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Tag: Ogun 2015

  • Re: Ogun 2015 and a people’s aspiration

    I often hear this epigram from journalists: “Comment is free, but facts are sacred.” Politics is about self-interest; hence I do not begrudge Dr Sarah Olabimtan, the author of the article, “2015 and a people’s aspiration”, published in The Nation of July 5, 2015. What I frown at was her attempt to turn Ogun East, where I come from, into a pawn on her political chessboard. One is equally bemused by the efforts of the writer to make the Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, a hostage to some queer and indecipherable commitments to Ogun West. We (women) can sometimes be emotional, but facts will always be facts.

    It was my Awori friend from Ado/Odo Ota that first rang me up on the piece by Dr Sarah. “The Yewa now wish to reap where they did not sow!” she exclaimed. Of course, the facts are in the public domain. Of the 84,241 votes delivered to the APC in the governorship poll of April 11, 2015 by the five local councils in Ogun West senatorial district, Ado/Odo Ota local council alone, peopled essentially by the Aworis, delivered 34,097, representing 41% of the votes to Senator Amosun. In other words, the entire Yewa, with four out of the five local councils in Ogun West, delivered only 59% of the APC votes.

    On the contrary, out of the 69,535 votes of the PDP in the same governorship poll, Ado/Odo local council delivered only 12,769, representing 18% of the votes to Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, who is a Yewa. This implies that the entire four councils of Yewa people delivered a whopping 82% of the total votes of the PDP! The obvious conclusion from this is that the Yewa people voted massively for their son, Gboyega Isiaka of the PDP.

    Therefore, it was a fallacy and an exercise in sophistry for Mrs Sarah to write that, “Two distinguished Yewa-Awori sons were overlooked by their people for the incumbent… Yewa-Awori have used the vote to say in unmistakable terms that the two candidates raised against Amosun did not have their backing… Amosun whipped the two Yewa-Awori indigenes in their own backyard in Ogun West.” Nothing could be further from the truth!

    It is instructive, however, to note that, whereas Senator Akin Odunsi, the candidate of the SDP in the governorship election, who is an Awori, got only 59 votes from his local council, Ado/Odo Ota, Senator Ibikunle Amosun of the APC polled 34,097 in the same local council. Therefore, it was the Awori that actually rose in some way above the son-of-the-soil syndrome in the 2015 gubernatorial poll in Ogun State. Consequently, it is totally illogical and wrong for the writer to suggest that the Yewa people voted massively for Amosun so that he could back a candidate from the zone in 2019. If anything, it is the Awori that seemingly have some claims to lay to 2019 from Ogun West, but then not until the full matrix and calculus of Ogun politics are unravelled. What I propose at this juncture is nothing more than a tip of the iceberg, for it is too early in the day to discuss full blast the politics that will shape 2019, on which Ogun East has overriding stakes. Amosun has just won the mandate for a second term and he should not be distracted from accomplishing the goals he had set for the new term.

    The writer equally embarked on somewhat sentimental generalisation without getting her facts right on the issue of appointments. One wonders where she got her list of appointments from. When you deal with figures, accuracy should be the watchword.

    Politics is a game of numbers. Whereas my people from Ogun East delivered 94,974 votes to Governor Ibikunle Amosun, analysis of the contracts awarded, in monetary terms, shows that Ogun West got far more than its due from the resources of the state than Ogun East or Ogun Central, which is more populous than Ogun West. The writer therefore missed the point by comparing projects sited in Ogun East with Ogun West. In fact, the writer committed political hara-kiri by not contemplating the ramifications of such a strange voyage. It is on record that the longest road constructed by the Amosun administration – the 107km Ilara-Ijoun road – which cuts across four local councils, is in Ogun West. Whereas, the governor has through this succeeded in opening up the rural areas in Ogun West, the people of Ogun East are green with envy. Imagine the economic turn-around that Amosun brought to Ota and Aiyetoro through the modernisation of their roads.

