From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Saturday, this weekend, the All Progressives Congress (APC) will conduct a primary election across the local governments and Akure, the state’s capital, to elect the party’s candidate for this year’s November Ondo State governorship election.
From the document the national leadership of the ruling party confirmed and made public, 16 aspirants, (two females and 14 males) who purchased and returned their expression of interest and nomination forms have been screened and cleared to participate in the all-important primary election.
As expected, the National Working Committee (NWC) has as usual, assured and reassured the aspirants, the Ondo electorate, and the country that it has perfected almost all arrangements to conduct a transparent, credible, free, and fair exercise.
The leadership also promised to tighten all loose ends to ensure that the rancorous, acrimonious, and controversial circumstances that characterised the exercise in Edo State recently will be completely avoided.
Part of the measures in place to avoid a repeat of the Edo incident include perhaps the novel arrangement of constituting an entirely internal committee, comprising majorly members of the NWC headed by Deputy National Chairman (South), Emma Eneukwu, to oversee the conduct of the primary.
In what has become a tradition in recent times, the ruling party has also conducted a weeklong revalidation of the membership register of the state chapter to establish the actual numerical strength of the electorate that will participate in the already adopted direct mode for the exercise.
The routine composition of the Screening and Screening Appeal Committees were not only constituted but have completed its function and surprisingly cleared the 16 aspirants that purchased and returned their nomination forms after meticulously scrutinising them in the one-day exercise conducted at the national secretariat of the ruling party last week Friday.
The aspirants given a clean bill of health to participate in this weekend’s primary include the incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, party’s National Vice Chairman (South West), Duerimini Isaacs Kekemeke, Olusoji Adewale Ehinlanwo, Olugbenga Omogbemi Edema, Waheed-Adekojo Funmilayo, Akinfolarin Mayo Samuel and industrialist and apparently the richest among the aspirants, Jimoh Ibrahim Folorunso.
Others include Adewale Okumuyiwa Akinterinwa, Olusola Alexander Oke, SAN, Ohunyeye Olamide Felix, Morayo Lebi, Garvey Oladiran Iyanjan, Francis Adebayo Faduyile, Omogoroye Folakemi Judith, Ifeoluwa Olusola Oyedele and Omo’Oba Okunjimi Odimayo.
To complete the usual political ritual for the primary election, the party’s national leadership had also written to formally notify the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on, essentially, the date and mode of the exercise as stipulated by the relevant electoral statutes.
With the successful completion of almost all the critical aspects of the build-up activities for the compulsory sacramental, the stage is now set for the crucial exercise to finally elect the standard bearer of the party for the November governorship poll.
However, despite resolving to eschew the factors that played out in the controversial exercise in a similar off-cycle governorship election in Edo State, there are obvious danger signs of likely replay of the shenanigans in the build-up to the Ondo shadow election.
On the side of the aspirants, to underscore the gravity and magnitude of their usual desperation to outsmart one another to wrest the ticket, all manners of animosity and tantrums, including verbal abuses and countless petitions to discredit the credentials submitted by some aspirants, have been deployed and dastardly hauled at each other to scuttle their chances of emerging.
Throwing caution to the wind, one of the aspirants, Olugbenga Edema, apart from petitioning the party’s leadership has also sternly warned his party that it would be suicidal to field the incumbent governor as its candidate for the November governorship poll.
He said: “Against this background, I wrote a letter to the Chairman of the credentials/document vetting committee of the APC which the party set up, to critically look at the credentials which Aiyedatiwa submitted to it.
“The reason for my information to the committee is not borne out of any animosity or ill-will towards Aiyedatiwa or any person, but to save the party and the entire APC members in Ondo State from the perdition that befell our members in Bayelsa State from which they are yet to recover from.
“It is a notorious fact that the issue surrounding the WAEC O, Level, number 15592/019 submitted by Aiyedatiwa to INEC in the year 2020 when he contested alongside the late governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has been generating serious controversies in the last two months.
“Therefore, it would be suicidal to field a candidate that carries so much baggage and later lose to the opposition party through the Court.”
Expectedly, obnoxious factors like the clash over the usual controversial claims of multiple anointing of many of the aspirants to emerge the candidate used as portent tools to gain an advantage over each other, are already rearing their ugly heads again.
