To those who have followed events in the All Progressives Congress in Oyo State, post 2019 elections, closely, Sunday Dare’s ministerial nomination is a favourable response to the situation the party found itself in after the polls. Not a few people had felt the state’s immediate past Governor; Senator Abiola Ajimobi would get the nomination. Those were people who put his position as the leader of the party in the state into consideration.
The other name that came up was Joseph Olasunkanmi Tegbe, who some believed looked good enough to become Governor before the wind of change that swung him out of favour with the party’s delegates just before the shadow elections in December, 2018. Chief Adebayo Adelabu’s name too was at the forefront, especially with his experience in the banking sector. He gave the governorship election a good shot, and when it didn’t go his way, some people looked up to seeing him as a Minister.
All that have gone though, and Sunday Dare is the new man on the block. It is only a matter of time before attention of members of the party will shift to him. Getting a job many would lobby good and hard for on a platter of gold doesn’t just happen: a price must have been paid somewhere.
Mr. Dare is one of the men APC’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu can call “trusted”. When he came home to signify his intention to join the governorship race then, he was believed to be doing a publicity exercise – he had his picture on a few bill boards and consulted here and there. Those in the know will however admit that the Ministerial appointment had been sealed since then. The Minister from Oyo State was only allowed to bid his time since it was already known to those who mattered in the party at the national level that a professional communicator would be sent to replace him.
Those seeing Sunday Dare’s nomination as part of the 2023 game could be right, and wrong as well. The truth however is that power might just have started to change hands in Oyo APC and the restructuring has been triggered automatically. With Dare, an Ogbomoso man as Minister, the state Chairman of the party, Chief Akin Oke and the senator representing Oyo North Senatorial District, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari also being Ogbomoso indigenes means a change in the structure is imminent.
Though, it is not impossible for Ogbomoso to produce the Governor again, it is however too early to assume that Bayo Adelabu, who is still loyal to the party will not attempt to run again; especially when he already knows the terrain and he already knows areas he needs to work on.
Unfolding events may also point to the beginning of a journey. Just like it happened shortly after Senator Ajimobi emerged as Governor, the Late Alhaji Lam Adesina remained the leader of the party but the shots were being called from elsewhere. Lam was political leader but political power rested with the Governor and he dictated who got what.
That apparently explains the story being bandied around the state that the former Governor had rejected the ministerial offer, preferring to pursue his Senate return bid to a logical conclusion at the tribunal. The logical explanation is that those who put Dare’s name forward must have found a way of reaching out to interested parties and each would be given an offer. The “Akanji rejected ministerial offer for a younger person” song seems to be only working for those who didn’t see the first term video where he said “after Governorship, I want nothing more”.
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