Ajimobi: When a man’s good lives after him

It was his daughter in-law, Fatimah Ajimobi who was quick to opine that the late immediate past governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi’s  achievements in office would be very difficult for the succeeding administration in the state to equal not to talk of surpassing them. The obviously far-sighted daughter of the incumbent governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abdulahi Umar Ganduje who is married to Senator Ajimobi’s son, Jibola had been picked for criticism for what then seemed her hasty conclusion. But less than a year after, Fatimah’s declaration has proved prophetic.

Few weeks back, it had been one year anniversary of the demise of the former governor whose adept grip on the state architecture had precipitated a serene atmosphere in a state that had hitherto knew no peace and whose notoriety for violence had earned it the Wild, Wild West ignominy. For the eight years he was in office, a healthy peace pervaded the state as security became the flagship of government’s policies and programmes. That atmosphere of peace allowed for unfettered economic activities with infrastructure and personal wellbeing surging. However, only two years after the end of his administration, noticeable cracks have surfaced in the structure of a state which had breathed an air of relief from unbridled violence, dare devil brigandage and wilful bloodletting that had hitherto been the order of the day before he assumed office on May 29, 2011. 

The complete nosedive of security in the state which once again has occasioned the resurgence of widespread anxiety among the populace and wanton murder of innocent victims has precipitated nostalgia as the people recall with relish the Ajimobi years when they could walk the streets unperturbed and sleep with their two eyes closed. For eight years, the late former governor made Oyo State a safe haven. That feat had made him the darling of all and sundry in the state; and his historic, first-of-its-kind re-election in 2015 was premised on the success of his security agenda. But since the end of the Ajimobi’s tenure which has been designated as the golden era in the annals of the state, public peace and security have suffered a setback.  

But one can explain the alchemy of the Ajimobi’s peace and security agenda and I have pointed this out in my short biography of the former governor just before he died. The main input was the Ajimobi’s own attitude to peace. He genuinely believed in peace and security and did not harbour an iota of tolerance for thuggish prominence. That was the starting point in engendering peace and security in the state. One cannot imagine the late governor having a need for 200 bus-loads of thugs.  A governor who has need for thugs to pursue goals or settle scores will never be able to succeed with peace and security as he becomes a stakeholder in the thuggish industry.

He went further doing the significant by purging himself of malice and resisting the urge for the malicious use of the Operation Burst. One fear by the people against the idea of state police is that a misguided governor could direct it to hunting the opposition or his perceived or real enemies. But the Ajimobi’s deft handling of the Operation Burst resoundingly denied that insinuation as no single individual could come out, even today, to claim that the ad-hoc armed formation was maliciously directed at him or her. Not even when splinters surfaced in the state All Progressives Congress (APC) and visibly confronted the then governor for the control of the then ruling party in the state.

This is not an attempt to cast aspersion on anyone. The fact is that the background which informed the Ajimobi character and adroit idiosyncrasies he deployed to leadership are not there in many of those joggling to be governor in the party. 

Going by the aforesaid, I’d rather call for pressure to get the Ajimobi’s widow, Chief Mrs. Florence Ajimobi to run as the APC governorship candidate in the 2023 general elections. It is that way the people can be sure of a faithful and genuine replay of the Ajimobi era. With the nostalgia which surfaced at the first anniversary of her husband’s death, it became obvious that the people beckon on her to build on his legacy.

Getting the former first lady to run on the crest of her husband popularity won’t be strange to history. The United States’ politics is reputed for what is called widow’s succession by which political parties feel safe to present the spouse of a deceased elected politician for election in order to ride on name recognition and public sympathy to win and retain the seat vacated by the deceased. In Philippine, we also saw how Mrs Corazon Aquino rode on the wave of popular power upon the death of her husband to be president of that country. Of course, the Ajimobi’s memory has been seen to have conjured all those and it is certain that these will work for the APC come 2023 more strongly so if Mrs Ajimobi bears the party’s flag in that election. 

Olawuwo Adesina, Ibadan. 

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