Segun Oderinde
Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun is irredeemably drunk. But not with that drunkenness which is stupid, maudlin, wavering on its feet. He is high on power and intoxication of public office, an unnatural state that keeps men alert, abnormally quick, vicious, perfectly steady, and lethal to the bones.
Yes, Amosun is a man in love with his own wiles. Like a man fated to dance to a manic tune in his own separate universe, he has entered the public sphere wiggling to a beat no one can hear.
The Ogun State governor has declared his support for his lackey, Abiodun Akinlade, who recently dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) to join the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Amosun openly declared his support for Akinlade, a rival party’s candidate, thus flouting party rules and attracting the penalty of suspension.
While his infernal opposition to Prince (Dr.) Dapo Abiodun, the APC’s governorship candidate, is very well documented, Amosun, nevertheless, promised to campaign for President Muhammadu Buhari. “We will do everything possible to ensure Buhari wins massively in Ogun, but they should not miss it. I, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, will not work for any other candidate that they are rooting for to become governor. No way. They are free to do whatever they want, but I will not support them,” different media reports quoted the governor as saying. He also blamed Adams Oshiomhole, the APC chairman, for the crisis that led to the defection of his loyalists from the APC.
According to a source, “What governor Amosun has done by declaring his support for another party’s candidate is patently anti-party. How can you remain in the APC and be supporting the governorship candidate of another party? We don’t think the party can afford to have a brazen Judas in its fold in the general election. It is time for Amosun to go and join his people in the APM.”
In the run up to the party primaries, Governor Amosun had unilaterally written out his preferred candidates for all elective posts in the state, including introducing Akinlade, his former Special Adviser and current Member of the House of Representatives as his anointed for the governorship seat.
The governor’s action drew widespread flaks but he stood his ground. Alas, Akinlade lost the APC ticket to Abiodun, a factor Amosun cannot live with. Sensing that he might have been outfoxed by the party, he made repeated visits to Aso Rock to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to overturn the party’s decision. On his last public visit, he railroaded two royal fathers, the Alake of Egbaland and the Olu of Ilaro; and a former minister, Iyabo Anisulowo, to join him to beg the president to have a rethink, all to no avail. Reports say the president pointedly told him he could not upturn the decision of the party’s National Working Committee which conducted the primary and presented Abiodun as the authentic winner.
It was on the heels of this that Akinlade and other loyalists of the governor decamped to the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to pursue their ambition.
