Oyo 2027: Only compromise can guarantee power shift
Sir: Political pundits believe politicians from Ibarapa, Ogbomoso, Oyo and Oke-Ogun zones of Oyo State are waking up from their deep slumber to know that in politics you fight for
Sir: Political pundits believe politicians from Ibarapa, Ogbomoso, Oyo and Oke-Ogun zones of Oyo State are waking up from their deep slumber to know that in politics you fight for your rights and not expect to achieve it on a platter of gold.
By sheer size and population, Ibadan is bigger and larger than such states as Bayelsa, Abia, Cross River, Yobe and Gombe and the tendency to want to monopolise the governorship of Oyo State is high and not unexpected. Until Ibadan secures a state of its own, these other zones of the state must be politically astute and sagacious enough to make a demand for their rights in the political scheme of things in the state.
Since the return to civil rule in 1999, of the eight governors that have ruled the state, six are indigenes of Ibadan and concession for the two non-indigenes were achieved through Trojan-like battles. Ibadan remains a behemoth and a threat to the ambitions of other zones to rule the state given their less advantageous position. Politics is both a game of numbers, compromise, and to a lesser degree, luck.
Perhaps, the other zone of the state can be lucky if Ibadan as the political generalissimo is ready and willing to shift ground to concede the governorship position based on fairness, equity and magnanimity. Yet in order to achieve their long term ambition of ruling the state, these other zones must wake up from their sleep to embrace what one expert described as a politics of transformation and sagacity.
The zones have been politically subservient to Ibadan for too long and they need to grow and become more matured politically to understand the principle of building bridges in politics. Power shift doesn’t just happen by merely political wishful thinking, politicians in these zones must align themselves to ensure that the call for power shift becomes much more vocal, pungent and thoroughbred and not just mere political slogan.
There must be charter of Equity to be subscribed to by the leadership of these zones advocating for power shift or rotational governorship among the zones of the state and such advocacy must be staunch and politically orchestrated.
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It is not enough to have wide voters population, they must be internationalized by ensuring that such figures are used for power bargaining throughout the entire zones, including Ibadan.
Even if the cradles of prominent families in Ibadan cut across all the nooks and crannies of these other zones, it is not enough reason to think that these zones won’t want to produce the governorship of the state.
Politics is about who gets what and it is a reason why a father and son can fight over the same position. The late Sam Ikoku defeated his father in a contest over the chairmanship of a local government.
Like the Nigerian politics itself, the president is from the Southwest, one out of six geo-political states, yet through bridge-building and acts of political compromise and sagacity, he was able to win the presidency. This is a lesson for politicians from the other zones of Oyo State. It will be wrong if they think that they can win the governorship of Oyo State by relying on votes from the zones and without incursion by way of building bridges of understanding and compromise with the leaders of the 11 local government councils in Ibadan.
