Following the April 5 primary that produced Senator Iyiola Omisore as the standard-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), MOSES ALAO and Oluwole Ige take a look at the impending issues that will affect the August 9, 2014 governorship election in the state.
The battle to reclaim Osun State by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has become more heightened with the emergence of the party’s standard-bearer after several months of strategising by the party and its governorship aspirants taking the race for the Abere Government House several notches further.
Political observers had anticipated tension on the primary date following the party’s failure to settle for a consensus candidate out of the trio of Senators Iyiola Omisore, Olasunkanmi Akinlabi and Honourable Oluwole Oke, despite several months of consideration by an Elders’ Committee headed by Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun, with former Governor Isiaka Adeleke also joining the race at the eleventh hour. But the exercise went without hassle.
However, the build-up to the primary had threatened the cohesion in the party, as Senato
r Adeleke, who had joined the race in grand style by alleging that President Goodluck Jonathan called on him to join the race, a claim that was flatly denied and was described by the Senator Akinlabi Olasunkanmi Rasheed (SOAR) campaign’ Director of Media and Publicity, Mr Ayo Aluko-Olokun, as a “mere penetration theory,” and the Omisore camp appeared to be set to lock horns. The Omisore camp had insisted that Adeleke was working with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to sabotage the PDP, but the former governor was undeterred until the last minute when he withdrew from the primary, citing his love for peace and Omisore’s supporters’ alleged plan to cause violence. Political analysts noted that the decision ensured the peaceful conduct of the exercise, noting that the tension between his camp and that of the eventual winner was capable of jeopardising the peace in the party.
However, following last Saturday’s primary election in the Osun State chapter of the PDP, which produced Omisore, a former Deputy Governor of the state and Senator representing Osun East Senatorial District in the National Assembly from 2003 and 2011, different perspectives have been read into the politics of the state ahead of the August 9, 2014 governorship election in the state. Some of the perspectives include the next steps likely to be taken by other aspirants, who might be aggrieved at the outcome of the primary. Will they desert the party to pursue their ambitions on other political parties’ platforms or stay back in the party while working for another political party ahead of the polls? Is Omisore’s emergence capable of upsetting the apple cart for Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s APC, which has all the way claimed that Omisore is no match for the Ijesha politician.
We have taken verdict in good faith—Oke
The Director of Media and Publicity for Honourable Oke, Mr Yemi Giwa, said Oke has taken the verdict in good faith, saying he could confirm that he had sent a congratulatory message to Senator Omisore.
“Hon. Oke was initially bitter. When you see the inadequacies that featured during the congress preceding the primary, you will see that the primary was more or less like a coronation and selection. For Hon. Oke, who has the state in the capacity of being a member of the House of Representatives for eight years, it is ridiculous to have been awarded five votes. One would easily know there was something wrong somewhere.
As human beings, we protested vehemently that it was not our result and the process that led to primary was not transparent. Nevertheless, we have let the whole thing pass in the spirit of sportsmanship and for the sake of the cohesiveness of the party and in the spirit of togetherness of the members of the party.
“For instance, this is a party that is not the ruling party and it has succeeded in getting its people together. If there is implosion and internal crisis, there will be more problems. So, good reason prevailed and we have taken the verdict in good faith. We have sheathed our swords; we are not fighting. We are friends. Don’t forget, Oke and Omisore are from the same Senatorial District and from the outset, we knew someone would win and someone would lose, though we were prepared to win. We campaigned round the 30 local governments and area councils in the state more than three times and we knew we had the following but since the result has come the way it did, we take it in good faith,” Mr Giwa, a lawyer, had explained.
When contacted, the Director of Media and Strategy of the Senator Olasunkanmi Akinlabi Rasheed’s campaign organisation, Mr Aluko-Olokun, when contacted, also said Akinlabi remained a loyal PDP member but that he had registered his complaint with the party about the ward congress, which produced delegates for the primary, saying the primary was flawed.
Omisore: A mixed grill
Observers of political development in Osun State have, however, described the candidature of Senator Omisore as a mixed grill, saying that different twists existed to the man considered a phenomenon in Osun politics, having risen from being a deputy governor in the Alliance for Democracy to winning a PDP senatorial seat in 2003 while in incarceration.