    Indeed, considering the manner the PDP conducted itself in Ogun East, especially in Ijebu axis during the last general elections, the indignities meted out to many supporters of the APC who dared the rampaging monsters, the limited funds of the APC in sharp contrast with the limitless funds of the PDP to prosecute the election in Ogun East, where votes were up for grabs since neither Amosun nor Isiaka is from the senatorial district and the fact that the senatorial district still polled far above Ogun West to deliver the second term to Amosun, despite Ogun West taking the lion’s share of the funds for infrastructural development of the state, it is only human and logical for the incumbent governor to reward the people of Ogun East with his support in 2019.

    •By Chief (Mrs) Adetola Adewuyi,

    Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

  • Ogun 2015: PDP blocs form alliance against Amosun

    Ogun 2015: PDP blocs form alliance against Amosun

    Hitherto sworn political enemies in the battle for the soul of Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are back as friends to achieve just one objective: get Governor Ibikunle Amosun out of office in 2015. In this report, Assistant Editor, Remi Adelowo, examines the prospects and the thorny issues that could likely endanger the alliance

     

    In the run-up to the 2011 general elections, the Ogun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was virtually in tatters.

    For some reasons, including the ego of the leading gladiators which resulted in the failure of the party to forge a common front, the party was whitewashed in the governorship election by the then opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

    Prelude

    At the heat of the crisis, the principal actors who included former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; ex-governor, Gbenga Daniel; former Minister of Commerce, Jubril Martins-Kuye; major financier of the party, Buruji Kashamu, amongst other chieftains, did not see eye to eye.

    On one hand, Obasanjo, who had fallen out with Daniel, had seized control of the party structures using his influence at the Presidency to have his way. In concert with Kashamu, who invested heavily in the project, the former president ensured the emergence of Gen. Tunji Olurin (retd) from Ogun West Senatorial zone as the PDP governorship candidate.

    Daniel somehow saw this coming and had a Plan B. Having realised that he was losing grip of the Ogun PDP and, like most outgoing governors desirous of handing over to a trusted ally, Daniel had surreptitiously floated another political party, Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), a platform he used to install his former aide and close associate, Gboyega Nasiru Isiaka, as the party’s 2011 governorship candidate.

    Though the PPN won a sprinkle of seats in the House of Assembly elections and at the House of Representatives mostly from the Ogun West zone, its candidate and that of the PDP were defeated by the now defunct ACN’s Senator Ibikunle Amosun.

    Failed reconciliation moves

    With the 2011 election already won and lost, Kashamu putting his wealth to maximum advantage took control of the Ogun PDP by facilitating the election of his supporters from the ward to the state levels. In the process, he fell out with Obasanjo, who also wanted one of his allies, Senator Dipo Odujinrin, as the state party chairman.

    Several attempts to broker truce between the two warring camps were unsuccessful due to disagreements over the sharing formula of party offices. One of such reconciliatory meetings was held at the Lagos residence of former minister, Jubril Martins-Kuye, with Kashamu; a former senator, Lekan Mustapha and other party chieftains in attendance.

    With Obasanjo having also fallen out with President Goodluck Jonathan, Kashamu soon began to call the shots in Ogun PDP and by extension a few other state chapters of the PDP in the South West.

    Piqued by this development, the Obasanjo camp became completely ostracised from the party and have kept a distance from the affairs of the Ogun PDP.

    Jonathan 2015 project

    With the PDP determined to make an inroad into the South West in order to brighten the chances of Jonathan in the 2015 presidential elections, underground moves commenced to bring former members of the party back into the fold.

    One of such members is Daniel, who had since berthed in the Labour Party (LP) and has been installed by the national leadership of the party as the Ogun LP leader.

    The former governor, who would be formally received back in PDP on October 8, had earlier spoken of his desire to work in alliance with the PDP to ensure Jonathan wins the South West zone in 2015.

