Osun: Troubled PDP and the 2018 guber poll

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State says it is determined to rout the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at the next governorship election in the state. The said election is scheduled to hold next year. Assistant Editor, Dare Odufowokan, examines the chances of the opposition party which is currently bogged down by fresh leadership crisis in the state

THE forthcoming election, according to a timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), will hold the 22nd of September, 2018. Incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola’s tenure ends in November 2018 and he will not be seeking re-election as he is currently serving his second term as the governor of the state.

In spite of the fact that the election is still about one year away and election campaigns are not expected to commence until next April, going by INEC’s timetable, the battle to succeed Aregbesola is gathering momentum as aspirants jostle to position themselves in good stead for the gubernatorial tickets of the frontline political parties in the state ahead of the poll.

Expectedly, the struggle for gubernatorial ticket is not less fierce in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where party leaders and stakeholders are reportedly shopping for an able and trusted flag-bearer who can help the PDP achieve its desire of returning to the seat of government in the state. Not a few among the chieftains of the party sees the next election as the best chance of the PDP to oust the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

It would be recalled that the PDP, which ruled the state between 2003 and 2010, lost control of Osun when incumbent Governor Aregbesola was declared as the validly elected governor by the Supreme Court, thereby ousting the then Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of the PDP. Efforts by the PDP to regain the state four years later proved abortive as Aregbesola won re-election.

But the PDP, in spite of its unexpected loss of the presidency to the APC in 2015, and the crippling leadership crisis it went through afterwards, has left no one in doubt of its desire to return to power in Osun after the 2018 governorship election. Party leaders and members insist the state is a PDP state irrespective of what Aregbesola and the APC claim.

This is without prejudice to the many factors that are expected to determine how the people of the state will vote at the polls next year. To start with, an unwritten zoning agreement in the state currently places Osun West senatorial district ahead of other zones in the quest to produce the next governor of the state after Aregbesola.

The duo of Chief Bisi Akande and Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who hail from Osun Central, were governors of the state between 1999 and 2010. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola from Osun East is the current governor and has spent eight years in office. Osun West, which produced the late Isiaka Adeleke way back in 1992, is angling to take the next turn.

But there are those who feel that with the three senatorial zones having had a stint each at the governorship, the race should now be declared open for the rotation arrangement to start afresh. The PDP is yet to officially zone the position to any of the senatorial district as being canvassed by some of its chieftains and others outside the party.

Bogged down by crisis

But despite the desire of the party to return to government house in the state, the Osun State chapter of the PDP appears jinxed to remain in opposition for much longer. Close observers of happenings within the party say unless something urgent is done to heal the party of the renewed infighting amongst its chieftains, it is doubtful if it can defeat the ruling APC.

Checks by The Nation revealed that the new crisis is caused by a scramble among leading gubernatorial aspirants of the party and their backers to control the party in the state. As a result, several attempts to hold a congress and put in place a state executive council for the party has been abortive following fierce disagreement among the emerging factions in the state PDP.

The PDP in Osun State currently parades an array of governorship aspirants whose followers are scattered all over the state. Among those that are believed to be interested in governing the state in 2018 are Lere Oyewumi, a former federal legislator and chairman of Irewole Local Government, and Adejare Bello, ex Speaker and running-mate to the flag-bearer of the PDP in the 2014 guber election.

Also in the race are Iyiola Omisore, deputy governor and flag-bearer of the PDP in the 2014 guber election; Adeola Adewopo, a lawyer, and Ikirun-born politician, Kayode Oduoye. There is also Fatai Akinbade, former gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in the state who recently returned to the PDP along with his supporters.

Speaking on the current trouble rocking the party, a chieftain of the PDP in Osun State, Chief Oluwole Oludaisi, in an open letter he recently wrote to national chairman of the party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, said the same ailments which made PDP lose the state to APC in 2010, have returned. According to him, there is need to save the party from some of its leaders in the state.

