As the 2023 general election inches nearer, candidates contesting for various positions have also begun to swell up.
The rate at which candidates are coming out to declare their intentions is daily on the increase.
Our Correspondent gathered that Iwo, the headquarters of Osun West Senatorial District is now boiling politically.
At the initial stage, more than ten aspirants had declared their interest to represent the district at the Red Chambers. But as at the last count, more than six of them have reportedly threw in the towel.
Investigations revealed that not less than four aspirants from Iwo, including the present occupier of the seat, Senator Adelere Oriolowo, and a serving commissioner in the government of Osun State (report said he resigned from office couple of days ago) are jostling for the ticket.
This medium learnt that there has been groundswell of opposition against Senator Oriolowo. It was gathered that the greatest opposition is coming from Iwo land where the Senator hails from with the myriad of reasons raised against endorsement of his return to the Upper Legislative House.
The foremost reason for the opposition to Oriolowo’s second term in the Senate was predicated on his alleged lacklustre performance in the last four years coupled with his alleged appalling interpersonal relationship skill.
Besides, the Senator was said to have some months ago declared that he would not seek second term, a stance many attached to his pride and indifferent disposition.
Another source revealed that his lack of interest in going for second term bordered on his practical realization that the people of Iwo and by extension the West Senatorial district will not vote for him again owing to his alleged abysmal performance.
It was gathered that he had also offended the people of the district when he made a passing jibe at them as bunch of light-fingered people (a euphemism for stealing) in a recorded audio that was later leaked to the public.
This was said to have drawn the ire of the voters and their eventual decision not to back his return ticket to the Senate.
Another offence allegedly committed by Senator Oriolowo was his supposed anti-party activities. It was learnt that the Senator did not align himself with the political activities and aspiration of Governor Oyetola’s second term ambition.
Investigation revealed that the Senator had supported a splinter group within the APC called The Osun Progressive (TOP). TOP is said to be peopled with aggrieved politicians, who are now followers of the former Governor and current Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
The Group has been in antagonism with the parent political party in the last two and half years. Oriolowo is said to have been financing TOP to the detriment of the APC. Reports even stated that during the last primary election in the state, the Senator supported a candidate of TOP instead of queuing behind Governor Oyetola.
This was tagged political hara-kiri by the Senator and one that is unforgivable in politics as people summed his activities up, adding that the lawmaker could no longer take the people on a fool’s ride.
An elderly and ranking politician from the senatorial district, who craved anonymity while remaking on the schism cause by the rift between Aregbesola and Oyetola, said the fight between both men has now polarised the state, including the senatorial district.
The ranking politician told the our correspondent that he wasn’t happy the way the politics wheels of the constituency is now being oiled by money and money alone.
He condemned some elders, who are parading themselves as the political conscience of the district, by taking decisions on behalf of the people, saying they are being unconscionable in their political dealings as far as the politics of selecting a senatorial aspirant for the area is concerned.
He stated that the people of Iwo land are at an advantage now but the gain may be frittered away the way the so-called elders in the town are going about the process of selection.
According to him, other nine local governments making up the senatorial district with Iwo had decided that Iwo would enjoy the right of first refusal of second term ticket of the Senate seat, with a proviso – that they present any candidate other than Oriolowo.
The politician noted that if Iwo should make mistake of endorsing Oriolowo for the second term, such decision would throw the contest open to candidates from other local governments, as the unwritten favourable agreement granted to Iwo having been breached in conduct.
He called on the people of Iwo to be at alert to their political responsibilities so that Iwo land would not be the ultimate loser in the ongoing political jostling.
“Let me be sincere with you, these so-called elders are not our representatives. We need to be at alert. What they are doing is just for their personal benefit. They don’t have the interest of Iwo land at heart at all. We have competent and qualified candidates, who can and will represent us better than Oriolowo.
“The people have agreed that Oriolowo should be replaced if we are going to be properly represented. Even other local governments in the senatorial district have agreed that Iwo should have a shot at second term as they would not oppose it and no aspirants will contest against a candidate presented by Iwo,” the politician said.
Investigation by our correspondent pointed to the fact that there is an elders’ circle headed one Asiwaju of Iwo land, Barrister Adedeji Gbadegesin, and it was at his instance and in his house that meetings always take place.
It was learnt that several meetings have been called at his instance with the aim of selecting a candidate for the Senate. There are however allegations of corruption flying in the air’
A competent source told this medium that money has exchanged hands between the Asiwaju-led men and Oriolowo, stating that it was these elders that now backed the lawmaker to continue to spend heavily so as to influence the ticket coming to him again despite the attendant political risk his re-emergence could cause Iwo.
At the forefront of the plot to use money to warehouse the ticket for Oriolowo is said to be one Alhaji Liad Tella, who it was learnt just became a member of the APC.
Alhaji Tella was alleged to have been working surreptitiously at cross purposes with the sole purpose of advancing the cause of TOP and embarrassing the governor and the APC in the state.
Tella is also said to be enjoying the support of Asiwaju Gbadegesin for the same monetary benefits accruing from their association with Oriolowo, a situation that made it difficult for Gbadegesin to take the bull by the horn and follow the wishes and aspirations of the people.
Although the source disclosed that recent happenings have shown that Barrister Gbadegesin might have abandoned Tella’s script to browbeat the people and now aligned with the wishes of the people.
The source said that Iwo people are spoiling for a fight now should the committee of wise men allow themselves to be led into picking wrong candidate because of money.
He said: “To be honest with you, this is not the best of time for Iwo land and the whole senatorial district. Those we call elders are no longer on the side of the people with the report filtering out from their political activities.
“Money, we are told, is now the influencer of decisions by the elders and not competence of the would-be candidate any more.
“Barrister Adedeji and his cohorts should be very careful in taking a decision that is capable of rupturing the political nerves of Iwo land.
“At their recent meeting, we heard that they had earlier agreed that the senatorial district had rejected Oriolowo and called on the elders to search for a better candidate from Iwo.
“But we now learnt that after Oriolowo offered huge cash to the elders so as for them to sing a new song totally different from the collective tunes of the generality of the people of the senatorial district.”
“But with the way the Adedeji-led elders are conducting themselves, aspirants from other local governments have vowed to contest the senatorial seat if Oriolowo should be given the ticket.
“For instance, at a meeting held at the federal constituency office, Agbowo, Iwo, on Sunday 24th April, crisis erupted moment the APC Senatorial Chairman of the district, Hon. Oluremi Omolaoye, told the gathering that the senatorial apex body had agreed to retain the senatorial ticket in Iwo.
“That was the end of the meeting. What drew anger of the people might not be unconnected with the assumption that the ticket will still return to Oriolowo. With this occurrence, I think the elders should thing twice on whom to give the ticket to as Oriolowo candidacy will be a disaster foretold.
“That is the quandary we find ourselves in Iwo land now. And unless the people take their destiny in their hands, the whole senatorial district will embark once again on a jamboree with the election of an incompetent candidate like Oriolowo,” the elder noted.
He added that the only chance APC has of retaining the senatorial seat is to select a non-controversial, widely accepted aspirant from Iwo.
