Okemosan 2015: Ogun West…..going, going…..!, by ‘Femi Shodunke November 13, 2014 theeagleonline Are you from Yewa-Awori in Ogun State, Nigeria? Or lovers of the people of Ogun West Senatorial District – like me? If yes, you need to read this. This is an alert, though not from your bank, like GTB, Skye or Access, anyway! Specifically, on the governorship race in the Gateway State as the 2015 election is almost at hand – in fact around the corner over there! How many of you would recall how I often agitate for “Ogun West Governor” over the years, even asking ex-Governor Otunba Gbenga Daniel, on a live Ogun State Television (OGTV) program on the need for a Yewa governor to succeed him in 2011 – in the spirit of equity, fairness and justice? And fortunately, greater chance for this strident call, since the creation of Ogun State, manifested in the 2011 election through the People’s Democratic Party. But, unfortunately, the abundant opportunity to produce the Governor narrowly eluded Ogun West. This was due to political hullabaloo within PDP, which led to the formation of the Peoples Party of Nigeria, a breakaway group from the PDP led by ex-Governor Daniel, and subsequent loss of both parties to the incumbent Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s defunct Action Congress of Nigeria at the polls! However, with the current shenanigans – and surreptitious moves – within the PDP, the Ogun West obstinate desire for the 2015 race is heading towards the rock. And it’s likely to become a hallucination again, after all – and all shall see soon. I only hope, fervently, going by the way of support to their unalloyed dream, that the political leaders (and community elders) from this district would wake up to the reality of standing solidly, if they are damn serious this time around, behind one of their greatest sons who could stand tall among the PDP power gladiators for Okemosan next year. Significantly, only PDP – going by the current trend – has the umbrella under which an Ogun West person can stand to contest the 2015 governorship election. In fact, only recently, chances for a Yewa person inching towards the governor’s seat after Amosun next year brightened within the Labour Party (LP), which was rejigged by Daniel, whose sole aim, at the time of joining the party – to my understanding and deeper innate perspectives – was to use the platform as a pivot to reposition and renegotiate himself back into reckoning within the political configuration of Ogun State (particularly within PDP and to take the fight against Amosun) and at the federal level. Moreover, OGD, as Daniel is often called, played the game in a Maradonic manner – by his trickiest “selling slogan” that he was only in LP over AMG (Amosun Must Go) movement and still working for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s re-election “as the best President Nigeria ever has” – even than ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, his political foe! What a great political reasoning and scheming? What a bait? And what an ingenious shrewd calculation, probably without the knowledge of majority of his die-hard followers – whom he indirectly “bought” their deep political faculties from abandoning his camp since he concretised the idea of a Political Academy, shortly after he left office, to train political actors/followers – a group of people that a friend recently called “decent clientele of political stooges of OGD”? Yes, the people of Ogun West if you think the PDP leaders in the state will wholeheartedly field any of your aspirants as the flag bearer of the party, you may be (or you’re indeed) joking and similarly day-dreaming – it’s better to begin to perish the thought right now except your ancestral deity, “Oronna” is on your side not sleeping, but watching and working assiduously to install “his” anointed son. Contrarily, the scheming (or game plan) is to edge out your aspirants and field an Egba man (like me), and it’s likely to be the “young man”, Dimeji Bankole, two-term federal lawmaker and ex-Speaker, House of Representatives. Dimeji, who enjoys the robust backing of the Presidency and party leaders in Abuja, may edge out other contenders from Egba zone, specifically the ex-Steel and Power Minister, Alhaji Sarafa Tunji Ishola, and also two-term House of Representatives member for Abeokuta North, Odeda and Obafemi/Owode Federal Constituency, Hon. Jelili Kayode Amusan. Though there are other contenders too, particularly from Egba zone, but they are not weighty enough to make much impact in the present political endeavor within PDP, which the unfolding internal wranglings may tear adrift like it happened three years ago, if adequate care is not taken. But Dimeji and Sarafa topped the ranking, within PDP, as possible political juggernauts in Ogun Central Senatorial District – going by the warped thinking of the political schemers – who could get the sympathy of the Egbas against Amosun, should voting holds today, thus giving the once-in-power party the ticket to return to governance of the state that has produced eminent citizens in the annals of Nigeria. Dimeji, whose father, Alhaji Suarau Olayiwola Alani Bankole, a ruthless consummate politician who often identifies with the powerful reactionaries in the North, is said to be seriously deploying his strong political weight, influence and connection not only within the leadership of PDP in Abuja, but the entire North, to pick the PDP ticket. Seriously indeed, Dimeji, who recently lost his first child, a pretty girl, is