Ondo gov race: Battle of the zones

 

As the primaries of political parties draw nearer ahead the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State, PETER DADA writes on the increasing agitation to have a particular senatorial district producing the next governor

In the next couple of weeks, the primaries of the various political parties to pick their flag bearers in the November 26, 2016 governorship election in Ondo State will be held.

Unlike previous elections of its nature in the state, political analysts have tagged this one as different.

According to political watchers, the forthcoming governorship poll may take a new dimension as the deciding factor of who wins the race to the Alagbaka Government House may not be based on party affiliation or personality but where the individual hails from.

The submission of the analysts may not be off the mark after all as events unfolding on the political scene of the state in the last couple of months point to it.

The mantras on many lips now are now, “Akoko agenda”, “Owo agenda”, “Akure agenda” and “Ilaje agenda”. And if not these, they are “Ondo North Senatorial Agenda” or “Ondo South Senatorial Agenda.” The clamour is neither for the party nor the personality of the aspirants.

This development, our correspondent gathered, was now giving the leaderships of the political parties sleepless nights.

There are three senatorial zones made up of the 18 local government areas of the state: the north, central and south. Each of the zone comprises of six local governments. In the northern senatorial district there are Akoko North-East, Akoko North- West, Akoko South-East, Akoko South-West, Owo and Ose local governments.

The Ondo Central Senatorial District is made up of Akure South, Akure North, Ifedore, Idanre, Ondo East and Ondo West local governments while the six local government areas in the Ondo South Senatorial District are: Ile Oluji/Oke Igbo, Odigbo, Okitipupa, Irele, Ilaje and Ese Odo.

Findings by our correspondent reveal that members of the ethnic groups in all the senatorial districts are claiming that it is their turn to govern the state.

However, each of the three zones had already produced one of their own as governor of the state. Late Chief Adekunle Ajasin from Owo (North) was the governor between 1979 and 1983, late Chief Adebayo Adefarati from Akungba Akoko (North) ruled the state between 1999 and 2003. Dr. Olusegun Agagu from Iju Odo in Okitipupa LGA (South) was the governor between 2003 and 2009 while the incumbent governor Dr. Olusegun Mimiko is from Ondo town (Central).

The question now is what brought about the clamour for zonal candidacy?

Investigation revealed that the people from these zones were putting pressure on the leadership of the political parties to pick their indigenes as candidates for the election because they believed they would experience more meaningful development in their respective areas with their kinsman on the governorship seat.

For instance, during the tenure of Ajasin in the old Ondo State, the Ondo State Polytechnic (now Rufus Giwa Polytechnic ) was cited in Owo, his home town. Also Adefarati was able to site the Ondo State University (now Adekunle Ajasin University) in Akungba Akoko his home town.

When Agagu held sway, the belief was that the entire Ondo South experienced more developmental projects than what they previously had. Many roads were constructed at the coastal areas and also the Ondo State University of Science and Technology was founded and sited in Okitipupa, the headquarters of his local government.

The people of Ondo Central, especially Ondo town are allegedly enjoying the reign of Mimiko in the area of human and community development. Mimiko was alleged to have sited more projects in the Ondo Central Senatorial District than any other part of the state. Akure, the state capital and Ondo town allegedly experienced tremendous development during the current administration.

The projects like Mother and Child Hospital, mega schools, Trauma Centre, Diagnostic Centre, University of Medical Science, many road projects among others were sited in Ondo town. In addition to that, Mimiko was alleged to have given many of his kinsmen juicy political appointments.

These among other factors, political watchers submitted were the remote and immediate causes of the clamour for the agitators of own zone or ethnic group for governor.

The community leaders in Akoko and Owoland had called on aspirants from their areas in both the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party to unite and come out with a consensus candidate to brighten their chance of picking the ticket of either of the two main political parties and consequently become the governor.

The APC aspirants from Akokoland include, Senator Ajayi Boroffice, Mr. Foluso Adefemi, Mr. Victor Olabimtan, Moyosola Niran-Oladunni, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, Dr. Segun Abraham and Gani Dauda while the PDP’s  two aspirants from the area  are a former Director-General of the Nigeria Sports Commission, Mr. Gbenga Elegbeleye, and the current Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters in the state, Mr. Bamiduro Dada. The Social Democratic Party has a former Minister for Defence, Dr. Olu Agunloye, as the sole aspirant who will certainly be its candidate.

As part of the efforts to ensure an Akoko man becomes the next governor of the state, it was learnt that the entire Akoko communities were ready to support any political party that picked an Akoko person as its candidate.

In Owoland, which is one of the local governments with the highest number of voters, the leaders supported the zoning arrangement and wanted it to favour the north and specifically Owoland.

To this end, they have been calling on their people to support the ‘Owo Agenda’ and ensure they support no other governorship aspirant except the one from Owoland.

