On January 11, some prominent members of the All Progressives Congress as well as members of the cabinet of Osun State Governor, Gboyega Oyetola, were at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja to pick Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms for him to contest the July 16, 2022 Governorship election in the state.
The Nigerian political space came alive few days ago after Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu visited President Muhammadu Buhari to formally inform him of his decision to contest the 2023 Presidential election. Tinubu told reporters after his meeting with Buhari that he has had enough of being a Kingmaker and that he wanted to fulfill his lifelong ambition of being the President of Nigeria.
One hazy morning in the second half of the noughties, I was at the Odo-Oba residence of my grandfather, Folarin Olawoyin (a.k.a Alhaji J14), and our conversations drifted toward the persona of then Chief Saliu Akanmu Adetunji.
Since the creation of Ogun State on 3rd February, 1976, from the defunct Western State, by the Military junta led by the late Murtala Mohammed, power distribution and sharing among the three socio-cultural components of the state have been imbalance against the people of Ogun West, comprising majorly the Yewa, Awori, Egun and other clusters.
POLITICS is the realm of irrationality. It is not the realm of morality. It is the realm of no permanent enemies, no permanent friends but permanent interest. It is the realm of intrigues, treachery, horse trade, manipulation, betrayal and above all, conspiracy for the coveted treasure - the throne and power. It is not a pool to swim by lilly livered and chicken hearted. To succeed in that realm, you must be made of sterner stuff probably ironclad heart.
Sometimes ago in 1993, a journalist asked former President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in the build-up to the presidential election of June 1993 asking, of the two candidates, Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NRC) and Chief MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who will likely win the scheduled election. The journalist obviously wanted to nail IBB to it by exposing his inclination on which of the two candidates and parties the Federal Military Government (FMG) was rooting for.
It is the time of the year we are immersed in the ritual of the momentous change in the calendar. One year becomes old and like a ripe fruit, falls off the bough and is replaced by a new year that begins its own count down from January 1.
