Amosun Tackles Abiodun over 2023

Does Senator Ibikunle Amosun hate Governor Dapo Abiodun that much? This has been the question on the lips of many in Ogun State in the last week after the former governor’s outburst, during which he vowed that his successor Abiodun will never be reelected, no matter his attempts. 

Amosun, who was governor of the gateway state between 2011 and 2019, unarguably fought the biggest war of his political career towards the twilight of his tenure in a bid to install Abdulkabir Akinlade as the anointed candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The battle polarised the APC in the state into factions after Abiodun emerged as the candidate of the party for the governorship election. Unhappy with the outcome, Amosun and his supporters moved to the Allied Progressives Movement (APM), under which Akinlade ran and lost to Abiodun. He fought like a wounded lion in his desperation to upturn the mandate given to Abiodun. He reportedly visited President Muhammadu Buhari and top monarchs in the state, all to no avail.

Before he visited the President, he had reportedly boasted to all that the President would grant his wish, as he had threatened to dump APC for the Accord Party, if his wish was not accepted. But he was said to have gotten the shock of his life when the President told him point blank that he would not want to go against the decision of the party’s NWC.

Consequently, Amosun’s stubbornness in big measure unsettled the leaders of the party who had mounted pressure on him not to move and to place the interest of the party above personal interest. He vowed, roared and beat his chest, like an emperor would, that he will never work with Abiodun, who he said lacked the wherewithal to win a senatorial district, let alone Ogun.

Those close to him then and the party leaders in the state added that Amosun believed so much in his influence, power, political experience as well as heavy financial war chest that he even looked the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo in the eyes and boasted that he would rubbish him at the poll. It was a serious tug of war and Amosun and his loyalists lost out.

Society Watch gathered that Amosun was unable to out-muscle his opponent; it was a grand alliance by those he had reportedly persecuted politically in the past. It was a case of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. They brought out all diverse interests together for this purpose against a common foe — Amosun. It was revenge served cold!

To say that period was the darkest of his political career is an understatement. Since then, there has been no love lost between the governor and his predecessor. But not many envisaged that the level of animosity and hatred between the two gladiators was as bad until Amosun’s outburst last week. His comments were not only baffling but unfathomable to many political watchers in the state. And at a time when many thought the senator representing Ogun Central had taken the matter behind him, he came back like a wounded rattlesnake with its poisonous fang and ready for a ‘fight to finish’.

Like the experienced politician that he is, he chose a very good gathering to launch his attack. It was the 50th anniversary of Egba Club in Abeokuta. Expectedly, he left many stunned after he vowed to unseat the governor during next year’s election.

Since he dropped the speech, it has generated heat across the state, with stakeholders not taking the former governor’s threat for granted. Governor Abiodun, it was also gathered, is not taking the matter as a simple threat, as he is said to have begun to re-strategise.

Although some political analysts have opinionated that if Amosun could not defeat Abiodun when he had much influence as a two-term sitting governor and a close ally of the President, it would be totally impossible for him to achieve the feat in 2023.

For analysts, Amosun with a depleted camp is going against a now better experienced Abiodun with the power of incumbency and added gain of having attracted some of the former governor’s loyalists to his corner, while he continues to negotiate fresh alliances with other political players alienated by Amosun’s latest move.