A former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, left the All
Progressives Congress after falling out with the state Governor, Ibikunle
Amosun. GBENRO ADEOYE looks at the return of Osoba to the party and
the intrigues that are likely to follow
The return of former Governor of Ogun State, Chief Olusegun Osoba, to
the All Progressives Congress did not come as a surprise to many people
as defection has become the hallmark of Nigerian politics. But many
people were amused by it.
Osoba, a foundation member of the APC, had left the party for the Social
Democratic Party after falling out with the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle
Amosun, before the 2015 general elections.
And his exit was not a quiet one, by any means. The former deputy
governor of Ogun State, Segun Adesegun; three senators and six members
of the House of Representatives, including Osoba’s son, Olumide, also
dumped the APC for the SDP.
Osoba’s statements were also loud enough as he spewed fire and
brimstone over his exit from the party and vowed not to forgive Amosun.
Osoba and Amosun’s quarrel was largely about the soul of the APC in the
state. There were many sides to Osoba’s defection from the APC. One
version was that Osoba wanted a more inclusive executive to
accommodate the people who worked for the party to ensure Amosun’s
victory at the 2011 governorship election.
Although there were entreaties by some APC leaders and traditional rulers
to unite the opposing parties, all amounted to naught as Osoba vowed not
to forgive the governor.
For instance, while addressing some APC members from the 236 wards in
Ogun State at a consultative forum in May 2014, before his defection to
the SDP, Osoba had said,
“Your executive members came to me, they said they don’t trust me
again, they said they don’t believe in me again, that I will soon forgive
and say everything has been settled. They said I will tell them that some
Obas (traditional rulers) have appealed to me….
“When they said that, I asked them again, if they have fully concluded and
we went into an inner meeting and inside there, I vowed to them that I will
not forgive or reconcile with anybody. As I stand before you today, I
swear before God and Jesus Christ, my Lord, I promise you all that the
issue of forgiveness is no more. If you stand firmly as a warrior, that is
enough for me.
“If you are ready, there is no more room for reconciliation. If thousands of
people prostrate, it is what you want that I will do, it is what you say that I
will say; I will stand where you stand. I want to appeal to you, don’t be
distracted. They said they have given them the party structure, leave them.
Are you dragging the party with them? It is those that have people that
have the party.”
But in the end, after all said and done, Osoba and his camp lost out as SDP
candidates for the 2015 general elections failed in their various bids,
including Akin Odunsi, who Osoba had hoped would defeat Amosun.
So, with Osoba’s return to the APC, analysts say Ogun State politics is set
to light up with interesting twists ahead of the 2019.
Osoba had attributed his return to the Alake of Egbaland, Dr. Adedotun
Gbadebo, and the Awujale of Ijebuland, Dr. Sikiru Adetona, both of
whom he said facilitated the move.
However, some analysts have said that there must be more to the story,
particularly as Osoba had rebuffed such peace moves initiated by the
traditional rulers in the past.
One school of thought has attributed the Osoba’s return to the APC to a
peace move that started at a meeting called by Prof. Segun Gbadegesin, a
renowned scholar and former Head of Department of Philosophy and
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Howard University, Washington DC,
the United States, in December 2015, following the launch of his book,
“All The Way: Serving With Conscience” in Lagos.
There, Gbadegesin was said to have appealed to Tinubu and other South-
West APC leaders to close ranks.
Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, who was reportedly the only
governor at the meeting, was said to have been directed to open
negotiations with rival groups in the party.
But according to another school of thought, the return of Osoba to the
party signifies a gang-up against Amosun ahead of 2019 governorship
election in Ogun State.
When Osoba was recently welcomed back to the party with open arms
amid applause by some APC chieftains, including its National Leader,
Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu, at a meeting at the former’s residence in Lagos,
Amosun was missing.
Also absent at the meeting were the Minister for Power, Works and
Housing, Babatunde Fashola, and his colleague in the Ministry of Solid
Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, both strong APC members in the South-
West.
Some analysts have described the absence of Amosun at the meeting as a
sign that he was probably not happy with Osoba’s return; a situation they
opined might divide the Ogun State chapter of the APC in future.
A political analyst, who is close to happenings in the APC, Mr. Olugbenga
Okunola, described the choice of Osoba’s residence as the meeting point
where his return to the party was announced “as instructive and
significant.”
“Everything is not well in the Ogun State chapter of the party yet,” he
said.
“Many people may not understand it or think it is significant, but the fact
that the meeting was held at Osoba’s residence and not at the Ogun State
Government House or Amosun’s house as the leader of the party in the
state, was instructive in itself. It is giving Osoba credence as the leader of
the APC in the state.”
Meanwhile, it is rumoured that Amosun, Fashola and Fayemi have all left
Tinubu’s good books and therefore have something in common. The three
of them have found a strong ally in President Muhammadu Buhari.
Amosun is also said to be one of the President’s closest politicians in the
South-West.
According to analysts, for some time, Tinubu and Amosun have not been
