Akure: The Strange Bird Is Crying Again By Ojo Oyewamide

Akure: The Strange Bird Is Crying Again

An opportunity came for Baba Reuben Fasoranti to become governor of Ondo State in 1999. But Baba took his eyes away from what would have made him the first Akure indigene to be elected as the civilian governor of the Sunshine state. Baba Fasoranti ceded the chance to the late Governor Adebayo Adefarati. The former governor succeeded in occupying the Alagbaka Government House for a term of four years.

There was a rumour going round then that Baba Fasoranti rejected the opportunity because he did not have a wife. Baba’s wife died some years back. The rumour was, however, dispelled in an interview this writer conducted with Baba Fasoranti for the defunct Platform magazine. Baba said he rejected the opportunity because his brother-in-law, Chief Olu Falae, was vying for the position of Nigeria’s president at the time. Chief Falae is married to a younger sibling of Baba Fasoranti.

Baba considered it highly immoral for him to go for the governorship seat at a time his younger sister’s husband wanted to be president. He was conscious of what people, including those urging him to contest, might say afterwards. That was a time when integrity mattered a lot in politics, and political office was not seen as an express route to self-enrichment. Today, who is that politician that can take that kind of decision? Looking for such a politician is like searching for a virgin among oloshos.

Unfortunately, Chief Olu Falae could not be president. Baba Fasoranti failed to take the opportunity to become governor of the state, and Akure lost the chance of realising its age-long dream of having one of its indigenes to occupy the Alagbaka Government House.

In 2006, the late Professor Olu Agbi sought the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party to contest the Ondo central senatorial seat in the National Assembly. Some Akure politicians worked against his ambition. Their argument was that Professor Agbi’s quest to be senator was a threat to the position of another Akure indigene. And that it could also scuttle the dream of Akure of producing the state governor after the tenure of the late Governor Olusegun Agagu.

Professor Agbi lost the PDP senatorial nomination to Senator Gbenga Ogunniya. The Ondo-born politician won the general election. He spent 12 years in the National Assembly. About two years after, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, also from Ondo, became governor of the state. Not long later, Mrs. Mobolaji Johnson, another Ondo indigene, was appointed a minister by former President Goodluck Jonathan. Therefore, three Ondo indigenes were occupying three prominent positions, both at the state and federal levels, at the same time. Such is the sophistication and reasonableness of the politics of the people of Ondo City.

Let this writer warn that the strange bird is crying again (eye ijee di tii ke o) as the next election season approaches. Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire has been in the Senate for about two years. A fellow from Ondo has signified his intention to wrestle the seat from him. However, Let it be conceded that it is the constitutional right of that fellow to aspire to any position he likes. But the manner in which some Akure politicians have sold their souls to him has become a serious concern. And the fellow is ready to buy any available soul at any given price. Let it also be conceded that it is the right of anyone to offer his or her soul for sell.

But Akure people should reject any nauseating arguments deployed by some politicians to sell the ambition of their client. As the saying goes, whatever the wise say will be heard from the mouths of the foolish. So, it is from the foolish that the thinking of the wise is known.

Already, it is being said in some quarters that because Akure is desirous of producing the next governor of the state, the senatorial seat should be zoned to another area. This is a smelly and familiar argument that should not be entertained by any politician with a modicum of wisdom and capacity for reasoning.

Will it not be foolish to throw away the water in the clay pot at the sight of the cloudiness and mistiness of the sky? Only God knows who will be governor of Ondo State after the tenure of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and where the person will come from. There has been a rumour that the strategists of Governor Aiyedatiwa are already trying to find the constitutional possibility of him running for another term.

Also, an argument has ensued that the Southern Senatorial District still has another term after Governor Aiyedatiwa’s tenure in 2029. It is already being hammered that if the constitution of the country forbids the Governor Aiyedatiwa from contesting again, another person from the senatorial zone will go for the governorship seat.

Some Akure politicians supported Governor Aiyedatiwa in the last governorship election because of their belief that he would only spend four years. After the governor’s four years, they thought the seat would move to the central senatorial district, and Akure would have the chance of filling the governorship seat. This writer laughed at their political naivety at that time. A minute is too long in politics. The unstable nature of the game is enough to teach lessons.

There is no any serious argument against the performance of Senator Adegbonmire in the last two years. Those who are against him are only measuring his performance on the scale of their personal expectations. Any meaningful development facilitated by the senator does not matter anything to them. The development of the whole does not concern them as long as their personal expectations are not met. These are people that are not persuaded by facts but their stomachs.

Senator Adegbonmire has not done badly. He is very active in the Senate. The kind of assignments being given to him by the leadership of the Senate shows that he is well-respected, playing the right politics and in the right camp. Closely watching his activities and politics in the National Assembly, Senator Adegbonmire is a politician that holds a lot of promises for Akure and, of course, Ondo State. So, he should not be allowed to be sacrificed on the altar of selfish and personal expectations of the so-called professional politicians in Akure.

It has always been this writer’s contention that part of the bane of the current democratic experience in the country is the burden of personal expectations of politicians and their nauseating sense of entitlement. There is no way Nigerian politicians can be satisfied. They are Oliver Twins. They will always come back no matter how much you empower them.

Therefore, public office holders should do their best and leave the rest. They should also be transparent enough for people to know what they are capable of doing. Our people have an exaggerated opinion of public office. To them, every public office is like a money-making machine.

May God help us.

Ojo Oyewamide a Journalist and public affairs commentator writes from Abibiri Lane, Isolo, Akure.