FEMI OYEWESO in this report writes about the factors behind the rejection of Governor Ibikunle Amosun and his Allied Peoples Movement (APM) at the recently held governorship election in Ogun State
It is no longer news that the political party founded and funded by the outgoing governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) gallantly lost the gubernatorial contest in the state, after being defeated by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun.
What may also no longer be news to followers of political events in the Gateway State was how concerted efforts by the people of Ogun West senatorial district to produce the state helmsman went up in flames, as the much-touted candidate of the zone, Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, popularly known as GNI, of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), also could not muster enough votes to emerge victorious, having lost to Abiodun, an Ijebu man.
What however, remains interesting to many Nigerians, especially Ogun State indigenes, is why and how a governorship candidate supported by an incumbent governor failed to fly, having enjoyed the support of all the machineries of governance in the state and also having learnt from the same incident that occurred in 2011, during the administration of former governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
One truth that stands out in the whole episode of what transpired in Ogun State is the resolve of the electorates in the Gateway State to rebel against and demystify Amosun, who himself was hitherto, considered as a powerful force of Ogun politics.
Like the mosquitoes in a fumigated land, the governor and all his ‘imported’ cabinet members have come and gone, after failing to survive the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tsunami, which would not spare any rebellious APC member.
To many analysts and observers of political events in the state, the political calamity that befell Amosun in the 2019 gubernatorial election was not only unexpected, it was actually prayed for.
This is because aside from the traditional institution in the state, including the Baales, civil servants and community heads who have been humiliated by the Amosun-led administration prior to the conduct of the election, and several other union and market leaders, who had tasted the bitter pill of the Amosun-led government, had prayed so fervently well for unimaginable political disaster to sweep away Amosun’s political stronghold, so that they could be liberated from the burden of heavy tax regime and inhuman labour policies which they claimed they had been subjected to in the course of transacting businesses.
Aside from their resolution to at all cost, ease out the Amosun-led administration, these bulk of Ogun residents and electorates also wished that such inhuman administration must never succeed at installing a successor, who would more likely than ever be more disposed towards continuing in the line of the governor.
Thus, these people resolved to strip and resist the ‘almighty’ Amosun’s political family in the Gateway State, of his third term agenda, which would have manifested in the candidature of Hon. Adekunle Akinlade of the APM.
Recall that prior to the conduct of the gubernatorial election in the state, Amosun and a substantial number of his cabinet members were so powerful to the extent that they prided themselves in victory over whatever his administration set to achieve.
But perhaps for the first time, the outgoing governor failed to realise his ambition as he failed to install Akinlade as his successor, notwithstanding his closeness to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Amosun has always succeed in whatever he set his mind to do with his self-willed approach to things and that is how he has been proceeding with his life in Ogun, but this time however, he was stopped in his tracks as he failed to adapt with the changing momentum.
One principal factor which he failed to acknowledge during the course of his scheming for Akinlade to succeed him was that Ogun is strategically located. Suffice to mention that the Egba United Government predated Nigeria’s independence in 1960, and this explains the sophisticated nature of the entire Ogun State.
And this is why when it comes to leadership succession or recruitment process, individuals always find it difficult to arrogate to himself, the sole superiority of knowing what is best for Ogun people.
But Amosun, who fortune threw into the pinnacle of power in 2011, when Otunba Daniel also tried to show that he was the de-facto power broker in the state, forgot how he got into that governorship seat. Therefore, during the just concluded gubernatorial contest in Ogun, Amosun found himself sailing against the turbulent wind and he got drowned.
Aside from the political sophistication of Ogun sons and daughters, several factors were responsible for his abysmal performance during the exercise that eventually saw Abiodun emerging as winner of the keenly contested race in Ogun.
For example, it would not be out of place to conclude that the people/electorates were tired of the degree and level of greed of the Amosun-led government, which had earned so much in terms of the Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR), but had little or nothing to show for it.
Beginning from party politics to real governance, observers of events in Ogun politics and analysts are of the opinion that Amosun wanted to dominate the APC, a party which does not belong to him. He had wanted to institutionalise himself and that was why he went ahead to field “greenhorns” as political office seekers for most of the elective positions in 2019.
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A good example was the appointment of Hon. Dayo Adeneye, the state’s Commissioner for Information, who later resigned to contest for the state House of Assembly seat in Odogbolu.
Another typical example of this allegation manifested between 2011 and 2015, when he appointed members of his former political party; the now defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), as commissioners, Special Assistants and members of boards and parastatals, without, according the Chief Segun Osoba’s ‘Mat’agba Mole’ group, due respect and patronage in the party.
