It will be unkind to conclude, even to insinuate, that Governor Ibikunle Amosun set out to diminish the fortunes of his party, the All Progressives Congress, in the 2019 elections, by throwing tantrums over the party’s rejection of his preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, as the governorship candidate. However, given his confession that he would work against the party during the governorship election, it is clear that he did not mind if his party lost the governorship election in his state, all because his preferred candidate was not chosen. If such action is not regarded as an anti-party activity, I don’t know what is.
Of course, Amosun’s case should not be taken in isolation. There are other governors, who are prepared to destroy the party, because they were prevented from installing their anointed candidates. What is common to all of them is the mouthed allegiance to President Muhammadu Buhari, even when their local stooges have defected to other political parties. The other cases do not concern me here, because my focus is on the South-West.
What is at stake for Amosun is beyond his plan to establish a ruling political dynasty in Ogun State by installing his chosen successor. To be sure, most governors do that. They just go about it differently. In Osun State, for example, the process of electing a successor to former Governor Rauf Aregbesola was given to the party and party leaders. It also involved an open direct primary in which every card-carrying member of the party had the opportunity to vote. True, the process was not that simple. It involved negotiation with other contenders and the defection of some of them. But every party member had a chance to agree or disagree, to vote or not to vote for the party’s candidate, or not to vote at all.
The hidden agenda is the contention for the leadership of the South-West within the hierarchy of the APC leaders in the region. Installing his successor would have placed him on the right path towards achieving that agenda.
Alternatively, the agenda could be seen as attempts to diminish the status of the National Leader of the APC and the Leader of the Party in the South-West, namely, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
It is an open secret that the South-West integration plan notwithstanding, there are two groups of governors in the region. One group (the centrists) looks to the Presidency for leadership, while the other group (the regionalists) looks to the leadership within the region. The former seeks to subvert both the leadership in the region and even the success of the members of the other group within the region. For example, rumours are rife about the subversive activities of the centrists in the Osun governorship election last September.
Incidentally, their alleged preferred governorship candidate, who left the APC to run on another party platform, lost badly in the election. Amosun has now allowed his preferred candidate in Ogun to follow a similar path. Here’s what Amosun had to say on Akinlade leaving the APC for the Allied People’s Movement: “Akinlade has my full support. I am not going to stop him. Everything I have, I will use to support him … we also have our strategies”.
It has been suggested that the “strategies” involve two plans. One, the defectors will vote Burari for president. Two, they will also vote Akinlade for governor under the APM. Three, Akinlade will defect to the APC if he wins. What if the APC loses the governorship election to another party other than the APM? What happens to Amosun’s base in Ogun?
Although the outcome of his secret meeting with the APC Reconciliation team remains a mystery, some of Amosun’s political manoeuvres are public knowledge. He has subjected the political leaders of the APC in his state and region to verbal thuggery. He has attacked the chairman of the party at the national level. He has created enemies where the only enemy is his own ambition.
It is not the case, of course, that attempts have not been made by the party to pacify Amosun. For example, he was given a senatorial seat on a silver platter. He also was reportedly allowed to nominate the three candidates for the House of Representatives from his state. He probably was given the prerogative over these positions after running to Aso Rock a few times.
Why, we may ask, did Amosun insist that only Akinlade, who was elected through Amosun’s own supervised electoral process and not that of the National Working Committee, could and should be governor after him? What is there in his government that others must not know about and which only Akinlade could preserve?
Clearly, there is something wrong in all these developments. There is something wrong when a governor, who has served for eight years, cannot boast two, three, or four prospective candidates, who could succeed him through an open selection process.
What kind of democracy is it that gives elective positions to a governor to distribute as he likes like Christmas gifts? Who will such elected persons be loyal to and who exactly will they be serving? To be sure, the practice did not start with Amosun. It is all over the place. But it is time to really allow the democratic process to run its normal course.
It is high time all political parties adopted open direct primaries at local, state, and federal elections so that the people can vote for aspirants of their choice. If the governor or other political bosses are able to persuade others to vote for their preferred candidates, so be it. What is important is that the imposition of candidates by whatever means should stop.
What is even more important for me is for the South-West governors to eschew unnecessary divisions among themselves in the interest of the overall development of the region. This is especially necessary at this point when, for the first time since the 1999-2003 period, all the South-West governors belong to the same party, namely, the APC.
It is unclear to me why any reasonable politician will not understand that no one endures in politics, who steps over his base to seek political succour at the centre only. When the centre crashes, centrists will find it difficult to reclaim their base.
If the possibility of reclaiming the base is behind Amosun’s manoeuvres in Ogun, then he has been going about the process the wrong way. There is no way that the processes unfolding in his state will not impact negatively on his party. It has certainly impacted negatively on his person, style, and comportment, leading to questions about his status as the Chief Executive of a state.
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