Bimbo Ashiru: A journey of two footpaths

I once read the brilliant book written by Prof Ola Rotimi. It was called ‘ the gods are not to blame’ and in the book he showed us the interplay of destiny with peoples fate. The instructive for me was when the character Gbonka on an errand to ‘kill’ the baby Adewale and got confused at the point ‘where three foot paths meet’. Instead of killing the Baby, he handed the baby to a farmer and he went ahead to fulfill his destiny in life which was to kill his father and marry his mother.

Bimbo’s destiny cannot be this one o. so do not take my illustration at its face value and be looking at Bimbo with a funny gaze. I have just decided to throw this up so that I can better illustrate the seeming dilemma observers and indeed Bimbos admirers now face as they begin to map his political future.

The two-foot paths in Bimbos story today is that of a possible run for the Governorship of his State or a push towards the Senate. Cold calculations show that the incumbent Governor would most likely have a second term and this opens him up to the Senate where the incumbent is reported to have fallen out of favour.

The race as pundits have pointed out could be a straight one between the former Governor of the State and political war horse Gbenga Daniel and Mr. Ashiru. The die is cast and the house is divided. A few feel that the race is actually Mr Daniels because of his pedigree and his weight but not a few also feel the Bimbo stands a far better chance because of the role he played during the last Gubernatorial elections where he accepted his fate and immediately started working for the present Governor who eventually clinched the ticket.
Popular money is on the fact that the party may be favourably disposed to rewarding Mr Ashiru for such noble acts thereby giving him a front lead as against Mr Daniels who is seen as flighty.

Mr Daniels in the last four years have been involved in a series of dancing chairs seeing him flip parties at a whim thereby making him lack the consistency needed to build a firm standing in the voting markets. But ignore him at your peril.

However, the story on the ground here is where fate would be taking Mr Ashiru to this time. A banker who successfully built an enviable career reaching the peak of his career and careening that into politics with a stellar performance as Commissioner for Commerce in the same Ogun State is poised for any eventuality.

Presently, he is serving his State on the Board of the huge Odu’a Investments amongst other such humanitarian endeavours and would be waiting at the path where the two foot paths meet for what fate would have chosen for him.

We wait.