OLUWOLE JOSIAH, in this piece, analyses the intricate factors responsible for the Peoples Democratic Party’s loss in Ondo State in the March 28 Presidential election
Many Peoples Democratic Party’s loyalists are still dazed by the unexpected victory of the All Progressives Congress in the Presidential poll in Ondo State on March 28. Still haunted by the defeat, the leaders of the PDP in the state are no doubt assessing their missteps as they return to the field for the April 11 House of Assembly poll today.
There is no doubt that Governor Olusegun Mimiko and his political advisers had not the slightest inkling that the polls would swing so fast in favour of the opposition, which they held in derision. The confidence exuded even in the face of the internal party crisis was good enough to encourage party members to hold their heads up in the campaign parades and rallies held across the state.
The governor’s aides, consistently played down repeated defections of members of the PDP, who decided to pitch their tent with the APC claiming there would be overwhelming victory for the PDP in the state.
Publicity Director of the PDP, Ayo Fadaka, at different times, had dismissed the continued defection of members of the party to the opposition. He had argued that those who had defected were spent forces that had long left the party, but pretended that they were in the PDP.
The apparent underestimation of the opposition and activities of people like Professor Ajayi Boroffice, who was once in Labour Party with the governor before defecting to APC, according to analysts, are largely instrumental to the shocker meted on the PDP at the end of the presidential polls.
Mimiko, an astute politician, whose forays through periods of political turbulence are well known, had lofty intentions when he chose to close shop at the Labour Party, to restart his journey in the PDP. As he had declared, bringing Ondo State back to the mainstream politics and maximising accruable benefits from the centre to the state were central to his decision. While he had worked for President Goodluck Jonathan outside the PDP in the past, working within the party in the 2015 elections was necessary for maximum impact and votes. In fact, he promised to deliver one million votes for the PDP during the elections.
But his defection to the PDP last October was received with mixed feelings, particularly from those in the party before him.
The timing of Mimiko’s defection was seen as most precarious, since aspirants into the various positions in the party had indicated their intentions and purchased forms ahead of the primaries. These interests were truncated in the aftermath raising the volume of bile within the PDP family.
Many decided to stay in the party but remain inert. Others with ambitions, such as Benson Enikuomehin, quickly jumped to the waiting arms of the APC where a few of them became successful in the primaries, yet others who failed, stayed back because, at least, they were given a fair chance to test their popularity.
Beyond this, it is believed that Borroffice, a former Director-General of the National Space Research and Development Agency, and a Senator in the National Assembly, who had hoped to contest against Mimiko as APC governorship candidate in the last governorship election in the state, but failed because the party presented another candidate, has never ceased to remain relevant in the politics of the state.
It was learnt that the professor had continued to spread his tentacles in all the local governments of the state to ensure victory for APC in the state.
He was said to have made himself available to party members in the state without restricting himself to his senatorial district. This, he did, to avoid what analysts described as a desperate bid by the governor to humiliate him should PDP win in the state elections.
So while he was working hard underground for APC’s victory, the signs of the crack in the PDP continued to be undermined, even with the exit of two members of the House of Assembly, Olugbenga Edema (Ilaje Constituency 2) and Folajimi Olaseinde-Vincent (Ose Constituency). In the same vein, some former commissioners and speakers in the Ondo State Government openly renounced their membership of the party and moved over to the APC. These also include Femi Agagu, brother of the late Governor Olusegun Agagu.
By the time President Goodluck Jonathan, at his presidential campaign rally, hammered on the need for the warring factions to unite for victory, it was too late. Though, there was a facade of reconciliation between Olusola Oke, the governorship candidate of the party in the 2012 election and Mimiko, this turned out to be medicine after death, as the election results eventually showed.
But Mimiko’s political moves to get the citizens of Ondo to vote en masse for Jonathan in the last election was unprecedented. While APC benefitted tremendously from the crisis that rocked the PDP, it was to Mimiko’s credit that the PDP was not altogether routed, as it managed a defeat of just over 40,000 votes’ margin.
The governor met all persons who mattered in the state. The artisans, the market women, the drivers, teachers and all civil servants, landlords, students and youth groups, physically-challenged, religious groups, women groups, the Afenifere and traditional rulers. His reach was widespread and if talking to people was enough to win votes, there was no way PDP would have lost to a not-so-organised APC, whose roots have yet to be fully firmed on the political terrain.
Some “aggrieved” PDP members last week reached an accord (Igbotako Accord) with the APC to ensure that the House of Assembly elections were won overwhelmingly by the opposition APC.
The shocker was the defection of Chief Oke to the APC on Wednesday in Akure, despite his seeming efforts to garner votes for the PDP in the last election – though, he won his units and local government of Ilaje for the PDP during the election.
Oke’s defection mimics that of the deputy governor, Ali Olanusi, who left the party two days before the presidential election.
The APC is not relenting in hammering hard on the cracks of the PDP which is widening with Jonathan’s defeat at the polls. Though Mimiko has reminded the Ondo PDP that it is no longer Jonathan versus Buhari in Saturday’s election, analysts believe making Ondo State relevant at the national level has its own benefits. And they claim offering key national positions to key APC members in the state may go a long way in consolidating the victory in the state.
SOURCE: Punchng.com