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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The July 16 governorship election in Osun State has come and gone but the intrigues, horse-trading and politics that played out would remain evergreen in the memory of so many people. In what analysts considered an upset against an incumbent governor, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, the Returning Officer for the election, declared Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the poll and returned as the governor-elect of Osun State.
The PDP won in 17 local governments with a total vote of 403,371 to defeat Governor Adegboyega Oyetola who polled 357,027 votes.
As expected, immediately after the announcement, jubilation took over the state on Sunday morning as sons and daughters of Ede, the hometown of the governor-elect trooped out for celebration.
The Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Lawal, put on a face cap with the inscription of ‘Timi of Ede’ and sat at the entrance of his palace to receive guests. He commended the people of the state for their support for the governor-elect, saying: “I am happy because our son is now the governor-elect and we thank God for that. It is a victory for the whole people of Osun because he had a widespread of votes across the state.”
He added: “It is not only votes from Ede alone that gave him the victory but rather it is the synergy between the people of the state that brought him to power.”
The jubilation was extended to the state capital in Osogbo where the supporters of Adeleke descended on the billboards of Oyetola on the streets and started destroying them.
The celebration went on in Ile-Ife where a man identified as Sunday Akingbala, reportedly shot himself while celebrating the victory of Adeleke. He was taken to the Seventh Day Adventist Church hospital in Lagere, Ile Ife, but later referred to Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital.
Governor Adegboyega Oyetola who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said he has taken cognisance of the results of the governorship election and would decide on the next line of action. In a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Ismail Omipidan, Oyetola stated that the party would be responding appropriately after studying the results and consulting with critical stakeholders of the party.
He called on his supporters to remain calm, and urged the people of the state to go about their businesses without let or hindrance, saying the security operatives should ensure the maintenance of law and order.
But for Senator Adeleke, he dedicated the victory to his late brother, Isiaka and every indigene of the state, adding “I praise the courage and determination of the good people of Osun State.
“I commend men and women of goodwill, the young and the old. I am overwhelmed by your love and support. Our state has turned a new page. We have launched a landmark path for the progress and prosperity of our people.”
Support of the monarch, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun for Adeleke
The outburst of Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun, against the government of Oyetola was said to have incited some indigenes of the town to vote against the APC. There had been disagreements between the monarch and Governor Oyetola over the movement of the housing base of the Airforce that was supposed to be cited in Osogbo but was moved to the boundary of the hometown of Oyetola in Iragbiji. For the first time, Osogbo and Olorunda that have the highest number of voters and have been the strongholds of APC were won by the PDP.
Role of Saraki, Diri, Obaseki
Also, critical observers also believe that though the Adelekes and their political machinery inherited from their late father, the Asiwaju of Edeland, Second Republic Senator, Ayoola Adeleke did a lot to mobilize the electorate, however, it seemed that the events of 2018 in which Ademola Adeleke won the first ballot but was denied the governorship seat through a controversial inconclusive verdict machinated by the ruling party that led to a re-run poll in which the PDP candidate lost by just 200 votes has continued to haunt them.
Based on that ugly experience, the Adelekes are perceived to have decided nothing can and should be taken for granted. That resolve prepared them to put in the best strategies and throw in everything which led to the decision by the PDP to select some of its most experienced strategists for the National Campaign Council. In the campaign council, three of the members devoted more time and resources to the campaigns, particularly in the last few days of the election.
The trio who chose to give more time to the Adeleke campaign were former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Bayelsa State Governor, Sen. Duoye Diri, and his Edo counterpart, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.
While Diri was the chairman of the National Campaign Council, Obaseki who has known the PDP’s candidate’s elder brother, Deji Adeleke since their days in the financial sector in Lagos also felt obliged to share his experience in similar elections in 2020 when he was seeking a re-election and had similar APC forces arrayed against him.
