In Oyo State, the law of dialectics is at work, as the core of opposition against Governor Adebayo Alao akala disintegrates. But, the governor wages, perhaps, the greatest political battle of his life, as he confronts an emergent grand offensive orchestrated by powerful interests in the state bent on dislodging him from Agodi Government House in April. Is this Akala’s waterloo?
The Sun’s South West Bureau Chief, YINKA FABOWALE, examines the dynamics of the gubernatorial politics against the backdrop of realignment of offices the in the pace setter state.
Will Governor Adebayo Alao Akala get a second term in Oyo State? That question now blows ion the air, as ominous clouds thicken to eclipse his reign in the pace setter state come April.
Hitherto, the ‘Oyato’ Governor seems set to retain his coveted seat at Agodi, despite the massive opposition against him within and outside his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The reason is simple, political analysts had reasoned and predicted that the gang up against the former police officer could not stand the test of time as his opponents were strange bedfellows whose conflicting individual ambitions and selfish interests would soon scatter.
What more, the governor has so far maintained a stranglehold on the party structure in the state, effectively muscling out the faction led by Senator Rashidi Ladoja, Senator Lekan Balogun, Chief Yekini Adeojo and Elder Wole Oyelese.
Outside the PDP, save, perhaps, for his main challenger in the 2007 governorship election, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, there appears to be no formidable opposition candidate to square up with this Ogbomoso-born politician in the ring. The results of the nine bye-elections so far held in the state since 2007 have confirmed the governor’s dominance as his party won all!
An underestimated, but cunning politician, Governor Alao Akala has also continuously decimated the ranks of his opponents, by winning many over through patronage and appointments among others inducements. It is a measure of his political gamesmanship that the number of PDP legislators in the 32-man State House of Assembly rose from 16 to 25. There have also been waves of defection from across party lines to his faction of the PDP across the state, one notable being the cross-carpeting by the highly influential Adigun Irawo in Oke Ogun, a former ally of Ladoja.
The governor’s chances appeared to have been further brightened as the prediction by pundits of the disintegration of the coalition opposed to his second term bid has come true. Instead of rallying round a common candidate, three of the four major leaders of the coalition namely-Ladoja, Oyelese and Adeojo had gone their separate ways to pursue their governorship ambitions. While Oyelese and Adeojo remained in the PDP, Ladoja, a major financier and backbone of the group has pulled out with his supporters to contest the governorship on the platform of Accord Party (AP) apparently frustrated by the perceived insincerity and indecision of the PDP national leadership to frontally tackle the protracted crisis within the state chapter.
As it were, however, there is a crack within his followership, as his major lieutenants notably, the two former Secretaries to the State Government (SSG) when he was governor of the state, Mr. Dele Adigun and Chief Sarafadeen Ali, Princess Biodun Babalola (Commissioner), Bayo Okeyode, Sunday Igboho and a host of others backed out of the gambit. This has raised question on what the former governor can achieve on his own. Daily Sun learnt that Ladoja had rejected entreaties to dump his ambition and adopt the more youthful Adigun or Ali as consensus candidate.
This, an inside source told the newspaper would have been more acceptable to Adeojo, Oyelese and Balogun and scorch the age-long rivalry among the quartet. ‘But, he insisted he would contest because he thought the sympathy he enjoyed over his impeachment is still with him”, informed a top notcher in the group. There are, however, fears that the former governor may be living in the past. One, with his age, he is considered a dinosaur, with nothing new to offer. Also, observers noted, there were no spectacular achievements that may be said to have endeared him to the people of the state for them to want to return him to power, as he scarcely had time to perform during his largely crisis-ridden rule.
What more, there have emerged on the political turf vibrant and younger elements such as Ajimobi, Femi Lanlehin, Dr. Bayo Adewusi (of the Action Congress of Nigeria) and Senate Leader Teslim Folarin, whose popularity has been on the rise among the people of the state in recent times. As a result, many believe Ladoja may end up being disgraced and demystified. The implication of this, however, is that he would have succeeded in splitting the votes which could throw the opposition into the saddle.
His exit from the coalition would also seem to have weakened the group, which as at now appears to be in limbo.
Disaffection that trail the ACN choice of Ajimobi as the party’s choice for the April governorship would also appear to have strengthen the hands of Alao Akala against his opponents. By midweek, there were threats of defection by the camps of some of Ajimobi’s aggrieved opponents, who were disenchanted with his alleged imposition by the party elders. Femi Lanlehin, unconfirmed reports had said may have been wooed into the Congress of Progressive Change (CPC) with a Senatorial ticket.
