With the decampment of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro from the Alliance for Democracy, AD, to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the rank of the AD senators in the Senate has been reduced to five. But the events of the decampment brought to the floor of the Senate the politics that would eventually play out in the race for the governorship seat in 2007.
As the Senate leader of a party that has over time measurably shrunk in size and influence, the decampment of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro from the Alliance for Democracy, AD, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have compounded the woes of Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi - at least in the Senate.
But when Obanikoro moved camp from the AD to the PDP last Thursday, Senator Afikuyomi who was marking his forty-first anniversary that day, saw it as the biggest birthday gift of the day.
“For me today, one of the biggest birthday gifts I have received is the defection of Senator Obanikoro to the PDP”, Afikuyomi said.
Unveiling the Koro gift, Afikuyomi went further:
“For us in the AD, we are today very glad that finally, the man in purdah has been unveiled because we know that Senator Obanikoro has been in the PDP for over a year.”
Senator Afikuyomi’s exhilaration was, however, not universal. Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora (AD, Lagos East), one of the five AD senators left after Obanikoro’s exit, saw the decampment as a great loss to the party and perhaps, also for the decampee.
“Going into the PDP, a sinking party, that is desperately seeking for undertakers having squandered all its goodwill if there was any ab initio, a party in which each leader is struggling for the other’s jugular, I hope that my good friend and colleague does not along the line, regret his action,” Senator Mamora who sat beside Obanikoro in the opposition side of the Senate chambers said last Thursday.
Perhaps, it was for his birthday that Senator Afikuyomi came to the Senate session of last Thursday in an unusual but complete formal native dress.
As the Senate session of that day commenced, the Senate President, Chief Adolphus Wabara had intimated his colleagues of the receipt of a ‘‘love letter’’ from a senator.
Senator Tunde Ogbeha (PDP, Kogi West) had immediately egged the Senate President on, saying that since this was the season of letters, (Audu Ogbeh –– Obasanjo missives), that the Senate President should go on and read it.
Senator Ibikunle Amosun (PDP, Ogun), on his part said the letter had leaked, forcing Ogbeha to retort that the country was also in a period of leakages when otherwise confidential letters were hitting the front pages.
The letter from Senator Obanikoro titled ‘‘Notice of Defection to PDP’’ chronicled some of the crises that have befallen AD and notably, the face-off between the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government which he claimed, had combined to impair his representation of the people of Lagos.
Concluding his letter, he said: ”In the light of the foregoing, and given the endless confrontation between the Lagos State and the Federal Government, which has largely led to the deterioration of infrastructure and consequently, put my constituents at disadvantage, and whereby those who have contrary views and opinions are alienated and unjustly victimised in the party, I have decided to join the undisputed all- embracing and largest political party in Africa, the PDP. Thus, I hereby cease to be a member of the Alliance for Democracy.” His letter was immediately followed by catcalls from the PDP senators.
Following his letter, Senator Obanikoro made a move to change his sitting position where he normally sat beside Mamora in the rank of the opposition AD and ANPP senators to the rank of the PDP senators.
However, Senator Mamora who sat on the last seat by the aisle, demonstrably hurt and pained by the defection, would not allow him to leave. It took the intervention of the PDP whips and other PDP senators to make a way for Obanikoro to formally leave his sitting position to sit among his PDP contemporaries.
Handshakes here and there from PDP senators and an embrace from the Senate President, welcomed Obanikoro into the PDP caucus whose numbers he now swelled to 78 even as his action sank the number of AD senators to five.
There were also embraces from ANPP senators and even Senator Afikuyomi, who also gave him what could be the last embrace before what could be the most dirty gubernatorial contest ever in the country.
Besides the elation of being rid of a supposed agent of the PDP within his party’s ranks, Afikuyomi’s joy could also be seen in the seeming removal of one serious obstacle to his well known political ambition of succeeding Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Governor of Lagos State. Obanikoro, progressively, chairman of Lagos Island Local Government Council, immediate past Commissioner in Lagos State and now Senator representing one of the most politically active senatorial districts in the country, had been regarded as the greatest threat to Afikuyomi’s gubernatorial ambition, if not the man to beat, within the AD.
His decision to pitch tent within the PDP umbrella obviously gives Senator Afikuyomi a wider latitude to canvass his aspiration within the AD.
