SENATOR ADELEKE'S GUBER CHANCES

Whoever advised Senator Ademola Adeleke

to be a no-show at last night's Debates organized by Channels Television for a few of the contestants for the Osun State Gubernatorial Elections due for next Saturday 22nd September, 2018, must have done him a huge disservice. If he made the decision singlehandedly, then it is unfortunate. Not necessarily because debates matter in Nigeria, or that they've really decided the outcomes of elections here. To the contrary, current President Muhammadu Buhari won in 2015 without attending any debate, same as Governor- Elect Kayode Fayemi for Ekiti just last month. So he does have precedence to point to in deciding not to attend the debate session, however his perception by a section of the electorate will be that of someone who gives no hoot about the electorate, is arrogant, camera shy (which considering that he's never shy to show his twerking skills

even when the opportunity isn't there) or lacks eloquence or speaking skills (even though that's not a requisite for delivering on good governance and/or dividends of democracy).


Present for last night's debate for the African Democratic Congress, ADC was Alhaji Fatai Akinade, the All Progressives Congress, APC's Adegboyega Oyetola, Action Democratic Party, ADP's Moshood Adeoti and Iyiola Omisore of the Social Democratic Party, SDP,

and they gave a fair account of themselves. As usual, Oyetola defended the incumbent government's line, while the others had differing opinions, as expected. Another minus for the PDP candidate was the issue of the news that went viral online to the effect that the bank accounts of members of the Adeleke Family had been frozen by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which he didn't debunk (with the popular singer, Davido, nephew to the senator who had been organising shows alongside his uncle to promote his candidacy, retweeting the fake news when it broke) till it was found to be a false and the EFCC vindicated.


If Senator Adeleke's supporters overlook this as well, there's still that Sword of Damocles, in the name of his WAEC certificate dangling over his head, such that even if he wins the elections, he might still get booted out of office should the courts fail to rule in his favour concerning the secondary school leaving certificate he presented, adjudged by his detractors to be fake. Sadly, in presenting that certificate, he overreached himself and was too clever by half, seeing as all he needed to do, as required by law, was prove that he attempted the school leaving certificate examinations, regardless of the grade.


Something that may work in his favour, may be the anger of Osun State people, over the comments APC's national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu made before the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun in Osogbo, to the effect that Osun State

hadn't the kind of money he's looking for, that in sending his son, their own Oyetola from Lagos, he was doing them a favour. They may just see this election cycle as an opportunity to rid themselves of Tinubu's influence from Lagos over their life in Osun. Senator Adeleke will then become the popular choice, especially if the sore from the injury dealt the Osun people, as regards the assassination of former attorney general, Chief Bola Ige continues to fester, with the link to SDP's Senator Iyiola Omisore, despite court rulings in his favour, refusing to disappear.


Senator Adeleke's meteoric rise politically, in such a short time, following the demise of his elder brother, whose seat he took over in the Senate, was earned not really because he deserved it, rather because the people voted for him in memory of his late brother, against the imposition of an unpopular candidate by the governor, which led to the shifting of support from the ruling party to the PDP which he decamped to. The fact that the same scenario has played out again in the APC (with order coming from above in Lagos) with those that lost out finding shelter in other parties, further boosts Adeleke's chances, especially if he can match the financial muscle of those backing Adetola, if the fight eventually comes to who can outspend the other in the new game of vote buying, should the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the security agencies entrusted with the responsibility to discourage that, look the other way.


'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://www.nan.ng
- https://www.pulse.ng

APC, DEFECTIONS, TRADER MONI & ELECTIONS

When the All Progressives Congress, APC came to power in 2015, the People's Democratic Party, PDP was demonized. It didn't matter that some of its members once belonged to the party they claimed ruined Nigeria for sixteen years before power was conceded them by the majority of the Nigerian voting public. In the run-up to the 2019 General Elections, the APC seems to now be courting some of the PDP members they once accused of corruption (and even going as far as calling unprintable names), just to see if they can make inroads into some parts of Nigeria, like the southeast and Niger Delta considered No-Go areas before this time.


In making advances to these PDP members, some of whom in the recent past have been visited by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the APC appears to have officially jettisoned it's so called anti- corruption mantra (which since coming to power, its proponent in President Muhammadu Buhari has been executing rather partially, against members of the opposition PDP, dissenting voices within his party, perceived enemies rightly or wrongly), in accommodating those they once described as "thieves" and responsible for Nigeria's underdevelopment.


Not only that the decampees become "saints" after joining the ruling party, they also either have corruption charges against them withdrawn or "disappeared", or have their cases stalled in court, they then go ahead to repeat the refrain of the APC to the effect that the PDP, to which they were members until a few days, underdeveloped and robbed their states of the collective patrimony. Senator Godswill Akpabio, the biggest catch so far for the APC from PDP after the gale of high profile defections that hit the APC involving two Governors and Federal House of Assembly members, even posited that he decided to join the APC to help President Buhari fight corruption.


The APC reminds me of ANIMAL FARM where the so called liberators ended up becoming like those they replaced, only that there truly was never any difference between the APC and PDP, just that the APC managed to make some Nigerians believe so before coming to power in 2015, that's why the change they promised ended up becoming more of the same, and even worse considering that things have worsened for Nigerians, on almost all indices since they wrested power at the centre from the PDP; but of course they are quick to lay the blame of their failures, at the feet of the so called sixteen years of "misgovernance" by the PDP. This is why just weeks to the next General Elections, there appears to be few to no tangibles the party can point to, that in desperation efforts at sharing pittance to the public under different guises like "Trader Moni" (a non- collateralized, no- interest

YOU'D THINK THE BENEFICIARIES OF THE "TRADER MONI" SOFT LOAN WILL BE HAPPIER THAN THE PURVEYORS OF THE SCHEME BEHIND THEM. 

loan of N10,000 for about two million beneficiaries, recently launched in Osun State days before a Gubernatorial Election is scheduled to take place there), for instance have become intensified to "buy" the hearts and minds of Nigerians.


The brazen nature of what the APC is willing to do to hang on to power, is why many people fear that next year's elections will be free and fair. Assurances made by President Buhari last week during his visit to China, that because he isn't afraid of a free and fair election, seeing as he came to be President today via one, and so will ensure same, instils little to no confidence to the discerning considering that he'd never accepted he lost any election in Nigeria, never congratulated all those he contested against and lost, and didn't condemn the violence perpetrated by his supporters after the elections in 2011, after he lost for the third time. It begins to look like an election he'd consider free and fair will be such where he emerges the victor, without room to accommodate a contrary outcome to mean the same.



'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- https://www.ynaija.com