Let me apologise that this is long and is coming 24 hours late.

I have been in Abuja.

The whole of yesterday was crammed into taking a flight to Abuja, meeting with the national leadership of the Labour Party, and spending the evening over grilled fish and political chit chat in one of the calmer outdoor night joints in Abuja, a city embroiled in unbelievable, unfolding political drama that would make box-office as a Nollywood movie.

Chief Segun Odegbami

It was a very busy day indeed.

Chairman and Secretary of the Ogun State chapter of Labour Party and I flew to Abuja on a new airline, Max Air.

Many friends have become volunteers in this project.

Segun and Yakubu arranged local transportation for us from the Abuja airport and around town.

The same Yakubu and Toyin provided us with accommodation in a hotel for the night.

We visited the Headquarters of Labor Party.

I met with the national Chairman, Secretary and a few other principal officers in the Party Secretariat. They had organised a well laid out reception for their new ambassador (that’s how they referred to me).

That was my first trip into the bowels of a political party. It was a revealing experience. I liked what I saw.

The Labour Party is truly a clean blank canvas, with plenty of brush and paint waiting for the right artist to create an enchanting picture of a country flourishing, beautiful and strong.

I am one of the artists that will provide a new vision of a portion of the art work – an Ogun State in its most magnificent, beautiful, safe and prosperous form.

In 4 years’ time, Ogun State, from one corner to the other, will become a destination of choice for adventurous Black people from around the world seeking to invest in their homeland in the arts, culture, entertainment, leisure, hospitality, technology and sports sectors.

I keep repeating this lofty goal like a broken record because I believe it will happen and I want the entire people of the State, from the East, the West and Central zones, to record this as my covenant with them.

At the Labour Party secretariat, I was welcomed very enthusiastically. I met with the national leadership and they, in turn, presented me to the patiently waiting media.

I spoke briefly about the reason for my visit, my cause, my excursion into politics and my choice of political platform to pursue my dream of becoming the next servant-leader, the governor, of Ogun State.

I told them what the Labour Party can become in the emerging politics of Nigeria. That ignited their imagination. I could sense massive excitement about me joining the party.

After that we left for a quick swing around the city.

Abuja was pungent with the odour of different raging political battles – unending infighting within the two major political parties and the incomprehensible crisscrossing of the same pool of politicians like yoyos. They may have good intentions for the country, but surely, they must know they have failed her.

Through my sports lenses all I see is a small team of elected people, distracted from their primary objectives to diligently serve the country, now playing political ‘football’ with the lives of ordinary people.  The country is now littered with disenfranchised people fed up with both parties and their endless antics.

The people must now not only continue to pray hard, but must also end to their passivity and become active participants in the political processes that will make positive change possible in their lives. The ‘heaven’ we look up to for answers is here within us!

The solution is in the politics in the land. It also obviously does not lie in the two major political parties that have collectively brought the entire country to its worst state in history!

The people must seek a new political platform devoid of the present madness and most of the present set of actors. The new party must present new and innovative solutions, particularly those that address the fundamental issues of the people.

The Labour Party presents an option they should examine that can provide the answer.

The party that does not carry dead weights like any of the present political parties – unwanted baggage and garbage.

It has a philosophy, an ideology, a mantra, a manifesto, a logo, a motto and constitution that have the welfare of the PEOPLE at its core.

When ALL workers, artisans, traders, market women, transporters, students, and the youths come together under one peaceful and organized roof, and take a well-articulated position on the political future of the country, the country and its politics will never be the same again.

The Labour Party provides an exciting alternative – a new platform, new opportunities, new ways, and new people.

My clarion call, therefore, is that All should abandon failed ways and parties, and choose to play an active part in the creation a new and better Ogun State and Nigeria from May 2019.

This mobilization of the youths and the disenfranchised people under one umbrella is my humble divine mission.

Ok, I have not reported my evening of grilled fish and deep chit chat with some fascinating experts in the politics of Nigeria.

Those details are too lengthy for this already elongated diary.

But then, other things interesting things are happening around me.

His Eminence, a great sports administrator before he became Sultan, humbled me with a phone call and quietly wished me well in my political quest.

My ardent supporter for life, one of the sporting Bishops of the Catholic Church, on papal assignment in the USA, called to offer me prayers on behalf of himself and his fellow bishops in Orlando, Florida.

Many long ‘lost’ friends and even ‘foes’ in sports have either forgiven or forgotten the past and have been calling to register support.

The international sports and entertainment fraternity is not left out too.

Former American Athletes and coaches, including legendary Lee Evans and Ron Davis and their American friends are fascinated with my dream and are eager to support me with resources for the campaign.

Without question, I have ignited a fire in the hearts of a few Nigerians and even some people in the Diaspora.

When a very sophisticated environment such as Ogun, with its deep traditions, its rich history, sophisticated culture and quality people, also capitulates to the political games leading into the dark tunnel of an almost certain cataclysm, my humble responsibility to myself, to my State and my country, even without all the ingredients that some people insist I must possess that I obviously do not  in order to participate and hope to win in the elections (outrageous sums of money that will surely be re-cooped from the people’s wealth and paid back one way or the other;

powerful political godfathers that will control the resources and machinery from outside; make-believe structures of corrupt followers and their rented crowds that will spread intimidation, maiming, ballot snatching and even killing) then there is something definitely wrong with the system and structures, and the people must rise now and do something to change them.

What the existing system lacks and which I have in overabundance is GOODWILL – the goodwill of the largest and most powerful but passive demography in the State – the ordinary and unhappy majority of the PEOPLE.

It is this army that I am calling out to join me in our collective struggle for freedom from the present mental and physical imprisonment.

By Segun Odegbami