The Nation Newspaper

Tag: September 22

  • September 22

    APC’s narrow escape in Osun calls for introspection and correction ahead 2019

    Ordinarily, the September 22, 2018, governorship election in Osun State should have been a walk-over for the ruling party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC). That it turned out to be a scrambling for, and partitioning of the state between the ruling party and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should signal to the ruling party that all is not well. If it was this difficult in Osun State, there is nothing to suggest that it would be less difficult, especially in other southwest states, unless the APC does the rightful before next year’s General Elections.

    Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the APC came to power following the Court of Appeal judgment that declared him winner of the 2010 governorship election in 2010, having defeated the incumbent Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the PDP by198,799 votes to 172,880, a difference of about 25,919 votes. This was a significant margin. But then, Aregbesola increased the tally for the APC when he scored 394,684 votes, against Iyiola Omisore (the PDP candidate’s) 292,747 votes in the 2014 governorship election. This was a definitive statement of the acceptability of the Aregbesola administration and the supremacy of the APC in the state, at least up till that time. So, what happened between then and September 22, 2018?

    A lot.

    In terms of infrastructural development, the administration did quite well. But one thing that is becoming increasingly clear, at least as far as voters are concerned, particularly in the southwest, is that performance alone cannot take political aspirants, most especially governors, to the promised land. Again, it would appear that the term democratic dividend has become a nebulous concept that means different things to different people. Lest we forget, Governor Kayode Fayemi suffered what was to an extent a similar fate in 2014 when he lost the Ekiti State governorship election to Ayo Fayose also of the PDP. One thing that was not in doubt then was that almost everyone admitted that Fayemi did well in terms of infrastructural development. But they complained about his politics.

    Well, some people felt the election was rigged against Fayemi then. There was no doubt the Goodluck Jonathan administration unleashed the security agencies on the state and they did a lot to frustrate Fayemi’s reelection. Whether that alone explained Fayose’s victory would for long be a subject of debate.  But, if we even agree that the 2014 election was rigged in favour of Fayose in Ekiti State, are we going to say the same of the September 22 poll in Osun?

    Certainly not.

    What has been happening between the PDP and APC in the southwest in the last few years should be of interest to the APC. Although this might look like a national malaise, the party would do well to now begin to look at the role and influence of the party on candidates, particularly after winning elections. APC must be ready to tame the individuals who came to power on the party’s ticket. Never again should they be allowed to assume larger-than-life status. Most guilty of this are governors across the board. But the ruling party should be in a position to talk to its governors and other elected persons whenever they are going astray, as they are won’t to do. If we won’t deceive ourselves, it is easy for people in positions of authority to go astray because it is only in a few cases that some of their aides can look them in the face and tell them what they do not want to hear. Most of the aides react only after reading ‘oga’s’ body language. This is not good for the party; it is detrimental even to democracy.

    It is inconceivable that the PDP, a party that Nigerians killed and buried barely four years ago, had the guts to make the ruling party in Osun State sweat for what it should have got on a silver platter.  Personally, I feel pained and scandalised that this ever happened. That the ruling party, after eight years of what those involved would want to see as years of meritorious service, was struggling and literally looking for a ladder to get a thing it ordinarily should pluck just for the asking speaks volumes about the fact that all is not well. But only the uninitiated and those who, like the ostrich, want to bury their heads in the sand would claim the thing came to them as a surprise. Non-partisan observers saw it coming.

    So, let no one blame the PDP for its reactions to what it rightly saw as clear victory for its candidate, Ademola Adeleke, in the September 22 election. Any other party would have reacted the same way if in the PDP’s shoes. The point is; PDP stalwarts know that there is nothing wrong in declaring the election inconclusive as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did in the circumstance because this is not the first time such would be happening. As a matter of fact, the Supreme Court had affirmed the commission’s stand in the past and that should be the grundnorm. But the PDP had to say something sweet to their supporters’ ears probably to enrage them and make them take laws into their hands.

    In the same vein, it is difficult to condemn Femi Fani-Kayode who could not understand why Iyiola Omisore had to team up with the ruling party against his former party, the PDP, in the avoidably hotly contested election. But that is politics; where there are no permanent friends or permanent foes but permanent interests. One thinks Fani-Kayode should know and indeed knows this. No one can grudge Omisore for pitching his tent with the ruling party. He owes no one any explanation either. Fani-Kayode should wait until he becomes a beautiful bride like Omisore to know how easy it is for brides to fall for particular suitors and reject others.

