OYO O NI DARU O

Oyo State was formed in 1976 when Western Nigeria was divided into Ogun, Ondo and Oyo. It later became the new Oyo after Osun State was carved out in 1991. Bola Ige was the 1^st executive governor of Oyo State (1979 – 1983 UPN) but failed to be re-elected despite his remarkable effort as governor. He was followed by Dr Victor Olunloyo (Oct 1983 – Dec 1983 NPN). Chief Kolapo Ishola was later elected as 3^rd governor of Oyo State (Jan 1992 – Nov 1993 SDP).

The 4^th republic kicked off with Lam Adesina emerging as governor under Alliance for Democracy between 1999-2003. He was succeeded by Senator Adewolu Ladoja in 2003 as a PDP candidate and his deputy then was Adebayo Alao Akala. The power tussle between the late Adedibu and Ladoja let to the laters impeachment which automatically made Akala the governor for about 11 months till it was overturned in dec 2006 bu by May 2007 Alao Akala managed to emerged as the PDP candidate and became governor of Oyo State. These events were marred with a lot of violence and resulted in slowing down the development of Oyo State.

In 2011, Ajimobi defeated Alao Akala to become the 7^th governor of Oyo State as an ACN candidate. Although he had already contested in 2007 as an ANPP candidate, the PDP was alleged to have manipulated the polls to ensure Alao Akala became governor. 

Currently Oyo State have 5 strong contenders running for governor, two of which have been governor before and one is currently the incumbent governor. Although there is a myth that ‘Oyo o kin sin enikan ni e meji” (Oyo does not serve the same master twice), these 3 happen to be among the top contenders.  Meanwhile, other states like Ekiti and State of Osun have broken the myth of re-electing a governor twice already so who says Oyo can’t do the same.

Brief profile of the candidates:

Candidate	DOB	Origin	Party	Academic Qualification	Political Experience
Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi	Dec 1949	Ibadan	APC	Bsc Biz Admin and Finance & MBA	Senator (2003-2007), Governor (2011 - til date)
Adebayo Alao Akala	Jun 1950	Ogbomosho	LP	Dip in Biz Admin	LG Chair (1999-2002), Deputy Gov (2003 - 2006 & Gov (Jan - dec (2006), 2007 - 2011)
Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja	Sep 1944	Ibadan	Accord	Bsc Engineering	Senator (1993) & Governor (2003 - 2006)
Seyi Makinde	Dec 1967	Ibadan	SDP	Bsc Engineering	NA
Teslim Kolawole Folarin	Oct 1963	Ibadan	PDP	Bsc Political Science	Senator (2003-2011)

Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi

Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi

An accomplished professional and a former senator, Ajimobi has been governor for over 3years in Oyo State. He came in just after Akala and at a point where the state witnessed a lot of violence and unrest. Till date a lot of shops shut down by 8pm as a result of their experience with armed robbery, violence and thuggery that was associated with Akala’s government.  Since he became governor, the state has been relatively safer, cleaner and beautiful.  Oyo has witnessed major road expansion and construction in the same time-frame.  Introduction of YESO, the transformation of BCOS and  the new Agodi gardens are just a few of what Ajimobi has done so far.  This is not to say he is perfect or outstanding but from where the state is coming from he has done well. 

One thing a lot of people who have interacted with him hold against him is the claim that he is very arrogant and also his wife has so much power that she gets involved in major decision making. After the fall out of an alliance with Ladoja and Accord party which was used to stabilised the house of Assembly, Ladoja accused him of inflating contracts and displacing a lot of traders and artisans in the name of beautification.
Ajimobi has an advantage as an incumbent and also various resources at his disposal including funds to contest. Will people focus on his performance and overlook his shortcomings? Will his opponent not use the alleged influence of his wife in governance against him during campaign? Will the allegations of contract inflation be backed by facts and figures to discredit him by Ladoja? Will the educated and aware judge him by his performance and for that singular reason or will they allow irrelevant sentiment cloud their judgement?

Adebayo Alao Akala

Adebayo Alao Akala

The former police man turned politician was governor altogether for about 4yrs 11months. This is the longest anyone has been governor in Oyo State. His tenure witnessed a lot of thuggery and violence in the state but the people claim that despite all of that they enjoyed free flow of cash in the economy and although the environment was dirty, and relatively unsafe they enjoyed some sort of boom in their business. This cant really be explained in theoretical terms but according to the people of Oyo State that was the situation. Akala also did continue some major road projects that were believed to have been initiated by Ladoja. These projects would have been fantastic project but the quality of work done can’t stand the test of time. Akala is said to be good man at heart but was believed to have surrounded himself with a bunch of clueless and greedy political appointees, contractors and friends.

This makes one question his administrative skills but people close to him say he is better, wiser and means well for Oyo State.

Alao Akala was also picked up in 2012 by the EFCC and charged to court over a N11.5bn fraud case. He made a couple of appearance in court with Hosea Agboola and Femi Babalola (Jogor) but EFCC and the court have been silent about the case for a while now since the case has been adjourned indefinitely since November 2013.

