Ondo State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirants have embarked on the mobilisation of the people for the next election across the 18 local government. Can they withstand the Labour Party (LP) arsenal? Deputy Political Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU examines the intra-party struggles for the governorship ticket in the opposition parties.
Whenever the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) blows the whistle for the governorship election in Ondo State, three parties; Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), would be locking horns.
Expectedly, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, a native of Ondo Kingdom, is the flag bearer of LP, the ruling party. He wields enormous influence in the state. His party is formidable. It also has solid structures at the grassroots. Rooting for him are traditional rulers, many opinion moulders, civil servants and youths.
However, to ACN, the ruling party is a fading platform. Its chairman, Mrs Jumoke Anifowose, who served in the Adebayo Adefarati Administration as commissioner, like Mimiko, said the power of incumbency would collapse on poll day, adding that the people of the Sunshine State are yearning for change. It is not an empty threat, judging by the way ACN aspirants are gathering forces in the nooks and crannies of the state.
PDP has also not given up despite the decimation of its membership. Like wounded lions, its chieftains are on the prowl, seeking whom to devour. There is no shortage of hope among the die-hard chieftains.
Other parties are just warming the register of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Many of them, sources said, are ready to trade their weak platforms for money by either endorsing Mimiko, ACN or PDP candidate. This has reinforced the fact that the paper-weight parties serve as sources of income to their officers during electioneering.
For Mimiko, it is a challenging period. Since he entered politics in the Second Republic as a young medical practitioner, he has not looked back. He has worked with many politicians in the state who are now his political foes. Out of exuberance, he had followed Chief Akinwole Omoboriowo briefly before the former deputy governor finally crashed in the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Members of the three parties, it can be rightly argued, have tasted power in the state before. When the Third Republic broke, Mimiko had become an outstanding actor. He was a colleague of his successor, Olusegun Agagu, in the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), on whose platform the latter served as deputy governor. In that Olumilua Administration, and much later, under Adefarati, the LP leader was the Commissioner for Health.
Mimiko, fondly called Iroko by admirers, is a former Secretary to Ondo State Government and Minister of Housing. He became the governor by merit.
Since then, his party has never lost any election in the state. In the April parliamentary elections, which the governor described as a mid-term assessment for his administration, LP won all the senatorial, House of Representatives and Assembly seats.
ACN leaders at the state and national levels have vowed to dislodge Mimiko, saying that the "iroko" must be cut to sizes. Firing back, Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kayode Akinmade, said: "The threat to hack down the hack down the "iroko" in 2013 is an empty threat. When the time comes, the people of Ondo State will determine their true leader. The Ondo people will never worship on any foreign alter".
Suddenly, cracks appeared on the wall. LP chairman and former Education Minister Olaiya Oni called it quits with the party. He said it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to work with the governor he had toiled with in the days of trouble. Two days ago, the vice chairman of the party, Senator Gbenga Meroyi, also left the party.The State Executive Council was dissolved. When it was reconstituted, some commissioners lost out. Now, the unlucky ones have started holding meetings with the opposition.
LP has two major enemies; ACN and PDP. But there are also aggrieved members within. PDP, led by Dr Tayo Dairo, perceives Mimiko as a member on holiday from the camp. To PDP chieftains, LP is a faction of the PDP in the state taking refuge on another platform. Thus, there is the persistent rumour that the governor, who is the livewire of LP, may retrace his steps.
Although it is becoming old fashioned to brand PDP as a credible alternative in the Southwest, owing to its stigmatisation as a rigging machine, the party cannot be ruled out completely, especially in the South District. Unlike PDP, the profile of ACN is soaring in the region and in the next election, Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Lagos ACN leader would morally and financially solidarise with their Ondo counterparts.
Ondo PDP suffered a setback recently when President Goodluck Jonathan did not appoint any of its members as a minister. Therefore, the party lacks an arrowhead, as it were. However, if the President is convinced, he may pump money into the campaign of the party's candidate. The dilemma is that President Jonathan may not perceive Mimiko as a direct foe.
Currently, governorship aspirants in the PDP include include Senator Olorunnimbe Farunkanmi, Dr Tayo Dairo, Prof Agbi ,Dr Agagu, who lost his deposit at the recent senatorial election in Ondo South, and his former deputy, Omolade Oluwateru. PDP sources said that the former Defence Minister, Tokunbo Kayode, and businessman Jimoh Ibrahim are also eyeing the governorship.