But a close associate of his told Daily Sun that there was nothing like that on the card. Rather, he said the resolve was to stay back in the ACN and ensure that they get justice and the issue of the alleged imposition is redressed. With this general confusion, acrimony and dissension in the and ranks of his opponents, Governor Alao Akala should be smiling in triumph. But, the governor cannot. He dare not, as a fresh, grand offensive by the opposition in the past few days may have turned the table against him. All of a sudden, Alao Akala faces a real threat of being dislodged from his seemingly secure perch.
His undoing may have been the attempt to rope in one of the arrowheads of internal opposition against him in the PDP in the person of the Senate Leader, Senator Folarin for the murder of the late factional leader of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Alhaji Lateef Salako (aka Eleweomo).
Salako, an erstwhile staunch supporter of the governor was killed during a bloody fracas between Akala’s loyalists and those of Folarin at the PDP local government congress in Ona Ara Local government constituency of the Senate Leader on December 30, 2010.
Folarin had been arrested, arraigned and detained at Agodi prisons along with three others for alleged complicity in the assassination. But, the Senate Leader’s ordeal was seen as a witch-hunt orchestrated by the Akala administration to clip the wings of the opposition. It has, however, boomeranged arousing widespread public sympathy for the youthful Senator and his group.
Powerful interests including three prominent traditional rulers in the state in cold war with the governor, the Ibadan establishment including the business class as well as the Senate Leader’s colleagues in the Senate were said to have rallied round to challenge this perceived persecution. They flooded the Presidency with petitions accusing Alao Akala of using the police in the state to unjustly hound the Senate Leader.
Daily Sun learnt that it was impressed on the President that Alao-Akala, who he and the PDP national leadership seemed to have been backing in the factional crisis rocking the state chapter of the party had become unpopular and could not deliver the state to the PDP in the approaching April governorship and presidential elections, and that the masses were with the Folarin group.
Security and media reports of the rallies held by the Senator Balogun/Folarin faction and the large crowd of supporters that besieged Agodi prisons and the courts in solidarity with the embattled Senate Leader were also cited as proofs that the governor has lost grassroots support. Some Ibadan leaders, who have not hidden their resolve to see Alao Akala off the seat reportedly offered to pick the bill and prosecute Jonathan’s presidential campaign in the state “if he would do the right thing”.
In return, a deal was struck that Folarin and his group who had been ambivalent over who to support between the President and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, for the PDP presidential ticket, due to the national leadership failure to forthright resolve the Oyo PDP fight, were to work for Jonathan.
Sources told Daily Sun that the President reportedly indicated that he was hamstrung in dealing with the Oyo issue because of the interest of his godfather, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Obasanjo, it was learnt, had brow beaten the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) to reverse itself on the suspension of the controversial Oyo State congress and ratify the result allegedly presented by a faction of the party loyal to Governor Alao-Akala, which excluded other factions.
The move which was to ensure the return of Alao Akala as the governorship candidate for the state, has however, been challenged in court by the rival camp. They alleged that the congress was illegal and inconclusive as the electoral panel from Abuja, as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) observers did not wait to supervise it following a directive from the national headquarters suspending the exercise on security consideration, following the assassination o f Eleweomo at the preceding local government congress the previous day. They have therefore, asked the court to order INEC not to recognize the outcome of the said congress.
The stakeholders were said to have further warned President Jonathan that Obasanjo could not save PDP from the impending defeat and disgrace in the polls, if he failed to withdraw his support for Akala.
President Jonathan was said to have been finally persuaded when he got wind of the moves by the rival Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to reap political capital from the PDP crisis.
The ACN boss, whose rampaging party has through a series of judicial victories shrunken PDP’s political territory in the South -West to two states, Daily Sun learnt, had commenced talks with the Balogun/Folarin group, offering the latter the ticket for the Oyo Central Senatorial District. The move was a master stroke from political strategist as this would square Folarin, who has suddenly become a public hero against Jumoke Akinjide , daughter to Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), an ally of Alao Akala, who was favoured with the PDP ticket for the same constituency apparently in reward for her father’s loyalty.
In this, the ACN leader was counting on the sentiments of Akinjide’s Ibadan kinsmen who despised the old lawyer for his support for the Ogbomoso-born governor, to sway the votes in Folarin’s favour. Tinubu, sources said, quickly mobilized a strong legal team led by former President Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and Niyi Akintola (SAN) to defend the Senate Leader, while urging his Oyo State counterpart, Lam Adesina to accommodate the Folarin group expected to defect to the ACN, in nominations for elective offices in the elections.