Already, there were claims and counter claims by the aspirants of their endorsements by President Bola Tinubu, the presidency, certain influential persons around the president, the party’s national leadership, and other very important stakeholders, including the widow of late Governor Akeredolu, which have clearly dominated the build-up to the primary election.
Curiously, frontline aspirants, ranging from the incumbent governor, Aiyedatiwa, serial contestant, Olusola Oke (SAN), industrialist and Senator representing Ondo South in the current Assembly, Jimoh Ibrahim, Ifeoluwa Olusola Oyedele, to perhaps Adewale Okumuyiwa Akinterinwa, among others are claiming either being anointed by one political heavyweight or the other.
Apart from the aspirants claiming to be anointed by one privileged politically exposed person or the other, some other major actors have also boasted endlessly of having an edge and serious advantage over the other aspirants.
For example, apart from his privileged miraculously anointed position as the incumbent governor, there have been speculations that President Tinubu or perhaps the presidency had directed the party’s leadership to deliver Aiyedatiwa as the candidate of the party for the November poll.
The presidential endorsement, according to many political watchers, must have been the motivation that emboldened Governor Aiyedatiwa, to openly announce and warn other aspirants, after his clearance from allegations of certificate forgery, that there was no vacancy in Alagbaka, the state’s Government House.
While advising detractors planning to pull him down, the visibly happy governor had told newsmen at the party’s secretariat that; “I should just tell them to repent and try to go to the field and work if they are interested in the seat, but the seat is not vacant that is why they are trying to do all that they are doing.
“We are all indigenes of Ondo State, and we are all qualified to run to be the governor of the state, but there is a sitting governor. That is what I am saying that I have the structures, the people, and the competence. Within the few months I assumed office, they have seen clearly that this is the best man for the job because of the peace in the state and some of the programmes that have been rolled out to the people.
“In fact, my coming out to continue as governor wasn’t borne out of my own ambition or desire but the yearnings and aspirations of the people; the endorsement of the traditional rulers, the students, artisans, the community leaders, even the civil servants, everybody is happy with the current state (of affairs); peace and security and people are going about their businesses without fears.”
But Aiyedatiwa actually incurred the resentment and fury of other aspirants with that singular pronouncement of no vacancy in the Government House, resulting in the duo of Jimoh Ibrahim and Olusola Oke particularly taking him to the cleaners, describing him in all manner of unprintable tags.
While Oke claimed that it was an undemocratic utterance, Jimoh labelled him a joker with the antecedent of a man who has never won any election, explaining that he contested for the House of Representatives but could not win one local government.
Oke, in responding to the claim by the governor, said: “It is an aphorism from all incumbent persons. I heard a similar comment in Lagos when Akinwunmi Ambode was there and said, “no vacancy”, he had to leave when he needed to. It is a statement of wish and desire by the governor and a statement that is intended to undermine a democratic exercise.
“If we are going to primaries and the people will have to determine, how would anybody have the gut to say that there is no vacancy? Yes, there is no vacancy between now and February next year, no doubt, but after February, his one-year term will be exhausted and then there will be a vacancy. I don’t intend to take over from him before the expiration of his one year in office.
“The essence of this exercise is that there will be a vacancy after the remaining one-year term and that he or somebody else will occupy the seat. Having regard to my wide contact with the people, I believe that I am succeeding him,” Oke boasted.
Equally sarcastic in responding to the governor’s utterance, Jimoh fumed: “He is joking. It is a big joke. He can’t continue in government with P8, P7. The governor is joking, it is a big joke, a huge joke he is cracking.
He is out of that place by the time we finish primary next week, he is gone and there is nothing virtually he can do about it.
“I don’t normally go against people, to me, every aspirant should be cleared to go for the primary, let the electorate determine. What is the governor talking about? He has never won an election, he contested for the House of Representatives, and he didn’t win one out of the two local governments. He was a pair to Aketi, we didn’t vote for him, we voted for Aketi. But I can assure you, the governor is a huge joker.”
Surprisingly, from the frontline aspirants to the least one, all of them have been boastfully claiming to be the right person, the most qualified capable person to clinch the ticket of the party as the candidate.
Interestingly, presenting their captivating, impressive templates, comprising their mission and vision for the state, there is no doubt that they all have a laudable blueprint to reposition the state to the next level, but apparently only one of them will fly the flag of the party after this weekend’s primary.
