Ogun State was not just nicknamed as the “Gateway State” of Nigeria for fun, it is an appellation well earned, going by the historic place occupied by the state in the economic, political, social, and cultural history of Nigeria.
From music to medicine, accountancy, civil service bureaucracy, arts, films and culture, music, politics, journalism and activism, Ogun State has played pathfinding roles that have made it the envy of other states in Nigeria.
However, recently, the egocentric drive for political expansion, entrenchment and domineering tendencies of the present but transient occupier of the office of the Governor of Ogun State, is not only holding the state back in its strides, but is also, like ripe mangoes, attracting stones and other injurious objects to the sprouting tree.
Governor IbikunleAmosun, whose ego is seemingly taller than his over-sized sky-bound signature cap, is bent on pulling the state down along the route of infamy as recent political events in the state have sent tongues wagging, locally and internationally.
It was a shocked world that watched with total disbelief as live pictures and videos were streamed to local and international audience on Monday, February 11, when President Muhammadu Buhari was pelted with sachets of pure/poor water at a “Presidential Rally” held in the ancient city of Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Buhari’s ‘sin’ was that he dared to raise up the hand of the gubernatorial candidate of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince DapoAbiodun, at the rally, which was supposed to be APC’s rally but was hijacked by hoodlums who paraded themselves as members of the budding rival party, the Allied People’s Movement (APM), sponsored by Governor Amosun.
The incident of February 11 in Abeokuta turned out to be the first of such in recent history of Nigeria, where such huge quality collection of political personalities, comprising of a sitting president, the vice president, national chairman and leaders of a ruling party, present and serving governors, senators, members and officers of the top echelons of a ruling party at the national level would be stoned in the public and in the full glare of television cameras.
Governor Amosun may, after all, be operating from another planet, devoid of present realities. Before the arrival of the president at the rally, the governor was shown in live video streams, personally supervising the removal of the billboards, banners, flexes, effigies and other campaign materials of Prince DapoAbiodun from within and around the MKO Abiola Stadium, venue of the rally.
What Governor Amosun lacked in eloquence, logic and political statesmanship and sportsmanship, he actually made up for in indiscretion, manipulation, compromise and brigandage. He unleashed his attack dogs on anyone and everyone seen wearing the yellow colour caps and T-Shirts that are symbols of the APC governorship candidate, Prince DapoAbiodun, and chased them out of the stadium, just as President Buhari’s helicopter was a few kilometers away from the venue. It was a story of sorrows, tears and blood as defenseless APC members scattered and scampered in different directions.
Amosun has told the world that, it will over his dead body will DapoAbiodun, hitherto his bosom friend and confidant, become governor of Ogun State. It is an open secret that Amosun already has a lackey that he single-handedly picked and wants to force down the throats of Ogun electorate as his successor. He was even indulged by the president who received his popped-up puppet, contesting for governorship on the platform of APM, inside the villa, purportedly on endorsement mission, even when the APM has its own presidential candidate that hasn’t met or stepped down for President Buhari.
But for huge compromise from the gate to the inner recess of the Villa, what could have granted the governor, as he openly lamented, 28 times access to a busy president, to push for the selection of his political lackey as the winner of the October 3, 2018 governorship primaries of the APC in Ogun State, conducted by the National Working Committee of the party, a contest that the whole world knew, he never participated in?
The compromise came to the full glare during the event of February 11 when all the security top brass at the event stood with their hands akimbo, as the president and his entourage were booed, stoned, stunned and had to be ferried away under the body shield of their security aides! Not a single arrest was made or has been made by the combined security intelligence operating at the state and national levels.
That won’t be the first time anyway. When exchanges of guns boomed for several minutes at the venue of pre-congress meeting of the APC on October 1, 2018 held at MTROS Hall Abeokuta, a stone-throw from the residence of the governor, no one was, or has been arrested in connection with the incident. Many members of the ruling APC in Ogun State, including governorship aspirants, have petitioned the police authorities over threats to their lives. Their petitions have not even been acknowledged, let alone investigated.
Furthermore, when a serving member of the House of Representatives led hoodlums to attack the campaign train of Prince DapoAbiodun during his ward-to-ward tour of Abeokuta North Local Government on January 31, and scores of his supporters were severely injured, no one was, or has been arrested in connection with the incident. But the security agencies, especially the police, unbelievably, continue to claim neutrality and professionalism in the handling of these obviously one-side political attacks being suffered by APC members in Ogun, backed with “executive order”!
On the night of the attack on the president and APC leaders, a lavish party was thrown at the multi-billion naira private residence of the governor, now tagged “White House”, in Abeokuta. The video of the event, led by the APM governorship candidate in Ogun State, has since gone viral. The governor himself drove round the town the following day to thank the people for a “befitting reception” given to the president. He, as usual, doled out huge sums of money to different categories of people for a job “well done”!
He went further to place “thank you” adverts in major newspapers to thank the president for coming to Ogun State. He was also at the presidential rally in the Katsina home-state of President Buhari, perhaps the only governor that attended the rally barely few days to the presidential and National Assembly elections. The pictures from the Katsina rally have been bandied over the social media by Amosun’s supporters to show that the president was not angry with his “untouchable son” even with the Abeokuta incident.
It did not, therefore, come as a “rude shock”, that hoodlums numbering about 50, led by a Local Government Council chief, disrupted the distribution of the federal government’s financial empowerment scheme, tagged “TraderMoni”, to petty traders and artisans at Lafenwa Market in Abeokuta on February 19.
The media reported that the organisers of ‘’TraderMoni’’ had arrived at the market and were documenting the traders’ bio-data with their identities already captured when the hoodlums stormed the venue to disrupt the programme.
What must have probably escaped the media was that the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, was actually expected to launch the scheme at Lafenwa Market on the said date. The officials registering the beneficiaries were part of the advance team of the VP.
So, less than 10 days after the incident of stoning President Buhari in Abeokuta, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, himself an indigene of Ogun State, was prevented from visiting Abeokuta. What is next on the dangerous sleeves of the combustive governor is dreadfully unknown.
The poser now is: Who will tame the Amosun tiger?
- Oladunjoye, a political activist, sent this piece via oladunjoyelo@gmail.com