In Ibadan, AGBOOLA BAYO captures the intrigues that led to winning and losing the keenly contested battle last Saturday.
The 2015 general elections though has come and gone but not with its impact on the nation’s democracy as it marked the first election in the history of democracy in Nigeria when the opposition party will defeat the ruling party and the incumbent President gallantly accepting the defeat.
In Oyo state, the 2015 general election came and gone without not leaving its major impact on the political history in the annals of the state even from the days of old Oyo state. There used to be an age long saying in the state that “Ibadan people don’t serve anyone twice” (“Ibadan kii sin enikan lemeji”), meaning, no one should think of governing Ibadan and by extension, Oyo state twice,but the jinx was finally broken in the 2015 election.
Oyo governorship election going by political development could best be said to have been concluded few months before the election considering the sharp division that rocked and finally tore apart the major opposition political parties in the state which are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Accord Party.
PDP which many especially the political observers in Oyo state considered to be the likely favourite replacement for the ruling party in the state (considering some of policies of Governor Abiola Ajimobi’s policies which have pitched some sectors against his administration) suddenly broke into pieces following the prolonged crisis that rocked the party over who becomes the party’s governorship candidate for the 2015 polls.
After the last December PDP’s controversial governorship primary at the Obafemi Awolowo stadium,(Liberty stadium) which produced Senator Teslim Kolawole Folarin as the PDP standard bearer, other notable governorship aspirants in the party, namely Otunba Adebayo Alao Akala and Engineer Seyi Makinde dumped the party with their teeming supporters.
Otunba Akala believed to be the most grassroots politician in the state dumped PDP for Labour Party where he was immediately unanimously adopted as the governorship candidate as the four governorship candidates in the party stepped down for him thereby clearing the coast for him.
Engineer Seyi Makinde on his part moved out of the PDP to the Social Democratic Party with his teeming supporters and was equally anointed as the party’s governorship candidate for the 2015 polls.
As for the Accord, the party suffered its own share of the political set back with the failure of the party’s leadership to be meticulous with some of its incumbent National and State Assembly members together with others that felt betrayed with the sharing of elective offices in the state resulting in many of the party’s dumping the party for either the ruling APC. Labour Party or the SDP thereby reducing the party’s strength and popularity in the affected areas.
Though the APC too was not totally free internal wrangling like the other political parties in the state as it was on record that Governor Ajimobi/APC lost all the parties two serving Senators and some of the House of Representatives members to the PDP and the Accord party as well as the Labour Party, but both Governor Ajimobi and the APC leadership in the state were able to come over the internal wrangling on time unlike the PDP which was completely swept off the track by the prolonged factional crisis that rocked the party.
By January ending,it was dawn on sincere PDP members in Oyo state that the game seems to be over for the party as far as the 2015 general elections particularly the governorship election will be concerned as there appeared dimension in the crisis tearing the party apart with pronounced sharp division within the party’s campaign machinery even at campaign grounds
However Governor Abiola Ajimobi and the APC leaders in the state in addition to holding tight to the party’s stronghold in Ibadan and the Oke Ogun areas of the state, suddenly relaxed on some of its controversial policies as well as embracing newly fashioned welfarist programmes through which the party and Governor Ajimobi was able to adequately reconciled with majority of the aggrieved people particularly the eligible voters across the nooks and crannies of the state and it paid off for the governor at last by breaking the 39 years second term jinx in Oyo state by being the first governor to win a second term ticket in the history of the state.
The final struck that cleared both the PDP, Accord ,Labour and SDP off the race in Oyo state was the Buhari political tsunami of March 28 polls which saw the APC clearing all the three Senatorial seats and 12 of the 14 House of Representatives seats in the state, and the failure of the PDP, Accord, Labour and the SDP leaders and governorship candidates to team up as one to be able to resist the APC as earlier muted few days after the March 28 polls which resulted in many of the remaining un deciding politicians and their supporters wasting no time in shifting their loyalty to the APC having sensing the looming political humiliation awaiting their parties in the governorship poll.