However, the desperation to pick the ticket is understandable and borne out of what has become a strong conviction that the ticket holder for APC may be halfway coasting to the finish line in the main election.
But, from all indications, conducting the primary this weekend, will certainly pose a fresh challenge to the party’s leadership because it will test the validity of the internal democracy of the party which has been a subject of controversy and a recurring hurdle in the ruling party.
Aware of the growing animosity and interest the primaries it conducted previously have generated, the national leadership of the party has already assured the aspirants that it will do everything within its power to provide a level playing ground for a free, fair, credible, and transparent exercise.
Deputy National Organising Secretary, Nze Chidi Duru, who gave the assurance at the end of the sale and submission of the nomination forms, also promised to avoid a repeat of the unfortunate incident that almost marred the Edo State primary last month.
His words: “The last is for us to assure you that the party is interested and desirous of conducting a free, fair, transparent primary in Ondo State. For us, it is the only guarantee that at the end of the exercise, out of the 16, we are aware that only one will emerge while the rest can extend hands of felicitation and fellowship to whosever emerged, as we did in Edo State.
“Edo has become a test case, they know that the party is resolute in determining, through a free process, who the candidate of the party would be. The few who felt they would need to go to court as we would always expect, up till now, have done a 360-degree turnaround.
“They came to the negotiations table, had a handshake and now we have a very formidable team, and we believe that APC would win Edo State. And if we trust that APC will win Edo, we also have confidence that APC will win Ondo state.”
But, beyond the arrangements put in place to ensure the conduct of an acceptable primary, the party seems to be blind to a brewing danger and effects of the trend to manipulate the primary by some of the aspirants, especially the governor and Jimoh that openly and boastfully claimed to have spent millions of Naira to bankroll the registration of the party members in the state.
Confirming what used to be a family secret, Governor Aiyedatiwa said: “Don’t forget that we have paid for our party members because according to the rule, only the financially up-to-date members will be allowed to vote. As a government, we have to pay for our members. Other aspirants also have to pay some money, but I paid the highest for our members to have the opportunity to vote.”
However, looking beyond the excellent activities that have gone into the build-up to the primary, many political watchers have advised the party’s leadership to eschew sentiments and other divisive tendencies and conduct a credible primary.
Of particular concern to some chieftains of the party was the recent trend of writing results to favour the anointed aspirant, and the argument that the party has never been meticulous in conducting a transparent primary whether it adopted a direct or indirect mode.
“The NWC should learn from our past mistakes in the primaries we conducted recently. From the off-cycle governorship elections in Imo, Kogi, Bayelsa, and Edo, our NWC cannot certainly beat its chest to claim to have conducted credible primaries in those states.
“If the outcomes of the recent primaries have been managed to some extent, the leadership should know that a credible primary is the first foot forward to approaching the main election peacefully as a united and indivisible family.
“Ondo primary may even be more delicate than the other ones because so many forces will clash. The leadership must avoid anything that will discredit the primary because it may not enjoy the comfort of managing the crisis and litigations as a fallout like it successfully did in Edo State recently. Again, the idea of collecting money from all the aspirants to facilitate their emergence must be avoided,” a party leader advised in confidence during a chat with Daily Sun.
Asked about the mechanism the party has put in place to check escalating cases of its primaries being riddled with allegations of bribery, National Organising Secretary, Suleiman Argungu, told Daily Sun recently that; “what is clear is that we are not bringing angels to conduct our party primaries for us. But we can only choose the best.
“During some of these off-season elections, we tried as much as possible to go by what was done previously. Unfortunately, we have new people that want to go into this exercise. We never encouraged any aspirant to give money to anybody. I can beat my chest and say that I never bargained with anybody because of my integrity and honour which is at stake.
“What we rather did was to assure them that we will provide level playing ground for everybody to participate in fairness and without intimidation or rancour. Unfortunately, politicians being what they are, some of the aspirants would induce the staff we sent out on assignment with money.
“We made sure that we provide them with everything they require to operate efficiently. We even pay for air tickets, local transport, hotel accommodation, and feeding. We do everything possible not to allow the politicians to induce them. We even went the extra mile to create a WhatsApp platform to monitor those on such assignment.”