Olu Akaraogun
As far as I am concerned, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Bukola Saraki belong to the same political school of thought. To me, Tinubu is a Sarakist while Bukola is a Jagabandit. However, this should be a topic for another day.
What they have done or failed to do, counting down to the Osun gubernatorial polls, is the subject of my discourse this time around.
Asiwaju has always been the National Leader of our party, even if the position cannot even guarantee our dear leader a seat at the NEC of the party. O ma see o.
How Bukola accepted such a toothless tag in the PDP when he returned “home” baffled me. May be he wanted to be on the same pedestal with Asiwaju, his political ideological soulmate. You know their records are even identical: both are two-term Governors; both are Senators; both have conquered territories, only that Saraki has no colony like Jagaban. Both have the rare privileges of being dragged to court over asset declaration cases and survived.
But someone told me that since PDP has been robbed of father figures like Obasanjo and ailing Babangida, Saraki could use his office as the Senate President to command respect and give the requisite leadership that the party badly needs.
Just as we were having a debate at our rendezvous in Iree Polytechnic, we heard it on the radio that Bukola had been appointed as the chairman of the eminent party men who are saddled with the responsibility of regaining Osun State from APC at the polls. I immediately told my friends that I could only take Saraki seriously if he could broker a truce between the Adelekes and Ogunbiyis. And as if he heard my challenge, Bukola, Omo Baba Oloye has done just that.
Ahead of the September 22 governorship election in Osun State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, and his arch rival, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, Wednesday reconciled and agreed to work together for the victory of the party. The peace accord was brokered by Saraki. The Senate President wrote thus: “Following marathon meetings today in Abuja, I am pleased to announce that we have a signed agreement between PDP gubernatorial candidate, Senator Adeleke and his rival, Dr. Ogunbiyi. As we approach the September 22, 2018 governorship election, our party moves forward as one.” Just as they are celebrating the new development across the party structure in Osun State, our party APC remains fractured due to perceived irregularities that compromised our gubernatorial primaries.
I know some die hard supporters of Asiwaju will regale us with stories of efforts made by their masters to unite all aspirants and some will even blame Sheu, Lasun and K-Rad for being too stubborn. My response to them is that your masters are too arrogant to work out a working formula for genuine reconciliation of all the genuinely aggrieved aspirants. I have it on good authority that they did not even attempt to make any overtures to Lasun. As far as they are concerned, Lasun is history. The young and vibrant lawyer neither ask for money nor position, yet it was learnt they never got back to him. Now we have a litigation to worry about in Abuja as K-Rad has dragged INEC and our party to the Federal High Court in Abuja, praying that our primaries should be nullified. I do not even want to talk about Adeoti because his exit is too painful to bear.
Conclusively, would you rather have a Bukola as the National Leader of your party or Jagaban? The choice is yours. But on Osun debacle, Omo Baba Oloye has got my back!
Olu Akaraogun hails from Iragbiji in Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State.
