OSOBA VS AMOSUN: ANOTHER INTERVENTION BY DAPO THOMAS

Gov. Amosun

Aremo Osoba

Here I am again after a long deserving rest. But I return an angry man.  In the face-off between Governor Ibikunle Amosun and Chief Segun Osoba, I am making another intervention. Chief Olusegun Osoba is a man with impressive professional and political profiles. Chief Osoba is one man that should be proud of his accomplishments in life. He was elected on two different occasions as Governor of Ogun State first from January 1992 until November 1993 on the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP) when Sani Abacha of blessed memory sent all civilian governors packing.

After the return to democracy in 1999, he was re-elected as governor on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD), holding office between May 1999 and May 2003. Chief  Osoba is one of the elders of the All Progressives Congress (APC).Chief Osoba who obtained a Diploma in Journal-ism at the University of Lagos under sponsorship of the International Press Institute in 1965, rose through the ranks in Daily Times to later become the Editor and Managing Director of the Daily Times of Nigeria. Osoba has the singular honour of being the turn-around media guru having attained the height of turning around three major newspapers from losses to profitability namely: The Nigerian Herald, Ilorin (1974-77), The Sketch in Ibadan (1979-1983) and the Daily Times Group (1984-1989). Osoba holds the National Honours of the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) and was a member of the National Conference 2014. With this enviable profile and at 76, one expects Chief Osoba to be playing the role of an elder states-man, helping in nation-building with his wealth of experience in commerce and politics. I am sure the dissolved National Conference (2014) must have benefitted tremendously from Osoba’s political astuteness.

Aside from this, Chief Osoba’s visibility overwhelms the social space, sometimes he attends some of these social functions with his wife, Beere Aderinsola, and sometimes, he attends unaccompanied. And because of his relationship with the me-dia, his photographs receive lavish display in strategic pages of major Nigerian newspapers. I suspect that it is this media indulgence and fraternity that is responsible for Osoba’s recent imperial attitude Osoba vs Amosun: Another intervention whereby he now acts like an ancient emperor who can determine the fate of every man that contradicts or questions his majestic proclamations.

At the moment, the man Osoba is in a bitter political rivalry with the governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. It is always difficult to know what causes Cold War among politicians, but these two are said to be fighting over the composition and control of their Party (APC) State Exco. In any advanced democratic society, Amosun should be an asset to any political party because of his performance and achievements in less than four years as governor. But the Osobas of this world are presenting a performing Amosun to us as a villain and liability who is worth nothing politically. It is strange that a man during whose tenure Ogun  State witnessed revolutionary transformation is being treated with such contempt and disrespect by Chief Osoba simply because he (Osoba) is a party leader.

The Nigerian politics inheres some contradictions and paradoxes that can quake sane nations. I had visited states like Ekiti, Osun, Ogun and Oyo and I have seen the fantastic jobs the governors of those states have done. This was why I am yet to get over the mysterious defeat of my friend, Kayode Fayemi despite his amazing performance in Ekiti. But his case, as shocking as it was, falls into an explicable index of interparty competition and intrigues. But why should a performing governor like Ibikunle Amosun loved by the people of the State for his revolutionary strides, lose an election to whosoever just because an Osoba (an APC Chieftain for that matter) feels his personal political interest should override the collective interest of the State?

According to Senator Gbenga Obadara, a staunch member of the Osoba’s “Matagbamole” group; “except justice is done, if we did not get the required justice, definitel, we will take our fate into our hands”. Pray, what justice do the people of the State need than for the government they elected into office to deliver to them the basic goods that can help alleviate the horrible social condition they have found themselves in, which is what Amosun is doing.  But according to Osoba and his associates, justice is all about the promotion of the inter-est of the “Matagbamole” group, an insignificant group of self-seeking politicians that seek succour from the misery of others.

The Osoba  electoral cum political mystique may have been deliberately raised to a mythical pedestal by his associates and followers in a way that will guarantee the constancy of pecuniary favours and capital exploitation. Amosun seems to be aware  of this otherwise who was he referring to when he said in his interview: “Well, the money is not there to be shared. The money is there to the extent that those for capital projects will go for capital projects and those for recurrent will go for recurrent. I was not elected to be sharing money for politicians but to provide basic infrastructure for the masses.”

Agreed that as a two-time governor of the State, Osoba has a sizeable political structure that the incumbent governor could use as an added advantage to his own political machine, but must Osoba behave and talk as if the whole of Ogun State, is a conquered territory that is under his (Osoba) imperial jurisdiction? Osoba should know that Egbaland alone does not constitute Ogun State. We have the Yewa and the Ijebu as two other major components that also have mouth in the matter.   Even at that, I know that Prince Bola Ajibola, Olusegun Obasanjo and even Amosun himself are very strong Owu sons with considerable influence in Egbaland that can translate into political victory for Amosun.

I wish to comment on the Lagos model that my friend Segun Ayobolu is canvassing for as a political solution to resolve the impasse. The Lagos model collapsed in Lagos even before it took off. Why should Segun then be canvassing for a tem-plate that was rendered virile on arrival?  The idea was mooted when it became obvious that most of the projects Asiwaju Bola Tinubu slated for execution during his tenure could not be achieved in eight years because of distractions coming from Party matters, political mobilization, Obasanjo’s petty fogging and opposition calumny.

In a genuine move to avoid a replay of such a situation, and to achieve a balancing between political management and governmental administration, BRF, believed then to be apolitical, was to focus on governmental administration while Tinubu, a master political strategist, was to handle political management. But not too long, what was meant to achieve perfect political understanding and relationship between a political godfather and his “apolitical” godson was invariably derailed by veiled ambition, camouflaged rebellion, orchestrated mutiny and attempted power hijacking. If it did not work in Lagos, it can never work in Ogun. Unlike BRF, Ibikunle Amosun is a politician with strong political  pedigree and structure which had assisted him in his electoral  victories including his election into the Senate and even as the governor of Ogun State. Asking Amosun to accept the so-called Lagos model in order to pacify a sulking elder politician, is like asking him to supervise the funeral ceremony of his political career. Like Osoba, Amosun is a very strong politician in Ogun State, and therefore, any political  solution or arrangement to normalise things between these two people must not give undue advantage to one simply because he claims to be a godfather.

Has Amosun admitted that Osoba is his godfather? Yes, Osoba may be elderly and as he claimed, old enough to be Amosun’s father, but it is this kind of intolerance and insipid misbehaviour by the elders that expose them to acts of disrespect and dishonour by their so-called children. In an interview he granted few weeks ago, Amosun avoided the word “godfather” when talking about his relationship with Osoba” “Chief Osoba is my leader and whatever happens, he remains my leader. There is no contest about that…” The governor has nothing to lose if he makes a finaloverture to his “leader” (and he should do so in the open) because in politics, competitors and rivals should relentlessly and constructively pursue the path of peace through negotiations and compromises that can reinforce and consolidate their control of power.  But it appears Amosun’s fate has been sealed with imperialistic finality.

Hear the almighty Osoba:  “Not even the intervention from traditional rulers nor the national leader-ship who might suggest harmonization of the exco in any format would make me change my stance. I would not even accept their apology or the governor’s”. What Osoba seems to have forgotten is that there is the real Almighty GOD who seals every man’s fate including Osoba’s without consulting us. He determines who rises and who falls, not Osoba and his gang.