Enter Ondo Guber poll, the three horse race.
– Steve Ovirih.
Ondo State, the Sunshine State which has been under the firm grip of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Government of Arakunrin Odunayo Oluwarotimi Akeredolu in the past three and half years is set to hold another round of Gubernatorial poll. All eyes will be on the Sunshine State. Come October 10th as the electorate shall vote a new Governor who will hold sway at Alagbaka, the Government House for another four years. Expectedly, about 15 parties shall present candidates for the election; in reality , it is more or less going to be a three horse race .
The incumbent, Gov . Oluwarotimi Akeredolu , (SAN) the APC Governorship candidate is running; Eyitayo Jegede, (SAN), former Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General of Ondo State is running. It will be recalled that the race in 2016 was actually between Akeredolu and Jegede, both former Attorneys General and Commissioners of Justice of Ondo State. Also gunning for the Ondo top job is the Ondo State Deputy Governor and Zenith Labour Party candidate, Hon. Alfred Agboola Ajayi. And this is where it gets interesting: Agboola Ajayi was on the same ticket with Arakunrin Akeredolu in the 2016 poll that gave the PDP candidate ” vote schelacking” and the rest is history as they say, but today , politics of interest has made both Governor and his Deputy part ways, splitting the forthcoming Guber race into a straight fight among three notable gladiators.
In ancient French, the story is told of The Three Musketeers: honourable, chivalrous and united by their desire to protect France against external aggression. Ambition later set in and put asunder their noble unity of purpose; in Ondo State, Politics of ambition has made Ondo State Governor and his Deputy , Agboola Ajayi to go their separate ways , each now seeking peoples votes on different political platforms. However, parting of ways between Governor and his Deputy is not new to Ondo State. In the days of Gov. Olusegun Mimiko, he did part ways with his Deputy, Chief Ali Olanusi and both went their separate political path. This time round, the Deputy is going all out to compete with his Governor on the battlefield of polls.
The All Progressives Congress prides itself as the beautiful bride of the Guber poll. Its candidate, Arakunrin Odunayo Akeredolu is poised as the candidate to succeed himself in the Ondo State political terrain . You cannot begrudge him of the winning instinct, after all he won overwhelmingly across the 18 local government areas in his first term in 2016. Having been in office for three and half years , he will bank on the achievement of his administration so far to sway the votes in his favour. A more pronounced argument to boost his second term bid is that the Central senatorial district which projected Gov. Mimiko was in office for two terms and now that it is his turn from the Northern senatorial district, he should be allowed a second term in office after which the Governorship ticket will swing south ways. This zoning argument which makes the South to wait in the wings to zero in on the Guber slot has made APC to cede the Deputy Governorship candidate to Ondo South and in a sleight of political expediency, the Ilaje nation whose sons have not benefitted from such lofty consideration since the history of the formation of Ondo State has the rare chance of producing the Deputy Governorship candidate, Hon. Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa. APC will be banking , hopefully on Ilaje votes , nay Ondo South on the basis of this unwritten agreement.
The Gov. Akeredolu led administration will also hope to make political capital from his giant strides in government over the past three years. The Director General of Gov. Akeredolu’s campaign Council, Chief Victor Olabintan said Akeredolu in all fairness has performed very well and deserves a second term. Lagos State Governor, His Excellency, Jide Sanwoolu while speaking with royal fathers from the Southern senatorial district said Akeredolu has replicated in Ore, the type of flyover that stands Lagos in a good stead. He told the crowd of APC supporters at Methodist Primary School, Okitipupa to vote Akeredolu again for the good work to continue.
Peoples Democratic party (PDP) in Ondo State is waiting in the wings and hoping to seize power from the incumbent through the ballot box come October 10th. The party has shown that it has learnt from the 2016 experience which almost made it clinch victory, but came second at the poll. The party has propped up once again Eyitayo Jegede (SAN ) who slugged it out with the APC candidate in 2016. Out of all the major contenders in the Ondo Guber Primary of PDP, the delegates settled for Eyitayo Jegede again. This could only imply a brand loyalty to Jegede’s candidacy by a better informed band of PDP delegates.
