It’s quite funny that Oyo State PDP now woke up to start an aggressive media campaign for the Governor and the Party’s House of Assembly candidates after they have all ensured that the Party lost out at both Senate, Reps and Presidential level last Saturday. That the Party has now been stripped naked in the State is the resultant effect of having arrogant and selfish individuals in high places, people that could not manage interest very well.
It is no gainsaying that the convergence and divergence point in politics is interest. Even when it is most inconvenient for you to take some decisions, you must take them in order to save faces. The refusal of the Governor to campaign for the Presidential candidate of the Party cost the Party all Senate and 9 Reps seats in the State because, it is public knowledge that the Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates would be collateral beneficiaries of whatever votes the Presidential candidate gets. The election was never about Atiku Abubakar but the PDP.
Though, the G5 Governors made it appear as if Atiku Abubakar is the devilish one by demonizing him, unfortunately, they’re the accursed and it is a thing of joy that 3 of them seeking Senatorial bids lost out. That is what division causes. It was even laughable that they were all talking about equity, fairness and justice when in the real sense they were the architects of the division in the Party.
The actions of the G5 Governors contradicts the principles they claimed to be fighting for. It is still on record that the Governor of Enugu State, Ugwuanyi who is also a member of the so-called G5 chaired the Committee on the zoning of the Party’s offices where they made recommendation that the Party’s national Chairman position be zoned to the North and should also not be paired with the Party’s Presidential ticket. That recommendation set the stage for the PDP’s Presidential ticket to be left open while guaranteeing Chairmanship to the North.
The lousy, garrulous and loquacious Ortom who was also parading himself as a lover of fairness chaired the PDP’s committee that was given the mandate of giving the Party bearing on where Presidency should be zoned. What was their recommendation? They recommended that the ticket be thrown open to the whole country. Meanwhile, Atiku Abubakar declared then that he would step down if zoning to the South means zoning to the South East which is the only region that has not produced President or Vice since 1999.
In Oyo State, the Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates of the Party decided to earn the ‘enemy’ of the Governor just like the Governor earned the ‘enemy’ of his colleague, Wike. Out of the belief that they would ride on the goodwill of the Governor to secure meaningful votes in their Senatorial districts and federal constituencies, instead of attaching the pictures of Atiku Abubakar to their campaign posters, they choose to attach that of the Governors as if their election was on same day (with the exception of Bisi Ilaka though).
Yes, it is true that the Governor enjoys goodwill of the people considering his populist style of governance which appeals to the people, abandoning the Party to the extent of losing even his Polling Unit and all Senatorial and House of Representatives seats only point to a fact that he is not as accepted as he thought. Just as Wike’s stooge who is contesting for Governor in Rivers State, if we are to talk of equity and fairness and justice in Oyo State, no one would be debating Governor Seyi Makinde but rather look elsewhere for balancing.
That the governor has been making some late moves is commendable. However, a lot of party members have developed a sort of skepticism and they are beginning to wonder whether there is an agreement between the governor and Tinubu that could have warranted the sacrifice of the party’s national assembly candidates as they fear if the governor emerges, he might abandon them for the APC.
Israel writes from Ibadan, Nigeria.
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