By Debo Popoola
Like a lost nymph in an unfamiliar water, Alao Akala wanders aimlessly about in the political sphere of Nigeria. In his accustomed ostentatiousness, he oscillates political parties at the dictates of his caprice. But alas, Alao Akala is now stuck and his political career hangs in the balance.
Few weeks ago, the former governor of Oyo State, Christopher Alao Akala, was reported to have crossed the carpet from the Labour Party to the ruling All Progressive Party. Cross carpeting has become a cliché in Nigeria’s political lexicons; it is what happens every day in the political arena of the nation.
Nigeria politicians are known for abandoning their ship when it is heading towards an iceberg, instead of steering it to a safer land. Ever since APC won largely in the last election, it has received huge influx of politicians from other political parties, especially from the major opposition parties. This lack of ideology among Nigerian politicians has reduced them to scavengers who go from places to places looking for what to eat.
Being a former governor and an influential politician in Oyo state, one would have expected a rosy acceptance of Alao Akala by the APC, into their folks, but he was speculated to have been rejected by the Oyo state chapter of the APC and there has not been any news of his acceptance from the party.
Alao Akala is therefore in a political dilemma of his life. He has become the proverbial rain-taker, who, on hearing the thunderous sound of gathering raincloud, pours away all the waters in his drums, but the moment he did that, the thick dark cloud clears off and the rain never came. Alao Akala has lost his prestige in his former Labour Party the moment he left them to join the APC. He was one of the most powerful individuals in the party, but that he has traded away. Now, the APC he wanted has rejected him albeit through body language.
It is obvious that Alao Akala is nursing an ambition of becoming the governor of Oyo state he once governed years ago. His crossing from Labour Party to APC was aimed at looking for a good platform to launch him ambition for 2019. But it seems he did not conceal this ambition enough as it became known to the APC who seem to have had more than enough candidates for the 2019 elections.
Recently, Alao Akala vowed that returning to the Peoples Democratic Party is no option for him, the party that made him whatever he is today in the political sphere of this nation. According to him, PDP is a party that will soon die a natural death except a doctor comes to treat it.
Now that Alao Akala has ruled out a return to the PDP and APC is not willing to accept him, will he act like a greyhound that usually return to its vomit, by going back to Labour Party he once rejected?
