Gbenga Daniel’s Guilt of Infidelity 

Femi Ogbonnikan

At a time like this, the exchange of salvos in Ogun State in the past one week aren’t palatable, given the level they have degenerated. At the centre of this unnecessary dust is theformer governor Gbenga Daniel, now a Senator representing Ogun East, who is doing everything possible to dispel the stigma of infidelity he has had to grapple with since he has been suspected of anti-party activities.

He is doing so with malicious gusto, subtle blackmail, and pugnacious hypocrisy. In particular, the deluge of reactions that followed his statement in a recent interview about the cause of the perceived frosty relationship between him and Governor Dapo Abiodun is becoming increasingly pugnacious. So much so that people are now beginning to smell the rat. But he appears to be enjoying the media frenzy. And he is sure to continue to savour the cacophony of protests among the APC stakeholders until he gets the attention of President Bola Tinubu whom he claimed to have stood behind during the presidential primaries in the run-up to the last election.

Essentially, that is the primary reason for throwing the mud at the governor who gave him the shelter when he needed it most. The second motive is to also cover up his anti-party activities to ward off the image of a betrayer. Either way, once you are found guilty of infidelity, you cannot earn people’s trust.  

The problem with infidelity is not so much about flirting around but the absence of trust. In and out of office, OGD has a huge deficit of trust. While in office, he relished improper use of raw power so much that he literally alienated himself from everyone that matters in the state, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo on whose crest he rode to power in 2023. He fell out of favour because of impunity and executive recklessness that characterized his tenure.

By the time he left office, people had become so dissatisfied with the arbitrariness of the administration that the people collectively resolved never to have anything to do with the PDP again. That resolution still subsists, which is largely responsible for the party’s abysmal performance in successive elections since 2011. It is also the reason for his decision to perch with the APC latching on to the simplicity and generosity of Governor Abiodun to actualize his senatorial ambition.

As it is impossible for mere mortals to read the depth of the human heart, Abiodun conceded everything to Daniel to fly the senatorial ticket of the party. For those who do not know, that generous concession was at the instance of a revered monarch in the state, the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona. But we all know that sometimes an undeserved preferment can be very beguiling. Now, only God knows what would be running in the minds of the likes of Dr Babatunde Ipaye, Senator Lekan Mustapha, and others whose ambitions were sacrificed to please the monarch to allow his intervention to prevail.

In the last couple of days, concerned stakeholders have been kicking over the unwarranted outburst aimed at smearing the good image of the governor. In the interview granted to a national newspaper, Senator Daniel claimed that Abiodun fell out with him because of his support for Tinubu. According to him, the current victimization meted out on him in the APC is to punish him for standing behind Tinubu when the governor led the state chapter of the party to support former vice president Yemi Osinbajo.

What a funny outburst! Ordinarily, should that be the priority now in the face of a mirage of problems confronting the state and the nation as a whole? Why will anyone with a genuine sense of purpose be dissipating his energies on a pre-election matter that had already been won and lost? This is laughable. It only shows a lack of vision or an idea of what to offer the electorate. As a former governor, Daniel had offered the best he could give to the state. But whether or not the state could be said to be better for it, the rest is left to prosperity to judge. As for his current election into the Senate, let no one expect anything unusual. Like his other retired colleagues, the best we can expect is for him to be in the hallowed chamber to hibernate, enjoy full leisure of perquisite of the office and take his retirement benefits for the next four years. Thereafter, the electorate can then decide with their votes whether they can trust him again with a return ticket.     

In the meantime, there is another media report where he was quoted as saying in his movement of embattled lucidity that his commitment is to lift the people out of poverty. Asked to comment on the allegation of anti-party activities, he retorted: “I am an elder, I have to absorb so much and I am already tolerating the allegations against me. Whatever he said, let us agree it is so.

“But what is more important is how we can lift our people out of poverty, how they can be free from hunger and pain. I am praying that this job, which I have been sent to the Senate to do, I shall do very well, and the good lord will strengthen me to do more than the people’s expectations. I want to assure our people that I am not after anything. God has been benevolent to me right from my childhood. I am not after anything more than how we can leave the stage better than we met it.”

While it may be too hasty or presumptuous to say aye or nay at this time, one thing is sure; no matter how hard you try to run away from your past, history in all its alienating necessities will judge you according to what you did. 

For the latest round of intrigue, all OGD is trying to do is to use Governor Abiodun as a pawn to get closer to President Tinubu to achieve his image redemption. But what is it that Tinubu does not know about his antecedents? As a founding member of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), he was complicit with the onslaught of former President Obasanjo against the party in the Southwest in the 2003 general elections. By the time the hurricane swept through the region, only Tinubu remained the last man standing. But for his deft political maneuvering, the progressive forces would have been completely rattled and subjugated forever for easy manipulation of the reactionary tendencies.

Obasanjo is no more in power. But his estranged protégé has done it again. By conniving with Oladipupo Adebutu, the governorship candidate of the PDP in the last election against Governor Abiodun, he (Daniel) has shown that he is not worthy of the trust given to him by the APC. And he would live with the betrayer for a long time to come.

As a righteous indignation, the Ogun State APC has condemned the outburst in its strongest terms, threatening to expel him from the party. Beyond that, the best is to admit the fundamental error of judgment that informed his admission into the party in the first place and then cosign him to where he belongs. For so long as he remains in the party, he would be a mole and there would be no peace within the fold. Governor Abiodun has done well by keeping his silence on the matter because governance is a serious business. And he cannot afford to let the state down because of the vaulting ambitions of some individuals who are already known for notoriety for betraying people’s trust. By their fingers, we shall know them.

Ogbonnikan wrote from Abeokuta, Ogun State