Ex Ogun State Governor, Amosun, Begins Subtle Campaign For 2023 Presidential Position

Interesting times are ahead in the political terrain of the South-West in Nigeria. Because if the signals that are already showing are anything to go, the immediate past governor of Ogun State who is the current Senator representing Ogun Central at the Senate, might be throwing his hat into the ring to contest for the presidency after President Muhammadu Buhari must have completed his second term in office in 2023. And this cannot be taken as a mere joke considering Amosun’s closeness to President Buhari. The question is, where does this leave the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who indicators are also showing that is interested in the presidency when President Buhari’s term lapses?

But to start with, the first inkling of Amosun’s interest in the presidency came out publicly at the 8th Day Fidau and Final Burial Party of one of his political associates, Hon. Nureni Idowu Olowofuja, at Abeokuta Sports Club, Oke-Ilewo, Ogun State, on Tuesday, 26th November, 2019, which Amosun attended amidst his other political associates in their numbers. And at a point along line when the artiste engaged for the party, Fuji music star, Alhaji Sefiu Alao Adekunle started performing on the stage and was singing the praise of Amosun as one of the guests in attendance, some of his political associates went to the artiste and told him to start singing “Amosun For 2023 Presidency” which the artiste started saying immediately while the crowd went into a frenzy of excitement on hearing it. And that message of “Amosun For 2023 Presidency” became a refrain in the artiste’s music till the party ended.

Meanwhile, before Amosun would leave the party, he ensured that he sent a package of good sum of money to the artiste who happened to be the closest musician to him throughout his 8 years of reign as the governor of Ogun State. And the package was apparently a thank you message to the artiste for a job well done with the way he broke the news of the former governor’s 2023 political ambition to the public through the medium of entertainment. And as if planned as a follow-up to that development, artwork of “Amosun For 2023 Presidency” started popping up on the social media the next day, Wednesday, 27th November, and the whole thing began to seem like a calculated process of launching Amosun’s quest to occupy the Aso Rock after President Buhari.

With Amosun showing interest in the number one political seat in the country, that may be pitching him against someone like Tinubu who is believed in many quarters to be warming up to replace President Buhari in 2023 in the event that as it is expected, the APC decides to zone the presidential position to the South-West. Interestingly enough, Tinubu and Amosun no longer see eye to eye politically. The factor reponsible for that was how Tinubu’s camp scuttled the plan of Amosun to install a successor to himself when he was leaving the governor’s seat during the last general elections. Amosun wanted Hon. Abiodun Akinlade from Yewa, a division of Ogun State which had been agitating for the governorship position for years without success, but the Tinubu camp wanted Prince Dapo Abiodun from Ijebu axis which has produced governors for the state before. And with federal might through Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the Tinubu’s camp had their way during the election as Prince Dapo Abiodun won.

And the wound apparently, has not healed with Amosun as his candidate he asked to cross to Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to contest for the governorship position when he (the candidate) was muscled out of APC by being schemed out during the primaries, is still at the Supreme Court to contest the outcome of the last governorship election in Ogun State which they believed was marred with irregularities. APM lost at both the Tribunal and the Appeal Court. Meanwhile, Amosun also ensured he showed the people in the Tinubu’s camp that he still has a strong influence at the federal level despite being accused of anti-party crimes during the governoship election when he succeeded at cornering all the federal appointment coming to Ogun State to his camp including that of the only Minister from the state which went to Olamilekan Adegbite, a core Amosun man, as the Minister of Mines and Steel Development.

So would Amosun be going head to head with Tinubu from the South-West for the presidential position in 2023? Only time will tell.

Culled from Oprah News