It is no longer news that Senator Ibikunle Amosun failed in his bid to install his anointed candidate, Abiodun Akinlade as his successor, losing the election to APC candidate Dapo Abiodun from Ogun East.
Many things worked against Amosun but the huge factor was the fact that he was not in good terms with many APC leaders. The likes of former Governors Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Aremo Olusegun Osoba. These two were mainly his backbone before he became governor 8 years ago but he turned his back on them because of his personal interest and at some point he began calling them names.
Recall that, it was alleged that Governor Amosun hired APM members to stone President Buhari and all federal delegates including Asiwaju , Osoba, Osinbajo, Oshiomhole and Ogun APC Gubernatorial candidate Dapo Abiodun during the APC presidential rally in Abeokuta at MKO Abiola Stadium, few months ago. This did not go down well with members of the party as APC supporters were chased out of the stadium by APM, leaving some of them badly injured.
Early hours before the rally , Governor Amosun was also seen in a video that went viral destroying Dapo Abiodun’s posters inside the stadium and instructing people to remove them from the premises before the rally replacing it with posters of Akinlade of APM.
As politics is a game of numbers, Amosun who had the backing of the former governor of the state, Olusegun Osoba, when he contested and won the governorship election in his two terms was fighting three main gladiators who had big weight on their part. Daniel being a member of the PDP knew that the court issues concerning his party’s gubernatorial candidacy in the state won’t make the outing favourable for the opposition party. He decided to pitch his tent with Abiodun, who lost the senatorial elections to Buruji Kashamu in 2015, whom the opposition party had suspended, but ran under its platform due to a court order.
Although, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) registered 41 political parties for the poll, the battle was between Akinlade , Dapo Abiodun and Gboyega Nasir Isiaka.
Amosun had calculated that he would secure victory for APM in all the 6 local governments in his Senatorial district, while Akinlade who comes from Ogun West with five local governments will deliver his district while others were expected to fall into place.
Being from the eastern part of the state, that was the only popular district for Abiodun. However, the game changed as the APC alligned massively with all the districts, which disrupted Amosun’s plan. Apart from the endorsement from Daniel, Osinbajo, and the Abiodun project had been seen as a project for the former governor of the state, Osoba who had lent his structure to Abiodun. As the final results continued to come in on that night, Akinlade seeing the writing on the wall rejected the result bringing frustration to the plans of the outgoing governor to ensure continuity of his political legacy.
While the APM rejected the results, the APC, however, lauded the results and pledged to respect the mandate given to it. The other skirmishes that occurred at the collation centre where it was alleged that Amosun attempted to alter the results through the instrument of compromised INEC officials and some security men, APC was also alleged of using the Federal might to upturn the people’s will. Security agents were drafted to all the collation centres to protect the people and avoid the breakdown of law and order.
Another thing that worked against him was that Gov. Amosun failed to complete Lafenwa/Ayetoro road. He also failed to rehabilitate Ata-Agbara and Lusada-Igbesa roads despite its industrial and IGR value to Ogun State. Failed to rehabilitate the Sango-Idiroko road which hosts the highest number of vehicles in Ogun State and fetches Ogun billions. Failed to rehabilitate Itele-Ayobo-Lafenwa-Ota Roads despite the thousands of votes he got from there and Lagos Proximity advantage.
No single project was completed in Ipokia Local Government, Odeda Local Government ,Imeko-Afon Local Government , Ogun Waterside Local Government, Ikenne Local Government, Ifo Local Government , Yewa South Local Government, Yewa North Local Government , Ado-Odo Local Government, Remo North Local Government, Sagamu Local Government, Ijebu North East Local Government for eight years.
No provision of water for the people of Abeokuta and Ogun State at large despite the administration’s heavy budgets on water resources. No payment of Gratuities to Retired Local Government Civil Servants and Teachers for the past seven years.
No compensation paid to those whose houses were demolished for road expansion and most of the roads have been abandoned now. Not completing the abandoned 26 model schools put at N1.4billion each.
No attention was paid to all rural roads which account for more than 76% of Ogun road networks.
Backlogs of pensions and civil servants deductions running into trillions of Naira.
Lack of subventions to tertiary institutions across the State which made the school run like private schools and quadrupled their school fees with lecturers running away to other States. No recruitment of teachers since over 8,000 teachers retired from service in the last 7 years. There are many schools today in Ogun State with 4 teachers to over 300 pupils.
This serious political war going on between APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun did not start today. Few years ago it was gathered that the cause of the war is the new found ego being displayed by Governor Amosun occasioned by his closeness to President Muhamadu Buhari which Tinubu is not comfortable with. Amosun on the other hand sees Buhari as his real political father and not Tinubu, because both had shared a bond of connection since 2007 when Amosun decamped from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he was elected as a Senator in the National Assembly to the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) to contest for the 2007 governorship elections. Buhari was the presidential candidate of the ANPP then.
After the 2007 elections which they lost woefully, Amosun continued to maintain his relationship with Buhari, even as he (Buhari) later moved from the ANPP to the CPC to again contest for the 2011 presidential election and that was when Amosun moved his political structure to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN)
As soon as Buhari emerged as the president elect, a highly placed source in the APC revealed that Gov. Amosun began to plot how he will be Buhari’s point man in the south west zone of the country.
Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibajo has also been fingered to be one of those solidly behind Prince Dapo Abiodun, who the party insisted won the gubernatorial primary election conducted by the APC NWC. It is no news that both Yemi Osinbajo and Dapo Abiodun shares a strong bond apart from the fact that they are both from Ijebu , which explains why he is rooting for the Ijebu Prince to become the next Governor of Ogun State.
Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, otherwise known as Yayi, is on the list of those who are against governor Amosun, for imposing a gubernatorial candidate of his choice on the party considering how he was frustrated back to Lagos after spending so much on his gubernatorial ambtition in Ogun State.
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