When will Ogun West produce governor?

The Ogun West Senatorial District has not produced governor since the creation of the state 43 years ago. LEKE SALAUDEEEN examines reasons why the seat has continued to elude the zone.

Will Ogun West Senatorial District ever produce governor in Ogun State? Can it break the jinx?

Two times, the zone came close to govern the state, but the chances were frittered because it failed to speak with one voice. The zone, made up of Yewa and Awori people, has not had the opportunity since it was created 43 years ago. The other two senatorial districts are: Ogun Central populated by the Egbas and Ogun East constituted by the Ijebu and Remo. They have been monopolising the office.

In the just concluded election, Ogun West presented two candidates  on different platforms. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) inspired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo fielded serial contestant Gboyega Isiaka as its candidate. Similarly, Governor Ibikunle Amosun adopted the Allied Peoples’ Movement to enable his anointed candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, contest the election.  Amosun’s action was a fall out of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary. The governor claimed that Akinlade emerged winner during the primary conducted by the party executive in the state. The APC National Working Committee said only the electoral panel set up by it had the right to conduct primaries. Thus, the NWC ratified Dapo Abiodun who emerged at the primary supervised by the panel as party candidate.

Both Isiaka and Akinlade are from the West Senatorial District. Curiously, their sponsors, Obasanjo and Amosun, hail from Ogun Central District. The idea of giving the Yewa/Awori people a chance to produce  Amosun’s successor in 2019 was very popular among stakeholders before the election. Obasanjo and Amosun had agreed that the zone would produce the next governor. To demonstrate his commitment, Obasanjo said “the zone should be allowed to produce Amosun’s successor, in the interest of equity and justice” He said it was unfair that the zone has not produced governor since the state was created over four decades ago.  The former President warned that, if you don’t make Yewa and Awori people to feel that they belong, you are inviting trouble and breeding fertile ground for terrorism in the state.

Amosun had made it known in 2015 that he would ensure that a Yewa/Awori indigene succeeds him in office. He made it a campaign issue in 2015 when he was seeking re-election at a parley with the political leaders from the zone. Analysts said it was in a bid to fulfil the promise that Amosun stuck out his neck to ensure Akinlade won the governorship election. He defied party supremacy, sponsored and openly campaigned for Akinlade against the APC flag bearer, Abiodun. The consequence is that Amosun was suspended by the APC. The NWC had also recommended him for expulsion from the party .

The first time the West District came close to producing governor was in 2011, when two of their sons contested for the coveted seat on different platforms. The political rivalry between Obasanjo and former Governor Gbenga Daniel denied the zone the opportunity. The state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was polarised in the build up to the election. The Obasanjo group held a primary that produced General Adetunji Olurin (retd) as governorship candidate of the PDP, while the Daniel faction formed the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) to enable its candidate, Isiaka, vie for the governorship. Olurin and Isiaka hail from Yewa. The hope of their people was dashed as they lost to Amosun of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) then.

In Ogun, there exists an unwritten agreement between the Egba and Ijebu on the zoning of governorship. Ogun Central and East Districts alternate power. The late Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, who governed from 1979 to 1983 and Daniel from 2003 to 2011 are from Ogun East. Similarly, the Central District has produced two governors: Chief Olusegun Osoba (1991 to 1993 and 1999 to 2003) and  Amosun, who has been in power since 2011.

The struggle by Yewa for the seat dated back to the Second Republic when the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), led by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was to pick its governorship candidate. An indigene of Yewa, the late Senator Jonathan Odebiyi, vied for the UPN ticket against Onabanjo. Odebiyi lost the shadow election to Onabanjo from the East. Instead, Odebiyi contested for the senatorial seat, which he won. Again, in 1991, an illustrious son of Yewa, Professor Afolabi Olabimtan, sought for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) ticket. He lost the primary to Chief Osoba by a narrow margin.

Analysts believe that the consistent failure of the Yewa/Awori people to agree on the choice of candidate has been the major impediment against their ambition to produce governor. They lamented that the greatest mistake of the zone in 2011 was repeated in 2019. They recalled that, in 2011, the zone produced two governorship candidates. Again in 2019, five candidates came out. They include Akinlade (APM), Isiaka (ADC), Oluseyi Olowookere (Alliance for Democracy),  John Agboola (AAP) and Adewale Omoniyi (ANRP). If they have used their bloc vote advantage for one of the candidates, it would have been a different story. A community leader in Yewa said at a time we realised that Isiaka would not win but we couldn’t ask him to step down for Akinlade.