Omisore chaired the Senate Committee on Appropriation, a position he reportedly used to further the cause of the South-West geopolitical zone through several developmental projects, such as the renovation and equipping of teaching hospitals such as the University College Hospital, Ibadan and the Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife and rehabilitation of several federal roads in the South-West. The Senator was also instrumental in the ongoing construction of the Gbongan-Iwo road and the dualisation of the Mayfair-Osu road, among others. Through those projects, he is said to have wormed his way into the hearts of many people.
Apart from what has been described as his political tenacity, analysts have noted that Omisore is rated highly for his wealth of experience as a professional and a politician, a situation which political observers have said will benefit the people of Osun State. His close rapport with the Federal Government, as well as politicians across the country, has also been said to be another advantage for Osun State, with the state, the only South-West state where President Goodluck Jonathan lost during the 2011 presidential election, said to be in need of more federal presence.
However, Omisore is not without his baggage of weaknesses. Political observers have noted that the strongest weakness is his link with the murder of former Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige though Omisore has always maintained his inncence.
Though a Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan discharged and acquitted him alongside the current Minister for Police Affairs, Alhaji Abdul Jelili Adesiyan and held that there was no prima facie for their trial, with Omisore having also already instituted a litigation against the Oyo State government for wrongful prosecution, opposition politicians have stuck to their guns about the allegation, playing up the Bola Ige murder card any time Omisore’s name is mentioned.
Analysts believed Ige’s murder qould be used by the opposition. But they also projected that the Omisore camp would probably counter their opponents by urging the public to have a critical loot at the issues surrounding the murder of the former Minister of Justice. For instance, who is today the beneficiary of Ige’s death. Would the political structure currently in the South-West have emerged, were Chief Ige to be alive? Analysts are, however, expecting a robust political engagement when these two main opponents roll out their campaign arsenal.
Omisore, Aregbesola and the impending ‘walkover’
While many PDP loyalists have been expressing confidence in the ability of Senator Omisore’s to give the incumbent governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, a good fight in the governorship poll and probably unseat the ruling party, the APC has insisted that Omisore will be an easy ride for it in the election.
According to the Osun APC, in a statement issued by its Director of Publicity and Strategy, Kunle Oyatomi, the August 9 election will be a walkover for the APC because “Omisore lacks pedigree, credibility, responsibility and focus.” The party also alluded to Omisore’s penchant for violence as reasons it would win the governorship election.
Indeed, Aregbesola has an unusual methodology to governance, which he introduced to Osun people and they appeared to have accepted. His regular walk has become very popular in the state and so also are his O-YES, O-CLEAN, O-REAP and other programmes. He has also attempted to redefine the educational system in Osun State by introducing and building model schools.
His urban renewal programme through road expansion and construction has received critical acclaim.
But all these programmes have also become the weapons the opposition is using against the government. There is the issue of alleged huge debt profile of the state, secondary schools reclassification uproar, among others.
The opposition has consistently maintained that the government is raking up billions in bond and other loans both in Nigeria and abroad, with little to show for the debts. But while the government has also consistently denied the allegation, it has not agreed to the opposition’s challenge to make public the correct position of the state’s indebtedness.
One other weakness of the Aregbesola government the opposition is quick to point at is what it calls its long list of uncompleted projects. Many roads, the PDP claimed, had been dug up, houses demolished but not many of these road projects had been completed.
But the APC has always produced its own response, claiming that the PDP government in the state had brought destruction, which it is now trying to fix.
Oyatomi spoke glowingly about the achievements of Aregbesola, which he said would swing the August 9 election in his favour.
“To
consider Omisore as a tough candidate against a Rauf Aregbesola is to
elevate vandalism. Omisore has no political pedigree of momentous
achievement in Osun. He is also a lightweight in his own ward. A man who
could not win his ward in the last Senatorial election and now wants to
win the whole Osun State and oust Aregbesola must be fantasising”“Only those who have had their minds contaminated by false stories about Osun under Aregbesola are the ones who will ask the question why we think Aregbesola can win in the next election. Since Osun was created 22 years ago, no governor has done half of what Aregbesola has done to develop the state. Besides, no governor also has touched the lives of citizenry, the way Aregbesola has done,” Oyatomi said.
