Category: Opinion

Over the past few weeks, Atiku Abubakar has become the man whom Nigerians and others around the world recognise as the leading opponent in next year’s presidential elections, the man to beat President Muhammadu Buhari in the polls and rescue Nigeria from the clutches of a heartless cabal.

But, to many of us who have known him over the past years, he is much more than what the campaign media teams or the global newspaper headlines can ever portray effectively, no matter how well meaning they might be. And I speak as someone who has experienced, on a personal basis, the fullness of who Atiku Abubakar is and what he represents, which have nothing to do with whether or not the cameras are rolling or whether a microphone is thrust in his face, or whether there is an election to be won. I’d like to share some of those personal experiences with you and the world as Atiku celebrates his 72nd birthday on November 25, the same day that he is being elevated from the title of Turaki Adamawa to Waziri Adamawa, in a ceremony taking place in his hometown of Yola.

Atiku Abubakar’s rags to riches story has been in the public domain, especially since his days as Nigeria’s vice president. Much has been told and written about his rise from herdsboy to headsman; of the boy who hardly knew his father before his demise; who sold firewood, herded cattle for wealthy neighbours, receiving payment in the form of grains which his family subsisted on. At the age of 15, he had saved enough to buy his mother a mud house. Of course, he went on to acquire an education, occupy senior positions in the civil service, launch groundbreaking businesses, even before he was elected as vice president in 1999. The trajectory of his life shows clearly that hard work pays. But, there is still so much missing from these popular stories.

I was employed in Atiku’s Media Office in 2010. In 2015, I stepped into the daunting role of head of the Office, thus becoming Atiku’s spokesperson and one of his most visible staff. At first, I expected this to be nothing more than a job that came with heavy responsibilities, which I determined to dispatch with excellence and without reproach. But, before long, Atiku began to show me that I was more to him than just someone on his payroll. He showed me what it was like to work for a boss who cared for human beings, who was interested in the rise and comfort of those below him, who considered their issues as his own issues. I didn’t tell Atiku when my parents were ill but he found out and phoned me to find out how they were doing. Each time he saw me, he first asked details about my family’s welfare before he raised any pending or urgent work matters. Whenever I did anything he approved of, he expressed deep gratitude as if I had done him a personal favour, when I was merely doing my job. Anyone who has worked in our country knows how widely this differs from the typical Nigerian boss.

Atiku constantly reminded me to ensure that his media office reflected who he is, meaning that I should accommodate the rainbow colours of our national diversity. In the past few years, the media office’s staff has comprised and still comprises people from the South-East, South-South, South-West, North-Central, North-West, and the North-East. Anybody who doubts this can research the names of past and present staff on the roll of the office. During Atiku’s 70th birthday two years ago, the AMO staff were determined to get him a gift. But then, what do you buy for a man who pays your salary, who buys you rams during Sallah and bags of rice during Christmas, who can afford everything that you can afford? Still, we were determined to seize the opportunity to express our profound gratitude to the best boss that one can ask for. In the end, we settled on a painting of his portrait. He grinned from ear to ear when we presented it to him. A plaque we also presented to him currently occupies pride of place in his living room. He didn’t disdain our humble gift of love.

Long before he declared his intention to contest for the 2019 elections and before he was overwhelmingly elected to represent the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku shared profound thoughts with me about his concern for Nigeria. Despite being from northern Nigeria, he was worried by President Buhari’s lopsided appointments. He was alarmed at the rise of the Boko Haram insurgency, despite the government’s loud proclamations that the group had been defeated. He was embarrassed by the series of gaffes President Buhari made each time he stood on the world stage, especially one that disdained his wife and women in general. He found it incredible that the government appeared more bent on finding a variety of excuses for the farmer-herdsmen clashes than they were about bringing the carnage to an end. When I arrived to attend a meeting with him sometime last year and noticed Atiku looking sad and sorrowful, I asked him if all was well. “In all my life, especially since the civil war, I have never been this worried for our nation,” he replied. The period under reference was the era of quit notices and counter-quit notices.

