BETWEEN FEDERAL MIGHT AND PEOPLES’ WILL: FOUR Reasons Why Aregbesola Will Defeat Omisore. By Hazeez Kolawole As People Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive Party (APC) jostle for the control of the centre come May 29 next year, tomorrow’s gubernatorial election in Osun state presents a perfect platform for the two major political parties in the country to make a bold statement regarding their preparedness towards the next general election. As for the ruling party, PDP, Osun State gubernatorial election will be used to make a statement that what the party achieved in the recently concluded election in Ekiti state was not a fluke. Having conquered one of the strongholds of the ruling party’s main opposition recently in Ekiti, PDP is motivated to once again burn the brooms of APC in a state that is governed by the APC south-west’s most vocal governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola and the only state in the Yoruba speaking states President Goodluck Jonathan lost during the last Presidential election. If PDP could have two governors at the helms of affairs in the South-western, it would definitely brighten the chance of the President ahead of the next year presidential election, thus deploying masked security operatives to Osun state a week before the election is a statement of intent from Mr. President. However, the Asiwaju Bola Tinubu led APC has not left any stone unturned in their quest to wrestle power from the PDP controlled government. Though, loosing Ekiti state to PDP was very big blows to APC’s desire of ruling the country come next year, the party has since gone back to the drawing board with a view to re-strategizing and neutralizing any PDP’s onslaught targeted at their stronghold whether at the state or at the federal level. Having suffered a major setback last year when couple of its governors and federal honourables defected to APC, kudos should be giving to Presidents Jonathan’s think-tank team for turning defence into attacks because since then, PDP has gained two states (Nassarawa and Ekiti) which were hitherto belonged to the camp of APC. With series of impeachments dog barking at the APC governors in their respective states, it is now the turn of APC to defend. All said and done, it is the view of this writer that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola will return to the government house for the second term irrespective of the federal might the presidency might want to unleash in Osun based on the following FOUR factors: I. IGE MURDER’S CASE: One of my lecturers in University of Ibadan, department of Communication and Language arts during my Masters programme, Dr. Olanihun did say that ‘if you want to kill a bad product then advertise it’. The choice of Otunba Iyiola Omisore as PDP’ gubernatorial candidate is a minus for the party in that majority of the people in the Yoruba speaking states in general and indigenes of Osun state in particular are not happy about the way PDP-led government handled the late Cisero of Esa-Oke’s murder case. People still feel that Otunba Iyiola Omisore was deliberately exonorated simply because he helped the then President Obasanjo get the ‘job’ done. Hence a lot of people have still not forgiven PDP and its flagbearer for that incidence. Infact Chief BolaIge’s death has been his albatross just like June 12 is IBB’s. II. EKITI STATE EXPERIENCE: Loosing Ekiti to PDP might to turn out to be a blessing in disguise for APC, the reason being that APC initially never believed they could lose any state to PDP in the south west thinking that its party’s strategies and various developmental projects are enough to sway voters’ interests permanently to their side. Thus, it was a big shock when the result was announced and APC stalwarts found out that their party had lost with a big margin. This spurned them into action and all the loopholes detected were corrected. For instance, in order to monitor the election on Saturday, most of APC chieftains in the south west had been on ground since last week so as to forestall being prevented from gaining entrance into the state as it happened in Ekiti state. Also, the party has also been educating its members on how to prevent the opposition from rigging the election. III. ISIAKA ADELEKE/ OLAGUNSOYE OYINLOLA’S FACTOR: The former governor in Osun state remains a strong factor as to where the pendulum of power will eventually swing. The strong man of Ede politics is a calculative politician and his defection to the ruling party in the state is a big plus for APC. The last minute defection of the immediate past governor of Osun state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, into APC can be regarded as a masterstroke used by Aregbesola to remain in office. The former governor’s grievance against his former party can be said to be vengeance driven. He would want to use the election to prove a point to the presidency that he is still a force to be reckoned with when it comes to Osun politics just as the former governor of Oyo state, Rashid Ladoja did during the last general election. He is now being romanced by the president to go back to thePDP. IV. AREGBESOLA’S GRASSROOT POLITICS PROWESS: One of the reasons why Ekiti state governor, Kayode Fayemi, lost to Ayo Fayose of PDP in the just concluded gubernatorial election was his elitist-oriented politics, Ekiti state felt ‘marginalized’ in the way the government was being run. Aregbesola on the hand has been closed to the people of the grass root. He makes sure that he constantly romances this important segment of the state’s population, knowing fully well that these are the people that go out to vote. As much as he embarked on capital intensive projects, he also ensures that people oriented-projects were carried out, thus the masses see him as government of their own.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 15:58:13 +0000
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