Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State.
This is not the best of times for Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who is fighting the toughest political battle of his life to save his political structure from crumbling while still in office.
The embattled governor had been given a slide tackle by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that declined to accept the primaries conducted by the State Working Committee (SWC), that produced his preferred aspirant, Hon Abdulkadir Adekunle Akinlade as the governorship candidate of the party.
The party accepted the primaries conducted by the electoral committee set up by NWC that produced Dapo Abiodun.Since the list was submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Governor Amosun has been unsettled and is currently exploring all tricks in his arsenal to change the decision of the NWC of the APC. Only on Thursday, he held a meeting with some APC members at the Cultural Centre in Kuto, Abeokuta, where he exuded optimism that Akinlade will succeed him as the governor of the state.
Most of the attendees were to be briefed on the next line of action for the SIA group that has been traumatized by their failure to produce the candidate for the party.
Indeed, the outcome of the Governor’s meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari last Sunday was supposed to top the agenda for the meeting. However, that was not to be.The governor had gone with some traditional rulers and APC leaders in the state to convince Buhari on the need to change the decision of the party as it concerns the party in the state.
But he did not disclose what the President told them and how he failed to get him to overrule the party. He dwelt extensively on his achievements in the state and how he has improved the infrastructure more than past governors that ruled before him. He said he would be remembered as a governor that built highest number of bridges in the country and his plan to build a City-gate at Siun, a village on Abeokuta/Shagamu expressway.
Although he kept re-assuring his listeners that Akinlade will become a governor, but he did not disclose which platform his candidate will use to achieve his ambition. The party members who attended the meeting went home more confused and kept imagining what would be their next line of action.
It is no longer a secret that Amosun’s supporters have been fingered in sponsoring many groups to stage protests against the decision of the NWC. Apart from pockets of protests that have been going on within the State Secretariat of the party and at Iwe Iroyin, rumour was rife at the weekend of a plan to mobilise women to stage another protest in Abuja.
The last straw designed from Abuja to break Amosun’s resolve was the missile by the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lanre Issa-Onilu, wherein he alleged that what took place in Ogun under the leadership of Amosun was not party primaries but self-help.
“So, the problem he has is that he was looking for who to blame, and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Aremo Segun Osoba readily came under attack and he blamed them for that. The question to ask is, whether they were the one who gave directive to him to organise his own primaries or they were the one who instructed him not to participate in the primaries or his candidate not to participate in primaries the party organised.”
But The Guardian gathered that some powerful indigenes of the state have been advising the governor to exercise caution in his bid to secure governorship ticket for Akinlade. Some of them said they appreciated his intention to make a Yewa man governor, but that he should be more circumspect in his approach.
A reliable source said: “We appreciate his efforts so far and his support so far, but he needs to go and re-appraise his approach. Akinlade is his choice not Yewa people’s choice, but he can still get a Yewa person to succeed him by being trying other methods.”
Barring any last minute change of mind, some of his core loyalists will announce their defection to another party to actualise their choice of Hon Abiodun Akinlade by next week.
Sources said some of his supporters have concluded plans to join Accord and had allegedly secured the governorship ticket of the party for Akinkade. Amosun, according to sources will not decamp but will announce that his hands were tied, as he could not stop them from exercising their rights to belong to any political party of their choice.
But a top APC leader from Ogun East Senatorial District said: “We are aware of all his moves and some of his anti-party activities, but we shall tackle him and let him know there is no room for such dissident act in Ogun State. Must you pull down the house that made you because your choice did not get the ticket? We all belong to this party and nobody can pocket us at all times.”
Some analysts believe that what happened in 2011 is about to repeat itself in the state. That year, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) held parallel primaries, which produced Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka and General Tunji Olurin. The party could not resolve the impasse and a faction loyal to then Governor Otunba Gbenga Daniel decamped to the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN). The unresolved crisis gave way to then little known ACN in Ogun State that fielded Amosun to win the election.
But while the internal crisis in APC deepens, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is seen a as a beautiful bride in the state, spreading tentacles across all nooks and crannies and receiving disappointed APC members to its fold.
