Ajimobi, Shittu in supremacy battle

THE supremacy contest between Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, over the structure of the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) took another twist in Ibadan on Saturday with the dominant forces holding parallel major political gatherings.

While thousands of party faithful, led by the governor held a grand rally to sensitise party members to the forthcoming local government election in the state at Oke-Ado, the minister led a handful of APC elders mostly from outside the state to inaugurate the South-West headquarters of the Buhari/Osinbajo Support Groups at University of Ibadan International Conference Centre.

The minister is among the APC stalwarts jostling for the governorship seat, which shall be vacated by Ajimobi at the end of his two terms of four years each next year.

It will be recalled that the political rivalry between the two leaders took a strange twist during the week, when the minister wrote a petition to the APC national leadership, accusing Ajimobi of highhandedness and “unbecoming behaviours.”

Signs that the two camps would hold separate events began to crystallise at dawn on Saturday as organisers began to put finishing touches to arrangements at Oke-Ado venue of the programme by the state APC, while representatives from the state chapters in the other five states in the South-West headed for the University of Ibadan International Conference centre for the inauguration of the Buhari/Osinbajo Support Group.

By virtue of his office, the governor is the leader of the APC in the state, a factor most of the APC stalwarts and elders that spoke with our correspondents said was leveraged on by the state APC leadership.

Sources told our correspondent that the muscle flexing was largely over the control of the structure of the party in the state with claims that the minister had been undermining the party.

It was gathered that, while the minister was busy making arrangements for the inauguration of the Secretariat of the support group, the leadership of the APC in the state preoccupied itself with deploying necessary logistics in ensuring a huge turnout of party members for the mobilisation drive preparatory to the local government elections.

Hundreds of party members from each of the 33 Local Government Areas and the 35 Local Council Development Areas, including the executives of the APC at the ward, local and state government levels converged on Oke-Ado from 7:00 a.m for the sensitisation programme. The venue is the APC state secretariat.

Insiders in the two camps confided in one of our correspondents that the organisers of the (separate) events considered several options before going ahead since the programmes fell on the same date.

It was gathered that one of the options canvassed by a few young Turks was to send some Fifth Columnists to rival venues with a mission to disrupting the programmes.

But some elders were said to have prevailed on those behind such hard stance because of the overall implication for the image of the party, especially now that serious politicking had commenced ahead of the 2019 elections.

Addressing party faithful at the Oke-Bola event, Ajimobi announced that the APC in the state would, from this week, begin preparations for the conduct of local government elections in three months time.

He said the processes would begin with various party meetings from ward to local government level aimed at accommodating new entrants and uniting the party.

While expressing optimism that the state electoral commission will release the electoral timetable within the next 90 days, Ajimobi assured that the party would clear all elective positions when the elections are held.

Ajimobi, who spoke alongside his executive assistant on political matters, Dr Morounkola Thomas, urged party members to be more concerned about forging a united front and ensuring that the APC remained the ruling party in the state.

“We want you to shun all differences and accommodate the new entrants into the party. What should be paramount is that APC continues to rule in Oyo State.

“When the local government election holds, anyone who emerges as the candidate of the party will win the election. From next week, we will begin to move around to advance for a united front ahead of the election. We will begin to meet with you at your meetings across wards, local government areas in the state.”

“A three-month-notice for the local government election will be given next week. During that 90 days period, let us all come together and vote for the party.With the strength of our party, I do not see how any other party will win any post in the local government election.

“No government has done as well as we have done. So before the electoral timetable is released, we want you all to work together to ensure that the party is united. We realise that we have some new members joining the party so let us embrace them as one. This will ensure that the party continues to forge ahead and remains the party to beat,” Ajimobi said.

Meanwhile, a former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu has called on President Buhari and the national chairman of the APC, as a matter of urgency, wade into the crisis between the minister and the governor in the overall interest of the party.

Kalu, made this call during the official inauguration of the Buhari/Osinbajo Dynamic Support Group, South West Zonal office, in Ibadan, on Saturday.

