Ogun PDP, Politics After Kashamu
The crisis of over 10 years that has rocked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, which many thought would naturally abate with the death of former Senator Buruji Kashamu on August 8; the leader and sole financier of a faction of the party, might eventually turn out to just be wishful thinking. The thought that with Sen Buruji Kashamu now absent from the political circle of PDP, an opportunity may have presented itself for the 2023 governorship ambition of Hon Ladipupo Adebutu; leader of the other faction with the support of the national leadership of the party, but that may after all be another assumption that cannot be banked on. Even though Sen Buruji Kashamu, who represented Ogun State at the Senate level from 2015 to May, 2019 and was the Ogun State governorship candidate for PDP in 2019, might have left the scene, a new twist might have just been added to the protracted crisis that has rocked the party for over 10 years now. Analysts disclosed that it was quite normal for people to think that with Late Senator Buruji Kashamu out of Ogun PDP, the ambition of Hon Ladipupo Adebutu to govern Ogun State in 2023 on the PDP platform was already guaranteed.
For instance, Senator Buruji had been the only one who held the reigns and control of the structure of PDP since the build up, to the 2011 governorship election won by Sen Ibikunle Amosun of the Action Congress of Nigeria. Buruji with his stupendous financial power and instrument of court with of course, the support of the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Jubril Martins Kuye and a host of others, snatched the party’s structure from the powerful and very popular sitting Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel and since then, the party had been under his armpit. Having received tickets for the House of Representatives from Senator Buruji and then won the election to represent Remo Federal Constituency in 2015, Hon Ladipupo Adebutu began his 2019 governorship campaign without allegedly making recourse to Senator Buruji where he had gotten his first ever ticket to win a competitive election. He was to later form a parallel executives for the party led by Hon Sikirulahi Ogundele against that of Bayo Dayo led executives loyal to Sen Buruji Kashamu. Hon Adebutu had continued with his governorship campaign banking on the army of his supporters in the party as well as the backing of the national leadership of the party but Sen Buruji Kashamu who also declared his governorship race for the party in the state with the former Presidential Spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati as his running mate banked on several court cases instituted against the national leadership of the party to justify that he was the one picked as the PDP governorship candidate for Ogun State.
About four days to the 2019 governorship election, the Supreme Court delivered the judgement that it was indeed the Bayo Dayo led executives, loyal to Sen. Buruji Kashamu that was the right party structure to have organised any congress where any candidate of the party to be fielded for 2019 general election in Ogun State must have been picked. Even when Engr Bayo Dayo and his Secretary, Semiu Sodipo seemed to have moved away to Hon Ladipupo Adebutu’s camp when their tenure was about less than two months to end this year May 9, Sen Buruji Kashamu was still able to keep the structure of the party, organising a state congress and putting in place new executives led by Hon Samson Bamgbose. Though, Hon Ladipupo Adebutu’s camp had also held theirs but Hon Bamgbose led executives with the support of the late Senator and some court documents have held their ground insisting that they remain the authentic leaders of the party in the state. With all that have been explained above, it was crystal clear that many people would have believed that with Buruji out of the picture and as things are after the death of the Senator, the obstacles to Hon Ladipupo Adebutu governing Ogun State under PDP must have been bulldozed. However, politics expectedly, is not a straight forward discussion, it is full of intrigues, alignment and realignment and it is all these factors that might eventually leave Hon Adebutu’s 2023 governorship ambition as another dream that might have to wait beyond 2023 to be fulfilled. According to media report, Remi Bakare, the Director General of the 2019 governorship campaign of Sen Buruji Kashamu and the closest political associate to the late Senator had said that one of the dying wishes of the Ijebu Igbo born politician was that his political camp be taken over by former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel who the deceased had always regarded as his leader.
