8th June, 2010
Back to the South-West, the earlier the PDP begins to re-assess itself if present day realities are anything to go by, the better for the party. The stolen mandates in Edo and Ondo states have been restored to their rightful owners while the bandwagon effects are glaring for all to see. What then is Obasonjo’s joker when the people are daily turning their backs on the PDP in the two states? The people of Edo and Ondo states can’t be bought by any imaginary money bag.
Events in Ekiti and Osun are enough to convince any right thinking person that the PDP is nothing but a one legged stilt dancer.
The judicial tug of war in the two states are nothing but a glaring indictment of the PDP Federal administration and its rigging machine, the INEC under Iwu and his co-conspirators.
Let the truth be told, it is not enough to sack Iwu alone. His remaining henchmen and comrades in action in the dirty job of vote rigging are still scattered all over the country.
Today, Edo and Ondo are liberated states and no amount of negative propaganda can return the good people of those states to PDP’s retrogressive lane. Thanks to the progressive and people oriented march of Olusegun Mimiko and Adams Oshiomhole.
Can the infighting for the control of the heart of Oyo State guarantee a safe passage for the PDP without its massive rigging programme in 2011?
If Obasanjo is to lead the PDP in a campaign in Ogun to what would he point as his contribution to the advancement of the state?
Apart from Obasanjo’s Hilltop Mansion, the Obasanjo Presidential Library, the Government House, Government Offices and quarters, commercial houses and residences of other affluent citizens, what percentage of the people can boast of electricity in Abeokuta not to talk of Ota where the man succeeded in dehumanising the people the more when he was president?
Today, Obasanjo cannot move as a free man without the full complement of armed men in Ota while the people continue to live under perpetual insecurity. The continuous battle for the soul of the PDP in Ogun State will to a large extent determine where the party goes in 2011. Obasanjo and his boys must be suffering from infantile slumber to contemplate “capturing Lagosâ€. What the man cannot achieve as a sit-in president, the man cannot achieve as an ex-president. The man succeeded in dehumanising the people the most as president for eight years during which the PDP was roundly trashed in all elections. Thanks to the sound administration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his sound political and administrative wizardry and dexterity.
When it was three days to the 2007 elections Baba Iyabo started hopping all over Lagos in state maintained helicopter all in the name of campaigning. All Obasanjo got was open rebuff followed by serious trashing and rejection of his party by Lagosians.
Today, the Fashola-led administration in Lagos State has become the biggest selling point for the international image of Nigeria not to talk of its being the reference point and administrative encyclopedia for PDP states in their quest to administer their states.
Desperate to know how best to run their states, PDP states daily send representatives to understudy the very enviable and highly result oriented administration of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. Interestingly and convincingly, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu refused to be distracted by the undue intimidation and neglect of the Obasanjo administration by going to achieve in Lagos State, what Obasanjo couldn’t achieve for the country as president.
Today, Fashola has continued in Asiwaju Tinubu’s giant and progressive strides with PDP governors daily singing the praises of the Actualizer.
The population explosion being experienced by Lagos today is a direct fallout of the neglect being suffered by the people in other states, especially the PDP states.
All said, Obasanjo needs to be told that he remains a negative selling brand for the PDP in the South-West not to talk of Lagos State where the deliberate neglect and punishment of the state by his administration had overtime been turned into gains and endless joy for the great people of Lagos State.
The earlier Obasanjo and his followers stop deluding themselves as far as the 2011 election is concerned, the better.
The only agenda of the PDP is massive electoral looting and rigging. No wonder why electoral reform has become an uphill task for the PDP-led Federal Government to execute.
What an old man cannot bite in his younger days, how does he intend to achieve the same feat in the twilight of his age if not by unethical methods? So, let it be with Mathew Aremu Obasanjo and his self deluding instincts and followers.
Shakespeare it was who said that the evil that men do lives after them. In contrast to that postulation, the evil done by Obasanjo in his eight years of fruitless presidency is today pursuingn him all over the country.
—Kunle Kunle Odufuwa wrote in from Lagos.