Being right there in Port Harcourt to watch Atiku receive the resounding support of the PDP brought to me a joy that transcends my position in his team. Knowing that he will have the opportunity to effect his humanity and hardwork on a national scale is evidence to me that God definitely has Nigeria on his mind. My prayer is that Atiku’s elevation as Waziri and the celebration that will attend his official turbaning on Sunday will be a sign of the good things to come when he eventually mounts the saddle as President of Nigeria in 2019. May the celebrations of Sunday, November 25, be a snapshot of the future that millions of Nigerians from the North, South, East and West are currently looking forward to, as they support Atiku Abubakar to Get Nigeria Working Again.

Mazi Paul Ibe is media adviser to His Excellency Atiku Abubakar.

I have now listened to Bukola Saraki’s new soundcloud audio of an address in Yoruba to his supporters in Ilorin. It is indeed a galling tell-all, a compelling compendium of his grievances and animus against President Buhari.

Predictably, Buharideens are gushing all over Facebook and Twitter. I suppose they see this in their usual one-track way: Saraki is implicating himself. Evidently, they have not thought through the full implications of Saraki’s revelations: they never think through the implications of anything concerning Buhari.

There is nothing Saraki reveals about himself that we don’t already know: cold, calculating, and irredeemably corrupt, with a warped perspectivization of Nigeria as food to be dished out in a gourmandizing system of patronage. His grievance? Buhari is blocking the yam and the knife after receiving the proceeds of jibiti.

The level of self-implication in corruption by Saraki is why Buharideens are gushing. “Of 36 states”, Bukola Saraki boasts on tape, “I funded Buhari’s election in 30, excluding only the Southwest. I gave N200m, N300m, even N400million to some states, personally phoning bank managers for disbursement.”

This is not Bukola’s father’s money. It is Nigeria’s money that this irresponsible man is claiming to have so wantonly distributed to buy an election for Buhari. Only for things to turn sour after the election: all the juicy appointments he hoped to corner for his cronies in Abuja were denied him by Buhari.

To the Buharideens gushing all over the place, where in this audio clip did Bukola Saraki indicate that your god, Mr. Integrity, Mr. No Corruption, rejected this massive and illicit spending of Nigeria’s funds in his behalf? Remember the saying about the giver & receiver of loot? You are so carried away in your one-track, wishy-washy interpretation of the audio that the obvious implication is lost on you: Saraki is in fact openly saying that Buhari did not honour the ancient code of honour among thieves.

I hate to rain on your parade but Buhari does not come out smelling of roses in these revelations. Like Saraki, he comes out smelling of shit, deep shit. You people must always make Buhari the victim. Consider Adeosun. When she resigned, you whined that she embarrassed Baba by hanging on for too long – making Bubu the victim. The real question was: why did your Baba condone illegality for so long?

Here’s to a future Nigeria where Saraki and Buhari will both answer for the claims in that audio: corruption and campaign finance illegalities.

By Ikedi Ohakim

It has become very necessary and important for our records, that as a former Governor, leader and contestant for the 2019 APGA gubernatorial primary elections in Imo State, I should address the people of Imo State on the monumental betrayal and injustice done to Ndi-Imo, Ndigbo and Nigeria as a whole by the national leadership of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

Let me quickly place on record that the vision of the party APGA, in spite of national pretension, is intricately tied with Igbo nationalism, identity, vision and hopes. It was more of a spiritual than a socio-political organization; that at no time than now has APGA had a better outing than the current dispensation with the huge win recently recorded in Anambra (otherwise called 21 over 21) and the array of highly qualified and credible candidates that aspired to win the Governorship of Imo State through her. The expectation we were told by Obiano was that by May, 2019, APGA would have formed the Governments in Imo and Abia in addition to Anambra. Today this hope is dead and buried.

