Home Truth With Goke Butika

“A horse is longing to have sexual intercourse and the chick is luring it, shouldn’t it boil down on it that the mother hen could not march the turgid of a horse” ———Yoruba axiom

If there is one thing I would not like to dignify, it is this madness dance called the sale of governorship form for aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, but because if we keep quiet in the face of madness for too long, gullible people might take it for real. And so I am compelled to speak out.

Get me right, the aspirants who had obtained the forms have constitutional rights to aspire, as long as they have not been found wanting in obeying the laws of the land. So, I would not disrespect their rights for anything, except that I would not stop being amazed at the level of moral decadence in our society.

I looked round and I found out that the road to Babylon could not take us to Jerusalem in this country. The long and short of the story is that the politicians of the PDP stock constitute a bunch of clowns, who would not get tired of creating a laughing scenario.
For those who are in doubt, please travel with me to Anambra State in the Eastern part of the country. Certainly, the tenure of Governor Peter Obi would expire in February 2010, as a result of that, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared its readiness to conduct another governorship election early next year and so all political parties had started conducting primary elections to pick their governorship candidates that would run the race.

When it got to the turn of the PDP, the whole scenario turned to war, a full blown war. One of the aspirants, who did not know the address of the party secretariat in the state, but has loads of crispy naira notes, don’t ask me where he got it, if you like, call it ill-gotten money. All I knew then about him was that he once superintended our Central Bank and he left a big mess for his successor. The name is Professor Charles Soludo. Despite the protest from the co-contestants that he knows next to nothing about the party, Soludo was imposed like a thunderbolt on them.

As a matter of fact, when the Court of law pronounced that Soludo should not parade himself as a governorship candidate of the PDP in the state, he went ahead to paint the town red with his expensive campaign vehicles and was even forging ahead to bribe his colleagues with several millions of naira to keep quiet. What other example of lawlessness do you want?

To further compound the story, one bare literate political godfather in the state, Mr. Chris Uba has a bone to pick with the misguided intellectual called Soludo and so he maintained that the latter would not have his way, unknown to him that some political stock brokers led by the discredited godfather of Edo State politics, Chief Tony Anenih had sealed the fate.

Today, in Anambra, the drum of war is beating fast, but my point is that, this party called PDP has never gotten it right and by extension our country has not gotten it right in the last ten years of the PDP misrule.
If Anambra saga could play out that way, then, it would not be out of place to say that the PDP is a stock exchange political party in Nigeria and only the highest bidder could scale his way through.

Now, look at another mess in Osun State, the party just dished out a strange instruction, asking its governorship aspirants to start obtaining governorship forms for the election that may or may not take place in 2011 and one could not believe the level of stupidity of our politicians in this country. Yes, I agree with you, it is not stupidity, it is a mere shenanigan.

My argument is this, the flawed 2007 governorship election, which the embattled Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola claimed gave him the mandate to rule the state is still a subject of litigation at the election petitions tribunal that is currently sitting in Osogbo, Osun State capital, and with the avalanche of evidence the state Action Congress (AC) has provided, the fate of the PDP seems to be hanging in the balance; which means, the party ought to be sober and calculating by now, but when Osun PDP elected to start selling the governorship forms, the picture depicts sheer arrogance and an effrontery to rule of law.

I think, the irrational aspect of the matter appeared to be so stinking that the national leadership of the party had to call the embattled state helmsman to order, but because the PDP is a party of anything goes; the directive was flagrantly disobeyed.

Let me ask you, why the PDP was in a hurry to sell governorship forms when the electoral body has not asked the stakeholders in Osun State to statrt preparing for the polls? I could understand the madness of the PDP in Anambra State towards next year’s governorship election, but I could not simply digest why the party wants to get things done fast in Osun State.

In my reflection, I found out that an average PDP man in Osun State is afraid of what will be the outcome of the tribunal sittings, more so that the tribunal has proved to be unbowed to compromise from any party involved and the fear of the unknown is actually driving the impulse for the hurry.

Another stinker that I found out is that the leadership at the state level of the PDP might have thought that in case of any eventualty, the party may fall into tsunami of defection, a situation that might have compelled them to ask the aspirants to tie their funds down as collateral against the future damage.

Another angle that could not be discarded is that the lean purse of the state coffer as a result of economic crisis, might have forced the party leadership to source for funds through the con means called sale of governorship forms. This is not unlikely, because when one is talking about stock exchange, one is talking about raising money for listed companies through shares and stocks, but talking about the PDP stock exchange, one is referring to raising funds through crooked ways. And if what obtained at the Osun State chapter of the PDP is anything to go by, then it is not out of place to say that the school of thought above is the reason for the unreasonable sale of governorship forms in the state.

Now, let us discuss on the caliber of the people who are hanging around to rule Osun State from the PDP as a party, before discussing the propriety of the party to contest the 2011 elections in the first place.

Starting from the sacked Senator Iyiola Omisore; this fellow was a deputy governor between 1999 and 2002, before he was shown the exit door of Oke-Fia Government House Osogbo for being over-ambitious.

Throughout his stay in the corridor of power, the only dividend of democracy he bequeathed was full political terrorism, where thugs would unleash terror during the electioneering campaigns.

As a matter of fact, the only dividend of democracy he gave to his people in Ile Ife, since 2003 when he was purportedly sent to the senate, was the N160 million caravan bus he claimed to have bought for the Ooni of Ife. So, while his people were getting hungrier, the former lawmaker was getting richer and he is so rich that he could not see reason why any of the high chiefs in Ile Ife should be respected; I learnt that he calls everyone by his name, even the ones that are old enough to be his grandfather.

As fate would have it, the bogus called election that purportedly pushed the guy to the senate had been cancelled by the Court of Appeal, funnily on the day he was dancing to the PDP’s secretariat where he went to obtain his own governorship form.

What about the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Fatai Akinbade? To be honest, this man is cool headed and level minded and is one politician that does not run his mouth anyhow, but the fact that he could spend several years on the corridors of power without making much impact or let us say that his good is not enough for the much-needed effort to transform the state. I may not know, but I am still longing to know what idea the SSG has that he could not have given to his boss in the last seven years; after all, he was the former chairman of the PDP in the state.

The Chief of Staff, Mr. Peter Babalola has started dropping the name of the embattled governor, with a view to tricking us to believe that he is an agent of continuity. Even, at that, let him tell us what he intends to continue with. Is it minimalist governance? Or stealing spree by the political office holders in the state? Or the sprawling underdevelopment we are currently witnessing in the state? If Babalola could answer all these questions, probably, we would be better-informed. For only six months as Commissioner for Agriculture in the state, what happened to our timbers in the various forest reserves in the state then? One day, our questions will be answered.

These three musketeers are the jokers that I know amongst the crowd of jesters that are flaunting their governorship ambition on the platform of the PDP, but the fact still remains that with these politicians, Osun is gradually becoming an endangered specie.

Lest I forget, where were the proceeds realized from the sales of the governorship forms going to? A private pocket or party? Because the national headquarters of the party has disowned the process and has further directed that the aspirants should go ahead and collect their money. You know what?, none of these politicians could muster modicum of courage to collect his money, because ‘ole lo n mese ole to lori apata’.

I shall not bother to ask why these politicians would cough-out N3 million to buy governorship forms when our people are finding it difficult to say bless this food oh Lord! Twice a day. It is an assignment for us all to ask ourselves where these people got the MONEY from.

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