Eromosele Ebhomele

For Iyiola Omisore, popularly referred to as Iyi, it is almost a dream come true. Though the election into the Government House in the State of Osun will be held on 9 August, counting on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, there is no other cause for joy than his nomination by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as its flagbearer in the election where he is expected to slug it out with the incumbent governor and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Engr. Rauf Aregbesola and a host of candidates of other parties. However, whether Omisore has done enough to win this great political match will be determined by the people of the state, many of whom Aregbesola and his loyalists are confident would direct their votes towards returning the governor to office capitalising on his achievements in just four years.

Aregbesola and Omisore

Though not the only ones in the contest, APC and PDP, the two major political parties in Nigeria, see the election as what political analysts call a make-or-mar situation for the winner in the first instance, and the loser on the other. The PDP, which won Ekiti in the 21 June governorship election, is bent on winning as many states in the South-West as it can. And Osun State has become strategic to this mission as well as in the pursuit of victory for President Goodluck Jonathan if he is eventually picked by the party for the Presidential election in 2015.

Osun is celebrated for being the only state in the zone that did not deliver to Jonathan in the 2011 election. APC’s Nuhu Ribadu won the state. According to analysts, if the PDP would replicate the feat it achieved in 2003 when it took over all the states but Lagos from the then opposition, then Osun State should not be toyed with. Moreover, Omisore, 56, would have achieved his ultimate goal of becoming the governor of the state.

The APC, which had been on the saddle in the state continues to maintain that Osun is its foothold running next to Lagos. As a result, Aregbesola boasts to have achieved more than his target for the state even though he is not satisfied that he has done much. A second term in office, according to his supporters, would give him the opportunity to put the state more at a vantage position in the pursuit of development and in competition, not just with African countries but the world. The APC is not taking lightly its defeat in the Ekiti poll. The party has constantly maintained that it had learnt its lessons and would gate-keep every attempt by the PDP to repeat what it considered unethical in the conduct of the election in Ekiti.

Apart from this breakdown of what the Osun election means to the parties, a victory for Aregbesola would make the second time the governor would have truncated Omisore’s dreams. In 2010, Omisore, a chartered engineer from Ile-Ife, had become confident that he would take over from then governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola. He had received the backing of his party for the political journey and had made preparations waiting for the expiration of Oyinlola’s tenure when the Appeal Court gave its verdict discrediting the electoral victory of Oyinlola, in favour of Aregbesola. It was a big blow for Omisore. A man who understands the consequence of giving up hope in the Nigerian political landscape, Omisore continued with his dream, putting the PDP in shape ahead of the August election.

Antics Versus Reality
Many Nigerians now know that electioneering is the most interesting part of politics. This situation is not different from what currently obtains in Osun State, where the candidates have embarked on various means to sustain a favourable attention from the residents. Ordinarily, the state has 20 candidates from the various political parties, but apart from Fatai Akinade Akinbade, a former secretary to the state government, SSG, and former chairman of the PDP in the state, who is now seeking the exalted seat of governor through the Labour Party, LP, the others are given little consideration in relation to how they could sway the people to their sides.