OGUN GOV., IBIKUNLE AMOSUN SET TO DUMP ACN FOR PDP

The governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun who rode to the number one seat of the state under the banner of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has been having series of battles with the leadership of the party that took him to power.

With the situation at hand, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and his political party are on collision course on many issues and things are already falling apart between the governor and the party.

According to information gathered, Amosun takes unilateral decisions without taking the party into consideration.

Signs of possible collision between Amosun and the party had even been visible before he (Amosun) won the April governorship election.

It would be recalled that Sen. Amosun got into the consciousness of the people when he contested for the Ogun Central Senatorial district in 2003 against the then incumbent Senator Femi Okurounmu of the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

Though, Amosun's four year stay in the senate between 2003 and 2007 was not that impressive, he however preoccupied himself with the project of becoming the governor of Ogun state in 2007. He actually wanted to take over the leadership of the state from the then Governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, who just finished his first term then and was implored to run for second term owing to the ovation that greeted his impressive performance as the state's chief executive officer.

But Amosun will have none of it  and when it was clear the People's Democratic Party (PDP) which he and Daniel belonged  asked him to be patient, he (Amosun) fought the leadership of the party and decamped to a less popular party in the south-west of Nigeria, the All Nigeria people's Party. Infact, the ANPP is regarded as a northern party in the South-west region of the country.

So, in 2007 Amosun contested against Gbenga Daniel under the ANPP. Amosun lost the election but challenged the results of the election at the election petition tribunal. The case dragged for over two years till it got to the Appeal court. Amosun's case was thrown out at the Appeal court. He then retreated into his shell.

During the preparation for the 2011 election, Ibikunle Amosun showed his interest to contest again for the Guber seat under the ANPP. But as the election time got nearer, his eyes opened to the realities that the ANPP could not win election in Ogun State.

Thus, he began to romance other political parties. He was later expelled by the ANPP and labeled a 'political prostitute'.

To cut the long story short, after going to this and that party, Amosun eventually went to the ACN and he became the governorship candidate of the party. It should be noted that the Alliance of Democracy metamorphosed into the Action Congress (AC) and then to the ACN under the national leadership of former Lagos State governor, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu while Chief Olusegun Osoba, the Ogun State governor between 1999 to 2003 is the state leader.

After Amosun got the Guber ticket of the ACN, the first battle he had with Osoba was the choice of his running mate. Amosun wanted a female; he particularly mentioned the name of the wife of the slain politician, Dipo Dina.

But the party as led by Chief Osoba declined and presented Mr Segun Adesegun, the former commissioner for works during the Osoba regime. Amosun was not happy but there was nothing he could do.

Also there were disagreements over the candidates to field for elections into the House of Assembly. Amosun canvassed for two third slots of the 26 seats for his candidates who left the ANPP and joined the ACN with him but the party told him pointblank that it will be unfair to the members of the ACN who had been with the party since the days of the Alliance for Democracy (AC). When it was certain that he won't get his request, Amosun decided to call it quit with ACN and decided to go to another party, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) another party with a mass followership in the northern part of the country.

But before the news got into the media  that Amosun had dumped ACN again, we learnt that the National leader of the party, Bola Tinubu stepped into the matter and warned Amosun that he will be committing a political hara-kiri, if he took the decision.

Amosun then retraced his steps. He accepted the number of candidates given to him by the party led by Chief Osoba.

Luckily for Amosun, the ACN swept the polls in the whole of the south-west and he was sworn in as the governor of Ogun State in May 29, 2011.

During a thanksgiving service in a church in Abeokuta shortly after he was sworn in, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is the Board of Trustee (B.O.T) chairman of the PDP made a surprise appearance at the church, felicitating with Amosun and after the church service, Amosun drove straight to Obasanjo's residence where the duo had a secret meeting.

The meeting with Obasanjo infuriated the Osoba group because it is an open secret that Osoba and Obasanjo don't see eye to eye. Osoba still attribute the loss of AD states in the South-west in the 2003 election to the PDP as the handiwork of Obasanjo who allegedly deceived the then South-west AD governors.

As the ripples over the Amosun/Obasanjo's meeting settled down and the inauguration of the State House of Assembly was in the offing, another trouble brewed between Osoba who is controlling the party in the state and the newly sworn in governor.

In the 26 man House of Assembly, the ACN has 17 members, the PDP with 6 members and PPN with 3 members. Out of the 17 ACN members, only one is originally from the Amosun group while the rest 16 belongs to Osoba group.

But in the lobby and scheming for who controls the leadership and structure of the House of Assembly, we learnt that Amosun decimated the Osoba group and was able to 'buy' the 6 PDP and 3 PPN members. Sources say that was how he was able to install Prince Adekumbi Ishola Suraj, after the former had sworn an oath of allegiance to him.

The contest for the deputy speakership slot was also tense as the Osoba group presented Hon. Adijat Oladapo-Adeleye but Amosun reportedly made sure his man, Tola Banjo got the seat.

In the Assembly right now, there is sharp division as the Osoba group is complaining of being sidelined in the scheme of things.

Penultimate week, Gov. Amosun brought out the list of his commissioners and Special Advisers.

The list was greeted with protest as core ACN members lamented that Amosun filled all the positions with his own men who came into the ACN from ANPP. It was said that Chief Osoba showed his grievance over the development and that was why he stayed away during the swearing in of the commissioners.

Before then, there were troubles in most of the local governments across the state as it was alleged that Amosun made his own people the care-taker Chairmen of the local government, leaving the ACN faithfuls to bite their fingers.

Meanwhile, a source close to the governor told us that he is tired of complaints from the ACN members.

'The problem lies with the fact that Amosun is not an original ACN member. The tradition in ACN is that the party decides and puts down names for the government. The party is supreme. That is why in Lagos State, the party chose about 90 percent of the cabinet members. But Amosun is coming from the background of PDP where if you became the governor, you automatically become the leader of the party in your state. So, the ACN leaders are giving him problems', the source said.

However we gathered that Amosun is tinkering with the idea of dumping the ACN for the PDP if he is not given a breathing space.

'It is likely we go back to PDP. Ogun State is not like Lagos. The allocation in ogun State cant even pay workers salaries. So, Amosun's government needs federal patronage and he can only get it if he decamps to the PDP. Though, it's too early for that but I know its an option on the table for him', the source declared.

August 02, 2011