Despite great assurances to us by the party leader Governor Willie Obiano and the National Chairman Ozonkpu Victor Oye, that the party would conduct a transparent and credible primaries for the aspirants, what we have witnessed is the worst display of dishonesty, failure, collective insult to fellow Ndi-Igbo, administrative ignorance and primitive greed. The criminality of it all can hardly be imagined by any right thinking Nigerian. This is indeed “a theft and betrayal of historic proportion” (A declaration by the association of cheated APGA Governorship Aspirants [N.APGA] on Thursday 11th October, 2018). APGA demanded the sum N4,200 from every member of the PARTY in the 305 wards of Imo state called membership update dues and over 5795 members paid.

APGA charged N10,000 from each of more than two thousand members contesting for delegate positions under the auspices of various contestants for Governorships, Senate, House of Representatives, and House of Assembly.
APGA organized a fraudulent seminar and book launch in Awka (12th September, 2018) where it fleeced various aspirants of more than N100 million; APGA collected more than N585 million from various contestants for nomination form and expression of interests for various offices; APGA foot soldiers collected all sorts of bribes for clearance of aspirants. In all APGA National Leaders fleeced about N2.8b from Imo State alone. In addition to abhorable abuse of many female aspirants in our own hotels and yet denied them tickets.

The party failed to conduct even one delegate election in all of the 305 wards of the state. It could not even raise a panel to do same or spend a dime on the logistics of conducting the delegate elections. The result was that the party could not raise any credible list of delegates for the primaries scheduled to hold from the 2nd October, 2018 beginning with the House of Reps. Until the date of the last deception, there was no approved and published list of delegates from either the state or national office of APGA.

For three consecutive days namely Friday 5th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th October, 2018 the party shifted the governorship primaries keeping delegates including pregnant women and nursing mothers for up to 10pm each day with all the governorship aspirants and “their own delegates” (some over 500 party possible delegates from various LGA for each aspirant), with the attendant logistic costs of transporting and feeding them for the three days, waiting and hoping it would hold. At the end of all these charade the party still failed to hold any primary election in Imo State.

By this failure, APGA has violated the basic agreements between party and members and breached the contract to organize and hold primary elections for all her aspirants who worked and paid money for same.

To me the news that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) now has a candidate for the 2019 gubernatorial election in Imo State is laughable, childish and baseless. The story that one of the aspirants took his fans and went to an unapproved venue (the Nwankwo Kano Centre) and held party primaries for himself alone is criminal and does not make sense. Does it make sense to think that you can hold a party primary election by 12 midnight in an unapproved venue without other aspirants; without the state and local government Executive of the party; without any statutory delegates; without INEC representatives; without DSS and Police; and without the popular Imo State press? Doesn’t it rather sound silly for anyone to believe that you can obtain value from such pretence? Burying her head in the sound has never secured the life of the ostrich from hunters.

It is on record that the state working committee of APGA in a meet on Sunday 7th October fully covered by the print and electronic media declared that the primary elections did not hold. Where then is the basis of the declaration by the National working committee that a candidate emerged? How can we have a winner without a contest or a consensus? That can only obtain in a lawless society.

I must put it on record here to Ndi-Igbo everywhere, that what Governor Obiano, Victor Oye and rest of their gang has done to us in Imo State is an insult to me Ikedi Ohakim; to all the other 250 aspirants that contested under APGA for Governor, Senate, House of Reps and House of Assembly; to the entire State and Local Government Executives of APGA, in Imo State; to all the statutory and ad-hoc delegates who were all fleeced and tortured for three days by the devious maneuvering of Obiano, Victor Oye and their criminal foot soldiers:- To the ordinary party members who were denied their right to vote for delegates and their preferred aspirants as well as denied their right to political education and participation which is a primary function of all political parties.

