BY WASIU OLATUNJI
IN the build-up to the 2019 general elections, the names of two major parties were on the lips of the average Oyo State indigene.
It is easy for some people to think these two parties are the Peoples Democratic Party and the ruling All Progressives Congress, after all, they are the two major names in Nigeria’s political space. But no, in Oyo State, from the time former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) adopted the African Democratic Congress, as a platform for actualising its trumpeted aim of rescuing Nigeria from misgovernance, the two major players in Oyo State were ADC and APC.
Strong stakeholders of the APC, who apparently had one or two issues with the late former Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, moved, en bloc, to the ADC and gave the party admirable popularity within a very short period, especially as it concerned the handshake logo of the party, which they took to the grassroots as “egbe bomi lowo kin bo e lowo”.
At that time, the incumbent Governor, Ajimobi, was the leader of the ‘fractured’ APC in the state, while Adebayo Adelabu, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was the flag bearer. It is important to note that the party was also the ruling party at the centre.
Despite the fact that it was not in power, the ADC was like the coveted bride. Two senators – Monsurat Sunmonu and Adesoji Akanbi – who represented Oyo Central and Oyo South, respectively, in the 8th Assembly, decamped from APC to join the party. This was aside from the group defection by APC members of the House of Representatives and the equal sharing of the state Assembly seats by the two parties – APC and ADC.
More significant was the fact that the major names that come to mind whenever discussions about Oyo leaders arise were all in the ADC at a time, leaders like former Governor Rashidi Ladoja, Dr. Adebisi Busari, Chief Layiwola Olakojo, and Chief Micheal Koleoso, among others.
But at that time, the PDP in Oyo State was clearly very weak with no clear leader. Getting the Governorship ticket of the party could not therefore have been so difficult for Governor Seyi Makinde who was by no means new to such contests.
It was unlike the case of ADC where there were about 12 strong governorship aspirants who eventually dragged the race to the courts. Makinde was at best a political orphan in an almost deserted political party, and keen observers of trends were almost sure that with barely one state Assembly member, the PDP was not really in the race.
However, the inability of the ADC to manage its newly found popularity for success at the polls, which tore leaders of the party apart at the last minute; the party’s adoption of PDP’s Atiku Abubakar as its Presidential candidate, which contributed in giving victory to PDP’s National Assembly candidates, even those who did not campaign; and what many people have called the deliberate Judas Iscariot behaviour of some respected leaders in the ADC line-up, created the first window of opportunity for Makinde, despite his much trumpeted ‘war chest’.
Former Governor Ladoja, who had left ADC for ZLP, masterminded the collaboration that eventually gave him the key to the Oyo Government House.
The Governorship candidates of ADC and two other parties shelved their ambitions to pave the way for the incumbent Governor. ADC had the largest number of followers after APC, so it was indeed a painful scenario for Lanlehin, who had to sacrifice personal ambition for the ‘Ajimobi Must Go’ struggle, especially at a time the major stakeholders of ADC had lost their elections.
Lanlehin, Sharafadeen Alli of Zenith Labour Party and Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), of the Social Democratic Party all agreed to work with the PDP. Whether the agreements reached during the alliance talks were later met by Governor Makinde, or not, is a topic for another day.
The fact remains that from the foregoing, it has been established that Makinde is a Governor of peculiar circumstances whose comportment in office should reflect total humility, respect for seniors in the game and a rare kind of inclusivity that could earn him a second chance or higher recommendation by critical intra- and inter-party stakeholders.
Makinde started off as a South-West star boy with his early display of what looked like a grasp of the main issues that made his predecessor fall out of favour with the Oyo people, in spite of his record as the first Governor to serve for two terms (Ko seleri). The current governor recorded some perceived landslides as early as his first 100 days in office such that the PDP leaders began to see him as their poster boy.
The donation of his four years salary to the Oyo State Teachers’ Pension Fund, payment of N1.4billion as gratuity to about 1,000 teachers who retired between 2010 and 2012; cancellation of the N3,000 school fees for Senior Secondary School Students, and prompt payment of civil servants’ salaries, on or before the 25th of every month (GSM date), were some of the very early points he scored; and they were indeed worthy ones.
Though these provided the foundation for the other ‘A’s the Governor has scored across the sectors, unfortunately, the A list of accomplishments cannot guarantee longevity for him in terms of political relevance.
To understand what this means, the relatively young Governor might need to tap from the experience of a former Governor in the South-West, who could not be faulted in terms of visible performance, but lost his party’s primary ticket to a preferred kingmakers’ candidate despite his fierce struggle to return for a second term.
Makinde, though unarguably intelligent, has not translated this strength into political ingenuity. He has allowed political jobbers to inflate his capacity beyond what his two-year experience as Governor can decode.
He probably had no one to tell him that the same “no alternative address” politicians who have painted harmless but opinionated radicals as enemies to crush, will be the first to pitch their tents with the supposed ‘enemies’ once the Governor slips into a political coma over their well positioned banana peels.
If the Oyo Governor could hitherto not see the futility, for instance, in flogging the issue of leadership in a troubled zone, the fact that the South West congresses were cancelled while others held should be a pointer to the need to reassess the present situation and truly court every stakeholder in the party for peace to reign.
No one is too cantankerous to be mesmerised with the right attitude. Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, cannot be an exception. If every leader remembers that he is sitting at the top of layers of bricks constituted by different categories of partisan and non-partisan stakeholders, they would be careful not to unwittingly find themselves tumbling from the great height when the bricks disintegrate in a “divide and rule” regime.
Already, even the main opposition party in the state has dragged the Governor’s name into an avoidable planned defection controversy two years into his tenure. Whether the cans of worms are genuine or not, the allegations and counter-allegations point at one thing – the Governor’s popularity is fast waning.
On this note, I would leave our Governor with a personal plea:
Dear Governor Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, there are cobwebs around you that may deface your noble intention for Oyo State and perhaps the South West. If you do not urgently procure a microscope to detect the almost invisible but dangerous causal spiders, the damage that would have been done at the end of your first term might be too bad for the best of image laundering!
*Wasiu Olatunji, an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo State, is a columnist with THE POINT Newspaper.
