However, the poll result is particularly of essence to APC members in Ogun West Senatorial district as they contributed 89,181votes or 29.1% of the 306, 988 votes Senator Amosun recorded at the polls.
The result is particularly important because in the run-up to the 2015 election, sentiment was sky high that the guber election should be the moment for the coronation of a governor of Yewa-Awori origin having failed in 2011. Hence, two sons of the senatorial district got the tickets of the PDP and the Social Democratic Party (SDP ) for the race.
But at the end of the polls, Amosun whipped the two Yewa-Awori indigenes in their own backyard in Ogun West. Contrary to popular belief that Yewa-Aworis didn’t vote for Senator Amosun, the governor, in fact secured more than 40% of the total vote cast in each of the five local councils that made up the senatorial district.
The result carries a lot of implications for both the people of Ogun West and APC members in the district. Yewa-Aworis have used the vote to say that they will rather wait for 2019 and present a viable personality as the candidate of the area.
They practically made nonsense of the popular aphorism ‘to whom much is given much is expected’. They were given little but they delivered much. For reasons best known to Governor Amosun, just a handful of appointees were picked from the senatorial district during the first term. The five local governments that made up Ogun West had just four commissioners, two Special Advisers, two Senior Special Assistants, two Special Assistants, chairman of State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) along with the Speaker of the State House of Assembly.
In politics, electoral success is measured based on the quantum of trusted personnel on the field as well as the number of projects and level of political patronage on offer.
The Ogun West experience is in sharp contrast to the array of appointees from Ogun East senatorial district. Ogun East with nine local governments produced the Deputy Governor, 10 commissioners, Chief of Staff to the Governor, Secretary to the State Government, Chairman of Teaching Service Commission ( TESCOM) as well as numerous Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants.
In terms of project siting, Ogun West also holds the short end. The projects located in the district are few when compared to what obtain in Ogun East and Ogun Central. Indeed, the poor state of some busy roads like the Ilaro-Owode road, contributed immensely to the not too-impressive performance of the APC in Yewa-South.
The choice of the House of Assembly candidate is another drawback in the local government. Ilaro, the political headquarters of Ogun West, cuts a pathetic figure in terms of deprivation when compared to its peers; case.
Ijebu-Ode, the headquarters of Ogun East district, enjoys far better patronage and attention than Ilaro. During the first term, Ijebu-Ode, for instance, produced chairman of TESCOM, three commissioners, two Special Advisers and numerous Senior Special Assistants and Special Assistants. It also produced the Deputy Speaker to the state House of Assembly. But only one commissioner, chairman of SUBEB and a Special Assistant were picked from Yewa-South.
Several landmark projects, including two six-lane flyovers that run across the dreaded Sagamu-Benin Expressway and that resolved the usual traffic gridlock at Lagos Garage area of the town, were equally constructed in Ijebu-Ode. The only government project in Yewa-South is a model secondary school ; and it is yet to be completed! All pleas to get the government to rehabilitate the decrepit Ilaro-Owode road fell on deaf ears.
However, despite all the patronage and attention, Amosun lost in Ijebu-Ode. PDP won with 11,381 votes to APC’s 10,570 votes.
Indeed, when placed side-by-side with Ogun East district, APC members in Ogun West should be proud of the feat they attained during the election.
While Governor Amosun marginally outscored the PDP candidate in Ogun East votes by 95, 526 to 94, 087, the governor polled 89, 181 votes in Isiaka’s Ogun West backyard. Isiaka got only 69, 380.
With the 2015 electoral feat, voters in Ogun West have demonstrated that they believe the governor’s several avowals to produce a successor of Ogun West extraction in 2019. The ball is now in the court of Mr. Governor to make good his promise by empowering the Yewa-Aworis by appointing several of them into key positions as he continues his mission to rebuild our state.
• Sarah Olabimtan, Ph.D, a public affairs analyst, lives at Ota, Ogun State. She can be reached on saraholabimta@ymail.com