    For me, the game was up the moment Omisore and the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Yussuff Lasun, decided to go with the APC for the rerun. As a matter of fact, that was what I said last week Sunday when the results of the election were announced. Even a political neophyte should have known the game was over for the PDP the moment these two persons in particular made public their positions as to which side to support. This may seem incomprehensible to the PDP but that is the reality. At any rate, as I said, I do not blame the PDP because it was the APC that put words in their mouth. If APC had done the needful and made the PDP take a shellacking at the poll, the opposition party would not be in a position to grandstand.

    The remaining APC governors, especially in the southwest, have some takeaways from the Osun election. As the Yoruba proverb says, ‘iku to pa ojugba eni, owe lonpa fun ni’ (apologies to non-Yorubas as I do not know how to translate this). But those to whom it is addressed understand. APC must also learn some lessons. As a matter of fact, that is the essence of September 22. Whoever wants to contest under the party’s platform has to be ready to abide by the party’s directives. What we have presently in the party, that is a situation where some people become party leaders after becoming governors, cannot endure. It will only continue to bring the party to the kind of situation where even the party leaders would be like the proverbial fowl that perches on a rope, with neither the rope nor the fowl being able to rest.

    Governors should not be at liberty to send people away from the party at will because when the repercussion comes, they won’t bear it alone. Even the party must be careful the way it dismisses aggrieved people as inconsequential if they defect. We can imagine how the Osun embarrassment could have been averted if some of the people that defected had remained in the fold. Yet, when the chips were down, the party had to swallow its pride and appeal for support from these same people. Perhaps this is where the idea of direct primary that the party has adopted now makes sense. Moreover, the party should revive the monitoring team that the Alliance for Democracy (AD) formed early in this dispensation. Such teams must comprise people of proven integrity, incorruptible; people who would be going round to feel the pulse of the people as well as monitor the performance of the governors. They must be able to look the governors in the face and tell them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The idea is to make them mend their ways so they don’t give everybody else hypertension.

    Printer’s devil

    Last week, this column appeared without my logo and there was no form of identification whatsoever to link the write-ups there to me. Apparently this was because, penultimate week, I did not feature and the logo was temporarily removed. I guess it was the pressure of the Osun State governorship election of September 22 that took the better part of us at this end, hence our absentmindedness to notice that the logo was missing on the eve of the election that the material went to bed. Yet, I raised issues on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris as well as my usual customer, Ikeja Electric. There is no reason why I would not want my imprimatur on either.

    Fashola

    I said last week that we had been in darkness in my neighbourhood in the Oke-Odo area of Agege, Lagos, for three consecutive weeks and that, this has become more or less a monthly pattern. We usually experience blackout for some days, every given month. However, I do not know how Ikeja Electric did it; electricity was restored the following day, that is last week Monday.  I am looking forward to the month that this monthly jinx will be broken. Hopefully, you will join me to shout seven powerful halleluyahs if that time ever comes!

  • Uncertainty over PDP’s guber ticket

    Ahead of the September 22 governorship election in the state, the Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is making efforts to choose for itself a credible and popular gubernatorial flag bearer. Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, reports the cloud of uncertainty that currently pervades the ongoing struggle for the ticket of the opposition party in the state.

    AT the last count, more than 20 persons showed interest in becoming the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the September 22 governorship election in Osun State. Despite its current status as an opposition party in the state, chieftains of the PDP, as well as some pundits, believe the party stands a chance of winning the election provided it picks the “right candidate” among its array of contestants.

    Determined to do its best at arriving at the best choice as its flag-bearer, the PDP in Osun State, guided by the Screening Committee constituted for the purpose by the national secretariat of the party, cleared 11 aspirants. The Nation gathered that of the initial crowd of about 20 aspirants, only the said 11 fulfilled all requirements needed to appear before the screening committee.

    “Some of those aspirants jumping all over the place before now, like I told you before, were not serious contenders. Among them were some people hoping to be handed the party’s ticket by some undemocratic arrangements. Those are the ones you see leaving PDP for other parties even before the primary election was conducted. They have since realised it is no longer business as usual.

