BY KOLADE LAREWAJU
Governor Olugbenga Daniel of Ogun State yesterday made good his threat to confront former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the battle for political supremacy in Ogun State by formally joining the Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN, at a rally in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State (with a walking stick) at the Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN, rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State, yesterday. Photo by Wunmi Akinola.

Although Daniel until yesterday insisted that he remained in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to  work for President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election while all the candidates in his faction of the PDP ,who did not make the Independent Electoral Commission of Nigeria, INEC, list moved to the PPN.

Daniel at PPN rally

Governor  Daniel dressed in a cream colored lace material, yesterday arrived the venue of the PPN rally at about 1.15 pm throwing the crowd that thronged the M K O Abiola stadium venue into ecstasy amidst songs deriding those who made them leave the PDP.

Addressing the crowd, the Governor, who took time to show them the candidates of the party from House of Assembly, National assembly and Governorship for the forthcoming elections said that he had become an elder statesman who would support anything good but still insisted that he would work for the re-election of President Jonathan as all members of the PPN had agreed to do the same.

Yesterday’s PPN rally virtually shut down Abeokuta, sending jitters to Olurin and Amosun camps. The general feeling is that Isiaka is now a leading candidate for the April gubernatorial polls.

The Governor told the gathering which included the leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, Dr Frederick Fasheun and the National Legal Adviser of the Party; Barrister Romanus Azuzu, “If we see anything good, we must endorse it.

What we are witnessing today is good and we must support it.  Even though you are not happy, you have declared your support for President Jonathan, we will vote for him because we are working for him. I have come to feed my eyes and my eyes are seeing good things today.”

His earlier attack on OBJ

Governor Daniel had fired his intention to confront Obasanjo and those he called “undertakers” during a rally in Sgamu organized by some teachers in the state at the weekend.

Describing Obasanjo as a man without conscience and implying that he was being hounded because he refused to dance to the tune of some leaders, Daniel said “In the last eight years, I stood by you through thick and thin, through difficulties. But let me also say that we made history because in the last eight years, we didn’t go through anyone to rule of any sort.

“In eight years, teachers of Ogun State did not need to go on the streets because whatever your entitlements before you asked for it, we did it for you. It is therefore important that we shine our eyes; we open our eyes very wide.

“The undertakers have come; by the special grace of God their coffin will have no body. When they speak in public, they speak from the perspective of what they have done and the way they are doing things. Their imagination is that the way they do things is the way everybody does things; they did not understand; they cannot imagine that God has been truly with us; they cannot even understand how we did what we did. We know the amount of cost that it cost them.

“I’ll give you a typical example: there was a stadium in Abuja, we were told it cost N30 billion. Now, can an international stadium be better than this? This one cost less than five percent of what they used to build that stadium. You are our teachers, you are our brothers, you are our sisters; you are the conscience of this country. Some people parade themselves and say they are the conscience

of the country. How can they be conscience of the country when they don’t have the capacity to do what is right without minding whose ox is gored? A bad man cannot be a conscience of the country.
“On Saturday, they hired some people. We have found out; they hired people to the stadium in Abeokuta.

The people that they hired have now come to us to confess. Some of them from the Lagos State College of Education, Ijanikin, some of them from the Polytechnic in Lagos confessed; they said each and every one of them they paid them N2000 each to come to the rally to come and boo OGD”.

Sequence of a false truce

But why did the Governor got so miffed? On Friday March 11, the embattled Daniel had retraced his steps in his supremacy battle with former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the control of the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] and begged him for forgiveness.

Daniel who was apparently brought to the former President to beg for forgiveness by a class mate of Obasanjo; the Olubara of Ibara, Oba Jacob Omolade, a close friend of Obasanjo; Aare Afe Babalola and Pools Magnate; Chief Kessington Adebutu admitted that he had begged Obasanjo for forgiveness.

Daniel after the meeting which lasted for about three hours during which he was said to have prostrated and begged Obasanjo passionately said “let me say this, to you, I am a true Yoruba son, and in
Yoruba-land it doesn’t matter who is right or who is wrong.  It is the younger that will beg the older person, so I have begged baba and I will continue to beg him”

Daniel even confirmed that he has accepted Olurin as the candidate of the party and that all those who went to PPN would return saying “Of course Olurin is the Governorship candidate of PDP. “Well in all things we have to give thanks to God. And I think what has happened today is a manifestation of work of God and I want to seize this opportunity to thank the elders and to also thank Baba for the opportunity of the meeting.

I don’t have any doubt in my mind that we can work things out. What we have started to do today is a manifestation of better things to come. As you have always been aware, it is true that a large number of our supporters feel disenchanted and I think even if we have to sit down and begin to find a lasting solution that is what we have started today.

“I have no doubt in my mind that we will talk to ourselves. PDP still remain a very strong and united party. And you know that there was never a time that I left. The people who left felt very aggrieved. And we are starting the process of reconciliation.

“Let me say this, to you, I am a true Yoruba son, and in Yoruba-land it doesn’t matter who is right or who is wrong. It is the younger that will beg the older person, so I have begged baba and I will continue to beg him. Of course Olurin is the Governorship candidate of PDP”

But Daniel was to suffer the humiliation of his life the following day as he was severely booed by the capacity crowd at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta venue of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP], Presidential Campaign Rally. While former President Olusegun Obasanjo received tremendous applause, every time his name was mentioned, from the huge supporters of the party that thronged the stadium, it was boos and jeers for Daniel every time his name was mentioned.

Former President Obasanjo had to intervene in his speech and admonished the crowd to stop booing Daniel and respect the office of the Governor which he said Daniel would occupy till May, 29 this year.
Obasanjo said he took serious objection to the booing of Daniel noting that even if Daniel would not respect elders, he should not be paid back in the same coin.

He said “what you have just done now is very much uncalled for. If I did not come here and say it, I will be failing in my duty. It does not matter what Governor Daniel must have done, or might have not done. In Yoruba land, we respect among other things, two things; age and authority.

“If you are not a bastard, if you see an older person, you respect him. Until 29th of May, Governor Gbenga Daniel remains the governor of this state and he must be accorded the respect, dignity, the honor that he deserves.”

If he does not give anyone that respect, we won’t pay him in his own coin. You must show that you are well bred. I take serious objections to your booing him here when his name is called and that should not be.”