Aregbesola, Omisore
The
major candidates contesting in the Osun State governorship election
holding next month have engaged in various winning strategies, Fisayo
Falodi writes
It is no longer news that Nigerian
politicians have found love in unusual ways of seeking grass roots
support as effective methods of wooing voters. Such methods, which they
believe will serve as robust baits that would catch the attention of
voters, include adoption of local appellations, identifying and eating
with the common people in their farmsteads, buying items worth N1,000
for N5,000 from petty traders and have the action video-recorded as well
as distributing foodstuffs to the people in the public, among others.
For example, Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, adopted Iroko as his appellation and Gbasibe
as a slogan to serve as vehicles to reach the heart of the people of
the state while contesting in the governorship poll. The Ekiti State
Governor-elect, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, adopted Oshokomole as his
appellation and ate lunch with commercial motorcycle operators and other
common people on the street as a way of seeking the support of the
grass roots.
Following what they considered as the
effectiveness of these strategies, however, the major candidates
contesting in the August 9, 2014 governorship election in Osun State,
Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress and Senator
Iyiola Omisore of the Peoples Democratic Party have adopted various
election-winning baits to curry voters’ favour.
Apart from their campaign trains which
they have been carrying to different parts of the state, the candidates
fashioned out their own slogans as a means through which to identify
with the people at the grass roots.
Aregbesola openly dangled his own bait
before Christians recently when he was accompanied by some chieftains of
the party, such as General Mohammodu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief
John Oyegun and Chief Bisi Akande, who are all Muslims except Oyegun,
to attend a Sunday service at St. Mathew Anglican Church in Ila-Orangun.
Aregbesola, according to some political
analysts, may have adopted the initiative to dispel insinuation that he
was anti-Christianity following the controversial re-classification of
school system by his administration.
The governor also adopted Oranmiyan leekansi as his own slogan to gain the people’s support.
Even long before he showed interest in
seeking re-election, Aregbesola introduced a culture which he had been
constantly practising by wearing school uniforms and sandals to public
schools in order to address pupils and also demonstrate his love for
them.
But in order not to be left behind in the supporters-seeking race, Aregbesola’s major challenger, Omisore, adopted Atari Ajanaku
as his slogan and re-invented Fayose’s strategy in Osun. He believes
that humbling oneself by buying delicacies from roadside traders would
deliver the expected victory.
He, therefore, rode on a motorcycle and
displayed two pieces of roasted corn he bought and have the actions
video-recorded on his way to a campaign rally as one of the strategies
to demonstrate to the public that he is a lover of the masses.
Not done with the dangling of the baits,
the two candidates also began throwing tantrums at each other. In their
own estimation, the tantrums would serve as weapons with which to lower
the chances of their contenders in winning the governorship poll.
Aregbesola threw the first salvo. He said
at a rally in Ikirun in Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state
that Omisore should not over-step his boundary.
Sure of victory in the forthcoming
election, the governor boasted that Omisore was not a threat to him,
asking the PDP candidate to behave well before, during and after the
poll.
“As Aregbesola, I have come to rebuild Osun State for another four years,” he had said.
The governor, who claimed that he had not
completed his mission, added that he needed four more years to
consolidate APC’s hold on Osun and send PDP packing from the state at
the end of his second term in 2018.
The APC particularly flayed Omisore for
hiring masked security men to follow him around for what the party
described as the PDP’s candidate “made-for-television” eating of roasted
corn and riding commercial motorcycle.
In a statement issued in Abuja by its
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said Omisore was
afraid of his own shadows, hence his use of masked security men.
APC said it wondered how a man who wants
to rule a state would be afraid to move freely among the same people
whose votes he is canvassing.
The party had said, “Every month,
Governor Rauf Aregbesola leads the people of the state in a jogging
exercise on the streets, during which he mixes freely with them. Not
once has a ‘ninja’ been spotted behind him in the name of security.
“During his ongoing campaign, Aregbesola
has continued with his tradition of being with the people without any
invasive security. Mr. Omisore has a lot to learn from Aregbesola and
should realise that being a people’s governor goes beyond a
made-for-television eating of roasted corn or riding Okada.
“The message which the use of masked gun
men sends to the populace is that of intimidation, harassment,
espionage, sabotage, assassination and terrorism. No one seeking to rule
a state should want to be portrayed in that light. Therefore, we call
on Mr. Omisore to immediately halt the use of masked gunmen unless of
course it is a deliberate ploy to intimidate and terrorise the same
people he wants to govern.
“Mr. Omisore and the PDP should please
spare the peaceful people of Osun State any further harassment and
intimidation. The PDP should prevail on its candidate to be civil. A man
who wants to rule a state should not be afraid to mix freely with the
same people. Osun people say no to ‘ninjas’.
“If Omisore and the PDP think we are
crying wolf, they should monitor comments being made on the picture that
has been posted in the social media showing a ‘ninja’ standing behind
the PDP governorship candidate. Perhaps, then they will realise how much
they have goofed.”
But Omisore fired back. He described Aregbesola as a half-educated person.
His aide, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, dismissed
Aregbesola’s threat as empty and of no effect, adding that the governor
could not equate himself with Omisore in any way and that the governor
was half-educated for him to have been upbeat about his chances of
defeating the APC candidate.
The PDP also dismissed APC’s claim on
masked security escorts as rubbish. A spokesperson for PDP, Bola Ajao,
had said, “We deny the report and we condemn the attempt to smear the
PDP and its candidate. As a law-abiding political party fully supported
by the people, we don’t need ‘state boys’ which the APC is using to
harass innocent citizens.
“The people of Osun are under siege from
armed thugs directly sponsored by the state government. At every
campaign the APC hosted, the thugs moved around town with dangerous
weapons to compel people to attend their rallies.”
Notwithstanding the accusation and
counter-accusation by both political parties, the Independent National
Electoral Commission had promised to improve on its performance in Ekiti
election during the next month Osun State governorship poll.
INEC Director of Voter Education and
Publicity, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, had said the commission would conduct the
Osun poll with lessons learnt in Ekiti and with a mission to improve on
them.
He said having studied the way the Ekiti
election went; the electoral body had been able to identify things that
went right and would be focusing on making them better in Osun.
He named logistics as one of the areas in
which INEC achieved success with 97 per cent of the polling units
opening before 8.am due to the timely deployment of personnel and
materials; a feat he said would be achieve at 100 per cent in Osun.
PUNCH
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