2023: Ogun and Amosun’s Grandiose Delusion

Femi Ogbonnikan

The immediate past governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, is back in the trenches. This time around, he wants to extract his pound of flesh in the coming 2023 general elections because, according to him, his anointed candidate was “rigged” out in the 2019 governorship election won by Prince Dapo Abiodun. He is also bellyaching that he has lost out on the new power equation in the state even though he fought hard to wrest the structure of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the incumbent Governor Abiodun but to no avail.

In the first place, how do you appease an implacable person who thinks the best way to resolve any disagreement is to bring down the roof? How do you reign in a belligerent individual without regard for the constituted authority?

In spite of several months of intrigues and hide-and-seek, APC in Ogun State has remained one big family. A family that is big, strong, dependable, liberal, and reliable enough to accommodate all shades of opinions and interests. But it has no place for a double-standard; it has no room for the recalcitrant who flirts with the opposition to achieve their selfish and personal ambitions.

With the current state of things in Ogun State APC, Amosun is neither here nor there, which is why Governor Abiodun has decided to keep him and his cohorts at an arm’s length.

But again, one cannot but empathise with the embattled former governor for the fundamental error of judgement he committed by thinking that he could unilaterally on his own anoint his successor; whether popular or unpopular and force it through the throats of everybody. Such a brazen and bare-faced impunity doesn’t work in a democracy, for democracy is about the people, it is about inclusiveness and consensus-building rather than narrow self-exclusivity. That is where the rain actually started to beat Amosun. 

The second but greatest of all mistakes he made is this delusion that he could fight a sitting governor and win the battle. As a former holder of the office, Amosun knew the enormity of power in the hand of the incumbent governors but he thought he could reinvent the wheel by lording it over his successor. He got it all wrong. As they say, “To err is human and to forgive is divine”. No one is infallible. We all make mistakes. But the successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way. But he doesn’t feel the need to review his strategy as he continues to do things in the same old way and expects to get a different result. He is so much in love with power that he dwells only on emotion and sentiment rather than reality. Whereas, as Robert Greene, the author of the 48 Laws of power says, “To succeed in the game of power, you have to master your emotions”. The Ogun Central Senator lacks the capacity to control his emotion.  And for being so overwhelmed by sentiments, he has pushed himself to the edge.  

He has developed an undue penchant for controversy lately. This past week, he roused the rabble again. He said he would do everything possible to ensure that Governor Abiodun does not win the coming governorship election to actualize his second-term ambition. He said those who rigged the election against his anointed candidate in the 2019 election had apologised to him. In a nutshell, this is a product of impaired nervous system and chronic hallucinations.

Fast forward, I burst into uproarious laughter because he wants to unmake what he cannot make. He wants to play the spoilers’ game by propping up another of his former protégé, pitching him against the governor in the coming election. He did it when he was in power; he lost woefully despite the advantage of incumbency. Despite the enormous state resources at his disposal, his candidate suffered a crushing defeat at the hand of Governor Abiodun. Ask me, what has changed in his favour between then and now as for him to think that he can upturn the mandate of the people? Absolutely nothing!

Governor Abiodun’s victory in the last election was purely the handiwork of God. It was the collective will of the people. The same people who endorsed his candidature for the 2023 general elections. The same good people will vote again in the coming election. The same people who are the means and end of the developmental agenda of his administration. The same people who have passed a vote of confidence on his leadership for inclusive governance.

The news is all over the place that he and his loyalists in the APC have concluded plans to refloat the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) ahead of the 2023 elections.

For the benefit of hindsight, Amosun had formed the APM to push for the candidature of Adekunle Akinlade, who failed to clinch the ticket of the APC for the 2019 governorship election. But while he led the APM campaign train across the nooks and crannies of the state, he stayed put in the APC, contested the Ogun Central Senatorial District on its platform, and won the election.

