ONDO STATE AND THE BATTLE FOR ALAGBAKA

  January 09, 2016 at 12:29 am

 By Pelu Olajengbesi


 "some highly intelligent financial experts have been engaged to scrutinized the records of the acclaimed Iroko of Ondo State, primarily for the purpose of detecting the remotest areas of financial recklessness and mismanagement of state funds''.

Ondo State is getting set for yet another battle for Alagbaka - the state government house and the Holy Grail of the gubernatorial elections comes October this year. Political activities in the state have been injected with more life, excitement and consciousness as seen in the increased albeit subtle campaign by the interested individuals in the state.
Popular opinion holds – but of course - that it will simply be a contest between the predominant political parties, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress( the APC), with both locked in a test of might backed by differing areas of strength. Nonetheless, credit must be given to parties like the Accord Party and the Labour Party (the former ruling party in the state), for remaining the unpredictable determining factors in the forthcoming election, either by way of a forthright contest against the dominant parties or by way of alignment.
The PDP is clearly the power wielded one as it is the ruling party in the state and personified in the person of the current governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, who is thought in his area of influence to have successfully delivered (or largely so) the political mandate of his people, that spurs them on. This is notwithstanding the fact that the State Chapter of the PDP are having to contend with a shadow internal fraction in its structure, with the governor and his loyalists from his former party, the Labour Party, on one side and business mogul, Barr. Jimoh Ibrahim leading the other faction in the state, hedged on the pre-supposition that Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, being only a recent member of the party, cannot be allowed to hijack the party structure and impose his loyalists on the otherwise veteran and older members of the party. It remains to be seen just how implosive this internal rancour may turn out to be, although reports seem rife that the governor is making moves to reconcile both groups ahead of the elections.

For the raiding APC its pivotal argument may not be further from the need for the Sunshine State to annex its structure to that of the ruling party at the centre with the attendant benefit believed to be due from that. It is the same argument roundly canvassed by it in the elections in Kogi State and Bayelsa state, two previously PDP-controlled states.
The people of Kogi state bit into the apple of the APC enticement but indications in Bayelsa state suggest the PDP may have defeated that logic at the polls. Perhaps, this is the case with the latter because its own son had been dealt a humbling defeat by the APC at the federal level and Bayelsans have simply refused to forget or forgive in a hurry, or maybe the personality of the APC's choice candidate for that election is simply defeating its ambition, whichever the case the arguments remain largely academic and the struggle might remain beyond the election in Bayelsa.
It will indeed be tragic for the incumbent governor, Dr.Olusegun Mimiko, and not just the PDP, to lose Ondo state in the coming elections, and it will be rather disappointing to Tinubu not just the APC not to take over the state too. Both personalities are simply the personification of the struggle for the control of the political machinery of Ondo state. For the self-styled Jagaban and face of modern yoruba politics, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the addition of Ondo state to his cache of controlled state would be an additional endorsement for the perpetuation of his and the APC's agenda for Ondo state and the country in general. Having lost Ekiti state to the PDP in the person of Ayo Fayose who has become a venerable thorn in the flesh of the APC, Tinubu and the APC would surely be looking to further consolidate it's presence at state-level politics and equally pressure into alignment the people of Ekiti state in the next election.
Perhaps for the sitting governor Olusegun Mimiko, it is a more dangerous and decisive election. If his newly adopted party looses in the October, 2016 election the consequences are rippling. First, he risks being thrown into political oblivion together with his new political party, the PDP and the seeming curse of their dwindling luck in both national and state politics. Even more scary for him is that he may become exposed to the organised, perhaps orchestrated, anti-corruption music of the APC against political henchmen who were the faces of the re-elction ambition of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the 2015 election. He will be expected to give an account of the imaginables and the unimaginables. Graveyard already have it that some highly intelligent financial experts have been engaged to scrutinized the records of the acclaimed Iroko of Ondo State, primarily for the purpose of detecting the remotest areas of financial recklessness and mismanagement of state funds. With such serious stake, Ondo state will literarily be set on fire in the immediate months leading to the October, 2016 governorship election.
As with everyday Nigerian politics, what this struggle is about and who its primary beneficiaries are cannot be said to be the people of Ondo state, and this is notwithstanding that the ambitions of this political actors will be dubbed a representation of the people's will. A case of vainglorious people self-appointing, and championing on behalf of the people their perceived welfare within the dictates of their own illusion of righteousness. Ondo state is in for it apparently, and therefore whichever ways it goes, the interest and progress of the people of Ondo state will eventually not be about the party that wins the 2016 election, not about the party manifesto (as experience has clearly shown that party manifestoes in Nigeria are simply manipulative talks before election) but the individual; specifically the character and value system of whoever becomes the governor of Ondo state.
Presently, it can be said that 21 individuals have been linked to the contest for the Alagbaka House, the Ondo state Aso Rock, however, only 14, as listed below wedge seemingly influence required to succeed Mimiko in the current political permutations in the state. These individuals suffice to be the major candidates across party lines with emphasis on the geographic zones of the Ondo State they are from. The reason for this will follow shortly.
Barr.Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) from Central Barr. Sola Ebiseni from South Barr. Kayode Ajulo Chief Olusola Oke from the South Dr. Olakunle Pius Osunyikanmi from South. Dr.Kingsley Kuku from South Dr. Olu Agunloye from North Dr. Bamiduro Dada from North Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye from North Hon. Niran sule from North Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) from the north Rt. Hon. Victor Olabimtan from North Senator Bode Olajumoke from North Senator Ajayi Borrofice from North
Now, both the APC and the state-ruling PDP are well aware of the unwritten zoning arrangement which has become an epitome of the state politics since 1999. Such that zones like Ondo South and Ondo North seem poised to produce the next governor, with the pendulum having swung between the North and South earlier on in the persons of Chief Adebayo Adefarati (1999-2003) and late Dr. Olusegun Agagu (2003-2009). Now with the incumbent, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko from the Central senatorial district, the circle seems to be complete with the preceding zones (North and South) better positioned to take over.
However, a new twist to the zoning arrangement seems to be gathering momentum as Mimiko might be anointing his successor from the Central Senatorial district. Well, that remains a political speculation, but it is not an impossibility in itself as the central senatorial district capitalizing on the Akure votes, which is part of the central might do the magic. Akure, the capital city of the sunshine state, perhaps has the highest number of votes in the state which will conveniently measure with an entire zone. Akure has never produced the state governor before even though Akure city houses the seat of power. Therefore, with a candidate from Akure, a massive solidarity votes is expected from the two local governments in Akure.
However, the question remains, does Mimiko, the Ondo state Governor still command such political clout of endorsing a candidate in the state without a negative reaction from the people? That can only be answered by the electorates who have been under the Iroko style of leadership for the past seven years.
This position has informed both parties watching each other keenly to exploit to their individual advantage the choice of candidate of the other. With the APC believed to be effectively in control of Ondo North and the PDP in control of Ondo South, the die, as is said, is cast.
In any case, no political permutation can be made with a hundred percent certainty, so we wait still. It is hoped that the true interest of the people will supersede the internecine interest of this political elephants or players in the state. Only people-oriented politics can be said to be true politics, irrespective of party or abiding ideology. For the people of Ondo state, an opportunity further presents itself for them to re-assert the power perception in the state. The October 2016 Ondo state election is without gainsaying, as decisive as any election ever held in the country. It will test the will of a people drawn between sticking to tradition or joining ranks with the centre, it will be a battle of wits and might by the dominant parties in the state and on an even more pertinent note be a redeeming opportunity for the new chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) coming from the mess of its electioneering in both Kogi and Bayelsa State