    But his gesture was not welcome by Kashamu. However, the former governor refused to be bullied. In a statement issued some weeks ago, he described Kashamu as “suffering from political inexperience and over-confidence.”

    Kashamu, who is currently the Chairman, Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of South West PDP, fired back in salvos. Describing Daniel as “someone suffering from an overdose of political prostitution,” the PDP chieftain in a statement by his media aide, Austin Onyiokor said, “It is Daniel that is suffering from overdose of political prostitution as a result of his serial defeat in the battle for the souls of the various parties he sought to ply his trade.

    “It is laughable that a renowned political prostitute like Daniel can refer to someone, who has defeated him several times as inexperienced and over-confident. What Daniel probably presumes to be his experience is how he uses party platform to negotiate and feather his own nest just like he did in 2011. The national leadership of our great party, the PDP, is wiser now and will not fall for such tricks anymore.

    “Perhaps, he thought we have forgotten that it was the same Daniel, who jumped from the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to the PDP and from PDP to PPN, now PPN to LP, after the PDP made him all that he claims to be today.

    “Now, he has gone back to LP and yet he says he wants to collaborate with us to chase away the APC government in Ogun State. We say no. How can you collaborate with us to chase away the APC government when you are fielding candidates for the same offices apart from the Presidency?”

    Truce at last?

    In the last few weeks, Daniel had held separate meetings with Kashamu and Jubril Martine-Kuye preparatory to his formal return to the PDP.

    The agenda of these meetings, it was gathered, is on the need to present a united front against Governor Amosun ahead the 2015 governorship elections.

    It is, however, not clear yet whether concrete agreements have been reached by the gladiators on issues such as the sharing of party offices and choice of governorship candidate.

    Who picks the PDP ticket?

    The Nation gathered that one of the issues that may prove contentious within the new alliance is the choice of a governorship candidate and the state leader of the party.

    But a former commissioner in the Daniel-led administration, who is a PDP chieftain, disagreed. He told our correspondent on the condition of anonymity that only one goal is paramount among PDP leaders in the state.

    He said: “Nobody is talking about who will be the leader of the party in the state at the moment. The agenda right now is how to defeat (Governor) Amosun. And the only way that can happen is for our leaders, who are scattered in different parties, to unite. Anything short of that would spell doom for the party at the polls, because to defeat an incumbent has never been as easy task.”

    While expressing his optimism on the prospects of achieving unity in the party, the former commissioner added, “Once we choose our governorship candidate, that person would serve as the rallying point for the party in the state.”

    The list of governorship aspirants in Ogun PDP include a third term lawmaker, Abiodun Akinlade, who is also the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology; two former federal lawmakers, Kayode Amusan and Sikiru Ogundele.

    Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, is also rumoured to be interested in the ticket, but sources disclosed that he is yet to formally declare his intention due to the “negative signals he is getting from leaders of the party in Ogun State.”

    Bankole, according to a source, is wary of plunging headlong into the race unless he receives fool-proof assurances from party leaders to back his aspiration.

    But those assurances may be hard to come by, as other aspirants, particularly Akinlade, has since taken off from the starting blocks in the race for the PDP 2015 governorship ticket.

    In the last five months, the lawmaker, who hails from Ogun West zone, which is yet to produce the state governor since its creation in 1976, has been quietly mobilising party leaders from the three senatorial zones in the state in furtherance of his ambition.

    Kashamu tackles Daniel for Ogun East senate ticket

    Another thorny issue that may put the impending alliance in jeopardy is the alleged plan by Buruji Kashamu to contest for the Ogun East Senatorial ticket against Daniel, who is also interested in the seat.

    This development, according to a source, is a clear indication that Kashamu is not ready to cede his leadership status in the party to Daniel. Kashamu’s camp is afraid that if Daniel wins the seat, he could use his privileged position to assume the leadership of the party, particularly if the PDP fails to unseat Amosun.

