By Tunde Akingbondere
At this critical time in the life of Ondo State, we are forced to critically examine what has transpired over the months: the political moves and machinations, the threats, and the populism of leadership when it is made to compete with the fire of state-sponsored violence and shootings, together with the capacity of tradition to checkmate politicians and curb their madness. We are compelled to confront the beauty of power and the tendency of the powerful to fall in the manner of the weak when their supposed power is made to contend with inherent human weaknesses and hubris. It became apparent that the people can catalyse the woes of the powerful by fearlessly standing against his excesses, in a moment of judicial notice. At this time, it became obvious that sovereignty is not found in the people but in guns—just as Chairman Mao surmised in his speech that “power emanates from the barrel of a gun.” The power he addressed is synonymous with sovereignty, as captured by Jean Bodin. Indeed, the people are mere puns in the chess game of politicians who have paid the numbers and can call the shots.
In the course of world history, thinkers and researchers have protested the far-reaching implications of power dynamics and their sweeping influence in turning citizens into mere pieces on the political board. Rudolf Steiner, while emphasizing this, said: “Today’s policies and political activity treat people like pawns. More than ever before, attempts will be made to use people as cogs in a wheel. People will be handled like puppets on a string.” In the same vein, J. Adam Snyder said, “Politics is a game played by the rich with the lives of the poor.”
Reacting more bluntly, French philosopher and cultural theorist Paul Virilio highlights that “sovereignty no longer resides in the territory itself, but in the control of the territory. And localization is an inherent part of that territorial control.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in The Social Contract (published in 1762), emphasized that “if then the people promises simply to obey, it loses what makes it a people; the moment a master exists, there is no longer a sovereign.” Furthering this line of thought, political and individualist philosophy argues that “the majority of problems on this planet are the result of the idea that humans are not sovereign and autonomous, but property owned by primitive Gods and incompetent governments.”
Standing on these grounds, I like to critically address the recently conducted primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), including the intrigues that followed them. As a citizen journalist with a platform that reported the process, particularly in my own jurisdiction, Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency, and including other parts of Ondo State, I can confidently say that the principles that define democracy are dead, and that the primaries of the ruling party in the state are the hearse with which their pale and stinking cadavers were ferried to the grave and buried. Is it not shocking that politicians have now transmigrated from the business of politicking to mere acting in the amphitheatre of deception, by pulling stunts of primaries, willfully wasting the party’s resources on phony agendas that will merely be carried out as ritualistic traditions while the papers are treated as victims of their mutilations and their inks, only for everything to be dumped in the gutters of irrelevance, with their winners left in abject confusion?
While I pray that democracy can still be revived from the sleep of death that has been committed by this new crop of politicians, I doubt it can ever survive the deluge of debris it will have to contend with. Dr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the governor and custodian of people’s power in the state, has been locked in a squabble with the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, for months. Tunji-Ojo, considered to be in the performing league of Tinubu’s ministers reeks of charismatic leadership and a new wave of politics in the state. As a populist leader with national clout, particularly for his nationally acclaimed revolution regarding airport sanitation and, later, passports collection in the country, his supporters are everywhere in the state, calling for the resurgence of BTO (as he is fondly called) in Ondo State politics. Unfortunately, this appears threatening to the political clout of Aiyedatiwa, who is scheming to wrestle with Sections 137(3) and 182(3) of Nigeria’s grundnorm and constitution, weaponizing politics and its murky waters. To this end, Aiyedatiwa is willing to configure his battle as the agenda of the state by ensuring he controls the majority members of the National Assembly who will be committed to fronting what can be tagged “Ipadabo Aiyedatiwa” in the coming electoral circle.
With fairness to Dr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, I might be selfish if I were in his position. For every politician, survival is paramount, and there are cards to that effect. My grouse with Aiyedatiwa is the caliber of persons and his modalities for deeming candidates worthy of his anointing. To achieve his aim, Aiyedatiwa was economical with the truth on different occasions that the National Assembly members in the state are no longer popular, hence the need to retire most of them ahead of the next dispensation, so his supposedly popular candidates can be imposed on the people ahead of President Tinubu’s election. This is not true.
Emphasizing that Aiyedatiwa is not even as popular as many of the National Assembly members he is scheming to retire is this clear fact: these people contributed in no small measure to his highly touted 18–0 win in the last election. Prior to that election, Aiyedatiwa was barely known; he became quite popular at the success of his legal battle with the cabal that was holding the state to ransom at the time. Those are the people who welcomed him at the expense of more renowned personalities like the Learned Silk Chief Olusola Oke, SAN, and including the celebrated Senator, lawyer, and business magnate Jimoh Ibrahim. These two were more competent candidates who would have positioned the state well. What now changed?
