ANALYSIS: Major losers in Ondo governorship election

The October 10 governorship election in Ondo State may have come and gone, but its outcome is likely to continue to haunt some key gladiators in the state’s politics for a long time.

Apart from some Ondo residents, whose pre-election loud voices may have been hushed by the deep pockets, incumbency, and in some cases, violence, there are politicians whose political fortune and relevance may have also been badly affected by the result of the poll which was won convincingly by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu who won in 15 of the state’s 18 local governments.

The result, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has reflected a clear deviation from the expectation of many who had predicted a keenly contested ‘three-horse race’ among the incumbent governor and candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Oluwarotimi Akeredolu; his estranged deputy and candidate of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Agboola Ajayi, and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Eyitayo Jegede.

The wide gap in the votes recorded by each of the three candidates is still a shocker to many analysts who had predicted a narrow margin between the possible winner and the runner-up.

The result may have, therefore, deflated the ego of some of the politicians, who analysts had earlier predicted had the capacity to alter the scale of the poll’s outcome. Thus, with the outcome exposing their featherweight, the consequences may be grave for these politicians.

Leading the pack of this category of politicians is the quartet of Messrs Ajayi, Jegede, former governor Olusegun Mimiko and the immediate past secretary to the state government, Ifedayo Abegunde.

Agboola Ajayi

The fact of Mr Ajayi’s grassroots prominence, especially within the Ondo south senatorial district, had been seen as an asset.

“Can you imagine that oga (Agboola) could only beat the PDP candidate with a slim margin of 80 votes? So if you claim Akeredolu rigged, did Jegede rig too? It is sad my brother,” said Araitolu Emmanuel, a former APC member, who defected to ZLP in support of Mr Ajayi.

Eyitayo Jegede

In 2016 when he first ran against all odds, pertinent excuses were advanced for his poor run.

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Based on the outcome of the poll, there seems to be an unwritten agreement among politicians in the state to produce the next governor from the Ondo south senatorial district, since both central and north districts would have had two terms each by 2024. While Mr Mimiko represented Ondo central, the incumbent is from the northern district.

Olusegun Mimiko

It is true that the former governor was not on the ballot on Saturday but the poll was clearly a referendum on his waning popularity.

re-buried Mr Mimiko’s political relevance that was abruptly rekindled a few months to the poll.

The former governor, who has changed parties like diapers, assumed the national leadership of ZLP ahead of the 2019 general election where he initially aspired to be Nigeria’s president.

When he realised the ambition was a tall order, he simply opted to represent Ondo central in the Senate, an election he lost to the PDP.

The ZLP candidate’s loss in Ondo governorship election made it three losses in a row for Mr Mimiko, a man whose larger than life image had been painted ahead of the election.

But one of his associates and his former assistant on inter-party affairs, Daves Akinbote, said rather than singling out his boss as a loser, the people of the state should be so regarded.

“Mimiko cannot become a governor in this state again, he does not need the affordable healthcare, the shuttle buses and affordable school fees which the people are not going to have under this administration for the next four years. So, how is Mimiko the big loser?

“The people have just lost another golden opportunity to reclaim the glory brought to this state during the eight-year tenure of Iroko (Mimiko).”

Ifedayo Abegunde

Ahead of the Saturday election and shortly before the APC primaries, the secretary to the state government, Mr Abegunde, resigned his appointment and reportedly pitched his tent with one of the aspirants in the party, Segun Abraham.