    As the reconciliation process trudges on, it remains to be seen whether this would be enough to dislodge Amosun from the Oke Mosan Government House.

  • Ogun 2015: Stop dropping Jonathan, Muazu’s names, group tells Bankole

    Ogun 2015: Stop dropping Jonathan, Muazu’s names, group tells Bankole

    A socio-political group, the Ogun Youth Mandate (OYM), has urged the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, to stop dropping the names of President Goodluck Jonathan and the National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, over his governorship ambition.

    The group spoke against the backdrop of reports that during his visit to the Ogun State PDP Secretariat Thursday, Bankole allegedly told the meeting that President Jonathan asked him to join the race.

    In a statement issued yesterday in Abeokuta, by the State Coordinator, Comrade Tunde Shodiya, the group said, “Nothing could be farther from the truth, as all efforts by Bankole to see the President over his ambition have met a brick wall. Besides, the two leaders are gentlemen who would not lend themselves to anything that would subvert due process and the Rule of Law.”

    On Bankole’s call for party members to close rank, the group said there was no division within the party. “Much as we note that Bankole and his ilk have eaten their words by recognising the authentic State Exco which they earlier sought to undo, we take serious exception to the import of his comments which suggest that there is some form of division within the party.

    “The truth is the division only exists in the minds of Bankole and his co-travellers. The party is a united front and one indivisible family. All that is needed is for the like of Bankole and his associates to purge themselves of the imaginary division they seek to create because of their selfish interest.”

    The group noted that Bankole’s statements that his recent visits to the party secretariat were coming after the last one in 2007 and that he has been going round since he returned from the United States a few months ago was “a confirmation that he had since abandoned the party and only came back because of his governorship ambition. It is, in fact, an indictment of humongous proportion”.

  • Ogun 2015: Any hope for Ogun West?

    Ogun 2015: Any hope for Ogun West?

    It is a fact that since the inception of Ogun State in 1976, no citizen of Ogun West Senatorial District has ruled as governor.

    The series of efforts by elder statesmen such as Chief Jonathan Odebiyi, Dr. Tunji Otegbeye, Prof. Afolabi Olabimtan, Chief Wale Bajomo, Dele Arojo, all of blessed memories and men including SAJ Ibikunle, Gen. Tunji Olurin, Mr. Gboyega Isiaka and Hon. Abiodun Akinlade, have been futile due to internal and extraneous factors.

    Even the last ditch efforts by Isiaka and Olurin in the 2011 election was more of an imposed aspiration on the duo by external forces to settle political scores. That perhaps explained why the duo refused to step down for each other. Eventually nothing came out of the expedition and Ogun West once again was the biggest loser.

    But as the 2015 general elections draw nearer, it appears people in the zone have become wiser and determined to get it right for once. And that is the more reason why the recent return of a third term member of the National Assembly, Hon. Abiodun Akinlade, to PDP is timely and strategic.

    Akinlade’s return to PDP should not be viewed from a myopic or parochial point of a personal ambition, but more as an altruistic intention to bring to light the collective aspirations of a deprived people.

    Undoubtedly, the Almighty God by design might have chosen Akinlade to be the Joshua that would lead the people of Ogun West out of political Siberia to the promise land.

    A critical look at the major political parties in Ogun State today clearly shows that there is none that is devoid of internal crisis.

    In the APC, the incumbent governor, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun, is facing battling to keep the party together. While he appears as a sure bet to fly the flag of the party next year, the best the Chief Olusegun Osoba faction can have is to negotiate or join another party.

    Even at that, the Osoba faction is not likely to look in the direction of Ogun West person to field against Amosun. By implication, APC is a no go area if Ogun West desires to produce the in 2015.

    The emerging force, Labour Party which is the amalgamation of old PPN founded by ex-governor, Gbenga Daniel and the original LP members are also not immune from internal crisis.

