Ogun 2015: How Osoba's SDP May Spoil Show For APC

There is no doubt that Governor Ibikunle Amosun and the rul­ing All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State would have to fight the battle to retain the control of the machinery of government beyond the 2015 elections from more than one front, reports Segun Olatunji of the Sun.

The reason for this is not far-fetched. Before now, the race to grab the reins of governance in the state was among three major contenders, including the ruling APC, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour party. But the sudden and un­expected arrival of the Social Democratic Party on the scene has completely changed the political landscape in the state.

According to the Sun, the SDP, which is being nurtured by Governor Amosun’s estranged godfather and former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba, is believed to be mak­ing serious inroads into the political turf in the state, that is, within the little time of its existence.

The current development could be traced to the initial squabbles within the then ruling Action Congress of Nigeria in the state over the sharing of political of­fices which had worsened with the merger of the ACN, the All Nigeria Peoples Par­ty, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to form the APC. The decision by certain forces in the ANPP and CPC in the state, which already had an axe to grind with the Amosun’s adminis­tration to pitch tent with the Osoba group, aggravated the already tense situation in the ruling party.

The defection of Osoba, Amosun’s es­tranged deputy, Prince Segun Adesegun, the three senators, seven House of Repre­sentatives members representing the state in the National Assembly as well as some lawmakers in the State House of Assembly into the SDP, however, marked a turning point in the intra-party crisis that had been rocking the ruling APC since January last year.

Many people, who had thought that the political quagmire created by the disagree­ment between Amosun and Osoba would eventually be resolved, were caught flat-footed when the former governor, the deputy governor, the national and state as­semblies members – and a horde of their supporters – recently took the decision to defect to the SDP.

Lately, some officials of the state, in­cluding special assistants and special ad­visers to the governor have resigned their appointments from the government. They cited irreconcilable political disagree­ments with the Amosun administration for their actions. The last of the government officials in this category is the daughter of the first civilian governor of the state, Ol­ubukunola Onabanjo. Onabanjo recently resigned as the chairman of the Ogun State Teaching Service Commission, alleging witch-hunt by Governor Amosun over her closeness to Chief Osoba.

The TESCOM boss, who made the al­legation in her letter of resignation dated November 18 and sent to the governor, said that she owed no one any apology for the over 40-year-old relationship that had existed between the Onabanjo and the Osoba families.

She added that she was, therefore, not ready to sacrifice the long-standing rela­tionship between the two families for “po­litical gains and consideration.”

Onabanjo further noted that she could not continue to pretend to remain in Am­osun’s government when it was already clear that, “it is too late in the day for me to clothe myself in borrowed robes,” dis­closing that she would be joining the SDP.

For many in the state, therefore, the defection of the former APC bigwigs to SDP, which is said to be currently making waves, especially among aggrieved politi­cians of the progressive bent who have an axe to grind with the Amosun administra­tion, has foreclosed any form of recon­ciliation between the governor’s camp and Osoba’s loyalists.

The choice of the SDP by the Osoba loyalists after they were said to have con­sidered many other options, including de­fection to the PDP or the Labour Party, is understandable. Apart from the fact that the group considered the PDP as being “too conservative”, the SDP was the platform on which their leader, Osoba first became the governor of the state in 1993. Also, the fact that the SDP has been re-registered by a chieftain of the Afenifere, the pan-Yor­uba socio-political group and former joint presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy/All Peoples Party, Chief Olu Falae with the Independent National Elec­toral Commission, made the party the best option for Osoba and his loyalists in Ogun to escape the alleged witch-hunt by Amo­sun and the leadership of the ruling APC.

With this development, the SDP in the state is now viewed by some concerned elements in the APC in the state as pos­ing serious threat to the electoral fortunes of the ruling party in the 2015 elections. Many believe the peopling of the SDP by aggrieved APC members may lead to the re-enactment of the 2011 situation where the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) broke away from the then ruling PDP in the state, culminating in the loss of power to the then Action Congress of Nigeria.

Already, aspirants, who lost in the pri­mary elections for the various elective positions due to the alleged imposition of candidates, especially in the ruling APC, are threatening to defect to the burgeon­ing SDP to realise their political ambition. Since the conclusion of the party primary elections in the state, supporters of aspir­ants who lost out have been demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the whole process by staging protests even at the Governor’s Office in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

They have not minced words by sternly warning the governor and the leaders of the APC in the state that the ruling party risked losing out completely in the forthcoming 2015 polls if they continued to thwart the decision of the delegates who voted in the various primaries.

