By Lanre Alfred
As the race for the Ogun State governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC, continues to make the headline, tongues are wagging as to Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s bizarre insistence to impose Abiodun Akinlade, a member of the House of Representatives who is perceived as not possessing the fecundity or rigour to rule Ogun State, against the choice of successful businessman, Dr. Dapo Abiodun.
Since the party primary held weeks back and his candidate lost, Amosun has visited Aso Rock no less than four times to reportedly blackmail President Muhammadu Buhari into overturning the party’s decision. Amosun was leveraging on his presumed closeness to the President to have his way but, so far, has been unlucky.
On his recent visit last Sunday, he railroaded two royal fathers, the Alake of Egbaland and the Olu of Ilaro; and a former minister, Iyabo Anisulowo, to join him to prevail on President Buhari to have a rethink. Reports say he met a brick wall as the president pointedly told him he could not upturn the decision of the party’s National Working Committee which conducted the primary and presented Abiodun as the authentic winner.
Defiant and desperate, Amosun, in a chat with the media at the Ogun State Government House Monday morning, said, “The President already knows there was no election in Ogun State. He knows that they just went to Lagos, write all results, and that what they did is fraud. If the National Working Committee or the National Chairman said there was any election in Ogun State, it was all fraud.”
He went ahead to blame some leaders of the party, notably Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former governor of the state, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, saying, “We have not heard one word from any of them. Was there any election in Ogun State? Yes or no? They should come out and those that are hiding behind one finger, they cannot come out. People at this level should be courageous enough to take position, to come out, to come and tell us whether there was election.”
Now in the twilight of his two-term stewardship, Amosun has been repeatedly blamed for his brashness and imperious attitude, which pitted him against the party at both the state and national levels. It was his choice of Akinlade that may have done him in eventually, say party leaders.
While Amosun could have had his way with a candidate with a good head on his shoulders, Akinlade does not cut it for stakeholders because of his gung-ho lifestyle and vacuity. Reportedly more popular in the Abuja social circuit than the National Assembly where he is a legislator, Akinlade’s major claim to fame is his marriage to Chinenye Ochuba, a former beauty queen. Akinlade rose to political prominence on the strength of Amosun’s characteristic style of imposition. First appointed a special assistant to the governor in 2011, his loyalty to Amosun largely paid off when he secured the House of Representatives ticket in 2015.
Why Governor Amosun would therefore insist on Akinlade at the expense of Abiodun, a blue blood from Iperu-Remo and one of the largest indigenous players in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria with his Heyden Petroleum Ltd, is what party stakeholders cannot reconcile with. “Here is a man with proven entrepreneurship skills that have catapulted him into the list of Nigeria’s wealthiest men which didn’t go unnoticed by President Buhari who appointed him Chairman, Corporate Affairs Commission.
He is also credited with Nigeria’s rising rank in the ‘Ease-of-doing-business’ index. That is the kind of governor Ogun State deserves not a yes man that would be going for tutorials in his master’s house every morning,” a party chieftain told The Capital.
Indeed, Abiodun is no lackey, what Amosun reportedly wants. Prince Abiodun was first elected a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the platform of the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) before that transition programme was truncated by late General Sani Abacha. He was just 33years old then.
At the time, Amosun had not joined politics. While party members insist that the process that produced Abiodun was free and fair and should be upheld in spite of pressure from the governor, they averred that they have seen through Amosun’s hue and cry that he just wants a lackey in office to protect his interest, not the interest of Ogun people.
