Oyo Deputy Governor at Daggers Drawn with Makinde
Kemi Olaitan chronicles the intrigues that led to the collapse of the political alliance between Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and his deputy, Rauf Olaniyan
The recent defection of the Oyo State deputy governor, Rauf Olaniyan, from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), to political watchers in the pace setter state could not have been happenstance as rumour of this coming to pass have been on for quite a long time, despite the applause that greeted the coming into office of Olaniyan and Governor Seyi Makinde in 2019, as one that will usher in great development in the state.
With the two of them, Makinde, who is from Ibadan and Olaniyan, who hails from Igboho in the Oke Ogun area of the state, coming together as a team due to the coalition arrangement of other parties midwifed by a former governor of the state, Senator Rasheed Ladoja, to unseat the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 gubernatorial election, the political romance was however to start waning less than a year into the administration due to acrimony, most especially the side lining of the deputy governor in the day to day affairs of the state.
During the race for the 2019 elections, Olaniyan was in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), under which platform he was a frontline gubernatorial aspirant and only defected to PDP to become Makinde’s deputy. The retired civil servant while speaking on the political romance said he was approached by Makinde to be his deputy and agreed on the basis of his determination to serve.
He said, “Seyi Makinde approached me and I told him I wasn’t after power; if I was after power, I wouldn’t be the deputy. I’m after service. So, if it is to serve, no problem. I don’t need to have the label of the deputy or the governor of Oyo State before I can survive. I have minute knowledge of the holy books but I can tell you that power is transient. Being a governor or deputy will not give me the certificate to Al Jannah (heaven). Becoming the deputy was totally God’s plan. I agreed with him after he approached me easily with no conditions, except good governance.”
But less than a year into the administration, it was becoming clear to discern minds that all was not well between the two political gladiators as their relationship was getting frosty with the deputy governor not being assigned government functions as expected and rarely seen at public functions, except at Islamic programmes like Eid festivals.
Indeed, rather than see Olaniyan at public functions, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), the Chief of Staff or the Deputy Chief of Staff, usually represent the governor.
While for the period that this lasted before his eventual defection, Olaniyan continued to deny that there was any rift between him and his boss, the same was with Makinde who not for once did he say anything untoward in the public about his deputy such that when they found themselves in public function they would sit together portraying nothing was amiss. But the denial on the two sides did not douse the tension with things getting clearer as months passed by that the political romance between them would break at any time.
With none of them ready to offer explanation on their frosty relationship culminating in the deputy governor being conspicuously absent at public functions attended by Makinde and no reason was given by anybody, including the governor himself, for the absence.
Analysts, however, believe that it could not but have been clash of ego as the two of them were both gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of different political parties before agreeing to work together as a team and eventually got elected as governor and deputy governor respectively.
They further submitted that the penchant of Makinde not to assign any role to the deputy governor such that where Olaniyan was present there would be another government functionary representing the governor further exacerbated the rift between them.
The no love lost relationship between Makinde and the deputy governor was to take a new dimension late last year when Olaniyan petitioned the police and Department of State Service (DSS), alleging threat to his life by the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of Oyo State Park Management System (PMS), Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi (aka Auxiliary), a close ally of the governor.
Olaniyan in the petition, which came less than 24 hours after he was absent from the state congress of the PDP held at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Adamasigba, Ibadan, alleged that he was being trailed on several occasions by Auxiliary. With his absence at the party congress pronounced, the parallel congress convened by aggrieved members of the party led by Alhaji Bisi Olopoenia, held at the Jogor Centre, Ibadan, was disrupted by political thugs with more than 50 vehicles vandalised while a petrol station and bakery belonging to the wife of the Deputy Governor, Prof Amdalat Olaniyan, located in Agugu area of the ancient city were attacked.
The deputy governor who was enjoined to inform his boss of the development as the Chief Security Officer of the state refused to do this, maintaining that the police was the appropriate authority to handle the matter.