    “There were also those who had no plan of going all the way. They are the pretenders who entered the race merely to garner some cheap political visibility. We knew them all along and the party was conscious of their antics. One or two of them were even fronting for some other aspirants. With the seriousness being shown by the new leaderships of the party, both at the state and at the national levels, they have all come to realise we are not joking about the next election,” a PDP chieftain told The Nation in Osogbo, the state capital.

    As the date of the primary election draws nearer, the state chairman of the PDP, Hon. Soji Adagunodo, is leaving nobody in doubt of the preparedness of the party to give all the cleared aspirants a level playing ground. He assured all aspirants of a free and fair primary election. “We will ensure all the aspirants get equal treatment, and it will be unfair for anybody to say the party already has a preferred candidate.”

    The Nation also learnt that an agreement was recently reached between the state leadership of the party and all the aspirants to the effect that the entire process, as well as the delegates that will midwife the emergence of the party’s candidate, will be open to all the contenders and their camps.

    The contenders

    Following last Wednesday’s clearance of aspirants contesting to be the party’s flag bearer, the PDP in Osun State is now ready to pick one of those who emerged as serious contenders as its flag-bearer. Chairman of the Screening Committee, Austin Opara, at the presentation of Screening Certificates to the aspirants at Wadata Plaza, in Abuja, said the successful aspirants include Sen. Akanbi Abdulrasheed, Dr. Ayoade Adewepo, Dr. Oyewumi Olalere, Mr. Nathaniel Oke, Sen. Ogunwale Felix and Alhaji Fatai Akinbade. Others are Dr. Ezekiel Adeniji, Dr. Akin Ogunbiyi, Rafiu Bello, Sen. Ademola Adeleke and Prof. Adeolu Durotoye. Opara commended the aspirants and urged them to work as a team for PDP’s success in the election.

    The aspirants, while assuring of their readiness to cooperate with the party to ensure a hitch-free primary election, commended the Screening Committee for a wonderful work. Adewopo, while commending the leaderships of the party at state and national levels, said the people of the state are looking up to PDP to provide the much needed credible alternative for them to vote for at the September election. He said PDP will win the next election once it is able to give the people of the state the candidate they are yearning for. “We all know who can win the election for us. What we need to cooperate and do the right thing,” he said.

    Meanwhile, The Nation gathered that some of the aspirants whose names did not make the final list of screened aspirants are offering explanations to their supporters on why they are out of the guber race so early. One of such, a former federal lawmaker, who sources claimed did not obtain nomination form to be part of the screening process, have told his supporters that he decided to opt out of the race for personal reasons.

    ‘Don’t know’ in the lead

    But with the primaries for the PDP governorship ticket weeks away, checks by The Nation revealed that majority of party chieftains and members are uncertain over where the pendulum will swing. This, according to many party sources, is an unusual development that should be commended in the history of the party in Osun State. Not a few attributed the uncertainty to the level playing field provided all aspirants by the Adagunodo-led committee.

    “In the past, we would all know who will win the ticket even when we felt the person is not the best we have in PDP. One person will always win the ticket only to go on and lose the general election as usual. That is no longer the case and this is a development many party men and women are happy about. We now know our vote will count at the primary election and we are all eager to exercise our right to choose,” a source said.

    The Nation also gathered that the aspirants and their supporters are working frantically round the clock as they transverse the length and breadth of the state, speaking to party leaders and would-be delegates, about their gubernatorial ambitions. According to checks by The Nation, not less than seven of the aspirants met party leaders and selected party members at different locations across the state this week alone.

    “Nobody can confidently say this is the person who will win the ticket. We will, for the first time in the history of Osun PDP, have to wait till the very end of the primary election before we even have an idea of who our candidate will be. While you may call it uncertainty for now, it is a good development for us as a party that is serious about winning the next election and taking over the administration of the state,” our source said.

    However, there are fears in some quarters that money may still play a big role in determining who would ultimately get the ticket given the unusual openness of the race at this crucial time with no party leader or group exercising firm control over the possible fate of the aspirants. The late entrance of some aspirants perceived to be money bags, or backed by some big spenders, into the race, heightened this fear in recent weeks.

    While party leaders and chieftains insist all the aspirants are good enough to represent the PDP as the candidate, some pundits say the race is actually a contest that may be limited to about four of the screened contestants. Many observers of the politics of these state and the recent struggles of the opposition party to reposition itself and return to its winning ways after eight years out of political power, say some aspirants are better positioned to clinch the ticket than the others.

