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Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Politics, no doubt is all about intrigues and horse-trading. These two factors went in favour of the Ondo State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu on Monday and Tuesday as he won the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with a wide margin. He defeated other aspirants of the party who equally worked hard to unseat him. Akeredolu polled a total of 2,588 votes to defeat his closest rival, Chief Olusola Oke who got 262 votes. Others are Olaide Adelami, four votes, Mrs Jumoke Anifowose, two votes, Olusola Iji, nine votes and Isaac Kekemeke, 19 votes. Before the primary, the aspirants embarked on serious negotiation and horse-trading with some stakeholders in the party.
Not many had believed that Governor Akeredolu would clinch the APC ticket so easily considering the internal war waged against him by some members of the party before the primary election. A group within the state chapter of the APC, Unity Forum had endorsed Chief Olusola Oke and worked tirelessly for him, even as many other groups had within the party worked against the interest of Akeredolu.
But despite the initial challenges, the governor was able to make it at the end although the journey was not totally smooth for him as he encountered a brick wall in some contestants on the platform of the Unity Forum of the APC.
No fewer than seven governorship candidates including Olusola Oke, Isaac Kekemeke, Mrs Jumoke Anifowose, Ife Oyedele, Olusegun Abraham, Jimi Odimayo and Olaide Adelami had earlier agreed to put forces together to fight a “common enemy” but their agreement later failed as none of them agreed to step down for the other.
However, Akeredolu was able to maneuver his way and his interests prevailed over those of three of the aspirants who eventually withdrew from the race less than 24 hours to the commencement of the election. The aspirants, Mr Ife Oyedele, Dr Olusegun Abraham and Mr Jimi Odimayo premised their decision on the intervention of prominent members of the party from both within and outside the state.
In what appeared as a shock to many of their followers, the three aspirants suddenly pulled out of the race and asked all their supporters to join forces with Akeredolu, saying that they were convinced in his ability to win the general election and also perform creditably well.
Of the three aspirants, Dr Abraham’s action appeared more shocking as he had always challenged Akeredolu and no one could have imagined that he could support Akeredolu, having contested against him in the 2016 governorship primary of the party.
Also, Abraham instituted a suit before the Federal High Court challenging the emergence of Akeredolu as the APC flag bearer in 2016 and the case is still pending in court. Following that, many were surprised that Abraham could withdraw from the race and throw his weight behind the ambition of Akeredolu; a man he had despised so much.
It was learnt that President Muhammadu Buhari, national leader of the APC and former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi played vital roles in the emergence of Akeredolu as the winner of the governorship primary election.
Before the primary, it was speculated that Tinubu endorsed the ambition of Akeredolu and worked for him. The development came despite the fact that both Tinubu and Akeredolu were not on the same political page before as he did not hide his preference for Abraham against Akeredolu in 2016. It was also speculated that he also allegedly supported Oke who contested on the patform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
Events however changed in this year’s governorship primary as Tinubu allegedly supported Akeredolu and worked for him. It was learnt that it took the intervention of Tinubu for Abraham to withdraw from the race, while Oyedele and Odimakin withdrew on the intervention of Governor Fayemi of Ekiti State. Fayemi was alleged to have relocated to Ondo State few days to the primary and gave maximum support to Akeredolu.
Also, it was alleged that President Buhari was interested in Akeredolu, and reportedly directed members of the Federal Executive Council from Ondo State to work for the emergence of Akeredolu as the party’s gubernatorial standard bearer.
Findings also revealed that Akeredolu made moves to reach out to Oke who also had a good number of delegates on his side to step down for him but could not achieve his target. Oke was said to be determined to contest the election and he eventually came a distant second at the polls.
The action of Abraham might have caused serious troubles for the immediate past Secretary to the State Government, Sunday Abegunde who resigned from the government of Akeredolu to team up with Abraham. Abegunde whose action generated controversies in the political space did not envisage that his new love could leave him suddenly and move to a man he left.
Although Abraham and the two other aspirants who withdrew from the governorship primary did not attend the primary held at the International Conference Centre (Dome) Akure, many of their supporters were seen mobilizing support for Akeredolu. Kogi State Governor, Mr Yahaya Bello who was chairman of the primary committee had assured that the exercise would be free and fair and he lived up to expectation as no one could fault its conduct which was described by many of the observers that monitored it as a perfect election.
Bello had while addressing the delegates said the most popular aspirant would emerge through credible process at the end of the exercise and so was it as Akeredolu turned out to be the most acceptable and popular of all the 12 aspirants. He was also quick to stress that all members of the committee are people of integrity and would not do anything to jeopardize their reputation.
While urging all the aspirants that participated in the election to support the party’s candidate to ensure the victory of the party in the governorship election, Bello said the outcome of the election showed the level of acceptance of Akeredolu by members of the party in the state.
However, one of the aspirants, Mr Kekemeke kicked against the process that produced Akeredolu as the party’s flag bearer, saying he had lost confidence in the process even before its commencement.
He said “I have lost confidence in the process. It is not about who wins or loses, all I am saying is that those who lose must lose fairly and those who win must win fairly. A party must not subvert. The election was a process and the party must not treat its members as if they needed the party to survive much more than the party needs members to survive.
“The party must learn to be fair. A level playing field was not provided. It doesn’t matter even if I win. This is not the fair thing to do. You do not conduct an election where you have collected money from the people and have screened them, but you failed to let them know how and where the election is taking place,” Kekemeke added.
Describing the exercise as a charade, Kekemeke who was a former chairman of the party in the state said “I got the list of delegates for the primaries by 11.30pm on Sunday. This is totally unfair. The party is taking us for granted. We paid to contest in this primary; they should not treat us like animals. This is not only unfair but a slap on the aspirants.”
However, Governor Akeredolu said he was ready to reconcile with all the aggrieved members of the party in the state ahead of the October 10 governorship poll, promising that he would reach out to every single member of the party that has issues with him.
The governor in his acceptance speech said he was ready to apologize to all members of the party and others that he had offended in the course of discharging his duties as the governor of the state in the last three and half years.
Akeredolu who dedicated his victory to God and all members of the APC in the state, stressed that the struggle to rule the state for a second term has just begun.
He said: “I will not hesitate to apologize to those that I have offended in APC. This is not a time to fight but a time to unite together and fight the battle ahead of us together as a family.”
He also called on all the aspirants who contested against him to team up with him, saying that “election is over; it is now time for us to come together as members of the same family and fight this battle together. I cannot do it alone, so I besiege you to join me in the onerous task ahead of us.”
