+How the battle will be won and lost
*The candidates’ weaknesses
-Dayo Rufai, Abeokuta
The forthcoming general elections in Nigeria will be held in the first quarter of 2023.
Gateway Times Nigeria reports the presidential and national assembly elections will be conducted on Saturday, 25th February; governorship and state houses of assembly elections have also been scheduled to hold on Saturday, 11th March, 2023.
The electoral umpire in the country, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), only few weeks back, specifically on September 28, 2022, officially announced the commencement of campaign season across all political parties.
In Ogun State, the story is not different as the incumbent governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, is jostling to stage a comeback to Okemosan in 2023, while a lot of political gladiators in the state have also shown interest in contesting and, probably, beat him to the game.
However, Gateway Times Nigeria investigations have revealed that the serious contenders among those routing to become the number one citizen include Governor Abiodun, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Jimi Lawal of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Biyi Otegbeye (African Democratic Congress) and the embattled governorship candidate of the PDP, Hon Oladipupo Adebutu.
According to findings, these were the favourites to clinch the Governorship seat in Ogun state in 2023.
However, a tough race among the candidates is in sight as each of the governorship hopefuls not only boasts of a large fan base, but they all boast of the financial wherewithal to push their political dream to victory.
For Governor Dapo Abiodun, who is the most popular candidate, being the incumbent, he is known across the wards, towns and villages in the state. D.A., as he is fondly called, has undoubtedly achieved some remarkable feats since he came into office three and a half years back.
D.A. prides himself as the candidate to beat and strongly believes the massive projects of his administration will influence his re-election bid.
This aside, political pundits argue that Abiodun has political landmines to overcome. The political foot soldiers, according to sources, are not too happy with him but only playing along to protect their ‘pots of soup’.
Political heavyweights like the two former governors of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba and Otunba Gbenga Daniel, were said to be not too committed to the project. The latter is seen as the most popular candidate of the APC, even beyond the Ogun East senatorial district in the state.
The governor was alleged to have recently asked local government chairmen and party leaders in Ogun East to boycott the flag off of the senatorial campaign of OGD which held in Sagamu and other related activities of the ex-governor.
Gov Abiodun also still have legal and criminal cases hanging on his neck, they argue. But some of the governor’s lieutenants were of the opinion that the battles will be over in due course as the cases were only politically motivated and would be dispensed of with time.
Unlike some of the past governors of the state, DA is reported to have always shunned calls and text messages made to his mobline phone lines thereby creating a communication gap between himself and 90 percent of the political appointees including serving commissioners in his cabinet.
While assemblymen are complaining that the governor had denied them of constituency allowance in the last three years, council chairmen are reportedly complaining silently of alleged undue interference with their monthly allocation.
“Dapo Abiodun’s weakness is still his nonchallance. He’s not in charge. Senator Solomon Adeola, otherwise known as Yayi, is believed to be the defacto political leader of the team. Not all actors in APC, especially the core loyalist of DA, like this trend occasioned by the governor’s perceived aloofness.
Besides, public servants, pensioners’ perception of DA is not too good in the state at the moment, one of the sources was quoted to have said.
Otunba Jimi Lawal, is the factional governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state. The financial expert who hails from Ijebu Ode contested the 2019 governorship election on the platform of the APC, but had since defected to PDP.
The soft-spoken politician is a renowned technocrat who is seen in several quarters to command high sense of administrative expertise, and would bring his experience to bear if elected governor in 2023.
Unknown to many, JAL, as Jimi is fondly called, has very rich background and also has what it takes to wrestle shoulder to shoulder with other candidates.
The stumbling block, however, is the allegation that he is not only coming to reap from where he did not sow, but may have been planted by the opposition APC to cause uproar and destabilization in PDP.
JAL, Gateway Times Nigeria reports, does not have any visible political structure in all the wards in the state. Lawal is said to be banking on the remnants from the APC and those who are aggrieved with Ladi Adebutu in PDP to make things work for his governorship dream.
For Jimi Lawal and Hon Oladipupo Adebutu, prominently known in the Ogun political circle as LADO, it’s up to court to decide. If it’s Jimi Lawal, political pundits argued, APC may possibly work away with the trophy.
On the field assessment, if Lado eventually wins the legal battle over the authenticity of his governorship ticket, then the battle will be intense and a straight fight between the son of the multi-billionaire businessman, Chief Kessington Adebutu and Prince Dapo Abiodun of APC.
Besides the availability of resources for team LADO, the structure is still formidable and highly potent, sources said, adding that Lado is just hibernating as a result of the court action suspending his campaign advancement.
The addition of Amosun’s estranged team to Lado political family, particularly Tripple A, Prince Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade who was assumed in some quarters to have won the last election, now running on joint ticket with Lado is success driven, pundits say.
But for the court action, these two popular individuals could have altered the political atmosphere in the state. Lado is popular in Remo, he would run neck to neck with Dapo in Ogun East, same in the central, while Triple A will have a good showing in the west on behalf of Lado.
In all, court is the major determinant for Team Lado.
The other weakness could be Lado’s perceived administrative inefficiency but with triple A backing him up, that area is being covered up, sources posit.
Chief Biyi Otegbeye, the candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Gateway Times Nigeria scooped, has serious legal stumbling block against the process that threw him up. At the last counts, about 23 cases were reported to have been filed against him and his party’s assembly candidates.
Across the state, there’s no single crowd puller in the team except for Amosun’s factor which won’t be reflected on the ballot papers.
Amosun’s team is even depleted, sources pointed out. The former governor’s deputy, Chief (Mrs) Yetunde Onanuga, Senator Olalekan Mustapha LM, Triple A and other team members including Arugbo, Hon Tola Banjo TB and the rest, had all deserted Amosun.
Otegbeye’s ADC a relatively unknown party in the state, sources argued, might be going to the election in 2023 just to mark register or to participate like an Olympian.
“They will likely sabotage one another. If Lado gets to election, he will be the greatest beneficiary not ADC, even if OGD publicly endorsed Otegbeye. African Democratic Congress will be in the reckoning only if LADO is not on the ballot papers,” another source stated.
