A suitable starting point from which to compare the rampant cases of contradictory and conflicting court verdicts particularly on the legality, and legitimacy of elected local council chairman amid recent bloodbath that trailed the reinstatement of sacked APC chairmen in Osun is to look at Governor Seyi Makinde’s cryptic warning shot at the APC. While addressing the newly elected council chairmen in Osun on Sunday 23rd February 2025, the Governor remarked that “Osun should not be turned into a battleground over issues that can be resolved by the judiciary”, adding that “We do not want Wild Wild West”.
By alluding to the infamous ‘wild west’ in his remark, the Governor took a sharp detour to one of America’s epochal and consequential historic moments that began in the 19th century. “The Wild West era in American history, roughly spanning from the early 19th century to the early 20th century, is a captivating period marked by frontier expansion, lawlessness, and cultural clashes”, one historical account narrated, “it began with westward expansion driven by “Manifest Destiny”, which according to Steward Udall, in a journal article titled The ‘Wild’ Old West: A different view, is a slogan which implies that the first-wave families who ventured into the West to establish homes saw themselves as “conquerors”, and that those who migrated in the 1840s were participants in “a race of empire” with other nations.
The Nigeria story has always been one of the conquered and the conquerors. The powerful class being the conquerors while the impoverished Nigerians, the conquered. In today’s Nigeria, the middle class is non-existent as several policies have systematically wiped them out with reckless abandon. A deeper look into the ‘conquerors-conquered’ dichotomy also revealed a darker side: that even among the powerful elites, rank and hierarchy exists. For instance, it is an open secret that the command and control of the security architecture in Nigeria is outside the constitutional reach of the state governors. An arrangement that stripped state governors from appointing state commissioners of police has indirectly created a ground that nurtured a sustained ‘conquered’ and ‘conqueror’ dilemma. We’ve seen cases of helpless state governors wailing over their inability to act swiftly in defense of their people. Ademola Adeleke of Osun appears to be the latest governor to express frustration at the lopsided security arrangement in the country. Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Jide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos have one time or the other lamented their helplessness at the ineffective security structure of the country.
Right after the Appeal Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State ordered the reinstatement of the sacked council chairmen in Osun on the 10th February, 2025, all hell was let loose. Recall that the reinstated chairmen had approached the court to contest what they termed as an unlawful removal from office. And when the judgment was delivered, it sided in their favor. Perhaps, don’t also forget that governor Ademola Adeleke had immediately assumed office on the 27th November 2022 only to ordered the chairmen belonging to the APC to vacate their offices. The event that followed that arbitrary order was a judicial showdown that eventually snowballed into a gun duel where lives and limbs were lost to avoidable clashes and confrontations. Reports say about eight people lost their lives in the mayhem.
Despite the swearing-in ceremony, none of the PDP council chairmen has officially reported at their respective secretariats. Next year, the state will go for another gubernatorial election that will determine their next governor. For one, tension is running amok as stakeholders across the party lines seem to throw caution in the winds by flexing their muscles, while fighting till end not minding whose lives are caught short or limb is cut into tiny pieces. That election will equally set the tone for the 2027 general election where the APC will want to win after losing to the PDP in the 2023 Presidential election. So, the battle for the soul of the council areas is only a precondition for the bigger battle that will define the next year poll. We have seen it before. Indeed, we know that the recent waves of violence in Osun State are neither new nor surprising. The Oyinlola/Aregebola political rivalry is still fresh like early morning water. However, the dimension and the standoff of the current fisticuff is unlike any. In effect, the best way to understand this fiasco is to connect the dot with the governorship election in particular and the 2027 general election in general.
This same grim situation is also unfolding in Rivers State where the Governor Fubara’s led administration is reeling over the Supreme Court judgement on the state assembly and local government affairs. Interestingly, as efforts to understand the intricacies of the Osun political debacle took an unprecedented dimension, the Supreme Court verdict on Rivers House of Assembly crisis and the contention around the local government election swiftly swallowed whatever is left of Osun kerfuffle. In her first judicial cudgel, the apex court directed the CBN to stop Rivers allocations. Additionally, it also held that it is an aberration for Governor Fubara to have purportedly presented an appropriation bill before a four-man House of Assembly thereby denying twenty-eight constituencies of effective representation in vagrant violation of a court order mandating him (Fubara) to re-present the 2024 appropriation bill before a validly constituted Assembly led by Hon. Marin Amaewhule. “The actions of Governor Fubara over the alleged defection of twenty-eight members of the Rivers Assembly is an act of brigandage and dictatorship aimed at preventing the House from performing its legitimate functions under the speakership of Amaewhule”, the court clarified further.
No doubt, both Osun and Rivers are dancing on the cusp of bloody political conflagration and riding on the tidal waves of ‘wild west’ political experimentation. Of course, we’ve seen the broad day light demolition of the Rivers Assembly complex and the use of violence to assert authority and take control. In fact, we’ve seen how actors in these tragedies have resorted to self-help. When the court no longer guarantees justice, mere judgement only emboldened the aggrieved. Ultimately, what is a judgement that lacked justice? We need not go back to the ruinous past where violence dominated our political landscape. While Oyo State was able managed her own council chairman unlawful removal with a touch of political artisry, others like Osun and Rivers have not been so lucky. Unless we have a system that delivers justice and not mere judgement, our politics and polity might be returning to the era of ‘old wild west’ where life was solitary, brutish, nasty, short, and poor’. Apology to Thomas Hobbes state of nature.
OYO101 is Muftau Gbadegesin’s opinion about issues affecting the Oyo state and is published every Saturday. He can be reached via @Upliftnuggets on X, muftaugbadegesin@gmail.com, and 09065176850.