The whirlwind of change currently sweeping across the ruling APC in Ogun began on November 12 when the three senators from the state, Adegbenga Kaka (Ogun East), Akin Odunsi (Ogun West) and Gbenga Obadara (Ogun Central) – for­mally announced their defection from the APC to the SDP on the floor of the Senate. The three senators backed their action with the presentation of their letters of defection to Senate President David Mark.

They hinged their decision to dump the APC in Ogun on the factionalisation of the party in the state and the existence of paral­lel state executive committees.

While addressing National Assembly correspondents on behalf of his colleagues in Abuja, Senator Kaka also disclosed that seven out of the nine House of Representa­tives members from the state had also no­tified the National Assembly of their de­fection to the SDP in Ogun. The House of Representatives members include Adekun­le Adeyemi, Abiodun Abudu-Balogun, Kehinde Odeneye, Bukunola Buraimoh, Babatunde Ogunola and Olumide Osoba.

The National Assembly members made their position known barely 24 hours af­ter three members in the Ogun House of Assembly dumped the ruling APC for the SDP. The state legislators, who jumped on the bandwagon of defection to the SDP include Oludaisi Elemide, Olufemi Allen- Taylor and Elizabeth Anifowoshe. Five other members of the state assembly also crossed over to the PDP the same day.

Political observers in the state have, however, continued to express fears that what Governor Amosun who recently emerged the standard bearer for the APC in the 2015 governorship poll has achieved in the infrastructural development of the state may pale into insignificance when com­pared with his inability to keep the fold of the ruling party in the state together ahead of next year’s elections.

Already, fears are also being expressed in political circles in the state that candi­dates of the other political parties may take advantage of the ongoing debilitating crisis in the APC in the state to attempt to oust Amosun and the ruling party in 2015.

The unresolved intra-party crisis within the APC in the state has seen the loyalists of the estranged godfather to the governor, Chief Segun Osoba and other aggrieved members defecting in large number to the SDP while others have taken refuge in the equally troubled Peoples Democratic Party where they hope to take their pound of flesh from Amosun. The defection of the three senators, seven House of Representa­tives and about 13 state House of Assem­bly members from the APC to the SDP is a very big political deficit for the ruling party in the state and the Amosun admin­istration.

Amosun and the APC’s chances in next year’s governorship poll in the state are said to have been further weakened by the recent defection of the Deputy Governor, Prince Segun Adesegun to the SDP. Ade­segun, who has been at loggerheads with his boss over certain issues, also declared his interest to contest the governorship of the state on the platform of the SDP against his boss the same day Amosun emerged the standard bearer of the ruling APC for next year’s poll.

Also, there are fears within the ruling APC that the current trend among political parties in the state to pick their governor­ship candidates from Ogun Central where Governor Amosun hails from may spell doom for the party and the governor in the 2015 poll.

This strategy, which is believed to be part of the Amosun-Must-Go campaign by a burgeoning coalition of the opposi­tion parties, is said to be a ploy to defeat the governor by dividing the votes in the senatorial district during the forthcoming elections in the state. The SDP also poses no less threat in this regard.

Therefore, in spite of his lofty pro­grammes and laudable achievements, Am­osun might find the odds stack against him too high to surmount in his bid to return to the Oke-Mosan Governor’s Office next year if the ruling APC goes into the 2015 polls as a divided house.

The SDP has become one party that should be watched in the race to the Ogun State Governor’s Office in 2015. There are strong indications that the SDP is poised to give a good account of itself in next year’s polls in the state.

Among the top contenders on the plat­form of the SDP for the top job is the dep­uty governor, Prince Segun Adesegun. But expectedly, Adesegun has the Herculean task of scaling the hurdles placed on his way to succeeding his boss, Amosun, with whom he has politically parted ways, as the next chief executive officer of the state.

But owing to his background and po­litical experience, the deputy governor, our correspondent gathered, is being largely backed by some APC and SDP supporters at the grassroots in addition to being the preferred choice of the elders and some traditional rulers in the state.

