How coalition of parties changed dynamics of Oyo politics

Prior to the March 9, 2019 governorship election in Oyo State, all political parties and power brokers in the state came up with two broad coalitions. They stood behind the governorship candidates of the two leading political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The governorship election was eventually brought down to what political watchers describe as a two-horse race between Seyi Makinde of the PDP and Adebayo Adelabu of the APC, prompting the contest to become very intense. Expectedly, the top contending candidates embarked upon last minute moves to gather support so as to emerge victorious.

Undoubtedly, the campaign train of Makinde got a boost when a former governor and one that could be described as a key player in Ibadan politics, Senator Rasheed Ladoja, collapsed his political structure to support his ambition. It would be recalled that Makinde and Senator Ladoja had a history of political difference. This prompted the refusal of Ladoja to remain in PDP after his return. Interestingly, the fresh move by Senator Ladoja to lend his weight behind the PDP candidate was seen in the political circle as the tonic Makinde needed to match the APC movement in the state.

Besides Ladoja, Makinde equally enjoyed the solidarity of three governorship candidates; namely, Sharafadeen Ali of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Senator Olufemi Lanlehin of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Bolaji Ayorinde of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Not just that, Makinde got the endorsement of the state chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Akin Fasogbon.

However, Adelabu did everything to neutralise this move by PDP, as more political parties endorsed him. At least, no fewer than 13 political parties signified their support for the APC candidate, thereby brightening his chances and possibility to emerge as winner of the governorship election.

The parties that gave Adelabu their support included the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), Allied People’s Movement (APM), United Progressives Party (UPP), Grassroots Development Party of Nigeria (GDPN), the Young Democratic Party (YDP), Northern People’s Congress (NPC), Independent Democrats (ID), Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), Mass Action Joint Alliance (MAJA), Nigeria Elements Progressives Party (NEPP), People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), Rebuild Nigeria Party (RNP) and Democratic People’s Party (DPP). Even, a faction of the ADC gave its support to the APC, in spite of the fact that their governorship candidate had gone with the PDP candidate.

The Adelabu campaign got a significant boost with the decision of another former governor of the state, Adebayo Alao-Akala, to take his ADP into an alliance with the APC. Alao-Akala was the candidate of the ADP. Worthy of note is the fact that Alao-Akala, who is said to be the most popular politician in Ogbomoso, has never been defeated in the five local governments in the area. The former governor had then appealed to the people of Ogbomoso to move to the APC with him in a bid to emplace Adelabu.

One thing worthy of note is the fact that the candidates of the APC and PDP, Adelabu and Makinde, are both Ibadan indigenes. Ibadan has 11 local governments and harbours over 40 per cent of the voting strength of the state. But it looked as though they had both exhausted their campaign canisters in this zone. This is because the governorship candidates equally chose their deputies from Oke Ogun, the next most populated zone with 10 local government areas.

While their campaign lasted, the APC and PDP candidates explored the opportunity to head to Ogbomoso to utilise the Alao-Akala factor to their advantage, even though the administration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi, sometime last February, approved the sack of Alao-Akala’s son, Olamijuwon, as the chairman of Ogbomoso North Local Government Area. He was immediately replaced by his vice, Abass Bello, in an acting capacity.

The action came consequent upon the change of party by the younger Alao-Akala from the ruling APC to the ADP, the platform on which his father contested the governorship seat. The sacked local government chairman was elected on May 12, 2018, on the platform of the APC but, alongside some of his councilors, he defected to the ADP to support his father’s ambition.

The decision to approve Olamijuwon’s sack as well as the swearing in of the acting local government chairman came through the state’s Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Mr Bimbo Kolade, at the state secretariat in Ibadan, the state capital. The commissioner explained that the ministry, on February 18, received official correspondences from the council’s legislative body announcing the suspension of Mr Alao-Akala for alleged “misconduct and abuse of office”.

Olamiju had emerged winner of the local government election on the platform of the APC when his father and the incumbent governor, Ajimobi, were still in good terms. The senior Alao-Akala had fallen with Ajimobi before the APC primary that eventually produced Adelabu as the party’s governorship candidate.

But somewhere along the line, Olamijuwon was reinstated as the chairman of Ogbomosho North Local Government Area, few hours after his father formed an alliance with the ruling APC, as the older Alao-Akala had announced his decision to drop his ambition for the APC candidate, Adelabu, ahead of the March 9 governorship election.

This, among other factors, must have instigated the same state government, under the watch of Governor Ajimobi, to reinstate the fired chairman. The governor, in a letter signed by the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, directed that Olamijuwon should resume office on March 4.

Before the reinstatement of Olamijuwon by the Ajimobi-led government, his father had stated that the suspension of his son, Olamijuwon, by some councilors was nothing but an expensive joke which could not hold. He said such an action was beyond the abilities of the councilors who are mere pawns in the hands of the state government.

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According to him, it was illegal that his son would be suspended by a minority in the commissioner’s office, adding that it was not the responsibility of the councilors to send packing an elected local government chairman. “No one can suspend my son except the electorate which in this case is the people of Ogbomoso, because my son is not a political appointee but a duly elected officer by his people; the party has no power to do so,” he had said then.

Insinuations are however rife that the people of Oyo State believe that the APC would have emerged winner of the governorship poll but for what some people said was the neglect of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) by Governor Ajimobi, an institution co-owned by Oyo and Osun states. It is also not in contention that the people of Ogbomoso were angry with the governor for not taking into consideration the well-being of LAUTECH, being one of the backbones of the economy of Ogbomoso. The people of Ogbomoso particularly felt slighted by the decision of Ajimobi to build a university that is elitist in nature in Ibadan, to the detriment of LAUTECH.

It is also of interest to note that the Oyo State kingship controversy may have played a role in the loss of the APC candidate in the last governorship election in the state. The governor has been at loggerheads with the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji, for quite some time. The frosty relationship eventually culminated in the governor elevating and crowning some 21 high-ranking chiefs as obas in Ibadanland.

However, the coming together of the coalition of political parties brought about a resounding victory for the PDP and its candidate, Seyi Makinde, in the governorship election. After the last minute joint press conference a week before the election by Makinde, Ayorinde, Ali and Lanlehin, with Ladoja in attendance, it became clear that the political tide had changed in favour of Makinde.

It is not in doubt that the outcome of the election has also thrown up a new political leadership in the state with chieftains like Senator Olufemi Lanlehin, Sharafa Ali and Chief Bolaji Ayorinde SAN displacing the old political order to rise to the enviable positions of kingmakers in the politics of Oyo State.