Ondo State PDP will be banking on its victory in Edo State and will be hoping to replicate same in the Ondo Guber poll. In Edo State, Peoples Democratic party made a mince meat of its closest rival APC and gave it a black eye in a poll where the bookmakers had already given the victory to APC based on the mass appeal of the party’s campaign stratagem. However, a political analyst, who preferred anonimity, had cautioned that Politics of Edo and Ondo may not be the same thing , hence the stereotype approach of transferring the Edo Guber scenario to Ondo may not work. PDP’s spokesperson, Zadok Akintoye is of the opinion that PDP has all it takes to win Ondo Guber poll in a free and fair context, charging INEC and the Federal Government to give the parties a level playing field.
Eyitayo Jegede , the Akure born PDP Governorship candidate who has campaigned round Ondo State has harped on a development policy that will bring Ondo State out of the woods, telling the electorate that if voted as Governor, he will not pay lip service to governance. Another support Jegede will be banking on is the Goodwill of the PDP Governors’ forum (PGF). In a manner of speaking, this Goodwill pulled surprises for Godwin Obaseki of Edo State when such a “stitch in time” assist was desirable. Feelers reveal that people of Akure land are rooting for Eyitayo Jegede , a son of the soil, while PDP stakeholders across the state are working behind the scene to pull more vote supports for Jegede to correct the flop of the 2016 polls.
Hon Agboola Alfred Ajayi, the Kiribo born Lawyer and politician is firing from all cylinders and in his bid to realise his constitutionally recognised aspiration, which is to become Ondo State Governor, he has berthed at the Zenith Labour Party ( ZLP). Holding hands with the Ondo born political Maverick and veteran of political activities, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, the immediate past Governor of Ondo State, Hon Agboola seems to have evolved as the undeniable third force in the narrative of the forthcoming Ondo Guber poll.
Governor Mimiko, it will be recalled floated Labour Party ( LP) when he parted ways with the Gov. Agagu led PDP, and eventually rode to political reckoning as Ondo State Governor using the vehicle of the “orange revolution” led Labour Party. Will Agboola Ajayi replicate this history with the ZLP battle axe, which has Dr. Olusegun Mimiko as arrow head? Time bellies the answer for the moment.
Agboola Ajayi’s movement to the ZLP was no less dramatic. He had had a smooth ride with his Principal, Arakunrin Odunayo Akeredolu as both of them had governed the state with the finesse expected of their calling. A jolly good ride you will call it until cracks began to surface in the working relationship between Arakunrin and Arakunrin kekere; the rest they say is history. Hon. Agboola had a very brief stint with PDP where he actually made a strong show of his weight as a fast paced political mobiliser. In the PDP primaries, having joined within just few weeks, he pulled enough votes ahead of other long term members and contestants to come second at the PDP Primary.
Interestingly, Agboola Ajayi’s ZLP has been harping on the Southern Agenda in his senatorial district to swing his Peoples vote come October 10th. He wants his people to believe that the time for the Southern Agenda is now and not any time further.
Ajayi has for Deputy Hon. Adegboye, a strong ally of Dr. Mimiko from Ifedore; for keen watchers of political development, that’s another smart move to garner vote support from the Akure axis.
Agboola Ajayi’s campaign has been on good governance and he has identified with undergraduates of Ondo State universities with a promise to slash their school fees considerably. His campaign trail has not been without controversy: while some authority withing PDP are all out to fly the kite of a seeming merger between Agboola’s ZLP and Jegede’s PDP, Barr Remigius Akinbinu, the Ondo born Lawyer and politician and Babatunde Okeowo, spokesperson to Hon . Agboola Ajayi have debunked the news as the jittery reaction of a confused opposition, stressing that if PDP is saying that at this auspicious time, it implies the party has lost faith in its ability to stand alone and gather marginal victory vote.
The October 10th Ondo Guber poll is a test of popularity, a seeming vote of confidence and no doubt a three horse race of stallions from different stables.
Who wins the context is a question well hidden in the belly of time.