The APGA members who were defrauded and their rights criminally violated are the traders that stand in the rain and sun to sell their wares on daily basis. They are the farmers, artisans and our jobless youths. They are our church members whom we preach to on daily basis to be law abiding and fear God. But right before us they have been defrauded and their rights violated and abandoned, like sheep without shepherd. This is the time for every Imo person, every Igbo person, every traditional leader, political leaders and religious leaders across Igbo land to rise up and save the Igbo Nation from the assault on our collective psyche and integrity. It is therefore in the best interest of all Christians across the globe and Igbo land in particular that Christians and Christian leaders in our land should rise up and condemn this day light robbery and of course distance themselves from APGA and the beneficiaries of this monumental fraud.

This whole act is an intentional insult and injury to Ndi-Imo in particular as well as an abuse of the respect we have for Anambra State and Ndi-Anambra as brothers (and by the grace of God) as a leading community of the Igbo race, leading in the Church, in education, in politics, in business etc. This is one insult too many. Let this abuse and taking for granted, not continue. Our unity in Igbo land is so important to our survival and development as a people and a nation.

It is indeed too shameful that these disrespectful fraudsters extended their callousness to the handling of the case of the widow of our immortal leader Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu and the daughter of an equally illustrious Igbo leader Chief C.C. Onoh (ani nefu ngwu). Our grievances here in Imo State is perhaps ameliorated by the fact that this criminality was meted out not only to us, but also to Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu and several illustrious Anambra sons who aspired for office under APGA. Let me assure Ndi Imo that the this APGA day light rubbery in Imo will not go unchallenged even if it will take us to the Supreme Court and all courts of public opinion. I would like to appeal to INEC and the security agencies not to succumb to any pressure to support this robbery and massive corruption bearing in mind that our amiable President abhors corruption in its entirety.

I think it is time to face the fact that the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) has failed and must die. The betrayal we see today has always been part and parcel of the history of APGA. Chief Chekwas Okorie, late Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu (Eze Igbo) Prince Arthur Eze( Ozo Igbo Ndu) and many stake holders who were critical to the founding of this party were all betrayed. Both Governor Obiano and Governor Rochas Okorocha who rode to power on the back of APGA and Governors in this season of anomie are agents of monumental betrayal of Ndi-Igbo.

Fifteen years since it began to vie and to achieve power APGA has not been able to conduct any credible election primaries inspite of all the vaunted knowledge and wisdom of our people; Not for Peter Obi; not for Obiano; not for Rochas etc APGA has consistently been incapable of conducting ordinary party primaries since its inception. Fifteen years, APGA is still bereft of any leadership capacity to lead Ndi-Igbo in an Igbo wide, nay Nigeria wide, political discussion.

Fifteen years, APGA has grown as a party neck deep in corruption and confusion of unimaginable proportions; a party that lack structural cohesion whose officials are neither trained nor cultured. APGA had become a trading port with a group of unconscionable gangsters strutting as leaders and extorting money from other Igbo states.
It does not make any sense to think of a revival of APGA. Governor Obiano should be the last Governor of APGA. Of course his foot soldiers from Awka and Aguleri know that the party will die with him and were therefore falling on each other defrauding our people and making frenetic efforts to get their last share of Imo Money. We are now fully convinced that APGA had never intended to win elections outside Anambra state and therefore remained a vehicle for internal neo-colonial exploitation of innocent brothers.

I think it is time for Ndi-Igbo from all Igboland within the South East and beyond, to start discussing about a new political platform with which to engage the rest of Nigeria. We need a credible platform to discuss the restructuring of Nigeria which is now before us.

We need the kind of leadership that (as Achebe would advise) would rise to the responsibility of leadership and to the need for personal example which are the hallmark of true leadership. Unfortunately, Obiano and his agents do not have these qualities and APGA is now a tainted platform for noble aspirations.

Imo state today lies prostrate from seven and half years of mis-governance originally promoted by APGA. I had joined the APGA, hoping that her managers would see the fatal error of bringing Okorocha in 2011 and work with me to redress the disaster they have created in Imo.

