Will Alao-Akala get third term in guise of second term?
By moses adebayo
RIGHT from the First Republic,    up to the tenure of Rashidi Ladoja, not a single governor of Oyo State has had the privilege of being given a second term. Neither the Cicero of Esa-Oke, the articulate Bola Ige, nor Dr.Omololu Olunloyo, despite his illustriousness, was considered good enough for re-election. It is against this background that we must evaluate the much-talked-about Governor Christopher Alao-Akala’s third term, sorry, second term, bid for the gubernatorial slot. The stark reality is that, although this longest-ruling Oyo State governor might have been devising every means possible at re-election, this vaulting Macbethan ambition appears headed for the rocks for a variety of reasons.
First and foremost, as I have affirmed above, it is not in the character of Oyo State to allow any man to monopolize and personalize this state’s prime office, not even for all the Amala in the land. It is interesting to note that Akala served for four years or so as Ladoja’s deputy. He is now the bonafide governor, another four years. And still he wants to come back in 2011: That will be another four years! The question that immediately comes to mind: is he the only one capable of ruling the state? This question becomes imperative especially since the state can boast of well educated and more youthful, and therefore fresher minds to pilot the affairs of the state. A poignant waste it would be for the state to neglect the abundance of talented and promising youths in preference for an old, ex-police officer.
Furthermore, certainly deriving from Governor Fashola’s unprecedented performance in Lagos State, Oyo State indigenes and indeed Nigerians are falling in love with the phenomenon of the youthful, brilliant visionary leader who not only appears to have the answers to societal problems but also the courage to apply them, even in the face of scathing criticisms and bitter persecutions. The whole country is tired of Philistinic civil servants and materialistic business technocrats who do not give a damn about rights advocacy, because quality service delivery in the modern world is inextricably embedded in people’s rights advocacy and redress. Therefore, to this new-thinking Nigerians, the ideal governor must be a brilliant lawyer fighting for the oppressed, not a police officer without track record.
What is more? President Yar’Adua’s due process policy and political socialization have favoured the emergence of credible candidates like human rights activists and popular leaders from the election tribunals.
The victories of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Dr. Segun Mimiko of Edo and Ondo States respectively are a case in point. It is no secret that the political pendulum is swinging in the country towards this due process in everything. The political socialization is fast transforming from the naive and indifferent to participatory. In this new dispensation, it is difficult, if not impossible, to appropriate another person’s mandate. The aggrieved is certain to head for the court. And the court is bound to dispense justice without fear or favour.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, even without a due process socialization initiated by Aso Rock, other developments are tolling the death knell of patronage politics, alias godfatherism, of which Alao Akala is an avowed beneficiary. The Andy Uba/Peter Obi landmark victory is a testament to the fact that issue-based politics, as opposed to parochiality and demagoguery, is the in-thing now in our political socialization and development, a far cry from the prostrate to-me-and-you-are-governor mentality of yesteryears.
Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for Alao-Akala, the premedival mind-set and syndrome of godfatherism is over and done with; not less so is the fact that an Amala guzzling Adedibu stage-managing an election for him is no more. If he cares to learn an expedient lesson from history, all those who mooted the idea of third term before the last elections and worked surreptitiously to actualize them were woefully disappointed in their permutations and expectations.
It has not been proved that Oyo State is the best governed in the country. If it comes to that, it would have been perfectly logical and natural if it was Fashola mooting the idea of second term, which he is not doing. Everybody, even Fashola’s detractors, attest to the quantum of development in Lagos State. What would be the policy thrust of another Alao-Akala-led government in Oyo State since his brash chest-thumping godfather is dead and gone with the wind? I hope it won’t be to brusquely convoke all the necromancers of the state at government’s expense and anthropomorphize Machiavelli, so to say, so that he might learn new methodologies of the end justifies the means from him. Pray, what is the rationale or justification for another Adebayo, a political analyst, resides in Ibadan
