Things appear to have fallen apart between Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and the senator representing Ogun Central at the National Assembly, Dr Lanre Tejuoso. Due to personal ambitions and emerging realignment ahead of 2019 elections, the longstanding political allies are now at each other’s throats, sparking tension and uncertainty within the state chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tejuoso’s recent move to defect from the APC generated hoopla which forced the presidency and the party hierarchy in Abuja to wade in. But despite the high level intervention, all is still not well as party leaders and members within Ogun Central zone, where both the governor and the lawmaker belong, are already divided.
On Tuesday, last week, the Senate President Bukola Saraki announced the names of 14 senators who defected from the APC to opposition parties at the floor of the Senate. Amid the drama caused by the action, few of the lawmakers, including Tejuoso, made a U-turn.
“Dear friends, I hereby confirm that I have left the All Progressives Congress (APC). However, I am yet to align with any political party as consultations are still ongoing. All politics is local. I remain deeply rooted in Ogun State politics. Watch this space,” the lawmaker initially posted on his Facebook account after news of the shocking defection hit the air waves.
But barely 24 hours after (Wednesday night), Tejuoso announced his return at a meeting between 43 senators elected on the platform of APC and President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. While introducing himself to Buhari, the lawmaker said: “Mr President, your son has returned home.”
The news of Tejuoso’s defection was least expected. Though the senator had issues with certain vested interests within the Ogun State chapter of APC, his exit from the party was not anticipated in view of close ties to both President Buhari and Governor Amosun.
In his political trajectory, Tejuoso, the scion of prominent monarch in Egbaland, Oba Adedapo Tejuoso, enjoyed a good relationship with Buhari and Amosun during their membership days of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
The Oke Ona Egba prince joined active politics in 2007, when he made an attempt to represent Ogun Central Senatorial District on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) during the tenure of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as president, but lost to the latter’s daughter, Mrs. Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That same year, Amosun contested as ANPP gubernatorial candidate, but lost to the then incumbent governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
At the formation of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2010, Tejuoso became a force to reckon with in the party and was made the chairman of the 2011 National Convention Committee at which Buhari emerged as the party’s standard bearer. It was Tejuoso who raised the hand of Buhari as CPC’s presidential candidate for the 2011 presidential election at the party’s national convention at the Eagle Square in Abuja.
Tejuoso later joined the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which merged with the CPC, ANPP and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to form APC.
Prior to his election as a senator in 2015, Tejuoso served as commissioner in the Amosun administration, handling three different portfolios of Youth and Sports, Environment and Special Duties. At the National Assembly, he was appointed chairman, Senate Committee on Health as well as member of various committees of the Red Chamber.
Apart from having harmonious relationship with Buhari and Amosun, Tejuoso is also a close friend of Saraki. They are both medical doctors and reportedly have family ties that dated back in time.
However, within the major political parties in his home state, there are unfolding permutations threatening Tejuoso’s political interests. In Ogun APC, especially, there is palpable tension over the party’s tickets for legislative positions in 2019.
The sudden interest shown by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Taiwo Adeoluwa, to contest for Senate, is said to be one of the issues generating ripples within the ranks of the ruling party in the state. Adeoluwa’s aspiration for Ogun Central senatorial district has pitted him against Tejuoso, who has also indicated interest in seeking re-election.
Initially, the senatorial bid of Amosun had loomed on the political radar and apparently upset the calculations of some aspirants in Ogun Central zone. But the governor seems to have shelved such plan in preference for giving the slot to one of his trusted associates. The SSG appears to be enjoying the governor’s backing.
But beyond the tango between Tejuoso and Adeoluwa, there is also growing anxiety among other legislators over their political future as Amosun’s tenure inches to an end next year.
The unrest informed a recent meeting between the governor and APC lawmakers at the national and state assemblies from the state. The parley, which was convened to douse tension, discussed crucial political issues ahead of 2019.
Tejuoso reportedly told the meeting that he would re-contest. Adeoluwa was present. The senator had allegedly demanded to know if the governor was interested in the seat, saying only his (Amosun) interest may halt his aspiration for second term.
However, the straw that finally broke the camel’s back was the recent ward, local government and state congresses of APC. The outcome of the exercise saw Tejuoso losing his base, with his supporters schemed out in the power equation. The development was believed to have been orchestrated by Amosun.
The congresses, though held peacefully across the state, saw loyalists of the governor taking various party positions in virtually all of the 236 electoral wards and 20 local government areas.
Another casualty of the political intrigues is the lawmaker representing Lagos West Senatorial District and front line governorship aspirant in Ogun State, Senator Solomon Adeola, whose supporters boycotted the exercise. Many of Adeola’s supporters have since defected to other political parties.
Apparently realising that hischances of securing return ticket are quite slim within the APC, Tejuoso too has undertaken surreptitious political moves, one of which informed his controversial defection. The senator considered the PDP and the Obasanjo-backed African Democratic Congress (ADC) as alternative platforms to realise his ambition.
In a statement issued to justify his action, Tejuoso accused APC leaders in the state of allegedly alienating him from his constituents. The senator claimed that the party had threatened to suspend any of the chairmen of the six local government areas of his senatorial district that dared to associate with him.
The Ogun Central zone comprises Abeokuta North, Abeokuta South, Odeda, Obafemi-Owode, Ewekoro and Ifo local government areas.
Tejuoso said: “My disappointment is with the party at the state level where I, for reasons I am yet to ascertain, have been marginalised from party activities. My relationship with the state party leadership became severed all of a sudden as leaders became wary of associating with me. There is no form of communication between party leaders and myself.
“My relationship with Mr. Governor is intact, but for the future of Ogun State, we must ensure we develop a truly democratic party that our children would be proud to associate.
“As a senator representing Ogun Central senatorial district, I am expected to hold meetings with the local government chairmen in my constituency to discuss strategies and ways to attract development and improve the lives of our people.
“Few months ago, I invited them for such meetings and after the meeting, to my surprise, they were scolded by the party leadership and severely cautioned not to associate with me anymore.”
Miffed by his action, APC stalwarts loyal to Amosun in the state described the senator as a betrayer. The betrayal argument was a veiled reference to how the governor allegedly manipulated the Ogun APC primaries in 2015 to favour Tejuoso’s emergence as against the then popular choice of party members, Hon. Ganiyu Hamzat.
The state APC, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Chief Wole Elegbede, said it took careful note of Tejuoso’s decision to leave the party, as contained in the letter read on the floor of the National Assembly and confirmed by the numerous statements and interviews he made in the media. It, however, insisted that despite making a U-turn, the lawmaker remains a former member of the party.
APC leaders from the six local governments of Ogun Central also held an emergency meeting in Abeokuta and resolved to disown Tejuoso. In a communiqué issued after the meeting, which was signed by Chief Yomi Ademefun and Engr. Ariori Saheed, the senatorial chairman and secretary respectively, the party stalwarts said they were shocked to learn from the media that he “defected from our great party.”
The party members, who maintained that Ogun APC Central senatorial district “remains one and indivisible,” reiterated their confidence in Amosun and his administration in the state.
With the unfolding development, the stage may have been set for an all-out war in Ogun Central senatorial district. Amosun’s loyalists are poised to go for the senator’s jugular ahead of 2019 polls and it does not appear he could win any offensive from within.
On the other hand, Tejuoso and his supporters are strategizing and weighing their political options. How the battle will play out in the run-up to the elections is not known yet but analysts posit that the senator can only prosecute his senatorial bid effectively on the platform of another party. If this is way forward, can Tejuoso muster the strength to defect the second time?
Credit: New Telegraph