• Nigeria’s Ministers of Works and Solid Minerals behind Rotimi Akeredolu’s emergence as APC governorship candidate in Ondo
• Can both men surmount the shadow of their estranged godfather and All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, Bola Tinubu, to become the kingmakers of their dreams?
Power corrupts innocence, poisons the sanitary, dishevels peace and feeds the vanities of its random possessors. Too many men and women have lost their souls to its alluring whim and wiles. Ultimately, power goads its possessor to believe himself capable of feats otherwise unachievable, if he were a commoner.
But Babatunde Fashola is hardly a commoner. He was two-time governor of Lagos State and the current Minister of Power, Works and Housing. But is he as powerful as he thinks he is? Is his bosom friend, Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Solid Minerals and former Governor of Ekiti State, equally capable of extraordinary feats.
Can both men surmount the shadow of their estranged godfather and All Progressives Congress (APC) leader, Bola Tinubu, to become the kingmakers of their dreams?
By the time the Ondo State gubernatorial election is over, these questions would have been answered. Until then Fashola and Fayemi would continue to sponsor and bankroll Rotimi Akeredolu’s governorship ambition.
It is instructive to note that Akeredolu, who was recently announced winner of the APC’s governorship primary election in Ondo, is currently being sponsored by Fashola and Fayemi against their estranged benefactor, Tinubu. It becomes even more interesting to note that when Akeredolu vied to become Ondo governor in 2011, he was Tinubu’s anointed candidate. Fastforward to 2016 and Tinubu dropped Akeredolu to back his new favourite, Segun Abraham.
Notwithstanding the loss of his former godfather’s support, Akeredolu kept faith in his gubernatorial ambition. With clandestine support from Fashola and Fayemi, he eventually emerged the APC’s flagbearer in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo.
Akeredolu’s victory at the party’s primary election has since incited mayhem within the ranks and file of the APC in Ondo.
Abraham claims the election was rigged to favour Akeredolu and the APC chapter in Ondo has split into factions engaged in a bitter slugfest. Notwithstanding the prevalent conflict, Fashola and Fayemi are hell bent on thwarting Tinubu and installing their preferred candidate as Ondo governor. The ongoing internal wrangling predictably threatens the foundation and survival of the APC in Ondo as several members of the party have defected to the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
At the backdrop of the conflict, Fashola and Fayemi pulls the strings to actualise their political maneuvers against the interests of their estranged godfather, Tinubu. The question on everyone’s lips however, are: “Do Fashola and Fayemi possess the clout and financial muscle to install Akeredolu as the governor of Ondo?” “Can Akeredolu leverage on both men (Fashola and Fayemi) and political capital currently at their disposal, to emerge as Ondo’s next governor?” “Will Tinubu quietly retreat into his shell while his former godsons run him out of town?”
Time will tell.
