The last may not have been heard of the October 20, 2012 gubernatorial polls in Ondo State that saw the incumbent governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, re-elected for another four years. Now that the dust raised by the euphoria of the Pyrrhic victory is gradually settling down, the undercurrent waves of what really transpired immediately before, during and after the polls are surging to the fore. But more importantly, are the implications these would have on both the much-promoted socio-economic integration of the South-West geo-political zone as well as the Yoruba nation. For those who care to take a more critical and unbiased look at the outcome of the polls, particularly the Asiwaju Tinubu – loathing, reactionary forces in Yoruba politics, it is not yet time to sing Uhuru song. The reasons may not be so obvious but the facts are as real as the wavy lines on our palms.
For instance, going by available voting figures, Mimiko, who won with 57 per cent of the votes back in 2007 while pitched against an incumbent governor, Dr.Olusegun Agagu, (who had then spent four years) this time around was able to garner a meager 41.2 per cent. The combined votes for the governorship candidates from the two major opposition parties, ACN and PDP outnumbered that of Mimiko! The implication of this trend is that in actual sense, majority of voters in Ondo State wanted him out of Government House. They also apparently voted in favour of regional integration.
This is not too surprising, considering the glaring fact that contrary to the well-oiled Mimiko’s propaganda machinery, the facts on ground point to the dismal performance of a governor who could not provide the basic needs of the electorate. That is, in the critical areas of infrastructural development, employment generation, and the provision of educational facilities. No thanks to the comatose industrial sector that could not generate a single job. Even the much hyped Abiye Mother and Child Care centre , lacking in basic drugs and medical facilities could not be replicated across the two other senatorial districts. And the Dome, promised as the first of its kind in the African continent to galvanise tourism is now doomed.
In truth and honesty therefore, Mimiko’s victory is more as a function of the gadabout game he has cleverly played with the ruling PDP hierarchy than as a result of any meaningful achievements on ground.
Recent events point to the fact that he has succeeded in using the Labour Party, LP as a mask to mesmerize and hoodwink his supporters while in actual fact he is PDP at heart. There is ample empirical evidence on ground to lend support to this claim. Amongst the PDP politicians of South-West extraction who brokered the deal for Mimiko to win at all costs in order to pave way for the acclaimed PDP rigging machinery to resurrect in the South-West come 2015 are Senator Iyiola Omisore,Taoreed Adedioja, and General Tunji Olurin. They were the matchmakers in the marriage of convenience between Mimiko and President Goodluck Jonathan, to grease the latter’s political ambition come 2015.
That may explain the curious twists and turns that characterized the Ondo governorship polls. Unlike what transpired in the neigbouring Edo State months ago, where the soldiers and policemen posted to ensure adequate security and prevent violence were some five to ten metres from each polling booth, most of them deployed to Ondo State were withdrawn from the rural areas. Instead,they were redeployed to the major cities of Akure, Ondo and particularly Owo, where the ACN candidate, Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu, hails from. There was complete militarisation of that town, in a political shenanigan aimed at intimidating the voters. It should be noted that about 60 per cent of the voters in the state reside in the rural areas. Indeed, the electoral intrigue was such that, the security personnel deployed to such rigging spots on Thursday were summarily withdrawn on Friday night-on the eve of the election-and sent to the cities. Impeccable sources attest to the claim that the ‘order came from above.’ Yet, there are more burning questions.
Why is it that the 11,000 policemen drafted to the state were all camped in the barracks? Why were those sent to man the polling booths only females? Was it not for them to be intimidated by LP thugs to carry out their nefarious activities of rigging in favour of their master? All these happened in places such as Idanre, Okitipupa, Igbo tako, Ipele, Ofosun. There were reports of ACN agents forced to sign the collated results with blood-thirsty cutlasses and guns pointed right at their necks. The answer to these queries should also interest Nigerians, as we inch closer to the 2015 polls, by the day.
They should wonder how in Akure South LGA, where 29,000 voters were accredited, Mimiko,the Labour Party candiadate, polled 49,200 viotes! Where did trhe additional 20,200 voters emerge from? It was a similar pattern of number of votes cast in Ondo and Idanre as well as some other LGAs surpassing the accredited voters. This is no doubt, political abracadabra of the crudest kind.
To lay credence to the insinuation that some powers collaborated to collate the results, teleguiding their every move, barely three hours after Mimiko was declared the winner, the PDP aparachitck made up of Olu Agbi,Segun Adegoke, were at the Government House to congratulate Mimiko. This was at a time, their candidate, Oke, was crying foul over what he too described as a fraudulent electoral process!
Similarly, the first traditional ruler the governor visited was none other than the anti-Yoruba element who, to the shock and outrage of his people declared support for the unpardonable annulment of the June 12 presidential election in 1993 by the famed IBB. Now that Ebenezer Babatope and former Ogun state governor, Gbenga Daniel, (who could not win his state for his party) have visited Mimiko with the PDP helmsmen from Osun, Ekiti and Lagos in tow, it should be clear to observers that the same reactionary forces who betrayed the Yoruba cause during the Abacha era are regrouping, all for self-serving reasons.
If Mimko has been basking in the honeymoon of electoral fraud for three and half years without much opposition,while subtly spreading the rumour that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was angling for Ondo state all for the oil money, now is the time to prove that he merits all the accolades received so far. If ACN could rattle him so effectively within three months, now is the time to face the reality. He may have enjoyed the tacit support of Ayo Adebanjo from Ijebu, Pastor Tunde Bakare from Ogun sate and Yinka Odumakin from Osun state, that are controlled effectively by the ACN, but when the chpis are down, it is his performance that counts.
Truth is, that in the entire South West today, no politician has the clout, the character and charisma of Asiwaju Bola Ahmad Tinubu to reposition the zone in the face of the obvious political marginalisation of the Yoruba race.
In the fullness of time,they will know who their true leaders are.
*Ajanaku is the Director, Media and Publicity of ACN, Ondo
