A lot has been said about the 2011 elections that restored political power to the ‘progressives’ Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN with the influence of its national leader and former governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Tinubu, a political ‘myth’ or colossus; had wrestled power from the Nigeria’s leading party, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the 2003 election when he was the only surviving governor from his party after the rest five had fallen to an alliance deception set by the then president, Olusegun Obasanjo; who was desperate to garner political home support to continue his presidency that he lacked in the face of serious political pressure for his former’s vice, Atiku Abubakar who was bent on seizing power from him in 2003.
The setback for his party, Action Congress, AC notwithstanding, Tinubu succeeded in transfering power to a successor in 2007 when his constitutional terms to lead Lagos elapsed; but not without a commitment to reclaim the old AC’s territory.
The battle he launched, which ranged from fierce judicial and politically fights have confidently placed the South West in the hands of the Action Congress of Nigeria; a presumed progressive political platform crafted in the semblance of the Obafemi Awolowo’s Action Group, AG of the first republic.
With the exception of Ondo State which presently rests with the Labour Party, LP with Olusegun Mimiko as the governor which of course was generously helped by Tinubu to reclaim his mandate through a very lengthy and fierce legal battle, the South West is now snoring on the palm of the ACN/Tinubu.
This notwithstanding, the sustenance of the ACN’s dominance of the zone is still a subject for consideration. The party itself is coming from a political-oligarchy system where the structure for internal democracy has collapsed from the beginning. The events that preceded the 2011 elections witnessed much dictatorial imposition of candidates.
Some candidates were disenfranchised and the people’s preferred candidates were substituted to loyalists of Tinubu. This type of development has led to political horse-trading and arm-twisting. Tinubu, a core intellectual has seen himself bowing to fielding incompetent candidates in some areas because of political patronage.
In Oyo State, the ACN’s winning stride in the state was with a margin of about 33,000 votes, an aggregate of the votes it garnered from the local governments in Oyo where the monarch had to labor extra miles to ensure the victory of the party; albeit at all costs.
This glaringly anti-democratic means of course is not sufficient to exercise the true political acceptance of the ACN by the people. The party’s unorthodox means of politics stampedes the electorates and debase the traditional institution that the office of the governor should protect.
The performance of the Lagos governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola as a light among others gave credit to the ACN as a party of programmes and vision and when the Edo State governor came on board, also through a judicial pronouncement; Adams Oshiomhole, himself a former labour leader, the party had a good stand to prove it could surpass others in ideas and implementation of its programmes. The same could be said of the Ogbeni Rauf Aregesola’s reign in Osun State. Aregbesola is also a product of judicial declaration after he packed the then governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola from the Bola Ige Government Secretariat in Oshogbo. The same for Kayode Fayemi, who uprooted the Segun Oni’s reign in Ekiti State.
With the ACN’s insistent battle to wrest power from the grips of Mimiko in Ondo State and other elections to be held soon in Edo and Osun soon, the future it faces in the 2015 is of utmost interests.
By then, the ACN would be contending for the soul of Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States. The landmark achievements of Fashola in Lagos if that is the measurement, if continued would still make the ACN the darling party of the Lagos people. Performances in the former political headquarters of the Western Region would be more interesting.
With a slight escape of ACN through unresolved internal political feuds in the Oyo PDP, if the efforts being mounted on the party in the state to mend fence and close ranks work, especially with the coming on board of Bamanga Mohammed Tukur as the new PDP chairman, the ACN may be in for a shocker.
It would be recalled that if Rasheed Ladoja, a former PDP chieftain and candidate of the Accord Party, AP had stayed back in the PDP and delivered the votes of the AP to the PDP, there would not have been an ACN’s governor in Agodi today.
Another consideration would be the performance level at these states. The governors must prove their mettle as being outstandingly different from what was obtainable under the PDP regime in the region. Delivery of election campaign promises are key into why the politically sophisticated region would continue to give its mandates to the ACN.
More than anything, the party’s leadership must set for its office holders a set of basic standard that cannot be lowered. It should also set in place a platform through which it reaches out to these individuals with a view to encourage them and keep them on perpetual focus.
The approaching of various elections in the zone should not be perceived as settled cases for the party, rather, it should weigh the performances of the party and like the PDP did with the candidature of Timipre Sylva in Bayelsa, ACN must impress it upon its flag bearers that it would not be confident to re-present a deficient candidate that performs below score line.
If the party can weather the storm and restore a progressive generation in the South West and possibly expand after the 2015 general elections, then it must have survived and positioned itself not only as an alternative party but foiled the PDP’s agenda or foisting a one-party system in the country.
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