Senatre race: Ajimobi is best choice for Oyo South
BThe PDP was able to recover within a short time and put its house in order.
Being the ruling party in the state for 16 years, its leaders have structures and many of them still retain their structures at the grassroots and can influence the voting pattern in the state. y this time exactly a year ago, political pundits within and outside Oyo State had begun to pile pressure on the Governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, to mull over having another shot at the Senate. This is against the backdrop of his public pronouncements that he was calling time on active politics, climaxed by his jinx-breaking election as governor for two uninterrupted tenures.
He had vowed not to mount the soap box again, except to canvas for votes on behalf of his protégés. In the governor’s reckoning, 2019 is the destination point for his illustrious political career, having also served Oyo South Senatorial District in the Senate between 2003 and 2007 under the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD).
In the February 19, 2018 edition of the Punch Newspaper, a respected Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Adeniyi Akintola, said, “Ido Local Government is launching the campaign to endorse him (Ajimobi) to go to the Senate and by the grace of God, he shall make it. Of course, this isn’t his first time; he wasn’t a bench warmer there as he gave quality representation. In the Senate, he will be a pride to Oyo State and the South West.”
Having surrendered to the superior argument of his supporters, the governor participated in the October 2, 2018 National Assembly primaries of the All Progressives Congress. To underscore the beauty of democracy, his main challenger, Dr Fola Akinosun, refused all entreaties by party stalwarts to step down for the governor in deference to the political tradition that respects position and experience in such circumstance. But Akinosun eventually lost by 168 votes to Ajimobi’s 2659, as announced by the Chief Ademola Seriki-led electoral panel.
The 2015 elections which altered political configuration in the state saw Buhari defeating then President Goodluck Jonathan in Kaduna, with 1, 127,760 to 484,085 votes.
The APC won in 14 of the 23 local government areas of the state, leaving the ruling party with only nine local government areas.
The proponents of Ajimobi’s for senate have predicated their position on the governor’s enviable corporate and political experience, integrity, record of achievements, clout, robust political capital, inexhaustible physical agility, intelligence and most importantly because of his mettlesome disposition. Although, the uninitiated have derisively dubbed the Senate as the retirement place for two-term governors, but in advanced climes the Senate is populated by senior citizens who are regarded as the bulwark of democracy. Advanced age is seen in western democracy as an asset rather than liability.
For instance, since 1981, the average age of representatives and senators in the US Congress has jumped from 49 and 53, respectively, to 57 and 61, according to Quorum. In the today’s 116th Congress of the US, Dianne Feinstein of California is the oldest sitting member of the Senate at 84 years old. She is known for being a liberal, left-leaning politician who has dedicated her life to serving the people of California.
At the end of the governorship election in 2015, Malam Nasir El-Rufai of the APC polled 1,117,635 votes to defeat Mukhtar Ramalan Yero who scored 485,833 to come second in the election.
El-Rufai widened the gap winning in 17 local government areas, while Yero won in six local government areas.
The number of registered voters in the state stands at 3.9 million while uncollected PVCs in the state stands at 1 million as at December 2018.
Both the APC and PDP presidential candidates pulled a lot of crowd when they came to the state for their campaigns confirming the fact that both are popular.
But, there are other factors that will determine who wins in Kaduna at the end of the day.
While President Buhari has remained a popular and towering figure, Atiku is using the structure of the PDP leaders in the state to sell his candidacy.
The individual efforts of the governorship candidates of the two
Another asset that Ajimobi possesses is his impeccable educational attainment, having bagged a BSc in Business Administration and Finance from The State University of New York, Buffalo. He also obtained an MBA in Operations Research and Marketing, with a concentration in Finance, from the Governor’s State University, Park Forest, Illinois.
In 1979, Ajimobi became the youngest Manager at the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company in Nigeria, and rose to the position of the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the National Oil and Chemical Marketing Company. As Managing Director he substantially improved the profitability of the company and the shareholders’ fortunes. In 2003, he voluntarily retired after 26 years of meritorious service in the Oil and Gas industry.
Whether at the regional, national or international platforms, Ajimobi is consistently acknowledged as one of Nigeria’s most gifted and effective leaders with the ennobling characteristics of great and noble statesmen.
During his first spell at the Senate in 2003, the governor and his AD colleagues, who were just six in number (with three others from Lagos State and one each from Ondo and Ekiti States), were hampered by their numerical disadvantage. In a sharp contrast, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had an overwhelming majority of 78 members, while the All Nigeria Peoples Party had 25 members.
To underscore the respect his colleagues had for him, he was appointed the Deputy Minority Leader of the 5th Senate.
In addition to his ably-discharged primary responsibility as a lawmaker, Governor Ajimobi deployed his personal resources and goodwill to carry out several grassroots projects in Oyo State, including the establishment of the first and the largest free vocational training center. The major parties would also come into play.
By implication, while El-Rufai would deploy all the resources at his disposal to ensure Buhari and by extension, all APC candidates for the National Assembly win on Feb. 16, his counterpart in PDP, with support of the likes of exGovernor Ahmed Makarfi, former Vice President Namadi Sambo, among others, would do all that it takes to ensure that Atiku carry the day.
For the electorate, the achievements and policies of the current administration in the state are being compared with what the opposition party is offering on a scale and that may serve to convince more than a few on where to cast their votes.
But both parties are doing well in terms of efforts to sell their candidates.
Officials of the two parties who spoke with our correspondents maintain that their candidates are popular and would carry the day. centre offers training in computer engineering, computer operations, telephone engineering, fashion designing, hair dressing, tie and dye etc. So far, the centre has turned out over 20,000 students. It has also been recognized and certified as a partner and training centre by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) of the Federal Government.
Between 2003 and 2007 Senator Ajimobi also identified communities that lacked potable water, where he sunk boreholes. He also carried out many empowerment and grassroots programmes for his Senatorial District.
During the infamous ‘third term agenda’ of the third republic it was alleged that some political jobbers, including National Assembly members, fell for the filthy lucre transported in the wee hours of the night in hefty Ghana Must Go bag by agents of the evil plot. It is on record that Ajimobi was among the very few that resisted the allure of the mint N50m doled to each pliant lawmaker to oil the botched civilian coup. Ajimobi was and is never afraid to speak truth to power no matter whose ox may be gored. When you talk about a contended man of integrity and patriotic zeal, Ajimobi stands tall. In the Senate, his views will be respected and he will not be in the league of absentee lawmakers or those who will only heard during voice votes.
Today, Ajimobi is a leading light of the APC at the national, regional and state levels judging by the several assignments he had been saddled with. Most recently, he was appointed as chairman of the APC national convention committee and chairman of the party’s 2018 presidential primaries national convention. The governor is highly connected to the centre, having been robbing minds with the topmost echelon of the leadership of the country and the APC in the last eight years.