Oyo electorates: 2027 polls present another window to reunite with country’s mainstream politics, by Kola Amzat 

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, President Bola Tinubu is poised for a second term in office.

He has vigorously toiled for it. He has assiduously labored for the re-election bid and all things being equal, he’s obviously on the threshold of a triumphant outing.

In the fullest of time, Nigerians would discover that the dissenting voices of the members of opposition groups and adversaries, including  their overt and covert plans calculated to halt the president’s second term bid would pale into insignificance.

Since his inauguration as the President, Commander-in-Chief of Armed Forces in May 2023, he has left no one in doubt that his tenure would be eventful.

He has moved with unusual courage, zeal, will, purpose and focus to cause huge development in all the facets-infrastructures, education, healthcare, agricultures, technology, housing, and even the most challenged of all sectors-security.

The president’s audacious move with respect to the removal of subsidies and the unification of exchange rates just immediately after his inauguration are beginning to yield measurable results.

Nigerians are beginning to witness incredible improvement in public finances, huge monthly allocation for states and local government authorities, increasing investor confidence and trust in the nation’s economy, significant and unprecedented growth in the capital market, with exponential growth in market capitalization rising dramatically when compared to the position it was pre-Tinubu administration.

The president’s foray into infrastructures development is one of the most viable indicators of the administration’s frantic efforts to reposition and launch Nigeria into a new era of prosperity.

Across all geo-political zones, major roads are either under construction or rehabilitation, a development aimed at stimulating commercial activities, reducing logistics costs, strengthening regional economic integration & cooperation, as well as facilitating employment opportunities.

The audacious Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is steadily on-going, a project aimed at transforming economic activities along Nigerian coastal corridors. Work is progressing at an incredible pace on sections of Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway while rehabilitation efforts are ongoing at a tremendous rate on the Abuja-Kaduna road and East West road networks.

The administration also steadily maintained and sustained focus on rail modernization as part of efforts to improve connectivity and facilitate economic integration.

Of course, the administration has strategically sustained momentum on healthcare across the federation, as well as prioritizing quality  education at all levels-primary, secondary, and more importantly, tertiary sphere with several billions of Naira been committed on education infrastructures, research, as well as sustained engagement with stakeholders, especially, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Politically, the president and his party are in full control of 32 states, including FCT administration, with the governors at helms of affairs in the states, as well as FCT minister frantically rooting and canvassing support of Nigerians for the president’s re-election bid.

In addition, 89 senators and more than 280 House of Reps members are vigorously canvassing in their respective senatorial and federal constituencies for support of millions of Nigerian electorates for the president’s re-election bid.

It’s no brainer that this president would win and win convincingly, too.

Meanwhile, the crux of this Piece: from all indications, President Bola Tinubu in his second term in office wouldn’t have anything to do with Seyi Makinde, as well as anything that connects with him.

Let no one be deceived: the president won’t be favourably disposed to relate with the administration of Bimbo Adekanmbi if the electorate ever made the grievous mistake of giving him a mandate.

And, technically, it’s the long-suffering and hapless people of the state that would continually bear the brunt.

It’s needless to re-emphasize that Governor Seyi Makinde has sown the seed of discord between the state and federal authority and from the human angle, it may be difficult to pacify the president to back down.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed. This is therefore a clarion call to all electorates across the length and breadth of the state to arise with single minded of purpose and make deliberate and intentional move to vote massively for Senator Sarafadeen Alli, the APC gubernatorial candidate so that he could spearhead a new era of fresh breath in the state.

This is also for the state to be reunited with the mainstream of the country’s politics.

We must appreciate that Nigeria runs a federal system of government with absolute power & authority residing with the president, and with so much influence to wield. It’s the making of the constitution and there is nothing anybody can do about it.

Of course, the situation is the same in all countries practicing the federal system. It’s the same in all powerful America, the globally acclaimed bastion of democracy.

The constitution doesn’t envisaged a situation whereby a governor would continually maintain defiant, affront and belligerent posture to the president as Governor Seyi Makinde has opted to do for the better part of his second tenure, thus literally subjected the longsuffering people of the state to untold hardship and deprivation.

Besides, the APC candidate-Senator Sarafadeen Alli is an astute political figure with vast experience that spans more than two decades in governance.

Of course, the Distinguished Senator has a rich and robust political antecedent. In his political trajectory, he has dutifully served as Chairman of Ibadan North Local Government where he built a reputation for grassroots administration.

He was later appointed as Secretary to Oyo state government and subsequently served as Chief of Staff (CoS) under former governor-Senator Rasheed Ladoja, now HRM, Olubadan of Ibadanland.

The aforementioned responsibilities that providence thrusted on his path has placed him at the centre of policy coordination, administration, as well as political negotiations in the state and beyond.

Meanwhile, the icing of the cake is his present calling as Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Without doubts, the experienced senator obviously stands tall above all candidates bidding for Agodi governor’s office in the forthcoming polls, including Seyi Makinde’s anointed candidate.

The present standstill situation in the state is compelling that the state needs a politically strong personality with wide-state appeal, vast experience, rich antecedent of governance, undoubted political trajectory spanning Local government, state and federal administrations to spearhead it, and more importantly, a key political figure with credibility, zeal, resourcefulness and humility to occupy the governor office to reset, refocus and reposition the state, particularly after the catastrophic tenure of the incumbent governor.

Giving Sarafadeen a mandate is what the state’s electorates must do to reconnect the state back into the national fold.

This is what the state’s citizenry must do to attract the patronage of several federal MDAs that are already keeping the state at arm’s length.

This is what we need to do to even remain relevant in the Nigerian political sphere particularly, in the new dispensation unfolding in 2027 and beyond, as APC is poised to sweep polls across the length and breadth of the country, as it’s important for the state to be hugely integrated and involved in the national affairs.

More importantly, this is what we should do as a state in order to assuage bad feelings of the president, who Governor Makinde has unduly and undeservedly been at loggerhead with, in the last three years.         

Kola AMZAT (FCA, FCIB),

Lagos based Financial & Management Consultants,

09077509348.