Akala, Ajimobi, Makinde, Ladoja, and Folarin are names the ordinary people in Oyo State have heard over and over again. Posters of these candidates litter the nooks and crannies of the state. The heat is getting hotter and gradually, the Boys are being separated from the Men. Unlike five months ago when we had scores of governorship candidates, the picture is becoming clearer. We now know the real contenders. Most aren’t new in the game but each of them surely has some unique and striking characteristics that gives them an edge. Let’s take a brief look at the major contenders for the 2015 Oyo State Governorship Polls. AJIMOBI Governor Ajimobi Born on 16th December 1949 in Ibadan. He has a Bsc in Business administration and Finance and also an MBA. He was formerly the managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company, a subsidiary of Shell Petroleum Nigeria. He was a senator representing Oyo South from 2003 to 2007, serving as the deputy minority leader of the senate. Among his major accomplishments are road expansion, urban renewal/ beautification works around major areas in the city, transformation of the BCOS, improved transportation, mass employment of teachers, introduction of the Youth Empowerment Scheme of Oyo State (YES-O) as well as the renovation of Agodi Resort amongst others. Despite all these, lots of people still complain of low cash flow, inadequate jobs and displacement of traders in the name of beautification. Some have even tagged his tenure as Government of the Rich and elites. Ajimobi has said that the choice before the people of the state on the forthcoming elections was between the peace epitomized by his administration and the violence represented by his opponent. But with his developmental efforts and power of incumbency, Ajimobi’s dream of a second term might actually come to pass. Who can tell! AKALA Alao Akala Born in June 1950 and a native of Ogbomoso has a diploma in business administration. He was a local government chairman between 1999 and 2002. He was deputy governor of oyo state between 2003 and 2006 and governor between 2006 and 2011. It is claimed that there was good cash flow during his tenure and businesses boomed. After several consultations and pressure from his people, he decided to join the 2015 governorship race on the platform of the PDP. Akala dumped the PDP for Labour Party shortly after the emergence of Teslim Kolawole Folarin as the governorship candidate of PDP. Akala emerged the party’s candidate after other governorship aspirants (Nurudeen Akinyo, Sarafadeen Alli, Kazeem Adedeji, Olu Abiala and Olatunji Sadeeq) decided to withdraw from the primaries and the leading aspirant of the Labour Party, Sarafadeen Alli accepted to be akala’s running mate. The PDP has said that the party is not worried with Akala’s defection to LP and that it has strategies to cage him but Akala has vowed to break the second term jinx.Akala is a strong man in grassroots politics and he has been moving around the state canvassing for votes. Is he banking on his popularity and large number of supporters? How exactly does he hope to achieve this? We can only wait to find out! LADOJA Rasheed Ladoja Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, Born 25th September 1944 and holds a Bsc in Engineering. He was once a senator and founder of the accord party. He became governor of Oyo state on May 29th 2003 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party. He was impeached in January 2006 but reinstated in December 2006. His term ended in 2007 and in 2008, he was charged with corruption during his period in office. Ladoja supported the Action Congress candidates in the 33 local governments for chairmanship elections after he failed to win the PDP nomination as candidate for a second term. Akala after succeeding Ladoja sacked all the council chairmen and replaced them with PDP supporters. Ladoja emerged the Accord Party’s Governorship candidate some weeks back. According to him, ‘the beauty of the Accord Party is that it is a violence-free party. We do not believe in sharing money or spending money excessively on elections as it is done in other parties. We have done it before and we will do it again. The people of this state are waiting for us because accord party is the party to beat in the state.’ Ladoja has said that his administration would concentrate on agriculture and other sectors of the economy to make oyo state self-sufficient. What makes Ladoja to be so popular is that he did well to the civil servants and the general public but he failed at the party level. But the question is, Do the people of Oyo state want Ladoja back? SEYI MAKINDE Seyi Makinde Born in December 1967. Had his primary and secondary education in Ibadan and later proceeded to the university of Lagos to study Electrical engineering. He has made several efforts to ensure that capable hands with the technocratic and political experience are supported to win elective offices. With a successful career in the business world and contesting for senatorial seat twice, he has become the most sought after governorship aspirant by the people of the state. Seyi Makinde has created several jobs for Oyo state indigenes through his Youth Empowerment Programmes initiated in 2006. And according to him, he remains committed to helping Oyo state’s private sector create 250,000 jobs by 2017. Makinde is a listener, thinker, a role model and an ardent performer. He initiated contested and lost the PDP guber tickets in a deeply controversial primaries. Believing that justice delayed is justice denied, he defected to the Social Democratic Party and won its Gubernatorial ticket. He is of the opinion that ‘the good ones amongst us will lose the moral right to ask questions if politics is left to the old system that has brought us to the stagnancy and abject poverty that permeates all the spheres of our nation’. Seyi Makinde has been well noticed especially in billboard, print and electronic media. This has made him gain popularity among the people. He is young, vibrant and has good plans for the people of Oyo state. Will the people pull up a surprise and by their vote make him Governor of Oyo state come 2015? TESLIM FOLARIN Teslim Folarin Born in October 1963 and holds a Bsc in Political Science from the university of Ibadan and an MCSE from Elite College, London. A two time serving senator between 2003 and 2011. he was elected Senator for the Oyo central constituency in 2003 and was re- elected in 2007. On Thursday 30th December 2010 at the Ona-ara venue of the PDP LG congress, he was in the company of his aides when Oyo state NURTW boss Alhaji Lateef Salako (Eleweomo) was murdered in cold blood. Though he claimed he knows nothing about the murder, the police arrested him and subsequenty charged him to court for the murder but he was released in controversial circumstances on the 1st of January 2011 to participate in the PDP primaries held in Abuja. Folarin emerged PDP’s guber candidate in a primary election which according to many, wasn’t free and fair. He is the least popular of all candidates. In fact, not many people knew he was a former senator. He has very little appearance on electronic and social media. I rarely see his campaign buses and advertorials. Or maybe he’s got some special strategies or approach we are yet to see. What exactly does he have to offer Oyo State? Or is he relying on the Nation’s ruling party to make him governor? Lets wait and see… DONT FORGET The heat is really getting hotter. But one thing that still baffles me is that none of these governorship aspirants is using the social media platform INTENSELY as the case is with the Presidential aspirants. In 2007, Akala defeated Ajimobi who contested on the platform of ANPP. In 2011, Ajimobi defeated Akala to become the 7th governor of Oyo state. This is 2015 and they face each other yet again. Ladoja is not new in the game either. That makes three of them and two newcomers which are equally strong. 2015 general elections in Oyo state will surely be a tough one. Out of these major contenders, three have served once. There is a popular saying that Oyo people do not elect a governor twice. Will this jinx be broken? Or will it be upheld, making us see the emergence of Seyi Makinde or Teslim Folarin? It will be a keenly contested election, we only pray that God takes control and there should be a violence-free polls. Hopefully, It shouldn’t be a do-or- die affair. As OyoDecides come February 2015, May we have a peaceful election.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 06:37:48 +0000
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