Head, News Desk, VICTOR EBIMOMI, recollects factors that led to the victory of Rauf Aregbesola in the just-concluded governorship election in Osun State.
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) shocked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) machinery on Saturday, August 9, when he emerged victorious over its candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
Before the election, there had been public outcry by the APC loyalists that the PDP was bent on repeating the Ekiti scenario where it trounced the APC in the governorship election conducted on June 21.
The fear was accentuated by the deployment of heavy security personnel that ringed the state in a way that many of the people thought was meant to scare the electorate.
But Aregbesola rose up to the occasion. The governor, our reporter learnt, was able to achieve the victory based on some factors that were purely on personal merit. He scored 394,684 votes, while Omisore scored 292,747.
A clear majority of Osun voters, according to TheNiche investigation, wanted Aregbesola to continue in office because of some of his programmes which include the road network that they claim is unprecedented since the creation of the state in 1991.
With a ring-road around Osogbo and at least 10 kilometres of road in each of the 30 local government areas (LGAs), Aregbesola was seen by many of the voters as a transformer.
His employment programme through the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (O-YES) reportedly offered employment to 40,000 youths.
“I am a beneficiary of the programme; my elder brother is also a beneficiary. So why won’t I work for him,” an indigene said when the result started trickling in with a sign that victory for the one they refer to as Ogbeni was on sight.
Apart from feeding the pupils, he is also seen as somebody who cares for the elderly by providing social security through monthly allowances and free medical services. No wonder the elderly people trooped out, some even assisted by their children, to ensure that they cast their votes. They were even given preference by the electorate to vote first, so that they could go home to rest.
Interestingly, many of the voters came to the polling stations prepared with plastic chairs, to ensure that they observed the proceedings – voting and counting of votes – from the beginning to the end.
Aregbesola was said to be a man with populist traits, sometimes seen in the streets of the state mingling freely with the people. This was lately copied by Omisore who occasionally rode on bikes and ate roasted corns along.
Ogbeni never missed singing and dancing with the citizens at the slightest opportunity.
And one interesting aspect of Aregbesola’s electoral success was the unparalleled cooperation he enjoyed from his cabinet members and which also rubbed off on the supporters.
The military men drafted to the state could also have played a very significant role in Aregbesola’s victory. Rather than feel intimidated, the people felt more secured on the election by the conduct of the security agents, particularly the military personnel who behaved in more professional way than expected by many observers. They did not come close to the polling booths, but only the highways on red alert in case there was any crisis in any voting point. Unlike in Ekiti where the sound of sirens was very terrifying and almost heard every now and then, thereby sending jitters down the spines of the electorate, the security agents that operated during the Osun governorship poll instilled confidence in the people rather than terrifying them.
Aregbesola’s victory also came through the activities of Isiaka Adelele and Olagunsoye Oyinlola, both former governors of the state. They were both members of the PDP before they defected to the APC.
Adeleke was said to have left the party in a very angry mood, after he was allegedly molested by some people suspected to be Omisore’s die-hards. The man from Ede, which is equally the enclave of the PDP Deputy Governor, Adejare Bello, was said to have vowed that he would do everything to frustrate the PDP in the state. He may have lived up to the billing as Ede and environs were won by Aregbesola.
Oyinlola, on his part, was said to have found it difficult to forgive the PDP after he was thrown out of the national executive through a conspiratorial way. His defection four days to the election was a boost to Aregbesola because he left with his teeming supporters, while some of his close associates were said to have defected earlier. Though Oyinlola is from the small town of Okuku, he was said to have used his political clout as former governor to canvass support for Aregbesola, so that he could still be politically relevant in the state’s political calculation as the 2015 general election nears.
Besides, under the effective supervision of Aregbesola’s campaign coordinator, Senator Sola Adeyeye, hundreds of foot soldiers were seen in every nook and cranny of Osun, educating voters and encouraging them to vote despite heavy security.
TheNiche also gathered that the death of former Attorney-General of the Federation, Bola Ige, was an albatross of some sorts for the PDP candidate. Omisore was alleged to be part of the conspiracy that led to the killing of Ige. Though he had been vindicated by a court of competent jurisdiction, it was learnt that his opponents used that to blackmail him before the voters.
The Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, also confirmed this in an interaction with a group of journalists on the election day when he lamented that some days to the election, some people came to gum posters with bold message ‘who killed Ige’ in his compound.
“They did not even allow the man to rest in peace,” he lamented.