The Owo aspirants include: Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, Mr. Bode Ayorinde, Jamiu Ekungba, Niran-Sule Ogunsule, Bukola Adetula and Mrs. Jumoke Anifowose, all from the APC while Senator Remi Okunrinboye and Nekan Olateru-Olagbegi are aspirants of the PDP.

To fulfil their desire, the leaders of the community wrote a letter under the auspices of Owo General Assembly, to the National Leader of the APC, Senator Bola Tinubu, and the state governor, Mimiko, to restrict their parties’ candidacy to Owo Local Government  Area.

In the said letter, signed by the OGA National Coordinator, Akin Aruwajoye, and Secretary, Dr. Monday Duromola, the group lamented that its people were marginalised and believed that having one of their own as a governor would change their fortune for better.

Coming to the Central Senatorial District, most especially Akure, the state capital the ‘Akure Agenda’ spirit has permeated all the nooks and crannies of the area. The indigenes of the towns and villages in both Akure South and North Local Governments are of the position that it is the turn of Akureland to produce the next governor.

According to some Akure elders, there were six divisions in the old Ondo State- the Ondo Division, Okitipupa Division, Owo Division, Akoko Division and Akure Division. Among all the divisions, they explained that it was only the Akure Division that had not produced a governor since 1976 that the state was created.

If the current political calculation of the Akure indigenes were anything to go by, the next governor of the state would be either the incumbent Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (PDP); the senator representing Ondo Central, Senator Tayo Alasoadura; Akinwale Akingbade, who is an ally of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; or an American-based judge, Mr. Dele Alade.

Analysts have, however, noted that the Akure South Local Government, which is the local government with the highest number of voters in the state with over 200,000 registered voters has always been one of the deciding factors of who wins elections in the state since 1999.

The insinuation in some quarters is that the people of the local government want to use their voting strength to negotiate the candidacy of political parties.

However, a counter argument against this insinuation is that it was not only Akure indigenes that live in Akure, that as a state capital all ethnic groups in or outside the state constituted the registered voters in the local government.

In the same vein, the people in Ondo Southern Senatorial District, particularly the Ilaje people too demand for power to shift to their district. Ilaje Local Government which is one of the local governments with high number of registered voters has two of its indigenes in the race. They are: the former Commissioner for Environment in the state, Sola Ebiseni (PDP), and the former candidate of the PDP in the October, 2012 governorship election, Olusola Oke ( APC) .

Though, the Ondo South people are predominately PDP in a bid to clinch power, the people of the area were said to have jettisoned political affiliation and ready to support any aspirant of Ilaje origin irrespective of his party.

However, the state chairman of the APC in Ondo State, Mr. Isaac Kekemeke, has reiterated that there would be no room for zoning or imposition of candidate in the forthcoming governorship election, saying the candidate of the party would be determined by the over 3,000  delegates from the 18 LGs of the state at the primary.

Kekemeke said, “Even though the responsibility of organising primary elections rests on the National Executive Council members, the election will be free, fair and transparent and whoever will emerge victorious, will win fairly, while those who will lose will also lose fairly.”

He added “This would make the election credible as the party would do everything within its power to ensure a free, fair and transparent primary. It is within the rights of any member to support any aspirant of his or her choice but no individual has the power to impose any candidate on the party, not even the chairman, the deputy chairman or the secretary has such powers.”

The Director of Media and Publicity of the PDP in the state, Mr. Ayo Fadaka, said the PDP would not pick its candidate from any particular zone, neither would it pick it from a particular ethnic group in the state. He added that all the aspirants of the party were from all the senatorial zones and were all qualified to contest the governorship election.

He said, “I want to assure you that our party is not zoning the governorship to any of the zones and as it is now, no political party in the state has ever zoned where its candidate is going to come from, from any of the senatorial districts.

“What our party wants is a candidate that will spread across the senatorial zones, knowing full well that the election will hold across the state. It is the candidate that can appeal to every zone that picks the ticket of the party.”

A lecturer at the Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko, Dr. Gbenga Abimbola, said zoning was not constitutional and it was not in the constitution of any political party in the state to zone governorship to any part of the state.

He said, “ If we are to talk of zoning, the power has rotated to all the three senatorial districts in the state but all I know is that it is the person that is going to govern that matters most not where he or she comes from. Those who are saying it should come from this or that place, may have their points, but I think we should look beyond where somebody comes from. If the person is from Ondo State and can deliver, we should give him a chance.”

However in the view of Mr. Ojo Akinsite, a political analyst, the agitators of zoning are right, going by what the state is currently passing through in the area of development.

He said, “Though zoning is not constitutional, a situation where developmental projects are more concentrated in one zone than the others, informs the call for zoning. I cannot blame those agitating for governorship seat to come from their areas because they know having the man as a governor would bring development to their area. It is unfortunate that things like this are happening in our political system in this state.”