My last week’s column on Governor Seyi Makinde’s possible and potential pick for the 2027 gubernatorial election jolted me to reflect on the other side of the political coin particularly the usual fallout among power brokers once a major election is won – which often hit the polity while distracting those at the helms.
As I busied myself with that recurrent political spat, an incident of a similar nature broke out on the influential X, formerly Twitter where a former PDP member in Osun state by the handle @IfedapoOsun engaged in a digital dogfight with Afrobeats star, David Adeleke whose uncle, Ademola Adeleke is the governor of Osun. As if that wasn’t enough, another bizarre news also hit the airwave in Kogi where the governor, Usman Ododo announced the appointment of 1, 192 Special Assistants.
While thinking about that outrageous move, I flashed back to the early days of Governor Makinde in office and the bitterness that destroyed his relationship with people who supported his aspiration long before other gladiators reluctantly accepted him.
My memory reminded me that nearly everyone who tirelessly worked for the Governor in the 2019 poll tragically fell out of favour with him. In that instant, I began to dig into the danger of an unstructured reward system in breeding political desperadoes who only see politics for what they can get in cash and kind.
To an average politician, politics, stripped of its pompous jargon, and complications is an investment – a capital-intensive endeavour for any serious contender. That’s why politicians don’t care what goes into achieving their political aspirations. In the US, the evidence is quiet and crystal clear. When the big donors for instance pump money into the campaign of either the Democrats or the Republicans, it is not because they are entirely altruistic and patriotic.
When hundreds of thousands of people volunteered to mobilize for a candidate or a party the way 90,000 black women did for Kamala Harris via the July 23, zoom meeting, it is not because they’ve not been negatively and personally touched by some of the policy mishap of the current government they are trying to reinstall in power. But for the US and much of the developed democracies, party supremacy is held in high esteem; compared to Nigeria where weak party structures have undermined not just internal democracy but have carefully given birth to democratic dictatorship.
‘Makinde, Mulikat and failure of accord’
To have a clear understanding of what transpired between Governor Seyi Makinde and one his biggest backers in the 2019 elections, former House leader, Hon. Mulikat Akande-Adeola, I spoke to the Oyo state chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Hon. Michael Okunlade.
“Tired of the old order and the various shenanigans of the late Abiola Ajimobi’s administration, we, I mean a group within the Oyo state People’s Democratic Party decided to throw our weight behind the aspiration of Engr. Makinde who, don’t forget, was roundly pummeled and trounced in the 2015 elections”, Hon. Okunlade, a former Oyo state house of assembly member told me. He said the relationship that existed between Governor Makinde and Hon. Mulikat was brokered by some members of the group which also had Senator Hosea Agboola, Alh. Adebisi Oloponeiyan, Femi Jogor, and a host of other PDP chieftains as hyperactive participants.
He added that the likes of Senator Ayo Adeseun, Hon. Jumoke Akinjide, and others for example belonged in the camp of the former governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja. “Most of the critical and emergency meetings of our group were held in the residence of Hon. Mulikat in Ibadan, in addition, Hon. Mulikat tapped into her pool of connections and networks across the country to ensure Makinde got the party ticket without much fuss in the process”, he added. He expressed dismay at the rising tide of strongmen in power to the detriment of strong institutions, saying that those powerful men only reward cronies and bootlickers, leading to a bad reward system that often frustrates genuine party faithful. But Hon. Okunlade isn’t alone in identifying weak party structure as a bane of strengthening the nation’s democratic credentials and importantly of sending democratic dividends to the rest of the country.
“The most mitigating challenge in African democracies is the lack of strong political parties that are accountable”, Ademola H. Adigun, an influential political commentator stated. He said a strong political party will often produce good candidates leading to a strong internal party affair, where strict adherence to the manifesto of a party and its rules. “In the second republic,” he chimed “you sort of knew what to expect from UPN, PRP, CNPP, NPN, NPP. To a large extent…yes, there were expectations but generally in most cases this held”.
He concluded by saying that to rebuild the nation, sustained efforts must be made in ensuring active participation in the formation and or management of political parties; adding that since African countries lack institutions, the political process might be the redemption. With this, I take a step back to Osun where Davido and a former PDP youth leader in Osun went for each other’s necks on social media.
‘Blow For Blow’
“After the swear-in of Governor Ademola Adeleke”, Ifedapo began his narrative in X after Davido called him out for dragging his family name “I came to Davido and let him know what my priority is and what I was eyeing in the government if probably he can be of help. David himself asked me can I do SSA for the governor on New Media, to which I said YES and he told me he could do it”. He requested my number and Instagram account which I gave to him in the hope that he would call or message later based on what he promised me ((SSA) to the governor on New Media. Long story short. That young man felt used, cheated, and dumped leading to decamping to the state APC, a move that angered Davido and his acolytes.
Similar to the distrust of Osun’s former PDP member, Hon. Mulikat, on May 8, 2021, equally echoed her disappointment. “There is always a first time for everything, if I am given another opportunity, I will do things differently, I feel used and dumped”, he somberly declared while featuring on a radio program in Ibadan. “I stepped on so many toes to support Engr. Makinde in 2019”, she concluded.
‘The 1,192 appointments’
Call it bizarre. Unprecedented. Weird. Usman Ododo, Kogi state government appointment of 1,192 special aspirants surprised many but to close political strategists, that decision was anything but surprising given the need for power consolidation. “What the governor did was to share one SSA salary to three Ward Special Assistants, meaning that the cost of governance is not increased given the high number of WSA”, Kingsley Fanwo, Information Commissioner said of the rationale behind the shocking appointment.
Sadly, the way politics is played in Nigeria also reflects how governance is structured. For one, those who failed to demonstrate fairness, inclusion, and equity in the sharing of political juices are unlikely to act differently in distributing the dividend of democracy and here lies the pernicious effort of spreading prosperity to every nook and cranny of a given entity. Sigh!
OYO101 is Muftau Gbadegesin’s opinion about issues affecting the Oyo state and is published every Saturday. He can be reached via @GbadeTheGreat on X, muftaugbadegesin@gmail.com, and 09065176850.
