Tomorrow, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will lift ban on electioneering campaign.
Many parties, especially the big 4- All Progressives Congress, APC, African Democratic Congress, ADC, Action Democratic Party, ADP and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will be slugging it out.
The ruling APC, with its intimidating credentials, has a lot to worry about.
Though, highly applauded by the wisdom and maturity applied in the conduct of its party primary, APC needs to work very hard to win the governorship election.
Judging by the performance of the incumbent governor Abiola Ajimobi in infrastructural development, the party is in a good position to make reasonable impact.
According to The Nation, the strength of its candidate, who has never contested any elective position before, may be a disadvantage. Adelabu said he will be relying largely on the legacy of his grandfather.
Besides, the post-party congress crisis, which exhumed the two rival groups in the party, SENACO and LAMIST, almost crippled the APC. Many party supporters defected to the ADC as a result of the disagreement.
Fears are also being expressed that the party may pay dearly for the sins of Ajimobi, who was said to have stepped on many toes in the course of forcing some of his unpopular policies on the people. An example is Ajimobi’s review of the contentious 1957 Chieftaincy Laws of Ibadanland, which pitched the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji and vocal and influential Ibadan sons and daughters against the governor. The dust raised by the exercise is yet to settle.
Despite these shortcomings, the APC, with its power of incumbency and its overwhelming political structures spread across the 33 local government areas of the state, may likely retain the crown at the end of the race.