We did not join APGA without a commitment from the leadership both at state and national levels. We were promised that there would be no imposition of candidates at all levels. We were promised that there would be credible and transparent primaries to elect the party’s flag bearers for different offices. We believed them and invested our time and resources in building a pan Nigerian party, believing that the leadership of the party would live up to their promises of conducting credible and transparent primary elections for all the aspirants.

We accepted numerous apologies and regrets from key party leaders on the use of the party by some federal forces to install Okorocha and destroy the Imo Charter of Equity. We believed them and worked very hard and prepared for the primary elections. And for the very first time APGA had about 5,795 people willing to stand for delegates election to emerge as delegates to vote for their preferred candidates.

Unfortunately the leadership of APGA saw the increasing membership as an opportunity to defraud our people. They rather preferred to add salt to our injury. APGA was like 100 capacity KVA transformer, injected with 500 KVA power (membership) source, it exploded, caught fire and burnt to ashes.

Ndi-Imo nwem, we must walk past this calamity. I am not unaware that the majority of Ndi Imo want Ikedi Ohakim back and that was why they followed me to APGA. The truth is that if the constitution had provided for independent candidacy I could have run as an independent candidate. As former Governor I am equipped with the cognate experience for the job of the Governor, especially the job that would be done post Rochas. I handed over to Governor Okorocha and I know what I handed over to him. I am the only person that has a float of relevant files and can quickly rebuild the bureaucracy and other institutions of governance. Moreover, I have only one term. Therefore, the present chaos in the state and the succession quagmire requires only experienced and clear headed leadership to address.

I have bound myself with an Oath to recover Imo State from an avalanche of failures; a failure of the public bureaucracy; a failure of the state to service her obligations to her workers, serving and retired; a failure of the Local Government Services; a failure of the statutory commissions; a failure and abuse of the State House of Assembly; of the State Judiciary; of our educational system; a failure of our water and road infrastructures and a near collapse of the Pillars of the economy, namely the markets, the artisans, the contractors etc.

We have carefully studied our situation and decided that the best option for our state is to secure for the 2019 elections a vehicle that is not under the control of any external or internal buccaneers, inorder to provide an independent and self reliant leadership that cannot be easily sabotaged by anyone.

Those other aspirants who have been robbed, we assure you of a credible platform to offer yourselves to the electorates and that the up-coming election will be based on whom you are and not necessarily which platform you ascribe to. Working with like minds, we will enter into a new accord with Ndi Imo with our 4 cardinal point agenda of RECONSTRUCTION, REHABILITATION, RECONCILIATION and RECOVERY in addition to the total implementation of the contents of my covenant affidavit with Ndi Imo.
I am more than pleased to announce to Ndi Imo that God Almighty in his infinite mercy has provided us a credible alternative Party-ACCORD. ACCORD, fortunately is the number one party in the ballot paper for 2019 election.

ACCORD believes in oneness and progress; what Ndi-Igbo want in Nigeria is ONENESS in Nigeria that will allow for our PROGRESS as a people. ACCORD will be the key to discuss the Igbo future in Nigeria. We will all laugh last.

Like Nehemiah in the bible, our soldiers must have one hand on our swords and the other hand on our working implements. While we seek redress with APGA, “let us ‘RISE and REBUILD Imo’ (Neh 2:18)” and return her into the hands of God.

-Dr Ikedi Ohakim, Governor Imo State ( 2007-2011)

Shortly before the 2003 governorship election, then Governor Olusegun Osoba had come on television to address the common grouse of Ogun State people against his four-year reign. He had apparently gleaned security report which predicted his waterloo at the polls. It was a grouse that was ostensibly the river that would shortly drown his ambition to do a second term. “I am not proud,” he had begun pleadingly. “People say I am proud… I am not proud.” This apologia was coming rather too late to save the second journalist to rule Ogun after immortal Editor of First Republic influential newspaper, Daily Express and columnist, Bisi Onabanjo. Osoba was voted out. After eight years of being in the saddle, Gbenga Daniel, whom the electorate gleefully thumb-printed to replace Osoba, had become a lord unto himself too, enmeshed in allegations of rituals, arrogance of power and tragic attempts to play God. This piece will try to illustrate Ibikunle Amosun as the tragic power hero who – barring a last minute reversal – his twilight in power will herald even as he departs Oke-Mosan in a few months’ time.