This was said to have alarmed the President and other national officers of the PDP. A decision was taken, the deluge of petition over Folarin’s and prosecution was referred to the Justice Minister Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Muhammed Adokie (SAN) who after a review of the case file recommended discontinuation of the controversial trial and the release of the accused persons.
That was what culminated in last week’s celebrated freedom of Folarin.
Daily Sun learnt that Governor Alaoa Akala, who was in Abuja for the PDP national convention was both peeved and shocked at the development. He immediately saw the sign that a grave had surreptitiously been dug, waiting for him to be buried politically, with the apparent loss of the president’s support.
And indeed this may be so, Daily Sun gathered that the President and PDP national leadership have begun discussions with the Balogun/Folarin group with a view to preventing their defection to the ACN. The group is being promised a review of the outcome of the contentious state congress which would see a harmonization of the delegates from the feuding camps and a sharing of elective offices tickets for the impending polls. The implication of this, is that, it may be too early for candidates purportedly nominated by the Alao Akala camp to rejoice yet.
Indeed, that of the governor has been a subject of dilemma for the leadership with the group’s insistence on having everything revised as condition for accepting to stay in the PDP. Indeed, things appear to be working in the group’s favour. It has become the beautiful bride being sought from different directions, even as its ranks swelled by the day due to the growing popularity of its leaders. For instance, some PDP aspirants in the Akala camp who lost out during the primary elections are said to have cross-carpet to the group.
A leader of the group told daily Sun that Ladoja’s exit has not diminished its strength. “Rather, we have grown more formidable, because only one Ladoja went, but, dozens have since come in. We now have the Lateef Oyelades, the Olaifas, the Olopoenia and so on with us now. The dominance of this group will be overwhelming I tell you”, he boasted. Also, the group still have the rock solid support of Hon. Ayo Adeseun led Ogbomoso Solidarity Forum (OSF) which was the architect of Alao Akala’s massive votes in that axis in the 2007 poll and has sworn to divide the governor’s votes this time around.
But, the group appears caught on the horns of dilemma, as it is not comfortable with the emergence of Ajimobi as the ACN’s governorship candidate. Dependable sources told Daily Sun early in the week that the leaders were considering the option of declaring for the Labour Party, whose leadership has reportedly offered to give to the group the entire 51 elective office slots in the state to fill.
But, Governor Alao Akala is fighting back realizing this is the political battle of his life.
Daily Sun gathered that he has succeeded in wooing over Chief Yekini Adeojo, one of the former pillars of the anti-Akala coalition, with an equally awesome political structure. The governor’s reported reconciliation with Ambassador Yomi Akintola, son of former Premier of the defunct Western Region and an Adeojo ally in the Ogbomoso home of the PDP chieftain last weekend, is seen as confirming this new rapproachment.
The governor has also started reaching out to former friends turned arch-foes he believed played crucial role in the latest plot against him. He has written letters to some of the arrowheads including his former estranged deputy, Gbolarumi Hazeem and an Ibadan multi-millionaire businessman who had sworn to evict him from Government House Agodi, calling for reconciliation. In the letter, he addressed the business mogul as “dear egbon” (brother). He is believed to have also sent emissaries to Senator Balogun, on his return from Abuja. But the Ibadan high chief, who enjoys the respect of the followership as the only one who played “Mandela”, by jettisoning personal ambition to shepherd the group, was said to have rebuffed the overture.
However, the governor’s camp believe their man would still carry the day against the various governorship candidates, who are mostly of Ibadan roots given their lack of consensus.
Aware of the governor’s calculation, stakeholders have been mounting pressure on Ladoja to collapse his campaign and support an Ibadan candidate from any other parties. Daily Sun learnt that a town meeting has been proposed for Mapo Hall later this week to persuade the former governor to step down.
A prominent Ibadan Chief told Daily Sun: “We are meeting, the youths, the elders, the chiefs- everybody, to beg him to withdraw. There is no doubt that he is loved by the people, but, we believe he is at a stage in which, he must play the godfather and statesman. As an high chief, I’m sure he’ll listen, because, he too wants to become an Olubadan”.
But, observers fear it may be too late in the day for the former governor to call it quits with the project. One, he has deployed enormous resources on campaign. His campaign posters, billboards are everywhere, while the airwaves in the state are awash with jingles and campaign messages.
“All that is storm in a tea cup. It’ll soon go down”, assured another prominent Ibadan indigene. He reminded Daily Sun that the former governor also prevaricated in 2007, but eventually threw his weight behind Ajimobi.
“It takes less than 24 hours for us in Ibadan to unite. You’ll see what will happen”, he said.
What he forgot to mention though was that the last-minute support failed to give Ajimobi a berth at Government House, Agodi. This is 2011… the clock ticks.
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