The titan of Idanre politics and a staunch supporter of President Bola Tinubu, Hon. Festus Akingbaso, defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress shortly after his emergence as the only Member of the House of Representatives from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, and he was nationally accepted in light of what was regarded as his capacities. He won the 2023 election to the House of Representatives for Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency by polling 24,263 votes to defeat his closest opponent, who could only amass 20,000 votes. It is worthy of special note that he won most of the votes from his town, Idanre. This is what it means to be popular, being accepted among your people. I confidently support this candidate because there is no convincing argument against him. If some people who rush to come for his head can pamper Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa despite the enormous resources at his beck and call, compared to what a sitting representative controls, I see their criticisms as hypocrisy. A governor who understands politics will only attempt to woo these political juggernauts (which includes Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire SAN) into his camp and back their ambitions, since their popularity is not in doubt.
In the stead of this, Governor Aiyedatiwa publicly preached consensus candidacy to party leaders at various meetings, emphasizing that candidates can buy forms but will be requested to step down at the right time for the party’s consensus candidate, even if they have expended so much resources hosting party leaders. This plan was terminated by the directive from the presidency that all candidates must be allowed to be popularly tested where there is no consensus agreement on consensus candidacy. Irrespective of the national protest against consensus candidacy, Governor Aiyedatiwa still proceeded to declare his consensus candidates, probably while being oblivious of the fact that consensus is not one person handpicking another.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, consensus is “a generally accepted opinion or decision among a group of people.” But the moment a single individual, however powerful, singularly handpicks someone and brands him a consensus candidate within a party, he creates a controversy that only the dictionary can solve. In fact, it is nothing but imposition when a leader presents certain candidates through backroom deals inspired by cronyism.
For Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency, the governor’s consensus candidate was Tajudeen Adefisoye. For the Assembly position, he picked Oyewole Aderemi, a controversial former aspirant for that position and a politician who had publicly threatened fire and brimstone in the runoff to Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s election, claiming the process would be riddled with violence and thuggery. These two candidates were to merge their capacities in opposition, gang up against the incumbent Member of the House of Representatives in the Federal Constituency, Festus Akingbaso, who is more popular with the ordinary people on the streets. To the best of their knowledge, the coast was already clear for them, because the former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ade Adetimehin who incidentally hails from the same local government had been disgraced some weeks earlier, with his brother’s head nearly chopped off.
They swung into action, held meetings, and yet one of them was ousted on the day of the primaries by the APC National Working Committee (NWC). The news of Tajudeen Adefisoye’s disqualification, embarrassingly, became public knowledge through a farcical publication by a group said to be Razaq Ayo Obe’s media team. Interestingly, Ayo Obe, Aiyedatiwa’s former Director of PPMU, willingly resigned from Aiyedatiwa’s government after posting on his Facebook platform that “we have been serving you for long but now it is our turn.” It should not surprise anyone that an individual who made such a definitive statement would later resign and still lack the courage to pursue his ambition by backing Tajudeen Adefisoye. The statement by his media was the only statement that could be used publicly as a designation of his return to the race—there was not even a single direct statement from him. If a man can shamefully admit that he cannot contest on his own accord but only on the misfortune of another man, it says a lot about his obsession with free food and opportunities in politics. I am not surprised that Tajudeen Adefisoye decided not to back him with his arsenal upon hearing the news of his disqualification, considering his status and believing in himself – a belief that earlier earned him the badge of honour and defeat of a former Assembly Speaker in the State.
After the news of Adefisoye’s disqualification became public, support shifted towards Festus Akingbaso, who eventually won convincingly against Razaq Obe, who had been awakened from his deep slumber on the morning of the polls. He was accordingly declared, only for the governor to declare Razaq Obe in a backdoor statement manufactured in the dead of the night and relayed through his CPS that same night, after frustrating every attempt to declare the original results. Unfortunately, that statement, which was purportedly released by the chairman of the electoral committee was not signed. This is the situation across Ondo State, except some parts of Akoko, the interior minister’s stronghold.
I challenge Governor Aiyedatiwa to explain this: a victory for Razaq Obe in this process is a dangerous trend that might affect the party’s chances at the polls. How will Razaq Obe gallantly walk into Idanre and campaign, after being smuggled in through the backdoor on the back of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, against an Idanre son who won the process convincingly? And does the immediate shift toward Obe mean that Governor Aiyedatiwa is loyal to no ally except his personal interest, considering how Adefisoye was treated after the disqualification? Unfortunately, it is not only APC members who trooped out from their different homes to cast their votes that have been used as pawns in this game; in fact, a politician has been used and dumped. While citizens across Ondo expect results of the primaries, they still clamour that the justice of the process be upheld without delay.
By legal implication, both candidates who now lay claim to the anointment of Governor Aiyedatiwa didn’t participate in the process and if this fact will be overlooked; they also didn’t win. Why is it difficult for the government to back any attempt to hand this mandate to the winner?
May the will of the people be done.
Akingbondere, is a student of the Nigerian Law School from Ondo State.
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