The Ondo State gubernatorial election has come and gone and a winner, in Rotimi Akeredolu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, has emerged, returning the Sunshine State to the ‘progressives’ after more than 13 years in ‘wilderness’.
At the inception of the present democratic dispensation in 1999, the Alliance for Democracy, which presented the late Chief Adebayo Adefarati as its candidate, took over the mantle of leadership in the state.
Adefarati’s second term was truncated with the Peoples Democratic Party’s hurricane, which swept across the South-West region, with the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu, assuming the mantle of leadership in 2003.
Like his predecessor, Agagu’s second term bid was also put in check, following the declaration of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, then of Labour Party, as the governor of the state by the Appeal Court in Benin in February 2009, after a protracted legal battle, where Agagu’s victory was challenged.
Mimiko remained in Labour Party and won a re-election in 2012, defeating Akeredolu and AD candidate, Chief Olusola Oke, who contested on the platform of the PDP then, until 2014, when he dumped LP and pitched his tent with the PDP, in the run-up to the 2015 general election.
However, his attempt to cover his flanks, by propping up a successor backfired, as the people of the state preferred to give a brand new person the mandate to govern them for another four years, after the expiration of Mimiko’s term come February 2017.
Having contested the gubernatorial slot in 2012, under the banner of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria and coming third, Akeredolu’s second coming, was endorsed by the people of the state, who gave him their mandate this time around.
His emergence as APC candidate no doubt created some hiccups with the party, especially against the backdrop of the support he allegedly got from some Northern elements in the party, which was hell bent on whittling down the influence of the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in an attempt to make an inroad to the South-West geo-political zone, all in the power game for the 2019 presidential election.
The PDP did not fare better either, having been enmeshed in serious internal hemorrhage since it lost power at the centre to the APC in the 2015 general elections. It has remain polarised along two major factions, each led by two former governors, Senators Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff, of Kaduna and Borno states respectively.
Akeredolu’s emergence as governor-elect of the Sunshine State, according to The Point’s findings has begun to generate mixed reactions from both political observers and indigenes of the state. To many schools of thought, Akeredolu’s emergence as governorelect was a clear indications that the ‘powers-that-be’ from the North in the APC have succeeded in making a giant in-road into one of the major states in the South-West geo-political region.
A top political analyst, Mr. Nick Uweru, while speaking with The Point on the import of the development, explained that Akeredolu’s victory in Ondo State signaled the indication that Northerners will soon be dictating what happens in the South-West. Uweru added that the victory of the APC standard bearer, which some have been celebrating as victory against Tinubu, is actually a direct access for Northerners to the South West, and by extension, the South.
He said, “For those Yoruba sons and daughters who had been celebrating what currently appeared to be the humiliation of Tinubu in the Ondo State polls, I really pity you, because I am filled with sadness for the South.
“Not that I like Tinubu’s recent outings in politics, but even in my bitterness at his choice of associates in 2014, I knew he was about the strongest political force in the South. “With Ondo State gone and Tinubu humiliated to boot, what it then means is that the North has uninhibited access to the South.”
Also, a grassroots politician from Ondo State, Mr. Abdulazeez Isiaq, said the development, if not put in check on time, may put the state in perpetual slavery. He told The Point, “Let them go ahead. Nobody ever ridicule or degrade Yoruba and see peace. “Yoruba was specifically blessed, if they think we are no more vital or relevant, let us wait and see. Go back to history, right from 1960 till now, you will see how Yoruba always influence the politics and leadership of the nation.”
Recall that during the APC primary election, which threw up Akeredolu, governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, in connivance with former governors of Rivers, Lagos and Ekiti states, Rotimi Amaechi, babatunde Raji Fashola and Kayode Fayemi, allegedly spent almost N700 million to secure the ticket for Akeredolu, to the detriment of other aspirants, with the aim of getting a foothold in the South-West ahead of 2019 presidential election.
Expectations were that in case President Muhammadu Buhari was not going to contest for a second term, El-Rufai will then complete Buhari’s term and either of Amaechi, Fashola or Fayemi will pick the vice presidential slot. And again, if the President wishes to go for a second term, there are indications that he may not enjoy the kind of support he got from the zone, courtesy of Tinubu, hence the need to be prepared.
The theory, however, was that neither of their plot may likely enjoy the support of Tinubu, whose grip of South-West politics remains unparalleled. It was therefore in an attempt to reduce Tinubu’s influence that his preferred candidate for the ticket, Segun Abraham, was rail-roaded out of the contest. Other contestants in the race were also not happy with the outcome of the primary election and they expressed their disgust by appealing the outcome.
Although, the appeal committee recommended that a fresh primary be conducted, APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, overruled the panel and submitted Akeredolu’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Despite Tinubu not being happy with the turn of events, and calling on Odigie-Oyegun to resign, Akeredolu claimed, prior to his election last Saturday, that Tinubu had endorsed his candidature as APC standard bearer. However, watchers of political events in the state and other South West states have said that Akeredolu, having teamed up with the ‘Buhari boys’ camp in the APC, has a herculean task ahead of him, especially convincing die-hard supporters of Tinubu.
The Point’s findings revealed that most of the indigenes of the Sun shine State only voted for Akeredolu, because they were tired and fed up with the ruling PDP and its policies of deceit over the years in the state. However, The Point’s findings revealed that the highest spender won the Ondo gubernatorial. Voters were alleged to have been induced with N5,000 for every vote cast for the APC candidate. A civil servant from Akure, the state capital, Tajudeen Adeyemi, told The Point, “Akeredolu needs to appease some of the aggrieved members of the party, who felt short-changed during the primary election.
“We all know what transpired then, and I don’t believe that nemesis will not catch up with him, especially for betraying Tinubu and others, who had been working to take this state away from the PDP.”
Meanwhile, in what appeared as a confirmation of The Point’s report of alleged plan by some South-West politicians to hijack the geo-political zone for some Northern forces ahead of 2019, several allegations have been leveled against the Minister of Solid Mineral Development, Fayemi and his men over their roles in monetising the Ondo poll to favour Akeredolu.
A PDP member in Ondo State, Mr. Deji Adeyanju, in a chat with The Point, maintained that the victory being celebrated by the APC was made possible by ‘federal might’ and the plan by the government at the centre to take over the state at all cost. Adeyanju also alleged that the election was monetised by some ‘Buhari boys,’ among who was Fayemi.
He said, “The election was totally rigged for APC by the Federal Government. We all saw what transpired before and during the election. “Our candidate was denied the opportunity to campaign, because he only did for just 48 hours. Also, during the election, the likes of Fayemi and others were seen sharing money to indigenes of the state, to vote for their candidate.
“I saw them with my eyes in the hotel where I was lodged. And we all knew that they were doing it for the Federal Government.” AD standard bearer in the election, Oke, also alleged that the likes of Fayemi were used to monetise the Ondo State gubernatorial election. Oke regretted that the open and free use of money to purchase votes during the election by the APC remains a sad commentary on the nation’s electoral process.
He said, “In the last seven and a half years, the policy direction of the government of the day in Ondo State has resulted in the growth and circulation of poverty among our people.
