The Failing Killer Political Paradigm Of Rauf Olaniyan | By Mustopha Olamilekan

The undeserved, unreserved love and support Oke-Ogun sons and daughters have made Mákindé enjoy in the zone contribute to why Mákindé is being seen as a Messiah today. We don’t believe in ourselves in Oke-Ogun. Wẹ might not be able to win alone, bt we most times determine who wears the crown in Oyo State every four years of our political sojourn. Sadly, it is unfortunate that our value is worthless right within our corridor. ‘Like Oke-Ogun, like Africa’!

When we started the ‘Oke-Ogun L’okan’ campaigns, people like Raufu Olaniyan never believed in the struggle. When they were going into the alliance with Mákindé, I stopped blaming people like Hallelujah and co. Olaniyan was too desperate to hold a public office. When our elders in the struggle were getting the strategies wrong, I personally wrote many of them and dragged some to the public domain. Then, I expected the more politically exposed people like Olaniyan to come forward and make impacts. Instead, he went on with the alliance. That singular action broke my spinal cord.

This same Olaniyan and co came to Oke-Ogun and sold Mákindé to our people against the state’s APC and Federal Government. His business triumphed with such advertisement and people truly for voted him and his boss, against the wish of our collective struggles. The same bitterness Mákindé/Olaniyan mandate planted in the heart of our people against APC remains intact till today. Let OYSIEC conduct the elections again and again, Mákindé remans the man to beat in Oke-Ogun.

Olaniyan should have joined the struggles in full flesh, and he would have been a better force to reckon with today. The only contender he would have had in the APC was brought down, a consequence of the former’s egoism and greed. Olaniyan would have taken this chance, and more luckily as another Muslim. We didn’t necessarily have to win the election in 2015, 2019 and even in 2023. Our change of strategies, resilience and unanimously adjustable stands on the common course would have earned us victory someday. Instead, Olaniyan and co rubbished the struggle by dumping it and pitching tent with the PDP candidate.

Few days after the Mákindé-Olaniyan victory at the polls, a friend told me he knew Olaniyan to be a strong politician and smart person, unlike Mákindé who is a baby politician. He said Olaniyan would cunningly hijack government from Mákindé. Then I said “that’s how he fails and ends his political career”!. I told the friend Olaniyan would not succeed in that, considering where Mákindé comes from (Ibadan), what has been jointly established and Makinde’s nature beyond politics. Ibadan people would rather die in the cause of protecting/defending their own slave than supporting a regent elsewhere.

Barrister Shittu lives most of his life in Ibadan; his city of residence never stood by him when elections came, though Shittu wronged all and sundry beyond the Pace Setter State. When the friend related what would happen to Mákindé-Olaniyan mandate to what happened to Ladoja-Akala mandate, I told him he was not informed. Akala and Ladoja never had a rift that made Ladoja lose his seat; rather, Ladoja had issues with Obasanjo (Federal Government), and that paved way for Akala.

I began to have a conviction about the seriousness of Mákindé-Olaniyan’s rift when the governor refused to name him (Olaniyan, the deputy governor) as the Chairman of Covid-19 Task Force. Also in recent time, the duo have not been together as often as before. If what the news had said about the deputy’s crimes were something to go by undeniably, I am sorry, Olaniyan may lose his head to this. I am not too surprised; his smartness and what he might use it for in the alliance/government were mentioned to me long before now. I am not praying for his downfall; but that may be a prize for such political tactics. Than you!