But the PDP and the Omisore campaign organisation, in a statement by its Director of Media and Publicity, Mr Diran Odeyemi, mocked the APC’s claim on achievements, insisting the party had impoverished the state. Odeyemi also reacted to the APC’s declaratuion that his principal is a lightweight, saying: “The APC thrives on propaganda. Reports from the Government House confirmed that Operation Stop Omisore was directly coordinated by Aregbesola himself. First, the APC sponsored a PDP member to destabilise the PDP, that plot failed. Second, the APC tried to secure a court injunction to stop the PDP congress, which also failed. Third, the state radio and television were full of scary reports designed to create a state of insecurity in Osun State but that too failed.
“On the day of the congress, the APC set up a situation room to monitor the PDP congress and when our candidate emerged, we know how jittery they were. So, we ask: If Omisore is a mere walkover, why is APC so worried to go through all the steps above? The fact is that the governor and his team know that the day Iyiola Omisore emerged marked the beginning of the end of their stay in Abere Government House.”
‘The truth is that Ogbeni and his band of political marauders are jittery. Osun people are fed up with the maladministration of Aregbesola and no amount of white wash by propagandists will stop the PDP from winning in August.”
Reacting to the APC’s claim about his party’s standard-bearer, the chairman of the PDP in the state, Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa, said: “We know them, they are full of self-deception and do not know their worth before the people of Osun State. A Yoruba proverb says “won o fe o ni ilu, o so pe o fe ko orin, to o ba ko’rin, tani yoo gbe” [People detest you and you want to raise a song, if you do, who will sing the refrain?], Aregbesola and his yes men don’t know how much the people hate them and that is why they are talking about the election being a walkover for the APC. But I agree with them that it will be a walkover, only that the walkover will be in favour of the PDP. Because the people are yearning for a return to pro-people governance, a government that will not mortgage their future through debts.”
Olaoluwa further noted that the party was well-prepared for the election, saying various committees will be inaugurated to work on delivering the state.
Gladiators in impending clash of titans
Though the contest appears to be a straight fight between Aregbesola and Omisore, there are indications that other parties like the Labour Party (LP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), among others, will field very strong candidates for the election.
Already, notable aspirants include the former Secretary to the Osun State Government, Alhaji Fatai Akinbade, who has been said to wield tremendous influence in the political equation in the state. Apart from being a grassroots politician of many years’ standing, Akinbade’s popularity as a moderate Muslim and his acceptability among the Oyo communities in the state, such as Iwo, Ede and Osogbo have been identified as key features that will assist his ambition, which political observers have stated would harm both the PDP and APC in electoral terms.
Another candidate whose aspiration will pull weight ahead of the election is Chief Babatunde Oralusi from Ile-Ife. Oralusi, who heads the Nigerian Capital Development Fund (NCDF), is said to be banking on his youthfulness and bridge-building capacity as leverages for his ambition to govern the state. The aspirant on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who Sunday Tribune gathered has used his capacity to help people across all political parties and is rearing to deploy his experience as a grassroots personality, will also be a threat to the major parties, with the PDP said to be the bigger victim since he is coming the same constituency with Omisore.
Former Head of Civil Service, Elder Segun Akinwusi, who was formerly pursuing an ambition on the platform of the yet-to-be-registered Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) before defecting to the SDP is yet another governorship hopeful as the race for the Abere Government House heats up.
The Osun REC angle
Another critical issue that will feature prominently in the build-up to the poll will be the issue of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Osun State, Ambassador Toyin Akeju.
Akeju’s continued stay in the state will be another sore point of contention between the APC and the PDP, with the latter championing the call for his redeployment over his alleged alliance with the APC.
Though the propriety of Akeju’s continued stay in the state has been argued back and forth, the PDP has insisted that there are incotestable proofs linking him with the APC, noting that it will not stop crying out until justice is done. Olaoluwa expressed his party’s total loss of credibility in Akeju.
But the final decision resides in the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, who until now, has remained indifferent to the call for Akeju’s removal.
Awaiting D-day
As the clock ticks, Osun State moves closer to the day of decision and the gladiators even closer to whatever fate holds in store for them. For the PDP, a lap of the race was won on Saturday with the emergence of a candidate but the remaining laps will be heated and rigorous and might serve as a litmus test for its dream of retaining the presidential seat in 2015 while for Omisore, the battle had just begun.
Political observers have said that a combination of how Omisore is able to duck the heavy political jabs, which the APC and his political opponents would throw at him and his ability to convince the people of the state will decide the race in his favour.
But can the PDP go the whole hog to unseat Aregbesola? Or will a dark horse emerge victorious in the election? These and many more questions will pervade Osun State politics until the battle is lost and won.
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