Elections all over the world come with hatred and everything divisive. It is worse in Nigeria, where the winner-takes-it-all principle is very strong.
Although it is said that in politics there is neither permanent friend nor foe but permanent interest, sometimes, the enmity and resentment arising from political contests run very deep and wide. That’s why the country has experienced cases of assassination of politicians that were said to be politically-motivated.
Now that the elections are over, it is expected that the bitterness that characterised the exercise should be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Ogun State is one of the states where the general election was tough. The Presidential election was not an issue, but the governorship poll caused a lot of adrenaline rise, right from October 2018, following the acrimonious primaries of the ruling party in the state, All Progressives Congress (APC).
Following the outcome of that primaries, there arose some disagreements that followed through to the elections. But now that the elections have been lost and won, all the parties in the feud must return to status ante. To continue on the firing line would portray anyone who insists on that as a bad sportsman, lacking the spirit of sportsmanship.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun does not love Ogun State no less than anyone who may claim he loves the state. For this love, he has faithfully served the state for almost eight years, and in a matter of weeks, he will be leaving behind many bold imprints.
Since after the elections, Amosun has directed members of the Allied People’s Movement (APM), a party that was formed after the acrimonious primaries, to go back to the APC. But it was said that there has been resistance from some leaders of the APC who believe that such returnee APM members should have nothing to do with APC anymore.
But Amosun is not just a newcomer in politics. Having been around for long, he understands the game so well that even his political foes know the stuff he is made of.
The Ogun State governor has a personal relationship with the First Family in Nigeria that spans several years, and it is not likely that the current impasse between him and some party leaders would undermine that age-long friendship.
In addition, Amosun enjoys a robust friendship with many of those around the President. He remains an asset to the APC family, having won his mandate to go to the Senate in the 9th National Assembly that would be inaugurated in June.
During the APC gubernatorial primary, Amosun, being a sitting governor, favoured Akinlade Akinlade as a successor and communicated same to his party, but some interests within the APC kicked against it, preferring Dapo Abiodun who hails from Iperu-Remo in Ogun East zone.
The real issue is the fact that the incumbent governor believes that for equity, justice and fair play, all the ethnic groupings in the state should be given the opportunity to control power.
Since the creation of Ogun State, Yewa-Awori people of Ogun West have not produced a governor for the first time, a situation that has bred rancour and feeling of marginalisation. So, the thinking is that Akinlade’s emergence would placate the people in that axis and also help to address whatever infrastructural deficit they may have suffered over the years.
The governor had reasoned that if Akinlade was elected, his emergence would enable him embark on projects that would make his people feel belonged and heave a sigh of relief, such as construction of rural roads to ease transportation of farm produce, among other developmental projects.
These were the thinking of Governor Amosun that pitted him against some party bigwigs in APC.
The Amosun administration has recorded a lot of feat in terms of infrastructural development and economic vibrancy, resulting in Ogun State’s internally generated revenue from N750 million to N7 billion monthly.
Recall that the governor never relented in his campaign for Buhari’s return, even in the midst of the crisis.
Apart from Lagos with its huge resources, no other state in the South West mounted the level of unprecedented media and publicity blitz in favour of President Buhari ahead of the presidential election.
On the need for the leadership of the APC at the national level to bury the hatchets and close ranks with Amosun, an analyst, who claimed that he followed the campaign in Ogun, said, “APC would be making a serious mistake by putting Amosu at arm’s length.
“If you ask me; I would say that it would be in the overall interest of the APC to mend fences with Governor Amosun. They must sit at a round table and iron out their differences. Good a thing, the President is a good friend of his; he should mediate between the feuding parties. I can say plainly that perhaps, few politicians have illuminated the political scene in the Southwest region and Ogun State in particular, since the advent of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, than the incumbent Governor Amosun,” the analyst said.
Amosun a chartered accountant was born in Abeokuta in 1958, attended African church primary school and then African Church Grammar School, and Ogun State Polytechnic, Abeokuta. He subsequently attended the University of West-Minster, where he acquired a Master of Arts in International Finance.
His political sojourn started in 2003, when he was elected as the senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial district in the upper chamber of the National Assembly on the platform of now defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP).
Amosun, however, made an unsuccessful attempt for the position of the governor of Ogun State in 2007.
He ran for the same office in 2011, on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and won.
Upon assumption of office in 2011, the administration made giant stride in different sectors; by transforming the state and focusing on development of infrastructure with new road networks and expansion of old ones, prioritising education and job creation.
Leveraging his state’s proximity to Lagos and with the rising cost of living and doing business in the City of Excellence, Ogun easily became a destination for many, including investors. In the first three years of his administration, Amosun is said to have attracted about 100 companies to Ogun State.
He also created a ‘New City’ in Ogun State, which cuts across the three local council areas of Ogun Central Senatorial District, namely Obafemi/Owode; Ifo, and Ewekoro, while a model school is being built by his administration in the areas. Infrastructural development in border communities such as Arepo, Ibafo, among others, is presently at advance stage.
In an attempt to improve transportation and commerce in the state, Amosun has since signed an N1.2billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Chinese company for the construction of a rail system.
Upon his re-election and assumption of office in 2015 on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Amosun continued in his industrialisation drive with the construction of airport and aggressive rail transportation project in the state both of which are expected to boost commerce.
An Abeokuta-based public affairs commentator, who also works with a non-governmental organisation, commended Amosun’s development efforts in Ogun State.
“Irrespective of political leaning, all honest citizens and visitors to Ogun State agree that the outgoing governor and his team have, in the last eight years, delivered an expansive transformation agenda that has seen the state capital and several other cities and major towns in the three Senatorial zones greatly remodeled,” the commentator said.
According to him, “Ogun has witnessed a seemingly well-designed and thoughtfully executed plan-cum-blueprint to re-engineer her economic, infrastructure and industrial sectors such that today, Ogun State is the fastest growing industrial hub in South West Nigeria. The state IGR profile has also massively improved just as Security and infrastructure renewal have become the norm.
“From being one of the states with high notoriety for armed robbery, kidnapping, ritual killings and other sundry crimes, Ogun has been largely transformed under Amosun’s watch into a peaceful state where citizens’ safety and protection of business facilities are great priorities of government. That Ogun has become peaceful today owes largely to an effective governance style that promotes selfless and unbiased commitment to all segments of the state, fairness in deployment of state resources and a clear infrastructure re-modelling mission blueprint.”
Iniobong Iwok