In explaining the common thread that runs through the persona of these governors, the story of the mystic grandeur of Alaafin Sango and his elder brother, Alaafin Ajaka will clearly illustrate their glide from the zenith of power to the abyss of powerlessness. Like each of the governors too, Sango was a character whose political misfortune arises from the bitter tapestry of politics of his time in the Oyo Empire, which he personally wove, with his moral lapses and character flaws becoming indelible imprints for the rest of modern society. For would-be rulers who abhor the tragic outcome of power-drunk rulers, the Sango power model advertises doom, in and post-office.

Pardon me as I digress. There is a sustained intellectual crossfire among African historians on the correct reading of the interface and cross-cultural exchanges between the Yoruba of South West Nigeria and the people of Borgu, Nupe in present day Niger State. While historians like Idris Jimada in his The Nupe and the Origins and Evolution of the Yoruba, in seeking to reconstruct the centrality of the Nupe pre-the British conquest of the area now known as Nigeria, claimed that virtually all that the Yoruba hold as their cultural artefact, tradition and culture were imported wholesale from Nupe, some other historians have challenged this as barefaced historical revanchism. One line of oral history which may not allow Jimadu’s work to be totally consigned to the realm of historical conjecture is the relationship between the Old Oyo Empire and the Borgu and Nupe kingdoms. It demonstrates that there were inseparable interactions between both kingdoms before the British conquest that birthed modern Nigeria. It is on record, for instance, that the early Alaafins married from Borgu as confirmed by the story of the legendary hero-god, Alaafin Sango whose mother was a Tapa from Nupe.

Oral history tells us that Alaafin Ajaka was the second monarch of Old Oyo. Unfortunately however, his reign was pockmarked by wars. He was perceived as a weakling for his inability to contain the rampaging enemies who surrounded his kingdom, especially the war always initiated by the Owu. It was so bad that Alaafin Ajaka was captured by the Owu and imprisoned in the courtyard of the Olowu. Incensed by this impudence, the Oyomesi sent emissaries to Sango who then resided in the land of his mother in Nupe to come rescue them from the rampaging Owu. A valiant with a renowned magical power of emitting fire from his mouth like a dragon, Sango invaded Owu, vanquished the kingdom and set his brother, Ajaka free. The Oyo however declined to continue with the effeminate Ajaka as their king but installed Sango as the Alaafin instead. Like Osoba, Daniel and Amosun, Alaafin Sango was ushered into the ancient palace of Oyo-Ile with pomp and ceremony, carried in a traditional cart and the people celebrating that, thenceforth, their adversaries would dread Oyo under its new valiant and magical king. It didn’t take long for them to exhibit their crude grovel by the cult of power.

There were different accounts of Sango’s reign. Some of them were steeped in myth and legend, especially the mythical exploits of his three wives – Oba, Osun and Oya, the last said to be his concubine. Oya was also held to have been a spirit with the mythical power to transform to any animal of her choice. While some accounts held that Sango brought prosperity the way of Oyo, others claimed that he was a king consumed by raw power and naked display and use of his awesome talismanic powers.

He was highly mercurial and in a feat of anger, conjured his fire power which manifests in hurling of bolts of lightning which consumed his traducers. This exercise left on the earth’s crust stone axe blades called edun ara. Sango’s tragic end came in the war between his two Generals Timi Agbale and Gbonka and in the bid to destroy Gbonka, as usual, Sango hurled his Edun Ara fire but which had unbeknown to him soaked and in the bid to re-assert its potency, climbed a high rock and, facing the palace, began to hurl his traditional fire which consumed his palace, belongings and children. Disconsolate, Sango journeyed out of Oyo and allegedly committed suicide beside the Koso tree.

