Assistant Editor (South West), MUYIWA OLALEYE, analyses the chances of former Oyo State governor and candidate of Accord, Rasheed Ladoja, in the April 11 governorship election in the State.
With former Oyo State governors angling for return to Agodi Government House, the April 11 governorship contest in the state promises to be crunchy. Perhaps, aware of the titanic race ahead, one of the contestants, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, is not taking any chances.
In the build-up to the 2011 general election, Ladoja lost his bid to return to power through the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to his erstwhile deputy, Adebayo Alao-Akala.
With imminent loss of the ticket to Alao-Akala, Ladoja pulled out of the PDP and, barely four months to the election, introduced Accord into the politics of the state. Since his withdrawal from the PDP, peace and progress have been far away from the state chapter of the party.
While Ladoja embraced Accord, critics had dismissed the possibility of his making any meaningful impact in the 2011 elections on the platform of the party. But observers were stunned when the four-month-old Accord won four House of Representatives and seven House of Assembly seats.
The success of the party in 2011 was hinged on the popularity of Ladoja, who many pundits say still resonates with the common people in the state, years after leaving office.
This, perhaps, may inform why, between the last election and the present dispensation, Ladoja had embarked on a massive party building exercise that made Accord not just an Ibadan party, but one that has spread all over the state. His camp is confident of victory in the April polls.
The state-wide acceptance of Accord, observers noted, might have informed the move by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and PDP for him to collapse his huge political structure in the state into their organisations. Our reporter gathered, however, that talks among the former governor, the PDP and the APC leadership to that effect broke down irretrievably.
The foregoing is the context in which AP, now almost four years, will be going to next month’s elections. The party subtly assessed its level of acceptance by the Oyo electorate during the commencement of its campaign at Durbar Stadium, Oyo city.
Speaking at the rally, the Director-General of the Ladoja Campaign Organisation and former Speaker of the House of Assembly, Adeolu Adeleke, stressed that the Ladoja brand still resonates with the people because he left an indelible mark as governor, adding that the only way to bring about positive change in the state was to vote AP at the polls.
“Ladoja is the man who can liberate the state from the shackles of poverty and put food on the dining table of the common man, and bring back joy to families whose hopes have been dashed and whose socio-economic conditions are pitiable,” he said.
He used the occasion to dispel what he described as propaganda, a statement credited to the state government that Ladoja had refunded N500 million of the money he allegedly stole from the government coffers. The DG, who described Governor Abiola Ajimobi as an outgoing governor, challenged him to publicise the cheque with which such payment was made, if it ever was made, and show further proof.
“They know Ladoja’s integrity has remained unquestionable and that is why they want to throw anything at him to smear his towering image. But they goofed because his image is engrained in the people’s minds. The change that the people of Oyo State desire will be brought about by Accord’s government,” he said.
The state chairman of the party, Basir Lawal, explained the choice of Oyo town for the flag-off of the campaign on three reasons: to show off the strength of Accord in Oyo city and prove that it is not an Ibadan party; to demonstrate the love of the party for the ancient city of Oyo by picking a senatorial candidate from the area; and to parade people that will form the next government in the state before the citizenry.
“The other parties have conceded defeat and we in Accord are just waiting for the maturation of time before we take over the reins of government and once again demonstrate that people are of utmost concern to us in Accord and that they will be at the heart of everything our incoming government will do,” he said.
Shouts of Ladoja de, Idera de (which means Ladoja has come; succour has come) rent the stadium when the former governor mounted the podium to give his address. He attributed the continuous love of the people of the state for him and his party to the trust they reposed in him as governor and which he said he never breached.
He paid homage to the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, whom he said sanctioned the flag-off of the campaign in his domain and approved of his ambition during a visit to his palace two weeks earlier.
“The people of Oyo State are waiting for my government, and this government will bring succour to the already traumatised and socio-economically dislocated people of the state. The civil servants, the artisans, the farmers, and many more are all waiting for us. As far as I am concerned, Ajimobi’s time as governor is up and the people are fed up with his government.
“Schools were better in the state under me as governor than they are now. I employed 5,000 teachers as well as 1,600 graduate teachers. He claimed to have employed 5,000 teachers; but these teachers, if they are ever up to the figure he announced, will not be getting salaries until when he will have been voted out of office by the people.
“I am bringing back good governance in Oyo State from May 2015. Workers will get their salaries on the 25th (day) of every month as I did in my first coming. I will not only employ youths for productive venture; I will also get more teachers to come on board and 30 pupils will be allocated to a classroom. But one thing I’ll never do is to employ less than 2,000 youths and claim I have engaged 20,000 youths as is the case with the current government,” he remarked.
He charged the candidates of Accord, who had earlier been given the party’s flags authenticating their candidature, to begin door-to-door campaign in their areas to consolidate the state-wide acceptance of the party.
He, however, admonished them to mentor their supporters to eschew violence even in the face of provocation, stressing that those who know themselves as losers in the election will want to foment trouble and disrupt the peace.
But in reaction, Ajimobi boasted that his job in Oyo will make the people of the state to vote for him, again.
“Looking at the rate at which the social amenities are being tremendously improved and all my electoral promises fulfilled, I will win with a large margin in the coming election,” he said.