Akala seems to have a lot of loyal grassroot supporters; this is probably because he is what they call ‘buje bu da nu’ (spends lavishly). The question is are these supporters true to him and believe in him or are they just with him for his money? What really has he got to offer and how will he convince people he will be a better governor this time around? Will he benefit from the Stomach infrastructure phenomenon like Fayose did?

Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja

Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja

An accomplished entrepreneur had his administration cut short after he was impeached. Although he came back briefly, the State was in a terrible shape that governance was almost impossible.  It is believed that the few years he spent in government; he was developing a master plan for Oyo State development. Ladoja took good care of civil servant and teachers by promptly paying their salaries but then the trade-off was to hold back on any major projects till much later. The later never happened as he was impeached. 

As at February 2014, the court of appeal in Lagos disallowed an appeal by Ladoja to quash the criminal charges against him by EFCC. But since this report contract-fraud-court-frees-bankole-orders-ladojas-trial no new development about the case has been publish or in public domain.

Ladoja enjoyed a lot of sympathy votes from civil servants especially teachers in 2011 but that wasn't enough, infact his running for the election was a spoiler and worked to his other opponent’s advantage. Will he still get sympathy civil servants vote? Will he be able to run a very good campaign considering the fact that alot of his loyalist left him just a few days ago in anger? What will be his selling point since the current governor haven't done so back in term of development?

Seyi Makinde

Seyi Makinde

He is the youngest of all the 5 candidates and has never held any political office. He is according to the bio on his page Seyi Makinde. An accomplished business man in the oil and gas sector. He is a force to reckon with simply because he has in the last year ran a very intense campaign. He has basically carved a niche for himself as a young and fresh alternative through his constant presence in the media. He has also gone round the State to meet with people to register his presence and intention even before the political tussle got heated up . 

The only mistake he made was that he did all of this under a party that could not conduct free and fair elections in the state and also a party that is associated with violence and thuggery. He eventually lost at the primaries to Teslim folarin. Although both Akala and Seyi claim that no primaries was conducted and that the candidate that emerged was imposed by the Oga at the top,  Seyi has since then moved to SDP. 
People seem to know about Seyi Makinde but his ordeal with PDP and his move to SDP may change the perception of people about him. With a strong political party backing he would have been a preferred choice considering the fact he is young, he has ran a good campaign selling his candidacy and ideas and his little effort in empowering people.

Teslim Kolawole Folarin

Teslim Kolawole Folarin

He was the senate leader 2007- 2011 as a 2^nd term senator. He emerged as the flag bearer from what his former party mate described as mockery of justice. According to Seyi Makinde  “How can this same party (PDP) have a candidate who claims to have been elected with 167 votes which is just about 10 per cent of the total number of delegates after the majority or 1,053 delegates were disenfranchised? I believe in the rule of law, decency and discipline. Justice delayed is justice denied.’’. 

Teslim’s 8 years as a senator including 4years as a majority leader has not reflected positively in his district especially for someone with an ambition to be governor. With such a position, it would have been nice to stay prominent in the society getting involved in developmental projects and programs aswell as showing concern for lives, people and property. Teslim basically stays mute when he should be most vocal on issues an example is when Ibadan was hit with flood and so many people were displaced. Law makers don’t have votes but they do have constituency allowance and one of their major role is to make laws, facilitate development of their constituency and state using their influence and access to the governor and the president. The question in the lips of people in Ibadan is that how much of their interest did Teslim Folarin look out for and will he if elected be concerned about the wellbeing of people, infrastructural development and economic growth?

Teslim was arrested and charged for murder of Eleweomo (a former

vice chair of Oyo NURTW) December 2010, he was released few days later in controversial circumstances liked to the Presidency getting involved to participate at the PDP primaries in Abuja. The case has since then been swept under the rug as usual.
Out of all the candidates, Teslim is the least popular. As a matter of fact alot of people did not know he was the Senate Leader till the incident with Eleweomo happened. Will he be able to convince people that he has what it takes to lead the State? Can he actually deliver or will he continue to remain the figure head type leader most people think he is?

Who Will Become the Next Oyo State Governor?

This election will definitely be a close one especially with the number of strong candidates contesting. The candidates have their strength and weakness as highlighted above but as it stands one can’t really say for sure who will emerge or who most people in the State will vote for.

The intensity of the campaign, messaging and the ability of the candidates to sell themselves to the people of Oyo State will be the determining factor of who wins Feb 2015. Their performance, failures, court cases, allegations and CV’s will only matter to a few and especially the elite voters. The other voters who form majority will judge them by what happens in the next couple of weeks, some communities like Sabo, Akinyele, Shasha, Oyo town, Saki etc with strong influence from their leaders will naturally go the way their leaders dictate so it’s up to the candidates that can woo them the most.

Another factor to consider is how the ‘Ibadan’ factor will play out considering that 4 out of the 5 major candidates are from Ibadan. Although, Ibadan has a huge population of settlers from other parts of Oyo state and even outside Oyo, it will be interesting if they come out to vote this time around and to see who they vote for.