Cracks In Governor Oyetola’s Election Rebidding

INTERESTINGLY, the expected in a democratic society have come to stay in Osun as a host of political gamers have risen against each other, staking their odds for the leadership of the centre of Liberty and Service, soon decided in June. Oyetola is not exempted. Matter-of-factly, he is at the centre of the dreadful game while his rebidding is hanging imbalance, terrible cracks have swirled and erred his political garment. Being the incumbent Governor, fierce usurping-arrows are racing to bring him down. And every Achilles Heel of his administration, opponents spy to strike their shots. He may not be spared seeing how the Ilerioluwa’s party—APC—is now tuned to fire dance and separatism. The undisputed conflagration of interests and self-minded callousness. Politics of bitterness is already triumphing. Oyetola has been rejected by a third of his party members, chieftains and key politicians in Osun. And these can be described as sordid, among all. Being rejected by one’s blood is not easy-peasy to bear. Though politics has no permanent friends and enemies. One can still ask, why in-house seeks for the fall of Oyetola? “What goes around,” they say, “comes around.” Perhaps, it is the karma that was hitting hard and might, if it is so, hit Oyetola harder and his rebidding to the point of widening the cracks.

 

Recalled that tortuous from the outset of his emergence, with the unprecedented circumstances that marched up against the 2018 gubernatorial election which, ushered him into office, any cleric with strong spiritual belief would have assumed that the end of Governor Oyetola’s administration in Osun State might probably be as that of infamous Yoruba Field Marshal’s own. Otherwise known as Aare Ona Kakanfo, whose whole life is accustomed to dread; from dawn to dusk of his reign—it is always full of gory tantrums. Like, Ojo Aburumaku, Like Latoosa whose, reign as Aare Ona Kakanfo in Yorubaland made the race to witness the Kiriji war that lasted for 16 years. Chief S. L. Akintola was another Yoruba Field Marshal whose body, Nigeria historians wrote was gruesomely riddled with ferocious 1966 coup plotters bullets in his Ibadan residence. And. After he was Chief M. K. O. Abiola, whose story of lost victory; vulnerability, misery and betrayal in 1993 remained palpable lines of awry in the hearts and lips of “Pellow Nigerians.” He was also a Yoruba Field Marshal. He died miserably, as well. Not to mean harm, but this would have been the case for Governor Oyetola’s administration if he had not gotten the backing of his godfather in the last primary election. He would have miserably lost the primary and before his eyes, any of his opponents would have successfully blazed the trail. Though he dodged this, can he survive the coming blows seeing one of his political gladiators that teamed for his success in 2018 backing down to form The Osun Progressive?

 

The Yoruba Field Marshal is such an eminent position with a high sense of physical and spiritual profundity. The position is not always for all. It’s for the chosen. Sometimes. It can be for the unqualified but qualified by the Alaafin who has all authority to choose and conferred power on whoever is chosen with the help of his subordinates.

 

The process of installing the chosen one is always a rigid repertoire—a kind of process usually sponsored from the realm of chronic occultism, backed with supernatural enchantment. It was the procedures and conventions instituted by Ajagbo, who was the first Alaafin that created the office of a Field Marshal (Kakanfo). This process has been nurtured by succeeding Alaafins and by virtues, they were probably responsible for the mystiques surrounding the office and title.

 

At installation, the major rite that must be performed is the administering of 201 incisions on the Kakanfo-designate. The incision is called gbere in Yoruba. They are chiefly tiny cuts made with a razor, from the forehead backwards to the waist. Each of the 201 incisions is rubbed with 201 different herbal preparations expected to take the courage and bravery of the Kakanfo to super-human levels. After the incisions—a rite similar to the 2019 election that ushered in Oyetola—the Kakanfo is “crowned” with a specially-made headdress, that only he wears. It is called the Ojijiko in Yoruba.

 

Kakanfo in Yoruba is the head of the army and according to his office, his power is congruous to that of Alaafin. This is why he is never bound to appear before Alaafin or in the town. Primordially, his residence is always at the borderline. But Oyetola as a Kakanfo-designate have appeared at the quarters of his grandfather—the king and making him thinking, perhaps, the grandchild want to take over the thrown.

 

Worthy of note, the emergence of Oyetola in 2018 was not an easy thing just as the installation of Kakanfo has never been so easy. Ilerioluwa’s emergence met with a form of rigour and unwritten repertoires worthy to be “inconclusively mentioned,” as far as this piece is concerned. The election was declared “inconclusive”. And the next election to be conducted met with serious havoc. There were several reports of how the ruling party members allegedly disenfranchised People’s Democratic Party’s members, both through verbal and physical assaults. And after the whole ruckus, like Kakanfo-designate rites, MrAdegboyegaOyetola was declared the winner. Although the opposition party tried their luck by taking Oyetola to the court with the claim, his winning was rigged. Hopefully, their allegations would have been true and ended up like that of AdewoluLadoja in Oyo State, when the Code of Conduct Tribunal, then, “found that the supplementary election that was held on September 28 to make up for the inconclusive September 22 poll was illegal. It, therefore, deducted the scores of both major candidates, and found that MrAdeleke was the true winner based on the results of the initial ballot.” But, there was a table turn.

 

Senator Adeleke who was contesting against Oyetola under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party doesn’t have the mind. He was allegedly threatened and nearly kidnapped. The news agencies covered how he wailed out for help for his life, then. Some undisclosed gangs were reportedly looking for a means to send him asunder. And take him off the hook of living even while the Oyetola was on his way to the Court of Appeal where his winning was okay. But all did not end. Another election is set to take place in June. And while the 2018 election was a consensus and conglomeration of APC gladiators for Oyetola to win the election, 2022’s own is romancing cracks and political contrast of interests.

 

APC Osun has broken into three factions; TOP, LANSILE and ILERIOLUWA while only two remained the most powerful among all. All three have fought for the party’s ticket but in the end, two, lost it to the incumbent Governor. Until now, TOP probably now burning for resentment, is boasting of OgbeniAregbesola’s support and  it has not shown the sign of backing down. Neither LANSILE, do. There is a probability that TOP as an APC faction in Osun may turn to an Independent political party to contest against Oyetola. LANSILE may also want to decamp to another party where he will be given the ticket. If this is so, Oyetola who chiefly enjoy the backing of Bola Tinubu might have issues in winning and if not, the albatrosses will still abound.

 

Without a doubt, the 2022 Osun gubernatorial election is a war of interests between parties and party; and a party members. The exist of a Field Marshal is palpable. The exist as it is known from history is not always pleasant. It is either he falls in war or falls in war. The next election might be as the beginning of Oyetola’s administration.