How Osinbajo delivered Ogun despite governor’s rebellion

Ogun state became a place of unusual interest regarding the 2019 elections when Ibikunle Amosun, the governor, fell out with the ruling APC on who should fly the party’s flag.

After his preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, did not emerge, the governor found another party, the Allied Peoples Movement to counter APC’s own candidate, Dapo Abiodun.

The matter became so bad and intense that Amosun was accused of personally supervising a riotous APC presidential rally where soft missiles where freely thrown in the direction of the president and the vice-president.

On the faithful side of the ruling APC was Osinbajo, who despite permutations and political posturing merely stood out of Ogun politics preferring to allow the APC to pick its candidate freely.

Once the party picked a candidate the vice-president threw his weight behind him. But this was in direct opposition to Amosun’s schemes. So Ogun State guber poll became an unusual contest.

We have heard all kinds of speculations on how the Governor tried to use his links with the presidency to cause confusion, but in the end the president and his deputy insisted that the party is superior and that simple loyalty based view prevailed.

It has now shown the political prowess of an otherwise unassuming VP, and reveals his rising political profile.

When Amosun was suspended for anti-party activities, Osinbajo took over the gubernatorial campaign in Ogun, hosting a rally that brought out thousands of residents in Abeokuta.

The vice-president took to the streets of Abeokuta where he moved round the city for almost four hours covering over 14 kilometers.

During the tour, Osinbajo called on the electorate to come out and vote, encouraging them that there would be no violence or rigging, and that they should vote the APC’s candidate, Dapo Abiodun.

With Osinbajo pulling support from these heavyweights, as expected, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress,  coasted to victory at the March 9 poll.

He led with 241,670 votes against the governor’s preferred candidate.