The APC faithful and the electorates believed that he lacked the needed respect for party leadership, as he particularly re-paid the Osoba group with evil during his first term of office.
In the same way he treated the APC leadership in Ogun, Amosun also disappointed key members of his first-term cabinet, when he restricted those with political ambition from realising their dreams. Some of these included his former commissioners like Ayo Olubori (Agriculture, Forestry and Environment); Muyiwa Oladipo (Chieftaincy Affairs and later Culture and Tourism) as well as Otunba Bimbo Ashiru (Commerce and Industry).
He also extended his venom to the state House of Assembly, where he summarily dealt with the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Adekunbi Suraj ishola and Hon Kunle Oluomo, respectively.
Another factor was the manner he allegedly disrespected the traditional institution in the state, where he subjected first class monarchs to dancing to his whims and caprices.
For example, the Olu of Ilaro, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, was threatened with dethronement should he further champion the course of Solomon Adeola Olamilekan’s gubernatorial ambition in the state when the latter indicated interest to vie for the seat.
Olamilekan, the senator representing Lagos West at the National Assembly had earlier signified his intention to take over from Amosun.
He also forced the Alake and Paramount ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, on a failed mission to Abuja towards seeing to the possibility of persuading President Buhari to compel the National Working Committee, NWC, of the APC to recognise Akinlade as the party’s governorship candidate.
Reliable and competent sources within the Ogun State Council of Obas also confided in LEADERSHIP that Amosun also threatened to dethrone any monarch or Baale in whose domain Akinlade failed to defeat the APC candidate, Abiodun.
Another cogent reason why Amosun was demystified in Ogun bothered on what many observers described as ‘his deceitful urbanisation’ of the state. They alleged that some of the road projects executed by his administration were not carried out in good faith but out of vindictiveness.
They cited examples of situations whereby only members of his immediate families were beneficiaries of the award of contracts in the state.
A stakeholder, who pleaded anonymity retorted, “Is it only the family of Alhaji Agba and Jelili Okewole that should carry out contracts in his rebuilding mission in the state? No! That is why we dislike him.”
It was also alleged that the demolition exercise carried out by the Amosun administration lacked human face and were done out of vendetta, hence the resolve to vote him and Akinlade out.
LEADERSHIP also gathered that he also allegedly tried unsuccessfully to introduce religion to Ogun politics few days to the election. One of the Chief Imams in the state, who spoke to LEADERSHIP on condition of anonymity, said the governor assembled the League of Imams in the state, gave them N1.5 million each and charged them to go ahead and work for Akinlade, who is their “brother in Islam.”
But the agenda was said to have failed because some of these Chief Imams in attendance also have adherents of the Christian faith as their siblings and members of family and as such, were not favourably disposed towards Amosun’s Islamisation agenda.
Again, civil servants across the state whose salary deductions, pensions and gratuities were hanging on the neck of the Amosun administration also went into town to sensitise the electorate on the danger of voting Akinlade of APM, stressing that such would amount to returning Amosun to power.
Earlier, four days to the poll, Ogun workers, led by the Comrade Aliyu Wabba-led Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, protested in the state capital, Abeokuta.
Perhaps, the resultant effect of the protest was the reinstatement of the state NLC Chairman, Comrade Akeem Ambali, who had been dismissed from service since October 2016.
It was all these people who Amosun had stepped on their toes, including those who were victims of his demolition exercise and politicians who he had offended who teamed up and worked against his preferred candidate, Akinlade.
For example, few days to the election, former Governor Daniel declared support for the APC governorship candidate, Abiodun. Likewise others, which included the senatorial candidate of PDP in Ogun Central, Hon. Jelili Amusan; that of the ADC in Ogun Central, Rt. Hon. Titi Oseni-Gomez and a host of others declared supports for APC candidate.
These are some of the factors that weakened the Abeokuta/Egba base of the outgoing governor, which would have provided the needed base for Akinlade’s ambition, and thus, the bragging and almighty stance of Amosun instantaneously sank to give way to the electoral victory of Abiodun over Akinlade, even as Akinlade’s homebase, Yewa-Awori of Ogun West was already divided by the gubernatorial ambition of ADC’s candidate, Isiaka.
Ogun East, where the APC candidate hails from lived up to their vow to produce the governor of Ogun State after Amosun. Not even the gubernatorial ambition of the senator representing that district at the National Assembly, Buruji Kashamu, could stop them from that seeing that project to fruition.