While the two governors before him were alleged to have fallen due to their tragic flaws, three objectionable character traits – hyper-choleric disposition, disdain for the other person and excessive flaunt and reliance on presidential power were Amosun’s main Achilles heels. Added to these is his quest to play the role of a conquistador without preparing for the pitfalls associated with it. I will explain presently.

Amosun fiercely snatched the front burner of news reportage recently. Akin to the tantrums of a child in diapers whose cake was relieved him, he grumpily accused Tinubu and Osoba of being the architects of his drowning political empire. Like all governors who ostensibly, in the quest to keep their governmental cupboard skeletons safe from prying eyes, magisterially choose quislings who can safely put the lid on their stewardships, Amosun didn’t hide his decision to handpick a successor. For him, with those massive infrastructure which some have described as needless and incongruent, if a lackey didn’t stay behind to hide the books, he may be done for. He peremptorily listed names of all standard-bearers even before the contest began. He at first told the people that a woman resident in Canada was his pick but as the clock ticked, he zeroed in on Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade, a member of the House of Representatives of Egbado South and Ipokia Federal Constituency in Ogun West senatorial district as his candidate. He also imposed himself and seven others as candidates for the Senate and House of Representatives in the forthcoming elections.

In his almost eight years of being in power, Amosun never realised that he was dreaded than loved, apparently due to his irascible nature. His famed Sango-like temper silenced his adversaries and though hurt his cult of followers, but all decided to give him the bull-in-a-China-shop treatment.

He rode magisterially on all as if the power he holds has no expiry, buoyed by his highly-burnished closeness to the presidential seat of power.

Immediately after the 2015 elections and Muhammadu Buhari ascended office, Amosun became the new poster-boy of power in the South West. While the Man Friday of that presidential feat – Bola Tinubu – sulked in his imperial Bourdillon home at his clear denigration and deconstruction by the lanky Fulani President, Amosun relished his advertisement as the new locus of power in the region. Paradoxically, Tinubu had fought Osoba to queue behind Amosun for the 2011 governorship race. At a time when Buhari rudely disclaimed an earlier advertised presidential visit to Lagos, Amosun was pictured in Buhari’s office sharing a school boy-like scintillating laughter with the president in the latter’s office. On many occasions when he sits at Ogun Executive Council meetings and he receives calls, rumour has it that he would loudly proclaim that “it’s the President; I will call him back,” which accentuated his majesty and power. He had untrammelled access to the Fulani General in his Aso Rock sacristy and woe betides whoever crossed the path of his influence. Indeed, while Tinubu could not boast of a ministerial nominee in 2015, Amosun was invested with the power to pick Buhari’s all-powerful Chancellor of Exchequer and he peremptorily converted his Commissioner of Finance into this huge task. Rumour has it that at the thick of his Sango anger, piqued by her alleged refusal to do his dirty biddings, Amosun threw Kemi Adeosun to the sharks by ordering his goons to parrot to the world her NYSC certificate infractions which had origin in Ogun.

Amosun’s presidential link lionised him to take a step forward in constructing a mansion of power which, unknown to him, was made of straws and pack of cards. In one breath, he apparently wondered what height Tinubu climbed in the political equation of the South West that he couldn’t, with the wealth and presidential buttons at his beck and call. So he midwifed a dalliance of allied forces with similar angsts against the Lion of Bourdillon, forces who had at one time or the other been clobbered by the crude political tackles of Tinubu. Amosun found willing allies in two other governors of the South West and they began the job of dissembling the Tinubu political architecture. Oyo proved an immediately fecund ground for their Machiavelli and Amosun engineered the suborning of disgruntled elements to give Abiola Ajimobi sleepless political nights.