    Beyond the unresolved court cases that will likely affect the party’s chances in the 2015 polls, there are some governorship aspirants jostling to fly the ticket of the party.

    They include Sina Kawonishe from Ogun East, Sarafa Tunji Ishola, Boye Adeshina from Ogun Central and Gboyega Isiaka from Ogun West. For now, it is difficult to say where the pendulum will swing as OGD, the party leader is keeping his game plan close to his chest.

    But close allies of OGD are of the view that he might be rooting for an Egba person to confront Amosun who is also from Egba. If this turns out to be true, the Ogun West person will surely lose out in the LP calculation.

    In the PDP, despite pockets of internal wrangling, the party has lately benefitted from the influx of political bigwigs into its fold. Among those who have signified their intention to fly the ticket of the party include Hon. Kayode Amosun, Tony Ojesina, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, Hon. Sikiru Ogundele all from Ogun Central, Alh. Rafiu Ogunleye and Abiodun Akinlade.

    Realistically too, the party appears to be the most viable option that Ogun West can use to actualise its governorship dream. It was therefore a wise move for Akinlade and his group to return to PDP.

    Ogun West’s quest to govern the State come 2015 now looks real than imagined with Akinlade in PDP. With Akinlade’s solid political pedigree, he, no doubt, has all it takes to emerge as the PDP candidate.

    A grassroots politician imbued with uncanny wisdom and intelligence, Akinlade’s political trajectory as someone who has won his election into the National Assembly for a record three terms despite the heavy odds stacked against him clearly puts him head and shoulder above the other aspirants.

     

    •Olusegun writes in from Ota, Ogun State.

  • Ogun 2015: Can PDP dislodge ACN?

    Ogun 2015: Can PDP dislodge ACN?

    The governorship aspirants in Ogun State are on the track. Correspondent ERNEST NWOKOLO examines their strengths, weaknesses and issues that will shape the contest.

    The die is cast between the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State. Will Governor Ibikunle Amosun keep his job beyond 2015? Can PDP bounce back?

    Amosun, who was sworn-in on May 29, 2011 as the fourth civilian governor, has just completed two years out of his four year-tenure. But political parties and aspirants are warming up for another political battle, thus compelling some observers to conclude that they are raising the tempo of politics in the state prematurely.

    In the build up to the April 2011 general elections, six political parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Labour Party (LP), the Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the National Conscience Party (NCP) -participated in the epic battle for the governorship. Each of them presented its candidate as the possible successor to former Governor Gbenga Daniel. But, Amosun (ACN) defeated the former military administrator of old Oyo State and ECOMOG Commander during the Liberian civil war, General Adetunji Olurin (rtd) [PDP], Mr. Gboyega Isiaka (PPN), Rev. Olajide Awosedo (LP), Olawale Okunniyi (CPC), Ogbeni Lanre Banjo (NCP) and Kayode Olubiyi (APGA).

    In the future polls, contestants would run on the platforms of the All Progressive Congress (APC), if registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), PDP, LP and perhaps, APGA.

    Already, there are political alliances, re-alignment, sensitisation and campaigns. Not even the calls for caution by former Minister of Mines and Steel Development Alhaji Sarafa Ishola on the aspirants has changed the tempo as the advice is unheeded.

    Chief Ishola, the former Secretary to Government (SSG) under former Governor Daniel and now a governorship aspirant, said anyone that is campaigning now to become the next governor is “either ignorant or lack, knowledge of the game of politics.”

    According him, what is paramount to the people is not who becomes the next governor, but how they can profit from the dividends of governance.

    But some governorship aspirants guided by the maxim that success does not find home in the indolent and sluggard have started hitting the road. Others storm the palaces of traditional rulers and new media space through proxies to woo a section of the electorate and simultaneously using same to wage war against their perceived and feared opponent. Governor Amosun.

