Head, News Desk, VICTOR EBIMOMI, examines the dimensions of Governor Ibikunle Amosun and Olusegun Osoba’s face-off and its impact on Ogun State politics.
Gov. Ibikunle Amosun
They started on a good note, complementing each other as political godfather and godson. But now, things seem to have fallen apart. Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and his predecessor, former Governor Olusegun Osoba, are now at opposite ends, raising the political pulse of the state as the 2015 election draws near.
In the April 2011 general election, the duo had joined forces to wrest the state from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
They attained the feat while operating as one close-knit family on the platform of the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), a party that came into reckoning and influence in the state through the political sagacity of Osoba.
Before then, Amosun’s odyssey in the state’s politics had been back and forth, having first represented Ogun Central Senatorial District under the PDP. He later defected and contested for governorship for the first time on the platform of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) but failed.
The ACN fused into the All Progressives Congress (APC) early last year in a mega party arrangement that involved three other parties.
Behind their crisis, however, was the control of the APC machinery in the state. Amosun, like most other governors, saw himself as the leader of the party by virtue of his office. But Osoba, as former governor and national leader of the party, would not take that.
Besides, with his role in the emergence of Amosun as governor after a failed attempt and his pedigree as a member of the old order (progressives), Osoba felt eminently positioned to control the quantum of the party machinery in the state.
As the feud between the duo progressed, though played down in the public, it finally came to the fore during the ward, local government and state congresses held in April this year, where two parallel congresses were conducted by the loyalists of the two politicians. Attempts to reconcile the two parties by the national body met a brick wall. But at last, Amosun had his way, as his faction was later accorded recognition by the national leadership of the party led by the then interim chairman, Bisi Akande, which inaugurated it in June in Abuja.
Thereafter, Osoba declared that he had lost trust in the national leadership of the party.
While speaking at an emergency consultative forum with his loyalists at his Ibara GRA home in Abeokuta on May 8, Osoba declared that he had begun a “new political engineering”.
In another of such meetings on May 29 also at his residence, he finally ruled out the possibility of working with Amosun and his faction of the APC in the state. He also gave an insight into a possible mass defection of his supporters to a new party, as he directed them to compile a new members’ register in the 236 wards across the state.
“They said they have given them the party structure. Leave them. Are you dragging the party with them? It is those that have people that have the party.
“I don’t have confidence in those people who claim that they want to look for settlement. They are not looking for any settlement; they are looking for way of eating you up. They deceived me the first time and they cannot do it the second time. Nobody among them was as close to (Obafemi) Awolowo as I was. I wined and dined with Awolowo every two weeks. Whoever is sent here, I have no business with them,” he added.
From his tone, analysts believe that Osoba must have subtly given away the hitherto hidden agenda about where he was heading for, as the mention of Awolowo signified a lot in the South West politics.
On Saturday, August 16, the former governor reportedly unveiled the political platform on which he is expected to do battle with Amosun. He launched the Action Group of Nigeria (AGN), a party with almost the same nomenclature with Awolowo’s party, the Action Group (AG), a political party formed by the late sage and his compatriots in the run up to Nigeria’s Independence in 1960, with its clear cut mass-oriented programmes.
Those counted on the same camp with Osoba are said to be all the three senators in the state, all the House of Representatives members, majority of members of the House of Assembly and some prominent politicians in the state.
Osoba is also said to enjoy the support of Segun Adesegun, the deputy governor, who was allegedly nominated for the office by him.
Since the face-off started, TheNiche gathered that the deputy governor has been bearing the brunt of the uncertain developments, as some of his statutory duties were said to be delegated to the Speaker of the House of Assembly.
Curiously, it was learnt that the new AGN has become the beautiful bride of the state’s politics, as it is being wooed by different political parties, including the PDP and the Labour Party (LP).
However, Ogun State APC spokesman, Sola Lawal, dismissed talks of new party with a wave of the hands, maintaining that there is no threat on the way of APC from anywhere. He added that the party was not even aware of any move in that direction.
He told TheNiche: “As far as Osoba is concerned, he is still a member of the APC and a leader of the party in the state. The issue of forming a new party or defection does not arise because we are not aware of it. The information must be a figment of the imagination of those spreading it because such a thing cannot be done secretly.”
Some political observers are of the view that the purported formation of AGN could be a Plan B by Osoba and the former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, as the APC is now suffering due to a clash of interests that could potentially whittle down the powerful influence of Tinubu, who is regarded as national leader and a major financier of the party.
Osoba himself was said to be nursing the ambition of putting forward his son, Deji, for governorship election in 2015. The argument about this perceived Plan B may have been given credence by the activities of some of the new defectors to APC, who most times insist on having their way.