During the race for the primaries of the political parties it became glaring that the relationship was heading towards the rock when Olaniyan was absent at the gubernatorial primary of the PDP, which Governor Makinde, won to fly the flag of the party in the 2023 elections. The deputy governor was to claim that nothing was amiss in his absence as he had sent text message to the governor to congratulate him on his victory at the primary.
With suspicion rife that he was on his way out of the PDP as he was sometime last year seen at a function organised by a group of APC chieftains and hobnobbing with members of the opposition party in the state, Olaniyan was to make this a reality on Sunday, June 5, 2022, when while addressing journalists at his private office in Ibadan, he formally announced his defection from the PDP to APC after consultations with his supporters across the 33 local government areas of the state, vowing not to resign his position as the deputy governor.
According to him, “I am bold to inform you clearly that as from this moment, I am porting to the All Progressive Congress (APC).You have been asking me what next politically because everybody is already taking positions, what to contest for, under what party and like I had always told you, when the time is ripe, I will make it public.
“Even as at this morning, some political parties still called me to come and take their tickets to come and contest with, I don’t want to mention any name because I don’t want to de-market any party because we meet to part and part to meet. Not less than three parties have called me today (Sunday) alone and as at yesterday (Saturday) I had about eight political parties offering me their platforms to contest, but is that what I wanted? Am I looking for governorship by all means? No. Do I want to contest governorship at just any party? No.
“So, if that is not, then my aim remains the same, that I am into politics not because I want to make name or any pecuniary gains. I am there because in the society of today, if you know you want to make meaning to your people, you have to make meaning through political process by joining a party.
“Some people will say, you don’t have to join a political party, to make impact; yes, but you should not complain when some people are ruling and you cannot rule without joining a political party.
“I have considered the pros and cons, I have seen it all. I was elected as a deputy governor, sworn in on May 29, 2019 to run up to May 28, 2023, so the time is still there but as you can see, everyone has already showed interest in the position they aspire to contest for.
“I had told you ab initio that, God will show us the way to go. For a journey of one thousand kilometres, it starts with a step. First and foremost, I, Engineer Rauf Aderemi Olaniyan, I am porting to the APC.
“I am not resigning as the deputy Governor, I am still the deputy Governor of Oyo state, Engineer Seyi Makinde is still my Governor, but there is no aspect of the constitution that says the governor or his deputy cannot part ways politically.
“This aspect, I am interested in the law court. It came down to be a hard fact, that it is possible for us to part ways. For the act of governance, I am still the deputy Governor of Oyo state, under the leadership of the Governor of Oyo state. It is only the party matters that changed.
“And I am not going alone, I am going with my teeming supporters in all the 33 local governments. They have been asking me what next and I kept telling them to wait. As at today, they just finished a meeting in Iseyin, the Oke Ogun caucus and they wanted to know what next. And I also asked them to go and decide the next thing too.
“Before I joined the PDP, they all decided that we should join PDP and so if I am going to do anything otherwise, I asked them to decide and get back to me. People have been coming from all parts of the state asking me what next, what I keep telling them was that they should let consultation go round and wide because, in politics, you don’t have to go all alone.
“Few minutes ago, some leaders were here in my office and we decided to do what we are doing now. So, that is the update and I have already ported to the APC.”
But piqued by this seeming effrontery by Olaniyan, the PDP in the state in a statement by the Publicity Secretary, Akkem Olatunji, was to counter the deputy governor calling on him to resign honourably, as he could not go to an opposition party with a mandate he jointly got with Makinde and then steal it through the back door.
Olatunji said, “Oyo people did not vote for a PDP/APC joint ticket; they voted entirely for a PDP mandate, while section 40 of the Constitution of Nigeria guarantees freedom of association of any person, the deputy governor ought to be enlightened by the same constitution when it stipulated that the ticket upon which he (Olaniyan) contested the 2019 governorship election alongside Governor Makinde as a deputy was not an independent candidate ticket.