    Analysts contend that the politics of the Gateway State is sophisticated. The state has produced many political gladiators. They include former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Head of Interim National Government (ING) Chief Ernest Shonekan, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief Segun Osoba, former Governor Daniel, the late Chief Victor Olabisi Onabanjo, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the acclaimed winner of June 12, 1993 Presidential election, the late Chief Moshood Abiola, and the late Afenifere leader, Pa Abraham Adesanya.

    The state is politically delineated into three senatorial districts – Ogun Central, Ogun East and Ogun West. But the people see themselves more as comprising of four distinct zones – Remo, Ijebu, Yewa and Egba (RIYE) by reason of their differential ancestral, historical, tribal backgrounds and idiosyncrasies.

    There is an unwritten agreement about the zoning of the governorship, but the reality is that there has not been strict adherence to the zoning arrangement.

    The Ijebus produced Onabanjo and Daniel. The Egba (Ogun Central) produced Chief Osoba and Amosun, but the Ogun West is yet to clinch it since the creation of the state 37 years ago.

    It is not surprising that the people aspiring for the elective offices are scrambling for the blessings of the gladiators because the electorate, who are not so literate, rely on them to decide which governorship candidate they should vote for.

    The last time the Yewa people came close to producing a governor was in 2011 when two of their sons, Isiaka and Olurin, clashed. But the hope of their people were dashed as they lost to Amosun. What probably should have been a bloc votes from the area was inevitably splited between the duo.

    Today, the Ogun West (Yewa people), while not ruling out its inherent susceptibility to routine political manipulations, has also not relented in blaming the zone’s loss on the clash of interest between the two gladiators – former President Obasanjo and Daniel – who the Yewas claimed, in a bid to further their personal agenda, caused the area to have two contestants on the field at a time only a consensus candidate would have delivered the magic.

    The fear was even expressed early during the build up to the April 26, 2011 governorship polls by one of the opinion leaders from the zone, Chief Ishola Olateju, who lamented that the disagreement between Daniel and Obasanjo over the Yewa’s aspiration, remained a major obstacle to the actualisation of that project.

    Olateju had warned that, should the Obasanjo – Daniel feud continued “the governorship, which was zoned to Yewa may be lost.

    During that failed bid, Obasanjo stood as the promoter of Olurin while Daniel sponsored and campaigned for Isiaka.

    Ahead of 2015, aspirants are warming up again. They include Gboyega Nasiru Isiaka, Hon. Isiaq Akinlade, Jide Taiwo, Mr Sina Kawonise, Hon. Kayode Amusan, Anthony Ojesina and Amosun.

    Isiaka

    Isiaka contested the 2011 election on the ticket of the PPN, but lost. He is still eyeing the office. This time, he is likely to run on the platform the LP, if the party offers him the ticket.

    His former boss, Gbenga Daniel, isstill backing him.

    According to Daniel,” Isiaka is cool headed, intelligent and hardworking.”

    Many people also agree that there is nothing wrong with the young technocrat – turned politician. But the challenges Isiaka may still face derive from his link with Daniel, who ran a highly maligned administration and who at the time also did engage in many political battles with the stakeholders.

    This, according to analysts, was what worked against him during the 2011 polls. The electorate saw Daniel in Isiaka in whichever direction he turned.

    To them, a vote for Isiaka was a vote for Daniel and, by extension, a call for the continuation of Daniel’s style of governance, perceived at the time as a debilitating yoke that should be thrown off.

    The people have not forgotten that, while Isiaka called the shot at the Gateway Holdings Limited as the managing director, he did little or nothing to stop the concession of assets the Ogun State founding fathers bequeathed to the incoming generations.

    Chief Jide Taiwo

    The seasoned property magnate, who hails from Yewaland, is another governorship aspirant.

    The snag in Taiwo’s aspiration is that he is per ceived as a green horn.

    This property valuer and developer, who has garnered goodwill over the years through estate business across the country, is yet to harness same for political gains.

