NIGERIA: At Last, the Ogun Oracle Opens up

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Former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun Osoba, who has been at daggers drawn with Governor Ibikunle Amosun, broke his silence following a parallel congress that is threatening to tear the party apart. Shola Oyeyipo writes
 
That the relationship between Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and former governor of the state, Chief Olusegun Osoba, who is as well a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is strained, is not news. What is news, however, is that the crisis generated by the delicate peace between the two is showing no sign of abating.
 
 
Followers of the Ogun State politics are conversant with the fact that there has been no love lost between the two political gladiators since 2011 when Osoba made it obvious that he preferred a different candidate to Amosun because of the allegation that Amosun, a PDP stalwart in 2003, who ran for Ogun Central senatorial seat in the National Assembly, had teamed up with former governor Gbenga Daniel and former president Olusegun Obasanjo to stop Osoba from securing a second term.
 
 
While that has been the quiet storm responsible for the crisis and making Ogun one of the states where the APC is capable of wasting its political relevance and goodwill on the altar of avoidable crisis, the trouble over who controls the party structure between Amosun and his loyalists and the National Assembly members loyal to Osoba has put the ruling party in Ogun State in a state of perpetual crisis.
It was the reason aggrieved members of Ogun APC held parallel congresses in April. Thus, when the party held its nationwide congress to elect new states executives, factional executives emerged in Ogun State. It was a move by Osoba and his loyalists to protest alleged injustice in the party.
 
 
One of the notable members of the pro-Osoba group, Senator Olugbenga Kaka, Senator representing Ogun East senatorial district said the people were displeased with Amosun for allegedly discriminating against his group.
 
 
Aside what Kaka had to say, Osoba’s supporters in the party had waited with keen interest to hear what the former governor had to say about the crisis at hand. The people wanted a sense of direction, especially as the 2015 election inches closer.
 
 
When most of his supporters were almost giving up hope that he would ever take a position on the matter, ‘the Oracle', as Osoba is now referred to, returned from a trip abroad to his teeming supporters who stormed his Ibara GRA Housing Estate residence in their thousands. They simply wanted him to address them.
 
 
The people who referred to themselves as the “real party members” came from different parts of the state. It was indeed a large crowd that included members of the Ogun State chapter of the All Nigeria Autobike Commercial Owners and Workers Association (ANACOWA), the Action Group, Matagbamole, Governor Amosun’s supporters and others.
 
 
The people were obviously unhappy that since the parallel congresses, Osoba had been quite, somewhat. So they wanted him to break his silence on the matter, especially following the botched inauguration of a faction of the party executive by the national headquarters of the APC.
 
 
The occasion, no doubt, showed the degree of animosity and division within the party. Osoba’s supporters who felt oppressed turned the event to a rally of sort as they danced and hailed Osoba, reiterating solidarity for him.
 
 
The APC state chairman from Osoba’s camp, Chief Isaac Olu Agemo; the state Secretary, Alhaji Abimbola Awofeso; the State Women Leader, Princess Adeola Olukoya and other members of the state exco all took turn to address the jubilant crowd.
Similarly, the National Assembly members including Senators Gbenga Obadara (Ogun Central), Akin Odunsi (Ogun West), Hon. Adekunle Adeyemi, Senator Kaka and others also spoke with the people.
 
 
Finally, Osoba who was the last to address the crowd took the microphone and addressed the ecstatic crowd which listened with rapt attention. It was indeed an opportunity to put some records straight especially as regards certain allegations against him.
Osoba, who spoke about the parallel congress for the first time attributed the ongoing crisis in the ruling APC in Ogun State to an orchestrated plan to demystify him politically – a tacit replay of what happened in 2003, though which he said he had decided to "forgive and forget as a Christian and an elder.”
 
 
"This is the battle of 2003 – eleven years ago. They have started again. The agenda of 2003 is still very much alive, and that agenda of 2003 was to destroy, rubbish and finish Osoba politically. The agenda was an agenda that was started in 2003 and the same pattern, the same route is being followed.
 
 
"I never knew it was a sin that I should forget and forgive what happened eleven years ago. I behaved like an elder, like a Christian and like a responsible person to have forgotten what happened in 2013. I preached peace and to forget anything anyone might have done since we are still alive.
 
 
“For eight years, the government of PDP never wanted us to live. I did not know it is an offence for me to forgive and forget and let us start afresh like brothers. I have no regret because I have been deceived twice and will not allow that to happen again. I have seen so many things and will never happen again.
 