Once again, they want to tread the same path of failure. But they are opting for Otegbeye as the candidate of the APM since his estranged political son, Akinlade, has defected to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be the running mate of the standard bearer of the party, Ladi Adebutu. 

In all applications of human life, sincerity is the master key to success. Former governor Amosun is known for political mischief. He is at it again. On one hand, he is pledging his support for the Presidential standard bearer of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whom he confronted during the campaign for the primary but had to step down for him at the eleventh hour apparently to save his face from an impeding disgraceful outing. Back home in Ogun State, on the other hand, he wants to confront the incumbent Governor Abiodun, his sworn enemy, using APM as a vehicle of attack.     

They are a thousand miles away behind the game. To be sure, Governor Abiodun is not alone in it, but the entire well-meaning citizens of the state. Traditional rulers, key political stakeholders, community leaders, religious leaders, student bodies, civil servants as well as market women have thrown their weights behind the crusade for continuity.    

So, fighting against the collective will of the people is a road that leads to nowhere. It is a straight path to perdition. Presumably, this is the reason the APC in Ogun State has called on the general public to pray for former governor Amosun in order that God might recall him and his co-travellers from the current political wilderness. 

The Publicity Secretary of the party, Tunde Oladunjoye, in a statement issued during the week faulted Amosun that Abiodun, did not win the 2019 governorship election, and dismissed the outburst as political amnesia. 

The statement said: “There is absolutely no truth in the specious utterance of the former governor who is obviously still sulking from the electoral defeat of his surrogate party in 2019. Our party and candidate not only won fair and square, the victory of Prince Dapo Abiodun was also attested to by his co-contestants, many of whom later joined APC and are still in APC.”

While he commended Abiodun for his giant strides, he also urged him to remain focused on delivering the dividends of democracy for the good people of Ogun State. 

The Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, equally weighed in, saying “Prince Dapo Abiodun is a man of honour whose word is his bond. The paramount ruler who spoke in Abeokuta over the weekend on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Abeokuta Club said: “The people will always remember him for his selflessness and inclusive approach to governance.

“Gov Abiodun keeps promises. Anything he tells you, believe it. He doesn’t have to sign any paper for commitment, just trust him.

“We all can see our township roads – the roads at Elite-Oke Lantoro, completion of Kuto Bridge from NNPC; look at the road from Pansheke to Adigbe and Opako Bridge. He has done very well and will always do more for us in Ogun Central and Egbaland.

“See how many housing estates he has built in Egbaland,” he said in reference to housing estates in the Kemta, Idi-Aba, Kobape, and Kings Court at Oke Mosan in Abeokuta.

Also, a group, Yewa Youth Pacesetters, who slammed Amosun over his statement that the 2019 governorship election was rigged in favour of the incumbent governor, Dapo Abiodun, urged the administration to remain focused on its commitment to transforming Ogun State into an industrial destination of choice.

A statement signed by the group’s president, Dapo Fashola, described the statement as not only untrue but a deliberate ploy to mislead the general public and call out the incumbent governor.

What is more?  Governor Abiodun, apparently overwhelmed by the show of solidarity from all walks of life, has assured that, “I will not be distracted by any person or persons who have a problem with self-delusion, I will not be distracted by any person who does not appreciate that Ogun State is not anybody’s father’s inheritance, we are all stakeholders in this Commonwealth called Ogun state.”

“I am not going to join issues with anyone that wants to play God, I will leave them to God. God can deal with whoever is challenging His authority and wants to play God. All I can say is that what we stand for in Ogun State is an administration that is committed to providing purposeful leadership and infrastructural development across the length and breadth of the state,” he added.

Ride on, the people’s governor. Let the wailers continue to cry more than the bereaved, the race is yours.  As a Yoruba proverb says, Agbalagba ti o so yangan modi nio so ara e di alawada fun adie”, (meaning “An elderly man who ties corn around his waist is the one who makes himself a jester before the hens.).

Ogbonnikan wrote from Abeokuta, Ogun State.