desperately scheming and has sharpened his arsenal well enough to also oust Amusan, who, no doubt, remains a “no-shaking” stoic member of PDP since 1999 when he joined politics. And so far, Amusan – an early starter into the governorship race – has deployed huge financial and material resources to his ambition to become the next governor. Unfortunately, the two main hopefuls of Ogun West for Governor within the PDP – Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI) and Biodun Isiaq Akinlade – don’t have the required independent political and adequate financial stamina to stand on their own, and wrestle the governorship ticket from the “owners of PDP” in the Gateway State. For instance, GNI’s political fortune is tied to the apron of Daniel – as he doesn’t command the needed, strong personal political machinery and base to show his strong teeth to bite his way, despite his mountainous intellectual pedigree and astute business cum sagacious financial acumen – right from his university days at University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife where he stoutly obtained B.Sc First Class in Accounting. Without tying himself to OGD’s apron, GNI, a brilliant technocrat, has no sufficient powerful political muscle to pull any strong string within the PDP, even right from LP, hence his “follow follow” with Daniel back to PDP, despite his initial opposition – unlike Sina Kawonise, Daniel’s Information Commissioner at the twilight of his second term, who remained in LP to actualize him ambition. And Akinlade, who became Chairman, House Committee on Science and Technology in 2008, appeared to be more grassroots than Daniel protégé, GNI, but the three times federal lawmaker’s leguminous albatrosses in this race remain his undoing. These include the believe that he’s not too flamboyant a politician enough to possess the outstanding charismatic splendour to assuage the bigwigs in the PDP in his favour; and that he has no heavy weight backers among the Abuja PDP chieftains, except few of his fellow legislators who has no tangible influence to deploy behind him in Ogun State. Other parts of Akinlade’s undoing are that he’s flippant in his utmost desire; too driven by ambition to become governor by jumping from one party to another within a short period of time; and many didn’t see him as a serious candidate – just an opportunist, looking for the sentiment of “Yewa lokan” to possibly ride to Okemosan. Some see Akinlade as a negotiator, who will eventually settle for a lesser political office, apparently to compensate him (either for Senate or back to House of Representatives) for his feeble efforts or political effrontery to indicate interest in the race. Also, it was learnt that Akinlade, who holds HND in Accountancy and Master in Business Administration, urgently needs speech therapy to ensure adequate delivery of his political messages, being a stammerer who also needs the required polishing of his English Language; his mobilization hasn’t been effective; and the needed biting teeth to show his seriousness and determination to succeed Amosun hasn’t shown. Though he’s a third termer in the House, but it was learnt that many of his colleagues in the House regarded him as not flamboyantly erudite – a lawmaker whose contributions were not felt much on the floor of the House. But all those may not count in politics against Akinlade, particularly in Nigeria where money, connections and influence, amongst many factors, can make a self-confessed lunatic to become a member of a powerful household name in the corridor of power. But, the lawmaker is often referred to as one lawmaker who indeed has helped a lot to fix jobs, among others, for many indigenes of Yewa. Curiously, the thinking in PDP now is that – going by the urgent political permutations to wrestle power from the incumbent at all cost – only an Egba man could send fellow Egba man out of Okemosan in 2015! Thus appeal, eventually, would be made to Ogun West people to calm down to join hands to attain Amosun Must Go (AMG) crusade, via fellow Egba man, and thereafter the Yewa-Awori people will queue on line again, and return to square one. And who knows, the Egba man – whoever eventually pick the PDP ticket and emerge victorious in 2015 – may seek extension for another four years while the Ijebus in Ogun East Senatorial District, too, (I heard someone is interested now too) would come out to tackle Ogun West that they had waited too long in “retirement” after the late Chief Bisi Onabanjo, an Ijebu man, ended his reign 31 years ago. Definitely, if this scenario unfolds, with the ominous signs emerging from the leading opposition party in the Gateway State, what is the hope again for Ogun West next year? The alternate thinking in some quarters is for indigenes of this Yewa-Awori zone to cast their lot now with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and allow Amosun to have another term. With this, it’s believed, it will be easier for a Yewa candidate to emerge easily in 2019 and fly the APC’s ticket to Okemosan from Oronna land. And perhaps, similarly, all the existing political parties in the state by then would have Ogun West candidates, hoping that other districts would concur to give Ogun West the ticket 43 years after the creation of Ogun State. |Shodunke, who is a journalist and indigene of Abeokuta, Ogun State, and President of Olumo Progressive Association, Canada, resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 20:21:37 +0000
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