Ogun West opts for consensus guber candidate

Elders of Ogun West Senatorial District have initiated moves to ensure that in 2019, the governorship seat does not elude them due to divisions among them.

The district is populated by the Yewa and Awori people who have not tasted the governorship since the creation of the state due to sharp divisions among them. As usual seven of their indigenes are individually campaigning to contest the next gubernatorial election.

To ensure that past mistakes are not repeated, elders in the area under the aegis of Joint Ogun West Leaders Forum at the weekend organised a dialogue in which key political players from the area, including some of the aspirants participated.

After about five hours extensive deliberation, the participants in a communiqué agreed that, for the district to achieve its elusive desire, all aspirants and individuals must sacrifice their ambition and individual interest for the general interest of all.

They also agreed that their flag bearer that must emerge in 2019 must do so without “any undue external manipulation.”

Those in attendance were stakeholders from diverse religious, social and political persuasions.

The meeting appealed to all the aspirants, especially the two leading ones, Prince Gboyega Isiaka and Solomon Olamilekan Adeola to come together and “present a common direction to the mass of Ogun West to follow in the 2019 general elections”.

One of the elders, Dr Kunle Salako stated that it was regrettable that in the past, instead of their aspirants working together, they continued “to pull each other down until all of them perished in the process.”

He ascribed lack of meaningful development in the area to the fact that none of their own had ever occupied the state’s number one seat.

His words: “Ours has been a senatorial district where the centrifugal force that push us apart continue to be stronger than the centripetal force that should pull us together such that we often find it easier to endorse and step down for an outsider than to agree among ourselves and present a common front.

“In 2011 and 2015 we were again puns in the political chessboard of Ogun State and became the sacrificial lamb to settle scores among the political principalities of Ogun State.

“If we are not strategic enough to robustly engage our sons or daughters in all the gubernatorial race, carefully manage the political godfathers in Ogun State and above all seriously cultivate the spirit of give and take amongst ourselves, we may be on the way to producing three strong candidates in three strong political parties, a development that is likely to be a disaster for the 2019 contest as far as Ogun West is concerned.”

Both Adeola and Isiaka expressed optimism that their collaboration would send strong signals that Ogun West zone was now prepared for 2019.

Adeola said, “This time is Ogun West for governor. If I am the sacrificial lamb, I don’t care. We must come with an open mind because Yewa-Awori project is beyond any of us here. If we resolve to depend on God, we must tow the path of God and not that of man.

For Isiaka, “This time we are determined and there is no amount of threat that can distract us. Our leaders and elders have been in this struggle for long but it is not over until it is over.

If there is something left that we have not done, you just have to support us towards realising this project. We all need our best materials wherever they are.”