy of Yewa politicians who refused to step down for him. Osoba eventually became the governor of Ogun state and ruled for 22 months before that democratic experiment failed. At the dawn of civil rule in 1999,the scar of the SDP defeat was still fresh in the minds of Yewa politicians to contest for the ticket and since the choice of who becomes the Ogun state governor was made by Afenifere leaders, Osoba has very little opposition for the ticket. However, by 2003, the agitation has become deafening. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo truly wanted to install a politician from the axis and had anointed Dele Arojo,an accountant, from Ipokia for the post to challenge the incumbent Osoba of the Alliance for Democracy(AD).But Arojo was assassinated by yet-to-be identified gunmen in Akowonjo area of Lagos. Effort to recruit Kola Bajomo into the race equally hit the rocks as the Ayetoro politician shied away from a head-on political battle with Osoba. Otunba Gbenga Daniel from Ogun East effortlessly secured the PDP ticket. During the election, Daniel defeated Osoba and eventually won a second term in office. During his second term, Daniel made a heavy weather of his desire to hand over to a Yewa-Awori man. However, the sincerity behind the public assertion soon became questionable when five of his close aides jumped into the race for the sole PDP ticket. The contest suddenly became rowdy. Unfortunately, Daniel wasn’t the only one to decide who picks the Ogun PDP ticket. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was a major voice. Obasanjo,who have never hidden his intention to enthrone a politician from Ogun West, will not seat back and watch Daniel foist a candidate on Ogun PDP. The crisis that erupted in the PDP forced the former governor and his loyalists to pull out of the PDP to float a rival PPN where his loyalists contested the 2011 election. During the election, Daniel’s PPN picked Gboyega Nasir Isiaka from Imeko while PDP settled for General Adetunji Olurin from Ilaro. But like what happened in the SDP days, another Egbaman, Senator Ibikunle Amosun,was in the gubernatorial contest having picked the ACN ticket. He dusted the two Yewa contestants in the race. Ahead 2015 gubernatorial election, the agitation is again reaching a crescendo. Politicians and interest groups are again asking that Ogun West be allowed to produce the next governor of Ogun State. They are arguing that senator Amosun should spend just four years and quit. While political analysts see such call as not only absurd, they insist it turns a blind eye to the prevalent political realities which will make such demand seriously unrealistic. Proponents of the agitation are ignoring that fact that Ogun Central would not concur to any arrangement that tends to try to remove their sibling from office of the state Governor after spending just four years after a politician from Ogun East recently finished eight years. Curiously, advocates of such position fail to realize that Ogun West lacks the voting prowess to carry through such agitation without assistant from another senatorial district. Going by statistics gleaned from the last voters registration exercise, analysts believes it is only a Ogun Central senatorial district can boast of the ability to enthrone a governor in Ogun State. Voters in Ogun Central accounts for 747,177 (or 38 percent) ,Ogun East has 582,412 (or 30 percent) while Ogun West has 617,651 (or 32 percent). Interestingly, 42 percent of the 617,651 voters from Ogun West resides in Ado-Odo/Ota ,a border Local Government with Lagos state whose residents have metropolitan mentality. That fact has serious implication for the ‘Yewa lokan’ agitation. They won’t be swayed by any primordial or ethnic sentiment but will support anyone with solid performance track records. Amosun drew massive vote from that local government in 2011. Again, the impressive performance of the Amosun administration would make such agitation useless. The approval rating of the government since assuming office 26months ago has been on the ascendancy due chiefly to its urban renewal and free education programs . Is the 2015 Agitation justified? Unfortunately, the answer for that will be a negative. The present government in Ogun state will go down in the history of the Yewa-Awori zone as the government that has done the most to uplift the weal of the people of that area. Yewa-Awori has one of the worst set of road infrastructure in the state due to its preponderance of Federal roads.But the governor seems determined to reverse the situation. The state government is constructing four, out of the 13 roads presently being constructed in the zone. The fifth one-the Sango-Ijoko-Akute-Ojodu Abiodun ,is equally receiving serious attention. The roads already awarded in the Ogun West zone are the Oke-Oyinbo-Idagba-Olodo road, Ilo-Awela road, Ayetoro-Lafenwa road and the 107 kilometer Ilara-Ijoun-Eegua-Oja Odan-Ilase road. Indeed the 107 kilometer road will go down in the annals of the history of the people of the area as quite novel and innovative. The road cuts across four of the five Yewa local Governments- Imeko-Afon,Yewa-North,Yewa-South and Ipokia LGAs. Apart from opening up that zone to investors, the move will also ensure that farmers along that zone are exposed to less stress in getting their farm produce to the market. Residents in that area will also not have to come to Abeokuta or go to Ayetoro before getting to Lagos as they can easily use the new road. Political observers believe even a governor of Yewa extraction that wont want to injure the sensibility of the two other senatorial districts cant do more than what Governor Amosun is doing in terms of road construction in Yewaland. Besides, construction of two model schools in Ilaro and Ado-Odo towns are already at advanced stage while the abandoned Owode International market is already being renovated for operations. Senator Amosun also picked key officials of his government from the zone. Until recently, the person supervising land allocation in Ogun State as the Director General of the Bureau of Lands is from Yewaland. She is Barrister Aderonke Sokefun from Ayetoro town in Yewa North Local government. She also doubles as the commissioner for Agriculture. Mrs. Sokefun is just one of the several sons and daughters of Yewaland serving in the present government. The way forward Having failed to win the coveted seat in 2011, the noble way forwards for Yewa-Awori is to plan for 2019. But the time to commence the plan is in 2015. Elders and intelligentsias from Ogun West must put on their thinking cap and accept that it will be a herculean task to upend a popular governor. But should they throw in the towel and resign to fate? No. They must enter into a Strategic Political Alliance with politicians and opinion leaders from Ogun Central towards 2019. They should approach the Egbas with a simple deal-‘we will support your son in 2015, while you will support us for 2019’. Such pact should be witnessed by politicians and traditional rulers from both districts and it should be made formal.Some people might argue a similar effort floundered in the past. Perhaps; but experience, they say, is the best teacher. The lessons of that failure should guide and guard the present reality. With the political realities on the ground and the approval rating of Senator Amosun, if agitators go into the 2015 political battle, they will be worsted again and it will be the fourth time that will happen. They would suddenly wear the toga of ‘serial losers’ or ‘perpetual agitators’. In 2019, Yewa-Awori will have become a laughing stock. People would be skeptical to listen to the agitation because it would have become an irritating cliché. Interestingly, it is the same characters that shipwrecked the 2011 agitation that are also behind the 2015 effort. By their actions so far, they haven’t shown they have learnt anything. They have various collaborators within the zone who masquerades as passionate lovers of Yewa-Awori cause but they are actually serving their paymasters whose interests are diametrically and diabolically opposed to that of the collective interest of Ogun West. They are willing to do the biddings of those who, though in power, did very little to raise the well-being of the people of the area. All they can point to is the position of deputy governor that impacted little to the people of Yewa-Awori. But we will not seat and watch some self-serving individuals or groups turn a genuine effort into a comic password.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 11:22:42 +0000
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