on good terms, starting from the latter’s nomination of his candidate, the
Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, for the state.
It was said that Tinubu had preferred another candidate.
However, Okunola said Amosun had later conceded the nomination to
Tinubu, but that Buhari insisted on working with Adeosun.
“At the time, the Tinubu camp argued that it had given Ogun State the
position of the Vice-President, which was taken by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,
but Amosun felt that he had no input in it,” Okunola said.
“So, Amosun felt that if he had no input in the choice of the state’s
ministerial nominee, how then could he table the affairs of his state before
whoever emerged for the position? It is believed that he later conceded the
slot to Tinubu but the President wanted Adeosun.
“But then, Amosun is known to be close to the President, so it was
difficult to prove that he had not pushed the President into accepting his
own candidate.”
Now as politicians set for the 2019 general elections, the opinion of some
pundits is that Osoba’s return to the APC is all part of a scheme between
the Tinubu and the Osoba camps against Amosun ahead of the polls.
Okunola, who referred to it as a ‘gang up’, said, “Politics, particularly in
Ogun State, is all about alliances. The Tinubu camp has formed an
alliance with the Osoba group to support Senator Olamilekan Adeola,
popularly known as Yayi, for Ogun State governorship of the APC in
2019.
“So, if Amosun wants a candidate of his choice to succeed him, he will
have to convince his alliances to back such a candidate or else he will
lose. Another way is for Amosun to arrive at the choice of a candidate
with his alliances, so that he can have their full support.”
However, according to Dr. Idowu Johnson of the Department of Political
Science, University of Ibadan, it is too early to interpret Amosun’s
absence at the meeting where Osoba announced his return to the APC as a
sign that he still has friction with the returnee politician.
He said, “We cannot say because Amosun was absent at the gathering, he
was not on good terms with Osoba.
“One thing we should realise is that everybody is fighting for their space,
including Osoba. Before Osoba could return to the APC, some of the
bigwigs in the state must have convinced him to take the decision.
“The other thing is that the PDP cannot make any headway in Ogun State
now because most of its stalwarts who benefitted from the past
administration would not come out to finance the party. They would want
to lie low for now, so for the next four years, the APC would dominate in
the state.
“For now, Osoba has no option but to go back to the APC to remain
relevant in the state. “Beyond politics, the reality is that everyone is
fighting for where they would get their livelihood and remain relevant in
the coming years. Osoba is coming to become relevant and he has to
reconcile to get that relevance, get some contracts and so on.
“Amosun is one of the most respected governors in the South-West and he
is in the good books of the President. Maybe by 2019, they can start
playing games but for now, they will not do that.”
In his view, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Ibadan,
Prof. Adigun Agbaje, said Osoba’s return to the APC would not have any
positive impact on the lives of residents of Ogun State.
Agbaje, who described Nigerian politics as lacking in ideologies, noted
the possibility of a gang-up against Amosun.
He, however, added that there is always room for negotiations in politics.
He said, “The events surrounding Osoba’s return underscore the
formlessness of Nigerian party politics and the lack of an effective role of
principles, which some people call ideology. It underscores the fact that
these are not parties; they are just amoebic amalgamations of short term
interests and personal goals.
“Osoba has said that his return was facilitated by leading Yoruba
traditional rulers, but I would say they fast tracked it because there was an
assumption that he was bound to return to the APC.
“His return has implications for APC politics in Ogun State. If the nature
of politics that has played out in the past continues, then it is a zero sum
game. But Osoba’s gain returning to the APC may be the governor’s loss.
“Whichever way it is, the governor will find a niche for himself and he is
already serving his final term as governor. Complex negotiations and
maneuvers and so on will be going on, but at the end of the day, it is the
people that lose. The politicians never really lose. The equality of
Nigerian politics will also lose.
“Politicians will always make some alliances, some temporary money and
gains in terms of power play, but the people always lose. It is a situation
where the politicians do not offer the people meaningful choices and the
parties are more or less the same.
“You can talk about one man in the APC today, few days later, he is in
PPF, another time, he will be in CTC and so on. At the end of the day,
Osoba’s return will not have serious significant positive impact on the
quality of lives of the Ogun State people, whichever way we look at it.
“This has to be tied to the national level of the APC. The feeling is that
Amosun is closer to the President than to Tinubu. This has implications.
All may be well tomorrow, who knows but at the moment, all is not well
because it took the governor a dogged fight against the Osoba group to get
a ticket for the second term. But we cannot dismiss the possibility of
negotiations in the future even though realistically, it will be difficult to
believe that the two of them can mend fences to the extent that all will be
well. But in politics, anything is possible.” www.punchng.com/intrigues-as-osoba-returns-to-apc/

All these useless polithiefcians ain't loyal I swear.

mcee1:
All these useless polithiefcians ain't loyal I swear.

...they are dogs

Burger01:
...they are dogs

U can say that again. Imagine that useless Smart adeyemi too. Mtcheww.

.

Politics, a game of "abracadabra ".. The more you look, the less you see.