“It is only when you contest election as an independent candidate and win and decide to move to any political party of your choice that you become the owner of the votes cast by the electorate. Unfortunately for Olaniyan, he wants to eat his cake and still have it. The Oyo PDP, which is the rightful owner of the mandate, will retrieve it back in no distant time using every available legal means if Olaniyan fails to humbly resign as a gentleman with his new move.
“Our position is simple and very clear on this matter, and as a matter of legal implication, the votes in any election in Nigeria are to political parties and not candidates. It is on this note that the PDP as the ruling party in the state is advising the deputy governor, Rauf Olaniyan, not to be carried away by the lies and deceits told him by a political neophyte such as ‘Mr Jagba’ and be bamboozled into self-delusion of thinking he can be used as a tool to steal Oyo people’s mandate through the backdoor.
“Failure to follow this advice and adhere strictly to it from the PDP which is the legitimate owner of every single vote cast by the electorate in the 2019 governorship election, the PDP shall not hesitate to immediately deploy every constitutional means to prevent this daylight robbery. We’re determined and resolved to retrieve the party’s mandate being withheld illegally and unlawfully by the deputy governor, Rauf Olaniyan because it belongs to the people of Oyo State, who have handled same to the PDP.”
Two days after his defection, Governor Makinde was to show that the political alliance between them has broken down irretrievably, as he announced, the Chairman of Oyo State Housing Corporation, Barrister Bayo Lawal, who hails from Oke Ogun like Olaniyan, as his running mate for the 2023 election.
However to give vent to the threat by the state PDP to retrieve its mandate from Olaniyan, the state House of Assembly, has began moves to impeach the state Deputy Governor with five allegations of gross misconduct, abuse of office, financial recklessness, abandonment of office and official duty and insubordination and other offences, levelled against him in a petition signed by 24 lawmakers who are PDP members.
The petition entitled, “Petition And Notice of Allegations of the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Engineer Rauf Olaniyan”, read, ”Consequent upon listed below, we the under listed elected Honourable members of the 9th assembly hereby allege the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Eng. Rauf Olaniyan, with the following allegations :
“Gross misconduct; abuse of office; financial recklessness; abandonment of office and official duty; Insubordination and other offences.
“This is in accordance to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended in 2011. Section 188.”
The lawmakers with their constituencies that signed the petition include: Fadeyi Muhammed (Ona Ara), Onaolapo Sanjo (Ogbomosho South), Babalola Olasunkanmi (Egbeda), Adebisi Yussuf (Ibadan Southwest 1), Okedoyin Julius (Saki West) and Adebayo Babajide (Ibadan North 2).
Others include Kehinde Olatunde (Akinyele 2), Olajide Akintunde (Lagelu), Mustapha Akeem (Kajola), Popoola Ademola (Ibadan South East 2), Owolabi Olusola (Ibadan North East 2), Olagoke Olamide (Ibadan North East 1), Olayanji Kazeem (Irepo/Olorunsogo), Ojedokun Peter (Ibarapa North/Centre).
Others are Gbadamosi Saminu (Saki East/Atisbo), Mabaje Adekunle (Iddo), Oluwafowokanmi Oluwafemi (Ibadan Southwest 2), Akeem Adedibu (Iwajowa), Fatokun Ayo (Akinyele 1), Rasak Ademola (Ibadan South East 1), Obadara Akeem (Ibadan North West), Oyekunle Fola (Ibadan North 1), Adetunji Francis (Oluyole).
With an Ibadan High Court presided over by Justice Ladiran Akintola, delivering a ruling for all the sides to maintain the status quo in a suit filed by Olaniyan, to stop his impeachment, analysts are of the view that with the 2023 general elections some months away, going ahead with the impeachment may turn an albatross as it could affect the electoral fortune of the PDP and Makinde negatively.