At a time they had effectively put spanners in the political works in Oyo and when political pundits had predicted doom for Ajimobi, the Oyo Constituted Authority, for whom an inexplicable dues ex machina always creeps in at a moment when he is politically down, suddenly emerged from his purloined state and began a race which landed him at a border end where he peacefully produced a party candidate successor. Ajimobi today seems to have had a last laugh over Amosun and his gang but what the Amosuns failed to learn off him is his internalisation of that core Oyo wise-saying to wit, in knowing the moment to throw jabs and the juncture to retreat lies the inner strength within the valiant: mon’ja, mon’sa laa mon akikanju loju ogun.

Ondo had earlier been the political trophy of the disgruntled assembly headed by Amosun. With Tinubu’s apparent underground attempt to tackle the candidature of bearded Rotimi Akeredolu by funding another candidate, Akeredolu received massive comradeship from the Amosun gang whose major plan was to wrest Tinubu’s hold of the South West from him. They soon added Ekiti as their trophy when a leading apostle of the dissembling plot was enthroned. The gang was coasting home to victory in Osun until Tinubu, realising the deadly plot of the triumvirate dissemblers, cried to Buhari to intervene.

With this string of political successes in his kitty, Amosun’s swagger went a notch higher. While he was busy fighting wars of conquest outside his jurisdiction, he forgot that in the laws of power, the conquistador needs first to totally conquer his own territory so that when he is being pursued by those whom he daggers outside, there would be a place of shelter to shield him from the scorching sun. He should have known that not for nothing did Tinubu hold on tight to his Lagos territory like leech entangled to the skin. Meanwhile, Amosun’s list of traducers at home had quadrupled. His character flaws naturally assembled those who disdain him on a single file. By the time Amosun returned from his territorial expansionist battles, his territory had suffered serious mortal artillery bombardments. Without firing a single shot, his traducers had strategised effectively and clinically removed the rug from his feet while he was busy exploding in his fury. Dapo Abiodun, billionaire, had become the anchor of the attempt to dissemble his Oke Mosan empire. The rest, as they say, is history. The truth is that, if Amosun had expended at home half the energy he marshalled fighting territorial expansionist battles, he would have found out the massing huge rank of enmity ganged up against him and probably found a way to tackle them. By the time he realised, it was too late.

All Progressives Congress (APC’s) new publicist, Lanre Issa-Onilu’s press release during the week defoliated a hitherto lush garden where Amosun sat in his power, glory and majesty. Amosun was never interested in a transparent process to pick the party’s standard-bearer, Issa-Onilu had said, alleging that the governor resorted to self-help. When it was obvious to him that the crew sent from Abuja by the National Working Committee was impenetrable, he organised his own parallel congress, still believing that the President – his man – would come to his rescue, for old time sake.

Unfortunately for him, Amosun totally forgot that Osinbajo’s loyalty to Buhari would play a serious role in the whole equation. In assembling his team that would vie for the 2019 elections, his arrogance of power was so blinding that he never for once remembered that the No 2 man in the country deserved a single slot in his home state. Rumour had it that a combination of Yemi Osinbajo’s request to his boss to give him the governorship slot, gang-up by the business world of which Abiodun is a strong icon, Amosun’s palpable running afoul of the internal rules of APC and his bafflingly swarming list of enemies could not allow Buhari take a single step in his favour, in spite of his infantile marching of traditional rulers to the Villa. The whole equation of Amosun’s fall, Issa-Onilu described vividly: “no matter how close you are to him (the president), he will listen to you but he will ask for the rules to be followed.”

The moral of Amosun’s power fall is that leaders with his kind of awesome powers should rely on them sparingly but on the people. Second is that, a leader, upon assuming political leadership, should first make a list of his personal foibles and monitor them, lest they drag him to the crucifix. Amosun didn’t tame nor monitor his Sango temper, his arrogance of power and disdain for the other person, a triad of foibles that dragged him to a metaphorical Sango’s Koso – the place of political death.