Yewa-Awori people of Ogun West have begun a search for a political platform to enable them to realise their desire of producing the governor of Ogun State in 2015.
Leaders of Yewa-Awori in Ogun West Senatorial District, who met on Sunday in Abeokuta, indicated this at a colloquium on the 2015 political agenda organised by a group, Ogun West Rebirth.
The Yewa-Awori remains the only zone that had yet to produce the governor of the state since its creation in 1976.
The Ogun West leaders, who attended the meeting were the former Commissioner for Works, Chief Waliu Taiwo; the ex-Commissioner for Agriculture, Chief Tunji Akinosi, and the Minority Leader of the state House of Assembly, Job Akintan.
Others were the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on State and Local Governments, Razaq Adewusi; lawmaker representing Yewa South/Ipokia Federal Constituency, Abiodun Akinlade, and the governorship candidate for the Peoples Party of Nigeria in the 2011 election, Mr. Gboyega Isiaka.
Taiwo said it was obvious that the people of Ogun West would not realise their ambition of producing the governor of the state on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria or the Peoples Democratic Party.
He, therefore, urged the people to look beyond the two parties if they desired to produce the governor of the state in 2015.
He said, "We have to look inwards. Where are we now? The current situation is not clear to everybody with all the parties in total disarray—whether the ACN or the PDP—they are in total disarray. The ACN has its problems; PDP has its problems. So, where do we go now? Our main objective now is to make sure that in 2015, an Ogun West person is the number one citizen of the state. That is our objective."
Isiaka, who urged the people to wake up from their slumber, said they had for long been victims of deceit and divide-and-rule tactics.
Job, Akinlade and Adewusi, who supported the idea of a fresh political platform, noted that unity was instrumental in accomplishing the zone's desire of producing the governor in 2015.
The Chairman of the Ogun West Rebirth, Dapo Oke, said the zone was already working towards having a consensus candidate that would contest against Governor Ibikunle Amosun in 2015.
According to Oke, aside the internal wrangling in the PDP, which cost Ogun West the opportunity of producing the governor in the 2011 election, the zone was also not politically organised.
He added, "Reason for our failures in the past governorship attempts largely can be attributed to internal and external factors. It has always been a case of external factors driving the internal deficiency. Because our leaders have not developed the good concept of mentoring in our political life, it has created a lacuna of external leadership invasion in our internal affairs.
"No doubt we have people of high intellectual capacity, national and international pedigree with proven records of accomplishments, but we in Ogun West do not look in their direction for political representation."
The Punch