By Kayode Odunaro
ON Sunday April 3, 2016, a most momentous event took place at the Bourdillion, Ikoyi  residence of Aremo Olusegun Osoba, former two time governor of Ogun State. In attendance were the leading lights of current progressive politics in the South West and indeed Nigeria that were instrumental to midwifing an opposition party that electorally took over power from a ruling party since 1999. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, a host of sitting governors and their representatives and other diehard progressives all converged in the house of Osoba with a singular aim: Bring Back Osoba into APC.

At the end of the day the aim was achieved and Osoba is back in APC that he helped midwife before local politics of his home state, Ogun, forced him to briefly sojourn in SDP. Details of the forces and events that led to his surprising exit from APC may rightly be situated in the merger of strange bedfellows that produced the APC and the dilution of progressive politics with individuals that hardly share the ideals of progressivism. And of course there were issues of personal animosities and clash of egos with some agenda to demystify if not erase the political stature of Osoba from the landscape of Ogun state politics once and for all times.

Olusegun Osoba

Any intelligent political observer can readily see that the come-back bid of Osoba into APC is about one of the most important political developments in 2016, not only in Ogun State, but in the South West and indeed our national politics as by all standards, Osoba is an elder statesman that had paid his dues adequately in national development first as a renowned journalist, then administrator and politician. Indeed in the trajectory of his life Osoba has had many successful comeback bids in the past with the man passing through some trying times that nearly snuff out his life in the struggle for a democratic Nigeria. In his home state of Ogun, there are probably no political leaders alive outside former President Olusegun Obasanjo that has had a more chequered political history over the years than Osoba.

As the democratically elected successor to the first elected governor of the state, Chief Bisi Onabanjo, Osoba continued to build on the solid foundation laid by Onabanjo but the continuation was cut short barely two years after by a military interregnum that led Osoba to join the democratic struggle to free Nigeria from military rule. His roles with NADECO under the regime of General Sanni Abacha nearly cost him his life on more than one occasion and he had to go underground at some point at a great cost to his personal family life.

The stories of his life during these periods are in the public domain and do not bear rehearsing here. But suffice to say that at the end of that era, Osoba made a comeback as the third elected governor of Ogun State in 1999 under the progressive party of Alliance for Democracy, AD. The next four years saw him executing perhaps the best rural development strategy in the history of the state in the area of provision of rural electrification, water and rural roads. Till date, the rural areas of the state will always see his administration as a reference point when governance touched their lives.

The year 2003 saw him leaving the centre stage again as he ‘lost’ his re-election bid in the “capture politics” that saw the conservative ruling PDP at the Federal level sweeping the poll in South West states with the singular exception of Lagos State. But by 2011, Osoba’s progressive party that has now metamorphosised to Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, was in the clear reckoning to present a winning candidate with Asiwaju Tinubu playing the yeoman’s role of a catalyzer. At the end of the day by the logic of using an opposition figure on a popular platform ACN fielded Senator Amosun as its candidates with Osoba as undisputed leader.

Democratic  politics

Now Osoba is back in another comeback bid with his political structure backed by the progressives of the South West. There has been grumbling and uneasiness in some quarters in Ogun State about his return. However, the game of democratic politics is a game of numbers where every political group works to gain the most numbers among the electorate. Only selfish and exclusionist politicians would not welcome new members, more so members that they once co-habited with and benefitted from their membership and support. Indeed, we are daily regale with opposition PDP members decamping to APC and being welcome. So one sees no oddity in Osoba and his group returning to APC.

Born to the family of Pa and Madam Jonathan Babatunde Osoba at an Egba settlement, Egbatedo, in Osogbo on July 15, 1939, Osoba attended African Church School, Osogbo, Methodist Boys High School, Lagos. He was at University of Lagos for his Diploma in Journalism.

He took courses at Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom, Indiana University, USA and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Beginning a career in journalism that spanned 25 years at the Daily Times and moving from the bottom rung to the pinnacle of the profession, Osoba naturally identified with popular causes and advocacy for the downtrodden that the profession of journalism entails in addition to its enlightening role. Osoba is accepted as a role model in the profession of journalism from his days as a reporter in Daily Times, to his managerial position at Nigerian Herald, Sketch Newspapers and Daily Times, all of which flourished under his management. Internationally, Osoba practiced the profession with BBC, Times of London, Newsweek Magazine of USA, UPI News Agency and is a prominent member of the International Press Institute (IPI) being the second African to be a member of the Executive Board of the prestigious international professional body after Alhaji Lateef Jakande, another prominent journalist and former governor.  Osoba who holds several chieftaincy titles across Ogun State is married to Aderionsola Osoba (nee Adeyemi) with four children and grandchildren.