The Asiwaju of Yewaland, Professor Anthony Asiwaju said the endorsement of Isiaka as candidate was to avoid a repeat of the past. “We held meetings and we agreed GNI (Isiaka) should be our candidate; that was how he became our consensus candidate,” he said. While explaining his effort in realising an Ogun West governor, Asiwaju recalled that there was a cordial relationship between him and the state Governor Ibikunle Amosun, until he advised him to support the candidature of Isiaka.

He said: “The going was good between me and the governor because he said he would support an Ogun West candidate for governor. In fact, a meeting was held in Ota and I decided not to say anything, but the governor insisted that I should talk along three others. But when what happened in APC happened and i heard that he (Amosun) would remain in the APC, I wrote to him. I told him that I didn’t think that things would go as expected with the APM development. It seems that was where I offended him”.

The Coordinator of Ogun West Stakeholders Forum, Dr Kunle Salako said: “The struggle for an Ogun West governor had gone through its eighth circle, numbering 43 years since the creation of the state. But despite the huge investment materially and emotionally, the goal of the struggle remains unachievable. In terms of structure, grassroots penetration, clear identity, visibility, national spread and internal cohesion, we asked ourselves which of these political parties was best suited for this all important journey and we discovered and agreed that it is Gboyega Nasir Isiaka.”

Before the general elections, there was internal bickering in Ogun West. The Yewa people who constitute the four local governments of Yewa South, Yewa North, Imeko-Afon and Ipokia could not agree among themselves.  They were vehemently opposed to Ilaro in producing the governor. The argument was that the few developments, which the zone has benefitted under the military and democratic dispensations, were mainly in Ilaro and should not be allowed to produce the governor in the interest of equity and fairness. Besides, the Awori people also complained against the dominant Yewa. The Aworis were not favourably disposed to the governor coming from Yewa. Of the five local governments in Ogun West, Awori has one. They premised their argument on the excuse that Yewa with four local governments that had benefitted immensely from all the developments accruable to the district should not produce governor.

A politician from Ogun East confided in our correspondent that the office would continue to elude the zone for as long as they failed to speak with one voice. Other zones would continue to take advantage of their disunity to win governorship election in the state. He said their disunity, egocentric and lack of political compromise manifested more during the 2019 election.

However, a political activist, Yomi Aderibigbe, advised the Egba and Ijebu people to realise that Ogun State is a tripod and that Yewa/Awori people have equal rights to aspire to any position including governorship seat. He said: “They should abide with the zoning formula which has become a permanent feature in Nigerian politics. The idea of treating a group of people inconsequential is unhealthy. If it persists, the people of Yewa/Awori will react violently.”

But, a governorship aspirant on the platform of APC, Jimi Lawal, said power rotates between Ijebu and Egba in Ogun State. He said: “We have two provinces in Ogun: Ijebu province and Egba province. Egba has a sub division- Egbado or Yewa/Awori; Ijebu has a sub division- Remo. An Ijebu man had been a governor, so when the chance came back to Ijebu province again, they said let us go to Remo. Egba man had been a governor in the person of Chief Olusegun Osoba and when it went back to Egba province, which was supposed to be given to Yewa, Amosun got it. So, Governor Amosun could not have used the Egba/ Egbado tenure and come back to say Egba/Egbado again. It is not possible.”

A community leader in Yewa, Chief Olasunkanmi Elegbede said, what played out in 2011 and 2019 was part of the grand conspiracy to stop Ogun West from ever producing governor. He said: “Obasanjo who fielded Olurin in 2011 is from Ogun Central and Daniel who sponsored Isiaka hails from Ogun East. The conspiracy paved the way for Amosun from Ogun Central to emerge as governor. Again Obasanjo drafted Isiaka in 2019 while Amosun sponsored Akinlade, the conspiracy made it possible for Dapo Abiodun from Ogunn East to win the governorship election.” He said both Ogun Central and East districts are in the habit of forming alliances to facilitate the emergence of one of their sons as the governor, at the expense of the Ogun West.

Elegbede added: “The people of Yewa/Awori have learnt bitter lessons from their failed attempts to produce governor. The unsuccessful attempts would not stop us from fighting for our rights. Next time, we will speak with one voice. If all registered political parties pick their candidates from Ogun West, we will decide which party to cast our votes for. We will use our bloc vote to break the jinx. We have had enough of divide and rule tactics.”