ACN has the highest number of governorship aspirants. Since the gates of LP appears closed and the PDP has a bad image, the only credible alternative is the ACN. Both LP and ACN would now move swiftly to get the remaining mushroom political parties on their sides for strategic reasons.
ACN governorship aspirants include Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), Akinola Awodeyi-Akinsehinwa, Hon. Tayo Alasoadura, Dr Tunji Abayomi, Hon. Segun Ojo, Comrade Sola Iji, Mrs Jumoke Anifowose, Dr Olu Agunloye, and Hon. Wale Akinterinwa.
Unconfirmed sources said Farunkanmi may later defect to the party. They are eminently qualified to run the affairs of the state. Since aspirants are many in ACN, post-primary crises are likely, unless top party leaders are able to persuasively tame the ambitions of the gladiators as they did in Oyo and Ogun states before the April elections.
Since 2007, ACN has indicated its desire for generational shift. This may not be applicable to Ondo State. Currently, the average age of the ACN governors in the Southwest is 48. Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola is 53. His Ogun counterpart, Ibikunle Amosun, is 50. Governor Babatunde Fashola is 47. Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi is 46. However, ACN chieftains aspiring to succeed Mimiko are nearer to 60 than 50. Abayomi is over 60. Agunsoye is 62 and Anifowose is 61. Iji is around 50. The odd could only favour Akinterinwa. But this is not the only criterion.
Last week, Abayomi, who holds a doctorate degree in Law, became the first aspirant to officially declare his interest in the race in ACN. At over 60, he is hale and hearty. The pro-democracy crusader is a legal mind and man of great ideas. In the dark days of the military, he opened his chest for bullets durinhg numerous demonstrations. A principled politician, Abayomi is from Oke-Agbe, Akoko Northwest local government.
Akinterinwa, former Commissioner for Finance in Mimiko Administration, is from Ile-Oluji, Ile-Oluji-Okeigbo Local Government. A likeable personality, he had contested for the House of Representatives in 2003 in AD, but the PDP rigging machinery aborted his dream. Last year, he left LP for ACN. Immediately, there was also a change in perception. Many started to see the difference between LP and ACN, which, previously, they ignorantly perceived as the same. A chartered accountant and administrator, he has experience.
Iji, former ACN chairman, is from Igbogini, Ose Local Government. He is a lawyer and unionist; politically consistent. Party men think that he lacks enormous resources to run a state-wide campaign
Agunloye, a university don from Erusu-Akoko. As the former boss of the Road Safety Commission, he was a household name. He is a former Minister of Power and Steel, who was not named in the monumental fraud that rocked the sector. He also held the at the Ministry of Defence (Navy). His campaign organisation has been nurturing structures, 'Omoluabi Platform' across the councils in the last five months.
In the race is Anifowose, former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice and daughter of former Governor Adekunle Ajasin. She is the chairman of the party.
Another contender is Alasoadura, a strong politician and leader of the strongest group in Ondo PDP. He was Commissioner for Finance under the Agagu Administration. Alasoadura is a man of determination; very firm and courageous. But there is the strong feeling that, if he fails to get the ticket, he may defect from ACN.
Senator Farunkanmi is 68. He is a prince from Iju. In the Second Republic, he was a fierce legislator on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria. Later, fate catapulted him into the Senate for three months. In 1999, became a founding member of AD. He dazed his compatriots, when he defected to the PDP. Later, controversy dogged his steps , when, as a PDP card-carrying member, he became a National Electoral Commissioner. He is an old hand with lots of experience.
Segun Ojo has been nicknamed the "General" of Ondo politics. A former Finance Commissioner, he can stand up to Mimiko, because he knew how he emerged. A native of Emure, Owo local government, he is a fordable figure. Ojo holds a Masters Degree in Economics/Statistics. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Statisticians, England and member of Nigeria Economic Society. He has authored many academic books for use in secondary and tertiary institutions. In 1991, Ojo served as Secretary to Owo local government. Between 1994 and1997, he was Board Director, Nigerian General Insurance Company, an Oodua subsidiary, He was state deputy chairman of AD , member of Ondo State University Governing Council, Adekunle Ajasin University Governing Council, National Financial Secretary of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, and former Patron of Labour Party.
The zonal distributions of the aspirants shows that Iji, Akinterinwa and Ibrahim are from the South District. Alasoadura, Mimiko, Agbi and Dairo, are from Central. Agunloye, Kayode, Abayomi and Ojo are from the North.
CULLED FROM THE NATION