Yewa governorship: Yet another Judas experiment

BY KAMARU ADEBEYI

Let’s face it: equity and natural justice dictate that the Ogun West Senatorial District should produce the next governor of Ogun State. Since the return to civil rule in 1999, the zone has not produced an occupant of the Oke-Mosan Government House, and that has not been for lack of interest or effort. Rather, the downturn in its fortunes has been due largely to internal bickering and the devious schemes of certain individuals outside the zone who have become adept at using certain saboteurs within the zone to scuttle its interests.

Politics being a game of numbers, these individuals have perfected a grand scheme aimed at perpetually relegating the zone to the back seat, leading to bitter regrets by the long-suffering people of the zone every election cycle. Using unconscionable writers, these political buccaneers attempt to scuttle the chances of Ogun West by setting up leading candidates in the zone against the political establishment, creating needless divisions that end up denying the zone its rightful claim to the Ogun governorship. Sadly, the piece titled “Beware of Dogs” by one Chief Adegoke Adeyanju Awoso, who describes himself as “The Afiopateotemole of Yewaland,” falls into this category of seemingly pro-Yewa hit pieces that ultimately undermine, undercut, and scuttle the bid of Ogun West to produce the next governor of the Gateway State.

In the said piece, the writer attempts to create a wedge between the Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, and the senator representing Ogun West in the National Assembly, Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi). Chief Awoso deliberately launches an acerbic attack on the personality and image of the governor, whose electoral victories he reduces to Yayi’s influence, as if the governor, a politician of many decades’ standing, has no political structures in the state. Although the writer, in his subterfuge, presents himself as acknowledging Governor Abiodun’s zero opposition to the senator’s political ambitions, he nevertheless gives vent to the baseless allegation that the governor is undercutting the senator through the forthcoming local government elections in the state. The tactic is familiar: provoke the sitting governor and create disaffection between him and a leading governorship aspirant from Yewaland, thus paving the way for an outsider to get the party’s governorship ticket and ultimately win the next governorship election, leaving Yewaland in the lurch.

Here, some history will suffice. At the return to civil rule in 1999, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, an Egba man from Ogun Central and the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), assumed office on May 29, 1999. He was succeeded by a Remo man, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, from Ogun East. Daniel was the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and called the shots between 2003 and 2011. Apparently, Daniel was persuaded that the 2011 governorship slot should, in the interest of natural justice, go to Ogun East, but his attempt to railroad his party into accepting the candidature of his anointed candidate, Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, former Group Managing Director (GMD) of Gateway Holdings Plc, caused divisions within the party. Amid the deep factionalization, President Olusegun Obasanjo backed a former sole administrator of Ekiti State, the late Major-General Adetunji Idowu Olurin, in the 2011 general elections while Daniel backed Isiaka, an illustrious son of Imeko from Ogun West. At the end of the day, it was the candidate of the Action Congress (AC), Senator Ibikunle Amosun, an Egba man from Ogun Central, who won the Oke Mosan top job and went on to rule the state until 2015 when his (Amosun’s) plot to foist his anointed candidate, Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade from Ipokia (Ogun West), on the APC proved to be a repeat of Gbenga Daniel’s 2011 fiasco. Akinlade lost to Abiodun, the APC candidate who, like Daniel, is from Ogun East.

From the foregoing, it is not hard to see that Yewaland’s quest for the governorship has been consistently truncated through internal crises within the governing political parties in Ogun State. It is in this regard that Chief Awoso’s attempts to derail Yayi’s ambition within Ogun APC while claiming to work on his behalf are most unfortunate and should be resisted by every patriotic Yewa son and daughter. At the moment, the APC is the surest road to Yewa governorship. Given the sinister project embarked upon by the writer in question, he is clearly working for the enemies of Yewaland and should be called to order. Dapo Abiodun, as a conscientious and decent performing governor, is committed to equity and fairness in the governorship of the state and has taken no steps to undercut Yewaland’s bid for the governorship. Indeed, he has, while delivering more projects in the zone than his predecessors, asserted that it is a just and legitimate quest. So, why go after him while claiming to work for Yayi?

The fact cannot be disputed that Governor Abiodun is a champion par excellence for Ogun West. It is a fact that since Governor Osoba, no other governor has implemented and commissioned as many roads in every local government in Ogun West as he has. Under his watch, Ogun West, for the first time in a long time, now has a homogeneous political colouration whereby the senator and all three representatives of the zone in the National Assembly belong to the same party. Governor Abiodun actually went out of his way to persuade both Akinlade and Isiaka (GNI) to accept the representatives’ seat and refunded the senatorial form fees to him and the other aspirants so that peace could reign within Yewaland. This was deliberately done to give way for Senator Yayi to move to Ogun from Lagos and contest the Ogun West senatorial seat, a move that was being resisted by the duo and their followers before his (Governor Abiodun’s) intervention. This is indeed the man God has used to restore Yewaland to a strategic political position, and it amounts to utter imbecility to accuse him of antagonizing the interests of the zone.

Evidently, Yayi should also be wary of this individual. In 2019, when this fellow became a member of the Ogun State House of Assembly, he did so under the ticket of the ADC. At the time, he was with GNI. But he later defected to the APC, dumping GNI because of political crumbs, and is now using Yayi’s name to act the devious script that certain individuals wrote during past election cycles to the detriment of Yewaland. At this very moment, the enemies of Ogun West are at their usual game of chess. Their intent is to ensure that power eludes the zone in 2027. Yayi, as a great son of Yewa, must realize that 2027 is an opportunity that must not be missed by the zone, and that setting him up against Governor Abiodun is fraught with political dangers. Awoso is playing to the gallery, trying to create division where there is none, and must be cautioned before the bitterness that he is trying to sow in Ogun APC takes root. Certain political chess players in Ogun Central and Ogun East do not mind using willing tools in Ogun West to defeat the zone’s 2027 bid. It is a familiar game, a Judas experiment that we should all truncate.

Adebiyi, Imasai, Yewa North LGA, Ogun State.