    His foot soldiers are on the field marketing him and chances are that he would pursue his ambition on the platform of the PDP.

    Abiodun Akinlade

    The member of the House of Representatives is from Yewa. This former PDP member, who returned to the House on the ticket of ACN, is actively involved in oiling his governorship campaign.

    Apart from the foot soldiers working for him, he is banking on the goodwill gained over the years as a federal lawmaker.

    His ambition, a frosty relationship between him and Amosun.

    Akinlade may move from ACN to the Labour Party soon where he hopes the ticket would be given to him to actualise his goal. Analysts have since identified impatience, immaturity and unguarded optimism as his major weakness.

    According to observers Akinlade stands a better chance of becoming a governor, if only he could wait till after 2015 and also stay put in ACN.

    Sina Kawonise

    Former Information and Orientation Commissioner in Daniel Administration Sina Kawonise has been holding con sultation with people.

    It is certain that he will seek expression for his ambition through LP, but the odds against him are many. He is an Ijebu man from Ogun East like Daniel. It is unlikely that an Ijebu man would be a good sell now as a governorship candidate for 2015 and that is even if the LP could be so blursighted to leave the likes of GNI and Akinlade and drop its ticket on SK’s lap.

    Anthony Ojesina

    Ojesina, a former Commissioner for Environment, has his eyes fixed on Okemosan. He has promised to harness the resources of the state to create jobs and industries. He plans to enhance the state’s Internally Generated Revenue and improve the healthcare delivery.

    Kayode Amusan

    Amusan is the only governorship aspirants who has openly declared his ambition in a political gathering in Ijebu – Igbo home of Prince Buruji Kashamu.

    Amusan who hails from Ogun Central, is being groomed by the PDP to penetrate the Egbas in 2015 where Amosun also came from.

    Kashamu lamented that if Amusan, younger than Olurin, was fielded as PDP governorship candidate in 2011, the fortune of the party would have perhaps, been better at the poll.

    Senator Amosun

    The governor has not formally declared his intention to re – contest, but his body point, to the fact that the Oke – Mosan office may not be vacant until 2019.

    Amosun is the person to beat, if he enters the race, and given his record achievements in the last two years, it is highly probable that the Owu-born governor would win.

    The roads expansion projects, financial re -engineering, clean environment, affordable and qualitative education and model schools across the state are laudable achievements.

    Already,many groups have endorsed him for a second term.

    Expectedly, the youths have declared their readiness to support Amosun and to work assiduously for his re – election in 2015.

    The youths under the aegis of the Ogun Youth Professional Forum (OYPF), said they have endorsed him in advance following his administration’s massive infrastructural development investment drive, provision of qualitative and affordable education.

    The leader of the group, Mr Olamide Agboola, and Secretary, Doyin Bajomo, after the group’s meeting in Abeokuta, said they were impressed Amosun’s projects adding that they are of global standard.

    He said: “We are compelled to make this open declaration and endorse Governor Ibikunle Amosun for a second term, having been convinced by the midterm report sheet of the administration. We are of the opinion that he meant well for the state going by the developmental projects across the state.

    “Initially, we thought his was going to be another thieving administration, particularly when the issue of obtaining bond to run his government cropped up. But having meticulously studied his style of administration, we are convinced that he meant well for the state and allowing him another term of office will not be out of place”.

    The forum, which comprises of information technology experts, engineers, business men and women in Nigeria and abroad also explained that they were advocating for Amosun’s re -election because his administration has laid “solid foundation for business to thrive in Ogun.”

    “We are not politicians; we have our businesses here in Nigeria and overseas, but we found out that the mosquitoes, who ate our land dry before now are also re-grouping to deceive our people for a second time. We want to tell them that the Ogun electorates will not allow them again.

    “With what is on ground now, Amosun has provided the enabling environment for businesses to thrive. Amosun has good future for the state with what is on ground and we must tell our people to support this course because of the future of our children,” they added.