By Dayo Amusan
It is a common prayer that “our latter days should be better than our former”.
Otherwise, how best would one describe the recent faulty, disastrous and crazy happenings dotting the paths of Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun(SIA) in the twists light of his exit from power.
The popular maxim of “nothing lasts forever” is the best syndrome to describe the power-broke of the Governor’s resistance to accept defeat at the just concluded APC governorship primaries.
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party had declared Prince Dapo Abiodun as the winner of the party’s governorship primary in the State.
Dapo Abiodun triumphed above other five contestants in the party, namely; Jimi Lawal, Bimbo Ashiru, Abayomi Hunye, Gbenga Kaka and Adekunle Akinlade with varying degrees of scores.
Governor Amosun has since refused to accept the candidature of Dapo Abiodun as Ogun APC governorship candidate but rather remained adamant that his preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlade who had earlier emerged as the party’s governorship candidate through a highly compromised selection process by the governor and his state APC Exco, should by all means be accepted by the NWC of APC.
Since then, the power-drunk Governor has continued to dig deep into abysmal trenches like King Saul in the Bible.
But the Governor had soon forgotten that power is transient and does not last forever.
The Governor made a tactical error in trying to impose his consensus candidates on the entirety of the Party’s stakeholders without their proper buy-in.
The level of arrogance, self centeredness, maneuvering, posturing, deceit and raw power display that went into the whole charade from the on set, were all pointers to a failure.
How can an outgoing governor unilaterally selected the governorship candidate of his party and all the 40 National and State Assemblies members without giving a waiver for party leaders in the State? It beats all reasonable justification.
Ogun State is so sophisticated in composition for an individual wanting to lord it over the people.
Of course, it is in the public knowledge that the governor’s desperate effort to install his stooge as his successor was to cover his tracks of series of financial frauds and economic sabotage dotting his almost eight years’ administration.
The heavy indebtedness of “Emperor” Amosun’s administration to the detriment of the State’s future, running into N500Billion in a pace of seven and half years, is enough for the governor to ‘by-fire-by-force’ wanting to implant a makeshift as governor.
The wrestle of power by the governor with the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, is a pointer to the fact that Mr. Governor is preparing ground for an inglorious end.
The Governor’s insistence to handover power to Yewa/Awori man come 2019 is commendable, but that cannot be single-handedly determined by him, but with collective decision of all party’s stakeholders and such candidate must be widely accepted by the generality of the people across the zones.
No man is supreme or higher than the party’s constitution and leadership, but unfortunately in this case, Governor Amosun is also a candidate who is trying to install another candidate as the party’s governorship candidate.
As if that was not enough, the Governor wasted yet another state resources to broadcast live a charade called National Assembly primary of the party which was reportedly marred with violence and threat to life of dissent groups within the party.
Dapo Abiodun’s candidacy has been ratified and validated by the NWC of APC. What the governor should start perfecting is how to redeem his battered image and his political career after leaving office as governor.
Surprisingly, the governor was quoted to have threatened to quit the party if his preferred candidate was not adopted.
In fact, his foot soldiers and the supporters of his stooge, took to the social media to announce their botched defection plans to another party, variously; Accord Party and ADC Party.
But a top source from the Party’s National secretariat disclosed that the veil threat to expose the governor’s shady deals and his involvement in Kemi Adeosun’s NYSC scandal, instilled some senses in the recalcitrant Governor.
It was the threat by the National leaders of the party that, instigated the Governor to retract his decision and still stays in the party.
But still not satisfied with the resolutions of the matter, the Governor recently caused his political aides to institute a court case against the leadership of the Party and the accepted governorship candidate, Dapo
Abiodun, working round a theory of stalling the process of installing an APC governorship candidate in the State in 2019 general elections.
He will need to hire a high profile PR stunt to save his head on some unmitigated allegations leveled against him by some party echelons.
These allegations which will, sooner than later, expose his weaknesses include; the flukes in his infrastructure renewal that was sectionalised and highly inflated, his greed in wealth acquisition across the State, his underhand and failed corrupt dealings with multi nationals investing in the State, particularly the loss of the Dangote’s multi billion dollars Petro-chemical refinery investment to Lagos State.
Other disturbing allegations hinted by the sources are his alleged money laundry venture to the Asian circles, the failed Model schools’ projects across the State, and the wooping sums expended so far in desperate moves to implant a puppet with a view to cover his tracks.
The sources in the known said already an indicting petition on series of financial frauds and economic sabotage dotting his almost 8 years administration of the Governor has already been prepared for submission to EFCC.
From the various accounts stitched together from knowledgeable sources, the attempt to demystify Governor Amosun’s power intransigence will begin to manifest in the weeks ahead, signalling the beginning of his end and lost of relevance with the powers-that- be.
Dayo Amusan (DA) writes from Sagamu