•Details Of Their Plans Revealed!
The major opposition party in Oyo State, the All Progressives Congress, APC is set for a showdown with the sitting governor of the state, Engr. Seyi Makinde. The party, despite its internal crisis, is putting mercenaries in place to make sure the governor is sent packing from the Agodi Government House come 2023.
Already, there have been a series of underground meetings and consultations with major stakeholders within and outside APC.
It was gathered that those who are driving this agenda are ready to do everything humanly possible for Makinde to have a taste of his own pill. By forming a mega alliance that would cut across the board. Recall that Makinde, four days to the 2019 governorship election, reached an agreement with some opposition parties in the state. The agreement was what gave birth to a merger that helped him win the election against APC.
Gubernatorial candidates of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Alliance (AA), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) all stepped down for PDP’s candidate, Engr. Seyi Makinde.
The merger was not only a shocker, but the choice of venue for the announcement was also strategic. It was done at the Oyo State Council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Iyaganku GRA, Ibadan.
At the centre of the coalition then was the former governor of the state, Senator Rashid Ladoja. He is said to have been the middle man that brokered the political romance between Makinde and others involved in the merger. Prominent members of the coalition include Senator Femi Lanlehin; former SSG in the state, Barr. Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli; Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN) amongst others.
Senator Femi Lanlehin, the then ADC guber candidate, while speaking about the announcement of the merger said: “The coalition agreed to decisions reached thereto, after series of meetings and consultations. Those gathered here, respectable governorship candidates of our various political parties and others have agreed to form an alliance.”
“We have decided that in order to present an effective and workable solution to the unpalatable situation where Oyo State has been remotely controlled for the past eight years by outside forces and all manner of constituted authority, there is the need to form an alliance of political parties in the state.” “We have firmly resolved to present one candidate in the person of Engr Seyi Makinde of PDP for the office of Governor at the elections holding on March 9, 2019.”
“In the interest of our thriving democracy, we have also resolved that the House of Assembly elections will be contested on a patty basis and all candidates in all the parties are encouraged to go to the polls and contest for the seats available in the Oyo State House of Assembly as scheduled.”
Unfortunately, no sooner than Makinde came on board that the merger started having issues. A good number of the principal actors in the alliance initially accused the governor of marginalisation. Saying that he breached the agreements reached at the conception of the merger.
It was allegedly agreed that the PDP takes 64 per cent; ADC would take 30, ZLP 10 and SDP 5 per cent of all positions across the board. But some members of the coalition said the governor has failed to effect the gentleman’s agreement.
Though the governor argued that he had lived up to his promise to all parties of the coalition and in some cases bent backwards to accommodate all interests.
However, in what looked like a way of appeasing the aggrieved members of the coalition, Governor Makinde later nominated some of them as part of the Oyo State Governor Advisory Council.
Those named in the 10-man committee chaired by the former Deputy Chief Whip in the Senate, Senator Hosea Ayoola Agboola include the former Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Mulika Akande Adeola; Jacob Adetoro; Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli; Bolaji Ayorinde; Joseph Olaitan; Kamil Akinlabi; Senator Monsura Sunmonu; Gboyega Laoye and Prof. Kolapo Hamzat.
A new twist was introduced to the whole issue when Sarafadeen Abiodun Alli rejected his nomination as a member of the Advisory Council. The former SSG later dumped ZLP and officially joined APC. After Alli’s outburst, another member of the coalition who opted out of it was Senator Lanlehin. He dumped the alliance and also went back to APC.
Also, between May 2019 and now, a lot has happened within Governor Makinde’s camp. Some of those who started with him have since left. The list includes Engr. Femi Babalola, Mogaji Nureni Adisa, Olopoeyan, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola and others are no longer with Makinde.
The last straw that broke the camel’s back, in Makinde’s many battles with his former loyalists or aggrieved members of his party, however, is the issue between him and the lawmaker representing Oyo South Senatorial District, Kola Balogun, in which the latter was denied the second ticket of the party.
Though Balogun, the younger brother of the present Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Mohood Lekan Balogun, has since dumped PDP for APC but the controversy his face-off with Makinde has generated is huge. Their rift has left the traditional institution, social and political groups divided.
While some aligned with Makinde’s decision of giving the Oyo South PDP Senatorial ticket to Joseph Tegbe, a newcomer in the party, others felt the decision was insulting to Olubadan’s throne. This is after Kola Balogun had severally denied the non-performance allegation levelled against him. All these and many more are what the opposition is said to be planning in achieving their plans to unseat the governor come 2023.
“Consultations are presently ongoing within the stakeholders that matter to teach Makinde the big lesson of his life in 2023,” a source told this magazine.
There is also this insinuation, in some quarters, that APC is already in talks with the former governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja. It’s said that there may be a merger between APC and Ladoja’s ZLP. The big question begging for an answer, however, is, can APC rally the necessary supports it requires, including financial capability, as well as succeeding in managing its internal crisis, to defeat Governor Seyi Makinde in 2023?
-Dare Adeniran
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