BROTHERS AT PEACE! WHO IS AFRAID OF KARIM BROTHERS?
Very few aspirants – veritable and fickle alike – to the Oyo State
governorship seat inspire the overwhelming homage of intense discourse as does Ayo Karim, the urbane chief executive officer of Costain ( West Africa) Plc. Since he threw his hat in the ring with the mass- appealing slogan, Ayo Ni O, and with the unobtrusive yet, far- reaching way he has gone about his electioneering, cerebral Ayo has become the darling of Oyo indigenes at home and in the Diaspora, preaching a message of quality representation and a brighter future for all and sundry. And the heat of his message is catching on like wildfire. That is the problem.
For an aspirant who embodies immeasurably, qualities the Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has highlighted as prerequisite for his prospective successor, Ayo has understandably become the target of sustained campaigns of calumny. Interestingly, with nothing seamy, whether in his private or business life, to harp on, the narrative has bordered on how he purportedly double- crossed his older brother, Kola, the wealthy Group Managing Director/ CEO Shoreline Energy International, in the quest to govern their beloved Oyo State, which had purportedly polarised the family.
According to a source close to the influential Karim family, “Nothing can be further from the truth. Of course, we also have heard and read several of such puerile reports on the alleged rift between Ayo and Kola. It is laughable to us and to the brothers too. Those who know them know that from their childhood days, they have always been close and Ayo would never do anything without Kola and vice versa. Ayo didn’t wake up to say he just wanted to rule Oyo State, he had, and still has, the full backing of Kola.”
The source further disclosed that Kola, an international businessman rated by the influential financial magazine, Forbes, in 2014, as one of the ten most powerful men in Africa, did not at any point discuss a political move with the family. “Kola is an intensely private man who would rather be behind the scene, helping his brother achieve his promises to the people than put himself out there. There is no iota of truth to the rumours because both of them know that they are the pivot on which the entire family rests and that the success of one is the success of the other,” the source said.
One of Kola’s associates who should know said for a man that runs an international conglomerate, which interests span oil and gas, power, trade and investment and construction among other lucrative pies, to jettison all of that to rule Oyo State, is a risk that Kola would not take because his temperament and style do not suit the Nigerian political system. “So, knowing Kola, and from our past discussions, his vote and money