The deputy governor, who once served as the youth leader and a national officer of the APC, is said to enjoy the goodwill of some prominent people in the state who are believed to be pulling all the strings to ensure his emergence as the standard bear­er of the SDP in the 2014 governorship election. In fact, because of the respect he commands, many card-carrying members of even the ruling APC in the state have vowed to fight his cause.

While formally declaring his ambition, Adesegun told journalists and his teeming supporters that he was offering himself for the governorship of Ogun next year after careful and extensive consultations with the various stakeholders in the state.

Reacting to the news of his deputy’s declaration of intention to contest the gov­ernorship seat of the state on the platform of the SDP, Amosun said that the develop­ment was part of the beauty of democracy and should be encouraged.

The governor added that he wished his deputy well in his decision to contest against him in the forthcoming governor­ship election.

The deputy governor’s supporters be­lieve that being a major player in the Amo­sun administration, he would endeavour to improve on the incumbent’s initiatives by focusing on human and infrastructural de­velopment of the state.

However, feelers from the SDP indi­cate that the deputy governor may have to contend with a former member of the Na­tional Executive Committee of the APC, Mr. Yemi Sanusi and the former manag­ing director of Guaranty Trust Bank, Mr. Fola Adeola who was the vice presidential candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria in the 2011 elections and also hails from the central senatorial district as the incumbent governor, for the governor­ship ticket of the SDP in the state. The SDP has yet to conclude its primary elections in the state.

On the speculation that the SDP would spoil the chances of the ruling APC in the 2015 poll, Senator Kaka said that the party was only interested in winning all elec­tions in the state.

The lawmaker also denied insinuations that the SDP has forged an alliance with the PDP for the purpose of the 2015 elec­tions.

Kaka said that contrary to insinuations within the ruling APC, the SDP was genu­inely interested in contesting and winning the 2015 elections in the state.

He stated that the defection of the Oso­ba group to the SDP was to ensure that the wish of the aggrieved former members of the APC was preserved.

Kaka, therefore, assured that the SDP in Ogun State would present candidates for all the elective positions in the 2015 gen­eral elections.

According to Kaka, the SDP would con­test and win elections in 2015 to the cha­grin of those he accused of “destroying the state.”

He said: “SDP is not out to spoil any­body’s chances. We are out to win elec­tions because we are the true representa­tion of the people. So, if we have promoted some people and they have failed the peo­ple, we still have to go back to the peo­ple and tell them that is not the message we sent them. That is not the direction we want them to go. This is the direction; this is the way forward and that is the exact thing we are doing and we are so confident that the people know their leaders and they know those that they have tried and they have their trust in them. So, by the grace of God, we are far from playing any spoiler role. We are out to win and win handsome­ly to the chagrin of those who are destroy­ing the state.”

The lawmaker said that the aggrieved former members of the ruling party in the state would not agree to a reconciliation, which would be biased. He, however, said that although reconciliation should not be foreclosed, there was very little time left for the process.

The state Deputy Governor, Prince Ade­segun said that those currently exhibiting over-confidence about winning next year’s elections in Ogun should be prepared for a shocker.

While urging the people to join the SDP train, the deputy governor warned politi­cians who have the belief that they would win next year’s election to stop deceiving themselves.

Adesegun stressed that the people of the state knew who their real leaders were and would not be cowed into voting for any particular candidate during the poll.

“Four days ago I was somewhere and I observed some saying a particular person would win the forthcoming elections. I laughed and laughed because I know that such people they are talking about, that they would win the elections, if they do, they would only be elected to run their households and not the governorship elec­tion or the House or House of Representa­tives because they only heard people are contesting and then they came out,” the deputy governor said.

But the state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Sola Lawal, has dismissed speculation that the SDP would spoil the chances of the ruling party in next year’s poll. Lawal stated that the SDP has not be­come formidable enough to pose any threat to the electoral fortunes of the APC in the state.

According to the APC spokesman in the state, “The insinuation is bunkum. SDP is a non-issue that would give anyone any headache.”

But political observers believe that the deluge of sympathy and support currently pouring in for the SDP may eventually make the party the dark horse in the 2015 election. Described by some politicians as the small but potent force, which could dis­place the giants in the 2015 poll in the state, the SDP currently appears more concerned with taking its sensitization campaign and membership drive to the nooks and cran­nies of the state.