The event, chaired by a former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, brought to the city, other personalities such as Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole.

He specifically lamented the absence of Ajimobi and other government and political appointees in the state.

Kalu said: “I want to thank the Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, and the leaders of the MBO, for inviting me and my senior brother, Ken Nnamani, to be here today. We are very glad.

“For us, we are students of peace and we’re committed to preaching peace and unity. We are students, who say the truth. We are students, who are not afraid of telling people what we feel that is not right. Everybody in this hall will agree with us that there is a break in the communication between our governor and the minister. We don’t want that to continue.

“If anybody inside this house today in the University of Ibadan would say the truth, is it good for these two elephants to continue quarrelling? I and my senior brother would disagree that they should not be quarrelling. The minister and the governor should be the best of friends. And we are going to make that happen.

“We have already agreed with the Minister of Health, and with my brother, former Senate President, that we are going to take it upon ourselves to the highest level of this party. If both of them are quarrelling, there will be no peace and progress in this state.

“We are going to be fighting a very big party, a party that knows how to do it. We don’t want to lose any vote in Oyo State. We don’t want to lose one single sympathy here.

“I cannot understand,  the minister is very close to me and the governor is very close to me. They are also very close to Ken Nnamani. We came here to honour both of them. I am slightly not very happy what I have seen here that the governor is not here;  the party officials are not here, the commissioners are not here. In the main thing that will make APC what they supposed to be here, please.  They are not here.

“I am not a man that you’ll keep inside a room, and ask not to say the truth. Everybody knows that even what people are afraid to say, I will say it because it is only the truth that can set us free. When you leave the truth, we will suffer.

“I have spoken to the Minister of Communication, I told him I wasn’t very happy. Immediately I came, both the Minister of Health and former Senate president whispered to me that the governor is not here.

“I said the governor is going to Lagos this afternoon. This is what the Chief of Staff (Dr Gbade Ojo) told my aide when I said after this programme, I will go and drink water with him.”

Earlier, Senator Nnamani urged the two actors to allow peace to reign in the interest of the party.

He added that APC, as a party was showing a trait for leading Nigeria to a greater future and spoke about the mission endeared to the Minister of Communication’s hand.

“I’ve watched the Minister of Communication from a distance. I have not had the privilege or opportunity of working closely with him in any shape or passion. But, I have watched him. I’ have seen in him somebody who has a great passion for what he believes in. He is an enthusiastic person in whatever he wants to do. That’s my observation and that enthusiasm is necessary if one wants to achieve something and leave a legacy. I would say publicly here without any fear or favour that here in the South-West as a centre of excellence in Nigeria and centre of commerce and industry, I expect that their preeminent role in politics should anchor on peace and unity.

“There’s a need for our party APC to have internal decorum in which there is coercion and people work together. Politics is not a game you play as an individual. You have a role to be part of that team. You are not the team itself. You are part of it.

“Since we are here to commission the zonal office, maybe after this we will go further, but it is important to understand that we cannot achieve much as a group without unity, peace. It is so vital, not only in politics but also in our families. We must stoop to conquer. We are not trying to prove any point by trying to be agonistic and run one another down. We have come to develop what is called …nobody should use that as a philosophy of life. We as members of one family must try and eschew every form of bitterness and excessive anger because nobody does anything right if we do it in anger or bitterness. The same thing if you are speaking and you speak with anger, you are likely to say things you will regret later.

“I’m using this occasion to appeal to all of us that will make our party great, we must come together as one. We may have different ideas but we must allow the majority rule to prevail. Remember, the new way our country is going now under president Buhari, I see our election becoming very effective and efficient. Not too long ago, there was a lecture in Anambra state. The peoples’ way prevailed. So the importance of getting a very god acceptable candidate is important to all political party and unity is also essential. If we have internal fighting among us, it’s going to be difficult for us to achieve the objective. We are here and we have every need to wish Honourable Minister Bayo Shittu success in his ministerial assignment and any other aspirations he has.”