Former President Olusegun Obasanjo may have given up after meeting an unyielding brickwall that frustrated his efforts to get two leading candidates in Ondo State to step down and forge a common front against incumbent Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in the October 10 governorship election.
His meetings with the leaders of the Zenith Party (ZLP), led by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, and chieftains of the leading opposition in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), found both sides intransigent and unwilling to yield ground.
Claiming superiority, PDP and ZLP asked the former Nigerian President to convince the other party’s gubernatorial candidate to step down for its own flagbearer.
Ondo PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kennedy Ikantu Peretei, told Daily Times on phone that Eyitayo was the candidate to beat and there was no need for such an alliance.
Conversely, ZLP Ondo State Chairman and former two-term Member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dr. Joseph Akinlaja told Daily Times: “Why should the majority step down for the minority?
On what basis would our candidate and the Deputy Governor be stepping down for Eyitayo?”
Having been unable to cross that crucial hurdle of forging an alliance, the former President obviously could not table other terms of the possible alliance for consideration, especially on the matter of a running mate and other portfolios that would feature in case the PDP-ZLP cooperation won and formed the government.
Obasanjo, who ruled the country from 1999 to 2017 on the platform of PDP, had called the former Ondo Governor and ZLP National Leader to Abeokuta to see how the candidates of Mimiko’s new party, Honourable Ajayi Alfred Agboola, and that of PDP, Barrister Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), could collaborate to win the October 10 poll.
Also at the meeting were former PDP governors like Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State and Otunba Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State.
Jegede’s supporters at the meeting pointed out that he had outshone the Ondo Deputy Governor in the PDP primaries that produced the party’s candidate and rather than back the ticket, Agboola had stormed out of the party to pick up the flag of ZLP.
They also said that Eyitayo had never contested any public position and only Mimiko’s backing in 2016 gave him the leverage to clinch the PDP ticket back then. Blaming PDP’s loss in 2016 to an internal rift, the Ondo PDP spokesperson said that intraparty healing had taken place and the candidate could win on his own steam.
“Iroko was the sitting Governor at that time, controlling men and resources in the state at that time, but he is a former Governor now,” he said.
“More importantly Agboola Ajayi cannot actually insulate himself from the APC government.
As we speak, he is still the Deputy Governor of Ondo State; and as far as Ondo people are concerned, Agboola Ajayi and Aketi are one and the same, but we are looking for something special,” Peretei said.
According to ZLP insiders, in the current race, the reality on ground placed Eyitayo a distant third behind Akeredolu and Agboola.
On the point that compared to ZLP, PDP currently enjoyed superior representation in the elective offices in Ondo State, Akinlaja said, “Look, we are not talking about contesting for the National Assembly or State House of Assembly seats, we are talking about the governorship.
Our candidate is on ground, the PDP candidate isn’t.” Akinlaja ruled out any future talks in that direction, saying that the former President had been confronted with bare facts and had been satisfied with the presentation made by Mimiko.
In the Ondo State House of Representatives, to APC’s 23, PDP has two members while ZLP can only boast of one.
PDP, however, leads all comers in the National Assembly, where it has two senators to APC’s one while posting four members of the House of Representatives to supersede the three for APC, one for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and one for the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Sources said that Obasanjo did not have anything personal against Akeredolu but the move was a reflection of his losing faith in the party at the Centre that he had backed to clinch power in 2015 with the candidacy of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He has always documented in open letters his disappointment with the President’s tackling of insecurity as well as the lopsided appointments favouring Buhari’s kinsmen in gross violation of the Federal Character dictates of the Constitution.
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