 
"I decided to forgive and forget so that we can wrest power back and I am grateful to all of you, 10,000 of you were employed as agents in 2011; we gave you only 2,000 Naira as agent fees. This is just a chick feed but you did not compromise; you stood like the rock of Gibraltar; we won the elections. Where are those 10,000 agents? You are here; did you benefit anything from government?” he asked and there was a thunderous no from the crowd as Osoba continued to make his point.
 
"This is what I was telling them that it was some people who worked for us on the field. Then, it was the state and National Assembly members who selected all these people. The matter on the ground is not about using abusive languages but ideas and intellect,” he said.
 
 
Osoba, who said he had begun a "new political re-engineering", assured the people that he would relocate to the state to lead party members loyal to him in the struggle to salvage the APC in the state.
 
 
Contrary to speculations that the party leader and his supporters may quit the APC if ill-treated, Osoba maintained that he and his loyalists will not leave the ruling APC in the state for any other party, rather, he expressed optimism that his group would come out victorious in the party.
 
 
"The issue of defecting to PDP should be discarded. The idea of going to Labour Party should also be discarded. We are going nowhere near PDP or Labour under no circumstance. We are progressives and we will continue to be progressives in our politics. All the options should be geared towards progressive politics all the way. I am ready and not going back even at the age of 75 and we will succeed together.
 
 
"I promise you, I will now relocate to Abeokuta. I am going back to what I used to be. All of you can come at any time and see me. You are the ones who made this government and we are not going to mar it.  We will not destroy the government however with a big but because we have to appreciate performance. I will come back to Abeokuta and I will operate the way I used to operate before.
"From now onward, local government, senatorial district meetings and constituency meetings must go on regularly and at the end of the day, we will all hear good news," he told the crowd.
 
 
Reacting to allegations that he had been making monetary demands on the state government, Osoba said deliberate lies were being peddled to malign him. He noted that in his relationships with the likes of General Murtala Muhammed to President Goodluck Jonathan, he had never been treated with such disrespect as he was getting from the state government, stressing that he had never collected any money from the present administration in the state, adding that he sold his houses in Ilorin and Ibadan during the past elections in order to further boost the chances of the party at the polls.
 
 
"Thank God I have worked with so many former heads of state and some of them are still living till today. General Gowon is still alive and he respects me. Obasanjo came to power and I served him like a good indigene of Ogun State and he was appreciative. I gave him the land he is staying today and he did not pay a kobo. Shagari is still alive and he respects me.
 
 
“General Buhari that they are running after is very close to me. He appointed me as the Managing Director of Daily Times in 1984 and till tomorrow, he still calls me Chief and I never begged money from him. I was not a Journalist that begged for money. Babangida came, he is my friend and I never begged any money from him. When Abiola came, we collected nothing from him because he was a responsible son of Ogun State.
 
"General Abdulsalam Abubakar got there, we are bossom friends and I never begged a kobo from him. He left and Obasanjo took over from him. Obasanjo even said it openly that I was one governor that had not asked for anything in 2002. This has been my life. Since we started politics, we have never done fund raising; we never collected money from anyone. You have all been supporting the party with the little you have.
 
 
"I have said all these for you to know that what they are saying about me are lies. How much would they give me to make for all that I have spent for the elections, how much can they pay back? I campaigned with my name and goodwill and they are now saying my mouth has been sealed but the mouth is opened now," he added.
 
 
Against claims by the opposing camp that he had been bought over, Osoba reassured his supporters that he would never sacrifice the interests of the national and state assembly members loyal to him just to secure a second term ticket for his son, Olumide who is currently a member of the House of Representatives.
 
 
"They said they want to remove all National Assembly members except Olumide. I said no, that will not happen. How could I disappoint all my followers and loyalists because of Olumide? We don't want division in the party," he said, expressing sympathy for Amosun over the intra-party crisis because according to him, those backing him today would eventually turn against him when the chips are down.
 
"Those who are crucifying me today are those that have supported me before. They are supporting the government today, I pity those people. Those who crucify me today will crucify him tomorrow. Is something not wrong somewhere? When National Assembly members are bad, Senators are not good, Osoba is bad.
 
 
“We have to be cautious. But I appeal to you not to defect to anywhere because both PDP and Labour are one and the same and they are being used to distabilise the South-west. We will not be part of the destructive moves. At the appropriate time, we will consult on the way forward and God will be with us," Osoba said.
The former governor told his loyalists to continue to give the respect due to the office of the governor by avoiding the use of abusive words against his person and office.
 
 
Another national officer of the party from Ogun State, Yemi Sanusi, who was at the event also assured members that the APC leadership at the national level would right whatever wrong that had been done to them through the recent parallel congresses. The loyalists were therefore told to go back home and await the decision of the party's national leadership.
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