Oyo South senator-elect, Dr Kola Balogun has said he does have any worry whatsoever over the petition filed against his victory at the tribunal by his major opponent, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Balogun, younger brother of former senator Lekan Balogun, had defeated Ajimobi and incumbent Adesoji Akanbi of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, during the February 23, 2019 National Assembly election.
Reacting to the Ajimobi’s petition, Balogun, in a chat with Saturday Tribune explained how “Before that election, some people asked me where I got the confidence with which I responded to reporters’ questions from. They asked me why I was so confident about the election and I told them I didn’t know why but that I say things as I see them. If I was not jittery at that time when we were confronted with all kinds of things about opposition’s tactics and plans to rig the election, why should I be jittery about what goes on now when the people have spoken? Why should I be jittery when the ruling and decision of the court are supposed to be based on facts? If anybody is talking about malpractices during the National Assembly election, we all knew and we still know now that PDP was not in the business of rigging in that election, especially in Oyo State.
“Everybody knows that God and the people of Oyo State were on our side. I was at a meeting in Abuja recently and everyone was saying that the Oyo State election has become a model for the rest of the country; it was an election in which people shunned money to vote for merit. Talk about the power of incumbency, money and all that, everything was stacked up against the opposition but in the end, the election in Oyo State was revolutionary. People revolted against hopelessness, unemployment, hunger and poor state of our economy. People revolted against the fallen standard of education; they revolted against lack of standard in our health care delivery system, agriculture and so on. That election was revolutionary; there is no other way to look at it.
“There is really nothing new in defeating an incumbent governor in a National Assembly election; there are precedents all over the place. Recall that a former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, after serving as governor for two terms lost out in the senatorial election. Similarly, former Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State ran for Senate and lost, despite having served for two terms.
“This is not the first time that an incumbent governor will run for Senate and lose. I have said it several times at some of my media appearances when I was asked this kind of question: I always said that ‘look, empires don’t last forever, neither do emperors.’ I also thought at that time that it was incumbent on the incumbent, be you governor or senator either you are running for a second or third term or what have you, it becomes very important for you to convince the people based on your record of performance. You need to convince them on why they should vote for you one more time. I was coming from a position where all I had was the record of performance in a few political offices I have held. But for them, they had a lot more to do to convince the electorate. So, I came up with my own agenda, which had the people at the centre. I approached them and convinced them that I would be a better representative and they accepted. But more importantly, it was the grace of God that made it possible.
