Former governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, is back on familiar turf. Like he did en route the governorship election of 2019 when he vowed and actually did everything within his powers to sabotage his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, in favour of his preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, Amosun has adorned his disruptive and belligerent garb again.
It would be recalled that after being beaten at the APC primary, Akinlade, then a Member of the House of Representatives, alongside other loyalists of Amosun, defected to the All People’s Movement, APM, where he was handed the governorship ticket. Amosun had stated overtly and covertly that it was either Akinlade or nobody for the governorship seat. He went ahead to publicly declare that he would work for the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari but not for the APC’s Abiodun. Abiodun eventually won and is seeking re-election in 2023. But Amosun would have none of it.
In an interview recently, Amosun, currently the Senator representing Ogun Central District, declared that he would work against Abiodun and support Biyi Otegbeye, the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), come 2023. Amosun said, “I am not in support of this administration. (Abiodun) must be removed. I don’t hide behind one finger to fight. Biyi Otegbeye is the person I am supporting and ADC is the party. For the presidential poll, I can assure you both right, left, and centre, we are supporting one person (Bola Ahmed Tinubu).”
Responding, Tunde Oladunjoye, publicity secretary of the Ogun State chapter of the APC, described the former governor as “obviously suffering from political amnesia and out-of-office loneliness” while enjoining the Ogun people to pray for him. Oladunjoye said, “It is a sad indication that the former governor is yet to purge himself of extreme arrogance and intolerance that were his trademarks, which earned him a suspension from our party, even as a sitting governor.”
On his part, Governor Abiodun dismissed his predecessor’s outburst as an “empty threat of a falling man,” adding, “my second term is already ordained by God.” He noted that it was a pity that Amosun had forgotten how his adopted candidate lost woefully during the last election, even when he (Amosun) was still in office as the governor.
“We are waving goodbye to him now; he is not even a candidate of any political party; he is nothing and he is saying he will stop a governor that God has ordained, he will definitely fail again by the grace of God,” Abiodun stated.
Noteworthy, Governor Abiodun said, “Being a governor is not a family inheritance. I am not a king, I am governor today because of the people’s support, but some people are hell-bent on fighting God. They fought us before the election and they even went to court from May to December 2019, but they still failed. The Almighty God who ensured my victory in 2019 is still on the throne.”
Governor Amosun was suspended by the National Working Committee of the APC when attempts to campaign for Akinlade at the presidential rally of President Muhammadu Buhari in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, led to a breakdown of law and order. The president and other dignitaries had to flee the venue amidst a hail of stones and other harmful objects.
The suspension, which was lifted soon after, did not lessen his hatred for Governor Abiodun. Yet, he remains in the APC and even sought its presidential ticket in the last national convention but stepped down for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Now that Amosun is back spewing bile and hate and division, how long will he continue to act like a Lord of the Manor within the party, especially in Ogun State where he was a two-term governor and now a Senator? Will the APC wield the big stick or let him carry on like he has the nudes of the party leaders? The world is watching.