    “Delegates at the primary election will be thinking about many things when they go to cast their votes. But many of them will be thinking about the roles played by each of these aspirants during the fierce struggle to free PDP in Osun State from the strangulating hold of a few people. We know those who joined us to end the dictatorship that kept our party on its kneel for so many years.

    “We also know those who sat on the fence and watched on as if they are not part of the party. While some fought with us and suffered many humiliations as we suffered, many others stood aloof and watched as the battle raged back and forth. They were later to shift to our side after the battle was won. There are even some of them who fought against us back then. Today, they are with us and they want the party ticket. The delegates will decide their fates,” a party leader from Osogbo said.

  • Private school owners support September 22 resumption

    Private school owners support September 22 resumption

    •Query Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun for postponement

    The National Association of Private School Proprietors (NAPPS), Southwest chapter, has said primary and secondary schools in Lagos and Ondo states are free to resume today.

    It hailed Governors Babatunde Fashola and Olusegun Mimiko for being proactive in stopping the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    At its zonal meeting in Ibadan at the weekend, NAPPS berated Oyo, Osun, Ogun, and Ekiti states for postponing the resumption date till October 6 and 8.

    A statement by NAPPS President, Southwest, Alhaja Alimi Basirat and Chairman, Lagos State branch, Chief Yomi Otubela, queried the postponement.

    They said while Oyo, Osun and Ekiti were categorical on the October 6 resumption date, Ogun NAPPS, which was absent at the meeting, did not send information on the resumption date.

    Otubela urged Governor Fashola to extend the preventive measures put in place in public schools to private schools.

  • Lagos okays September 22 for schools’ resumption

    Lagos okays September 22 for schools’ resumption

    The Lagos State government says all is set for schools’ resumption on September 22.

    The government, in a statement issued yesterday, explained its support for the date announced by the Federal Government.

    The statement reads: “Concerning the resumption of all public and private nursery, primary and secondary schools for the 2014/2015 session, Lagos State Government supports the September 22, 2014 date, which was announced by the Federal Government after a national consultation on efforts to contain the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria.

    “Although this resumption date is advisory, as education is a concurrent matter to be regulated by the respective Federal and States Authorities, Lagos State Government considers it eminently justifiable, in view of the fact that there is currently no known carrier of EVD in our State at the moment. Furthermore, the last individual suspected to have been exposed to the virus will be discharged from observation on September 18, 2014, if he tests negative for the virus. All public and private educational institutions in the State are therefore directed to schedule their resumption accordingly.

    “Considering the current situation report, it is clear that the risk of infection with EVD in Lagos State has been significantly reduced. Health professionals working on the outbreak are also in agreement that there is no reason why schools should remain closed beyond the 22nd of September, 2014.

    “  In spite of the foregoing, the State Government has now developed and will deploy all resources necessary to sustain the capacity to promptly take into custody any person suspected to be infected with EVD, as well as safely test, monitor and isolate such a person for treatment as may be found necessary without endangering other members of the public.

    “We also acknowledge the need for everyone to remain very vigilant, as the disease still remains in other countries within the sub-region. The following steps will therefore be taken in all schools, whether public or private, before and after resumption of schools:

    *Training and sensitization of students, vendors, teachers and non academic staff on EVD and how to avoid it;

    * Identification of EVD Focal Persons in schools who would be responsible for surveillance and health monitoring;

    *Provision of adequate environmental sanitation, including clean toilets and premises;

    * Provision of running water and soap and encouragement of frequent hand washing;

    *Sensitisation of students on other personal hygiene habits, like the use of handkerchiefs when sneezing or coughing; and

    *Arrangement for prompt referral of any sick person to the nearest health institution for treatment.

    “In spite of the foregoing, the State Government reiterates that the health of all its residents is a matter of utmost importance and, if any reasons emerge for a reconsideration of the school resumption date, a well-considered decision will be taken and the general public will be informed accordingly.

    “The state government salutes the health personnel and health institutions that have done their best to ensure the containment of EVD. Government officials will meet presently with those health institutions, which might have suffered adverse economic consequences as a result, and will find ways of assisting them to mitigate their loses and safely reopen for business as soon as possible.”