He for now, has only his former political ward and associate, Mr. Mr. Femi Pedro, the deputy governor, to contend with for the party’s ticket.
While several saw Senator Obanikoro’s action as a deliberate step towards achieving his gubernatorial ambition, the senator was quick to suppress such speculations saying that his primary ambition was towards promoting the interest of Lagos State.
At a press conference following his defection on the Senate floor, Senator Obanikoro was careful to point out that his decision to decamp must not be reduced to his personal ambition. He put his decision centrally on his quest to uplift the interests of Lagos which he feared were being endangered by the raucous attitude of the Tinubu team.
“It is not about personal issues, it is not at all, it is about Lagos. I am very passionate about Lagos and I strongly believe that anything that will serve the best interest of Lagos is what I should do.”
“I don’t want you to trivialise what we are doing today, I am not coming to PDP because of gubernatorial ambition, no! Make no mistake about it, that is not the consideration at all,” Senator Obanikoro said at the press conference where he was flanked by the Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe and the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa.
Both former senators now serving in the executive arm of government, similarly decamped from the AD and ANPP respectively to the PDP during their time in the immediate past Senate. In putting the interest of Lagos at the center of his political quest, Senator Obanikoro made reference to the cantankerous relationship between the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government.
“My dear state has gradually become a hotbed of factional politics, culminating in an endless conflict with the Federal Government. This protracted confrontation has brought about a punishing distraction and neglect of Lagos State by the Federal Government. Added to this, the Alliance for Democracy has painfully remained a party troubled by unmitigated crisis resulting from factional interests. The party has remained divided along factional lines, which has not only weakened it, but has glaringly contributed to its instability.”
Senator Obanikoro asserting that the acrimony between the Lagos State Government and the Federal Government was hindering the people of the state from claiming their portion of democratic dividends, said his change would in the long run be in the interest of his constituency.
His argument was supported by Senator Ogunlewe, the Minister of Works who in his own time in the last Senate, decamped from the AD to the PDP.
“You have been to Lagos, there is no water. You will see some other states, the Federal Government is giving them money to build dams, to construct all these things, they are not giving Lagos because we are not part of government (and the attitude of those in power in the state makes matters worse.”
But beyond the promotion of the interests of Lagos as canvassed by Obanikoro and Ogunlewe, the trenchant effort of the PDP opposition to dethrone the AD in Lagos would have weighed heavily in the recruitment of Obanikoro into the PDP.
With his political network solid amongst the youths of the Lagos Central Senatorial District, Obanikoro’s move would help in boosting the fortunes of the PDP which also has some measure of strength in Ogunlewe’s former constituency of Lagos East Senatorial District now represented by Senator Mamora who won by a narrow margin.
Senator Obanikoro, however, played down his own electoral strength and the value he was bringing to his new party affirming that power flows from the heavens.
“I come from a Muslim background and I believe that no matter how brilliant you are, that you cannot make yourself king. No matter how wise you are or how rich you are, you cannot make yourself king. It is only God that can do that,” Senator Obanikoro who equally acknowledged going to seek spiritual direction in Mecca during the last pilgrimage said.
Obanikoro nevertheless pointed at the slide of the votes of the AD between the 1999 and 2003 elections to show the waning strength of his former party in the state.
“In 1999 when we had the election, we won with about one million votes. In 2003, we won with 195,000 votes. That should tell you something. That is not even the reason why I am moving and politically, I have never failed and once you are on the side of the truth, you can never fail. I believe that the PDP has dotted the ‘‘i’s and crossed the ‘‘t's and I want to assure you that victory is assured come 2007.”
His boldness in separating from Tinubu suggests his readiness to wage a war against a well acknowledged fighter, that is Tinubu.
After ruling Lagos for eight years, Tinubu's desire to stamp his imprint on Lagos would go beyond the physical and would be epitomized by placing his man to succeed him.
Senator Obanikoro until May this year, would have weighed in his calculations. But when Koro boldly went against his instruction not to support the imposition of emergency rule in Plateau State, a silent war broke out.
Obanikoro was said to have offered his explanations to the Asiwaju explaining that he could not have been more Plateau than the three Plateau Senators who voted in support of emergency rule. His departure leaves Pedro, the deputy governor, as the only other major obstacle between Afikuyomi and the AD gubernatorial ticket. But can AD remain as a party by the turn of 2007?