“Only that this time around, the indiscretion, occasioned by leadership high-handedness, impunity and disregard for counsel, which have remained the greatest albatross of the PDP, a once-great party that prided itself on a promise to rule for 60-years, might finish off what is left of the party and its chances of returning to winning ways.

The issues

At the centre of the new scuffle is an order by the national leadership that a new congress be conducted to produce a new executive committee for the party in the state in spite of argument in some quarters that the Soji Adagunodo-led executive have won two consecutive elections between 2016 and now to emerge as the authentic leadership of PDP in the state.

Those supporting Adagunodo accused Senator Omisore of influencing the national leadership through Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State to achieve his age-long aim of controlling the party in the state. Of course, the Omisore camp has denied having a hand in the failure of the caretaker committee to conclude the process of electing new leaders for the party in the state.

“Though a majority of party loyalists in the state considered the order to conduct fresh congress as a miscarriage of justice, they were prepared to prove their commitment to the PDP. A caretaker committee led by Hon. Sarafadeen Ishola comprising equal membership of the two groups was set up and inaugurated, while new dates were fixed for ward, local and state congresses that were supposed to run between 21st of October through 4th November, 2017.

“Participation in the congress include the purchase of delegates forms for congresses at the price of about N500,000 per local government, amounting to N15 million in the 30 local governments. But after people made that purchase, the caretaker committee led by Hon. Sarafa Ishola, allegedly acting on the instructions of the leadership from Abuja, arbitrarily decided that there would be no congress but harmonisation.

“The warning, however, is that the path the PDP leadership is currently toeing in Osun will lead to no good. We all saw the result in 2014, when the party came a distant second in an election it should have won. With impunity and indiscretion currently on display in handling the situation in Osun PDP, we need no one to predict the outcome of future elections in the state. A word, as they say, is enough for the wise and it should be for Makarfi and his journey men, who have begun a voyage into impunity,” Oludaisi said.

But a former factional chairman of PDP in the state, Bayo Faforiji, said all the allegations against Omisore and the caretaker committee are untrue. According to him, it is wrong for anybody to accuse the caretaker chairman, Sarafadeen Ishola, of bias. He said those who are crying foul are the people making things difficult for the committee.

“Those claiming that the chairman is working for Omisore are not being fair. The chairman appointed neutral people to conduct congresses in the state but you know that politicians will always complain when an election does not go the way they expected. All the allegations against Omisore and the caretaker committee are untrue,” he said.

Worried Makarfi

Worried that the party in Osun State may not be doing enough to reposition itself ahead of the 2018 governorship contest, the National Chairman of the PDP, Ahmed Makarfi, has said chieftains and members of the party in the state need to unite and work together in order to rescue the state from the alleged misrule of the APC.

Makarfi said this recently in Osogbo while pleading with party chiefs to unite and work together for the victory of the party at next year’s governorship election. On Wednesday evening, during a unity dinner and reception held in his honour, he said the victory of Senator Ademola Adeleke on July 8 was significant to the party, saying it offered the opposition party an opportunity to reinvent itself and return to power in the state in 2018.

“Osun West showed the way for the PDP to reinvent itself. There is strength in our coming together. All of you contributed money for us to eat and to drink; that is good. If we go our different ways, we cannot make it. We must all come together to capture Osun State from the misrule of the APC. The people are looking up to the PDP to emancipate them from their suffering and that is why we must come together,” he begged.

Party sources claim that the national leadership of the PDP may be reviewing the events unfolding within the Osun State chapter with a view to ensuring that it prevents a full blown crisis. The Nation learnt that a meeting with the caretaker committee and the various faction of the party in the state may soon be held at the instance of Senator Makarfi.

“We cannot afford to leave the situation as it is in Osun State. The PDP stands a good chance of defeating APC next year at the governorship election in that state. All we need to do is put the state chapter of our party in order and ensure that whoever emerges as the governorship candidate of the party in the state, the whole party rally round him to achieve victory,” our source said.

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