The expectation of supporters of the People’s Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar that Senator Hosea Agboola had brought a message of Governor Seyi Makinde’s withdrawal of support for the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ambition to the Mapo Hall rally was shattered as the rally ended without such a message.
With what transpired at Mapo Hall rally, what the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Bayo Lawal, said at a recent Akure rally on behalf of his boss, Engineer Seyi Makinde, that the Governor was solidly supporting Tinubu’s ambition still stands and valid.
Governor Seyi Makinde was not physically present at the recent rally held at Mapo Hall in Ibadan for the presidential bid of a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The governor was not represented by any government official either. Despite this glaring fact, rumour mill in Ibadan bubbled after the rally that the governor had tactically allowed his supporters and people running his campaign structure to attend the rally.
This, to all intents and purposes, is false as there is no ioata of truth in the speculation that aimed at indicting Makinde of compromising the stand of the five-governor group on their opposition to a Northerner presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), while the National Chairman of the party is also a Northerner in the person Senator Iyorchia Ayu.
Atiku’s supporters at the rally even thumbed their chests that the presence of the Chairman Oyo State Advisory Council, Senator Hosea Agboola a.k.a. Alleluyah, who spoke at length at the rally was nothing but a bold and open approval of the Makinde’s support for Atiku for President, come February 25, 2023.
Sources close to the governor’s political supporters alleged that Seyi Makinde was finding subtle political pressure from the late Chief Lamidi Adedibu’s camp to back Atiku unbearable and difficult for him to resist as the duo of a former Deputy Governor, Gbolarumi Azim and Senator Hosea Agboola, who are strong members of Adedibu School of Politics are suspected to be pulling their weight to woo beneficiaries of Adedibu godfatherism politics to shore up support for Atiku despite its nauseating repulsive omen that they are promoting another Fulani to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, after an 8-year tenure.
On this note, people enthusiasm for supporting Atiku for president is weak and it would be tough to promote among the PDP members in Oyo State who believe it’s the turn of the South to produce a successor to Buhari. Gbolarumi and Agboola who strongly believe that with the war chest of Atiku opened to them to water the ground in Oyo State, many PDP members still sitting on the fence would be tempted to team up with Atiku despite that he is a Fulani man.
Torn between supporting Makinde for a second term and the governor’s rigidity on the stance of the G-5’s resolution, many PDP members are lost at sea on how to navigate the present stormy political waters in Oyo State. Observers noted that the chummy political relationship between Makinde and the wife of the late Molete kingpin, Chief Adedibu, has revealed that the Molete axis of the PDP is not as united as presented by its champions, Gbolarumi and Agboola.
Besides, there was a disturbing allegation that the Chairman Government Advisory Council Agboola and Makinde are no longer seeing eye-to-eye on certain political issues that were personal to them. It would, therefore, be foolish to say that Senator Agboola was at the Mapo rally to represent the interest of Makinde.
In all his lengthy speech at the rally Agboola didn’t mention anything as representing the governor or his interest.
It was, therefore, not a surprise that a strong supporter of Makinde, Yemi Olanrewaju, has pooh-poohed all what he described as sheer groundstanding of Gbolarumi Azim, who was a Deputy Governor to the late Otunba Alao Akala.
He described Gbolarumi as an empty political shell without the Lord of Molete politics, who was the real mollusc who made Ibadan politics tick when he was alive. He said that with Adedibu out of the political scene of Ibadan and by extention, Oyo State, there was little or nothing Gbolarumi and his cohort could do to give direction of where to go to members of the PDP.
On the part of Agboola, he said there was every indication that the Senator from Oke-Ogun no longer enjoy the confidence of the governor and goodwill between both men were sharing at the start of Makinde’s tenure in 2019 had gone.
Observers of Oyo politics visa-vice the G-5 group’s stance on where Makinde would swing his support for the February 25 presidential election, said people should not forget the public announcement made by the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Bayo Lawal, at a public rally held in Akure where the All Progressives Congresss (APC’s) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, went to pay a courtesy call on the leader of Afenifere, Pa. Reuben Fasoranti and inform him of his intention to contesting the February 25 presidential election.
On that occasion, the Oyo State Deputy Governor, who represented his principal, Seyi Makinde, had openly told the mammoth crowd at the rally that he had the authority of his boss to represent him at the rally and declare Makinde’s unflinching support and backing for Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu’s ambition. In politics as in every other thing in life, 24-hour may too long for any change to take place. As hour-glass, things may quickly change in politics. Now, there is no indicating of a likely volte-face from the Government House, Agodi in Ibadan on what was announced in Akure.
To most Oyo people, a Fulani succeeding an out-going president, who is a Fulani, reeks of obnoxious internal colonialism, which is unacceptable. That is besides the stand of the G-5 which is opposed to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) having its National Chairman and the presidential candidate from one geo-political zone of the country, North.
Tajudeen Adigun
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