It was learnt that his victory strategy was needed and he readily obliged the party in the same way the PDP helped him to defeat the APC forces led by Adams Oshiomhole and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Similarly, for Saraki, there were many reasons why he showed interest for PDP and the Adelekes to win in Osun State. First, Osun is a neighbouring state to his state, Kwara and he needed to ensure Osun was not used to sabotage his party, the PDP, in Kwara State in 2023. Second, as the chairman of the PDP National Reconciliation and Strategic Committee (NRSC), Saraki handled the resolution of the crisis in the party in the state and is very well aware of the issues, personalities, and need for unity in Osun PDP if the party were to make any meaningful impact in the governorship poll. It thus became a challenge for him to help the Adelekes in making last-minute rallying of all forces and persons behind the candidate in order to defeat the divided APC.
Third, while his late father, Oloye Olusola Saraki was a colleague of the patriarch of the Adelekes in the Second Republic Senate, he and the late eldest brother of the Adelekes, Isiaka Adetunji, were colleagues in the 7th and 8th Senate. Later, when Ademola, the PDP candidate replaced his late brother in the 8th Senate, he was a loyal supporter of Saraki who was then Senate President. Fourth, the Saraki and Adeleke families remain the only two nuclear families to have produced three members of the Nigerian Senate respectively. Also, Deji Adeleke, the surviving eldest son of the Adelekes is a good friend of Saraki, hence, Saraki decided to throw in all the support for the governorship project.
Saraki and his team moved from Ilorin where he had been since the eve of the last Eid-El- Kabir festival into Ede, the Adelekes home town on Wednesday morning (July 13th, 2022) and immediately on arrival went into a meeting with all the PDP polling agents. The venue of the training handled by the former Senate President was the Adeleke University, Ede. There, he shared some strategic lessons with the agents on how to carry out their assignments on the polling day. He also explained to them the importance of their roles to the success of the party on Election Day. The presence of such a dignitary not only inspired and encouraged the party agents but also emphasized to them how serious and ready the Osun PDP and the candidate’s campaign were about the election.
After the training session with party agents, Saraki drove back to Osogbo, the state capital with Deji Adeleke, the candidate’s elder brother to join PDP Governors who were getting ready to meet with ex-Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola at his Osogbo GRA residence. The meeting was actually at the instance of Saraki who believed that Oyinlola was aggrieved and needed to be pacified and pleaded to support Adeleke. The party was able to appease Oyinlola and reconciled the differences between him and the Adelekes.
Saraki went back to Ede that same night to meet with the PDP governorship candidate and his team where the meeting reviewed the preparation for the election and checked if all the necessary boxes had been ticked concerning critical areas of election preparation, security and most importantly logistics.
After the meeting with the candidate and his team, Saraki moved back to Osogbo to commence another engagement with party stakeholders in the state. As the hitherto chairman of the PDP NRSC, it was easy for him to revisit all the issues his committee had dealt with and ensured that those already dealt with did not resurge while the ones that were pending were quickly attended to. Many of the stakeholders could easily identify with him and listen to his pleas with them. The engagements helped the party to put a strong and united front in the last 48 hours or so before the commencement of voting.
By Thursday morning, Saraki and his team were in Osogbo to coordinate the PDP mega rally. He spent the whole of Thursday ensuring that the party had a successful rally aimed at sending a strong signal to the ruling APC that the PDP was set to take over Osun State.
It was learnt that on Friday morning, Saraki commenced another series of meetings with aggrieved party stakeholders from each of the three senatorial districts. The first set was the people from Osun East. This particular one took up most of the day. At the end of the day, the issues appeared resolved and the party seemed ready for a good outing on Saturday.
According to reports, on Friday night, Saraki moved into the party situation room located inside the residence of late Senator Isiaka Adeleke to ascertain the level of preparedness and to test run some of the facilities to be sure that all is working perfectly. In this assignment, he was joined by Governors Diri and Obaseki.
Daily Sun gathered that on Election Day as early as 6 am, Saraki was already in the situation room to start coordination. He was also joined by Diri and Obaseki to supervise the situation room. They were practically getting reports from party agents, field officers, and observers across the state. The three men and their teams did not sleep until the results were announced in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Those who followed the tension-soaked event believe that it was because of their critical roles that immediately the governor-elect was pronounced the winner, he prostrated before his elder brother, Deji, held tightly to each of Saraki, Diri and Obaseki for their kind, much-needed, strategic, and effective last-minute interventions that saved the day.
