Bolanle Oke
On March 9, 2019, the people of Ogun State will vote for the next governor of the state. The election, to not a few will not only be the peoples’ verdict on the seven and a half years administration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, but also will decide whether the transformation agenda of the governor will continue or be aborted.
Not a few had acknowledged the massive infrastructural development of the state, which not only led to manifest increase in the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR), but has greatly made the state a reference point when it comes to good governance. Therefore, the coming election will decide who the people want to lead them for the next four years.
Already, no fewer than six candidates are contesting the election. Of this lot, only four could be said to be frontrunners. They are Adekunle Akinlade, APM; Dapo Abiodun, APC; Gboyega Isiaka, ADC; and Buruji Kasamu, PDP. Going by the results of the last presidential and National Assembly elections, the four candidates stand the test of winning the election.
However, to many political watchers, the real battle will be between Akinlade, a mentee of the governor, and Abiodun, who is flying the flag of the APC, the party under which Amosun emerged senator-elect last week.
Until last October, Abiodun and Akinlade were aspirants on the platform of the APC. But Akinlade, who won the October 2, governorship primary of the party, moved into a new party unknown in the state at the push of Amosun who alleged that his candidate was cheated out of the race. Only last week, he vowed to lead the campaign of Akinlade. Suffice it to state that, in double quick time, Akinlade’s APM has made giant strides in Ogun’s political space.
The backing of Amosun has no doubt presented Akinlade as the next governor of the state. This is not because of the popularity of his party but for the fact that the good people will not easily allow anyone to truncate the ongoing infrastructural development of the state.
Already, Akinlade, who tagged his campaign “sustaining the mission to rebuild Ogun State,” has keyed into the developmental agenda of his former boss. Presently a member of the House of Representatives, he had served as senior special assistant to Amosun on IGR.
To many people of the state, Akinlade is like the biblical Joshua that would take over the leadership from Moses, who took the people out of Egypt. With the determination to continue the good work of Amosun, the state is set on the path of steady progress.
Amosun, a political strategist, has made available his political structure, which sustained the APC, available to his political godson. It is a fact that the victory of the APC in the presidential election was made possible by this political structure, which cuts across wards and local governments.
But for this political structure, the APC would have been easily submerged by the PDP in the election, as both the APM and APC put their differences aside to vote for the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Besides the structure, it is a known fact that many APC supporters are sympathetic to the candidature of Akinlade, who is believed to have been cheated out of the race, thus compounding the woes of the APC candidate.
It is also a fact that, in anticipation of the governorship election in March, a large number of APC members in the state are already rooting for the APM with the presidential election now over and the mission to reelect Buhari achieved.
An APC leader last week alerted the leadership of the party that unless a major change happens, majority of APC members, especially in Ogun Central and Ogun West senatorial districts, would proactively work for the APM’s victory in the governorship election given the suppressed bitterness over the controversial process that produced Dapo Abiodun as the party’s governorship candidate.
The demonstrated effectiveness of the Amosun political machinery, coupled with the great enthusiasm of the Yewa people who dominate Ogun West Senatorial zone to have their son, Akinlade of APM, occupy Government House for the first time in the history of the state, has thus created a dominant political alliance between Ogun West and Ogun East.
According to the leader, with the decision of two of the three senatorial zones, Ogun Central and Ogun West, to work together, Akinlade and APM appear set to coast home to victory. And, as it happened with the presidential election, APC’s Abiodun and PDP’s Kashamu would battle for the Ogun East votes. Even at that, pundits insist Akinlade will equally make appreciable showing in Ogun East.
Also, leading traditional rulers in Ogun Central have pitched their tent with Akinlade and have assured him of their support, thus further boosting his chances against Abiodun who will have to share votes from Ogun East with PDP’s Kasamu.
From the support demonstrated from different parts of the state, coupled with the incumbency factor and the undeniable popularity of Amosun, it would take a miracle for APC to win the governorship election, even if federal might is made available to Abiodun.
Undoubtedly, therefore, Akinlade is now primed to succeed Amosun as the next governor of the Gateway State, Ogun.
• Oke sent this piece from