Onigbinde to Dapo Abiodun: Without Daniel, you would not have been elected governor in 2019

A Professor of Philosophy, Researcher and Opinion Leader, Akin Onigbinde, has warned Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and his supporters to stop attacking former Governor, Senator Gbenga Daniel.

To him, without the support and influence of Daniel, Abiodun would not have been elected governor in 2019.
Onigbinde said the former governor, who is now representing Ogun East in the Senate, is a politician nobody can push over in the politics of the Gateway State.
Onigbinde, who spoke with some journalists about the rift between Abiodun and Daniel, described Daniel as a game changer in politics of Ogun State in particular and Nigeria in general.

According to him, “Ogidi Omo (Daniel) played an important role in the emergence of Governor Dapo Abiodun who now turned against him simply because he wanted to go to the Senate after completion of his eight years of two terms as governor”.
He said as governor, Daniel performed creditably well in areas of infrastructure, empowerment, economy, development of rural and urban centres, but reverse is the case with Abiodun.
“Fine, former Governor Daniel is my friend, he is a member of All Progressives Congress now, while I am not. But I worked with him as a Consultant on Research and Documentation when he was governor. In the 1993 political era, we had a pan Yoruba group called ‘Alajobi’. It was a group of individuals and I found him to a brilliant person. He knows what he wants in life. He was a student of Awojobi and also came out with good results at the University of Lagos where he studied Engineering. He is also doing well at his Kresta Laurel Engineering Company where they build elevators for multinational companies and individuals”.
Onigbinde noted that the former governor is a compassionate person, who is always ready to assist people without looking back and also has a mind to draw brilliant people to his side.
He launched a group in the year 2001 called ‘Gateway Front’ to project his governorship ambition. Given the formidability of the then governor of the state in person of Aremo Segun Osoba, Daniel faced challenges and persecution but eventually won to become governor in 2003.
“When he threw his hat into the ring, it was a shocker for those who had already started their own campaign.
“Among the contestants then was the present Governor of the state, Prince Dapo Abiodun, Col Shoda and Doyin Okupe. The three thought it was a seamless victory for them until OGD came into the picture. That was how their ambition was scuttled and eventually, Daniel got the party ticket and won the election on a landslide victory.
“Then, Daniel machinery was very strong and the party stalwarts had no choice than to give him the ticket, because if they didn’t give it to him, the Peoples Democratic Party would have lost to the
opposition. I was involved in the process that brought him to power, because I am an Afenifere person and Alliance for Democracy was Afenifere party and I knew the then governor, Segun Osoba, had a problem with Afenifere. I had the obligation not to join PDP because of my affiliation with Afenifere group, yet I worked with Daniel.
“I knew the machinery Daniel was rolling out then at his Kresta Laurel office in Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos. I am quite sure that he had the capacity to draw people to himself and he was giving Lagos State sleepness night in the area of economic development. At that time, those who thought that they would become governor were not happy with him in Ogun State. Among them was Dapo Abiodun who is now a governor. After a while, all those who were not happy with him wanted to assassinate him, they also tried to stop him but they couldn’t because of the formidable team he had on ground at that time. It was only Col. Shoda who was visible in his government, but Doyin Okupe went with Obasanjo to Abuja and Dapo didn’t forgive him, because he believes he was highly connected to the Abuja politics and also felt he would clinch the ticket but was disappointed. Okupe didn’t hold any bitterness against him, Dapo’s own is very visible.
“After Daniel’s tenure as governor from 2003 to 2011, he stayed away for about 12 years, only to come out last year when he wanted to contest for his Senatorial ticket. Some of us challenged him to know the rationale why he was going into politics again, after he had quit. He said he was doing it because of the people in Ogun East who had been marginalised. When he stepped in, I thought he would get the ticket on a platter of gold. Unfortunately, it was a tug of war but he eventually got it and won.
“When he was governor, he opened up Abeokuta and turned it to be a befitting state capital. Before his arrival, Abeokuta used to be a place where they celebrate aged burial, no economic development, the major industries then were chair and table rentals. But give it to Bisi Onabanjo who also built hotels in Sango, Ijebu Ode and opened up Ota with the assistance of Lateef Jakande. The road wasn’t bad then. While Osaba on his own built roads and some other development.
“It was this same Daniel that brought free trade zone, which later became a controversy between Amosun and Dapo. The paper work of the trade zone was done by him, he also tried to electrify the state secretariat, but due to bad policy of Amosun, all the equipment he bought rot away. He suffered a lot in EFCC hands, because of the influence of Amosun. Eventually after 12 years, the case was struck out for lacking merit. His hotel in Abeokuta was vandalised twice and that was vendetta exhibited by Amosun towards Daniel.
“At Kresta Laurel, Daniel and Abiodun used to be together. For someone like him who left a laudable foot print in Ogun politics, I think he would get the APC Senate ticket easily or be given to him freely. The unfortunate part of the politics was that Governor Dapo Abiodun is yet to finish his second term and he has started having ambition to go to the Senate. He wants to collect the ticket from Daniel who is yet to settle down.
“It is no more news that Dapo wants to go to senate. What he wanted to do was to play Amosun’s style of politics, to send a weak person to the Senate and then take the ticket from such a person. Dapo has forgotten that Daniel is not a push-over politician in Ogun politics and if not because of the influence of Daniel in Ogun East, Dapo wouldn’t have won his first and second term elections. Dapo won in Ogun East massively because of the influence of Daniel, but he didn’t win in Abeokuta South and Central and won little margin in West. Unfortunately, Dapo blacklisted foot soldiers of Daniel who worked for him during the election in his first term. He didn’t find them worthy in his administration. Those foot soldiers refused to work for Dapo during his second term election, it was the same Daniel that pacified them to work for him.
“In the area of infrastructural development, I score Daniel 75 per cent in roads and other social amenities compare to what we have in the state today under the leadership of Dapo. From inception of his administration, Daniel was clear on the issues of road, he didn’t discriminate between federal and state roads. Because it is same Ogun residents plying the roads. But today, if you walk round Ogun State, it is one complain or the other. Even those who are APC members in the state will tell you who Dapo is. When Amosun was there, he concentrated his work on Ogun Central, Amosun too totally abandoned Ago Iwoye road and some other Ijebu part of the state.
“Daniel is not someone those disgruntled politicians will rubbish. He is not a push over in Ogun State politics. He is loved by all in the state. Minus Daniel influence in APC in the state, it would be brutal for Dapo, because nobody knows what will happen to him because of the case at the Tribunal.
“I see Dapo trying to decimate the influence of Daniel in Ogun East, for his own gain. But the politics of appeasement will not work for Dapo. He should go and read history and be cautious because political land is slippery”.