The former governor, popularly called OGD had re-echoed this about two weeks ago when he paid a condolence visit to the Kashamu family at Ijebu Igbo. Otunba Gbenga Daniel had quipped that about three days to when the late Senator will succumb to the Covid-19 tied death at First Cardiology Consultant Hospital, Lagos, he had sent his lawyer and Remi Bakare to him to amongst other things, take over his political empire which he had many times said was that of the former governor from the scratch. The tendency for Otunba Gbenga Daniel to take this offer couple with the insistence of the political family of the Late Senator to continue to hold unto the structure of the party until the court says otherwise is said to have been the major headache of Adebutu’s camp of the party ahead of 2023. Remi Bakare was quoted to have said, “We all know where PDP stands today. The law has defined who is PDP in Ogun State. It’s for the national body to face reality and stop backing the wrong horse. If the national body of the PDP wants the PDP to exist in Ogun State, and they want it to go back to its winning ways, let them do what is right. “We are ready to talk with them. If their problem is Buruji, he is no more. So, let us talk. Let them talk to the right people. But as long as they continue to back the wrong horse, the problem would be there. So, the problem is not that of Buruji, if people think Buruji is gone and that is the end of the problem of Ogun PDP, it’s a lie. No, they are lying. The problem is between what is right and what is wrong”. Corroborating this stance, the Public Relations Officer of the executive of the party loyal to the late Senator, Oyejide Sunkanmi explained that with the July 21 ruling of an Abuja Federal High Court, the body, soul and spirit of Ogun PDP is in the hand of Buruji’s camp. Sunkanmi said, “In the court case instituted against Hon Bamgbose led executives of Ogun PDP by the national leadership of the party at the Federal High Court, Abuja, the court ruled that the matter before it had already been decided by a sister court and therefore strike it out.
“The Abuja court was actually referring to the March 6, 2016 judgement which they never appealed for a year and that had since been argued up to Supreme Court before 2019 election all of which was in our favour. The truth is that, just like my Chairman, Hon Bamgbose says, “We are open to reconciliation but if they think they will rather go through Prince Uche Secondus-led national leadership to get what was never theirs, will be failure as usual”. It is however noted that the likelihood of Otunba Gbenga Daniel’s leadership supporting the 2023 governorship ambition of Hon Adebutu is most unlikely, given the role the former federal lawmaker was said to have played while the former governor contested for national chairmanship position of the party in 2018.
Adebutu was said to have backed the incumbent national chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus against the former governor and kinsman from Remo land. Others are of the opinion that having supported Prince Dapo Abiodun, his former political associate in PDP now in All Progressives Congress (APC) to emerge as the incumbent governor of the state and who is also from Iperu Remo just like Adebutu, it might be difficult for Otunba Daniel to queue behind Adebutu’s governorship ambition against the second term of Prince Abiodun in 2023.
Our Correspondent also learnt that even if eventually the political family of late Sen Buruji Kashamu lost out; which is said to be most unlikely, they would rather prefer to back a candidate any other candidate excluding Adebutu or move enmass to All Progressives Congress and work for the second term of Prince Abiodun. Speaking with journalists, the Secretary, Southwest Caretaker Committee of PDP, Hon Daisi Akintan said that nothing has really changed after the death of Sen Buruji Kashamu. Hon Akintan said, “May the soul of Sen Buruji Kashamu rest in peace. Nothing has however changed in Ogun PDP, it has continued to wax strong under the NWC backed by Hon Sikirulahi Ogundele – led state executives. We also hope that just as people are coming from other parties to join us in the bid to return the party to its winning ways in 2023, our people in Sen Buruji’s camp will also join us”.
Asked if the tendency of Otunba Gbenga Daniel taking charge of Sen. Buruji camp would change some permutations ahead 2023 elections, Akintan said that even though he was yet to be briefed, if OGD, as the former governor is popularly called is back to PDP because he had written to the national leadership of the party, resigning and withdrawing his membership saying that he had quit partisan politics sometimes last year. He said be that as it may, even if the former governor decided to come back to the opposition party, he would be glad to work for the progress of the party which he helped build from the scratch and used as a platform for his two terms in office rather than disintegrate it further. He said he was yet to see how his coming back to the PDP would hinder Adebutu’s desire to govern the state in 2023, saying that the race would also not be about Adebutu alone as many others aspirants would be accommodated. One of the political leaders in Adebutu’s camp of the party, Hon Kayode Adebayo, said that the Sikirulahi Ogundele-led executives is the authentic leadership of the party in the state. Hon Adebayo disclosed that those who are outside the fold should be the ones to be afraid of anyone claiming that they couldn’t see how the ambition of anyone in the main stream of the party is threatened.
The death of Senator Buruji Kashamu has capacity to alter the political calculations in Ogun State, not only within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but also in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Kashamu’s last minute decision to bequeath his political structure to the former governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, has kick-started discussions on political realignment beyond PDP gladiators, which analysts believe may have dire consequences on the political base of Governor Dapo Abiodun. Although Daniel had announced his retirement from active politics, analysts say another opportunity has come the way of the former governor to rebuild the party. There seems a glimmer of hope for the party in Ogun State, because many PDP stalwarts that left the party for APC and other parties, because of the endless internal crisis and Kashamu’s style of leadership, are considering re-enacting the old glory of the party that ruled the state between 2003 and 2011. A source said, “We know that many members of the party loyal to Daniel left the party to support the election of Dapo Abiodun, led by the former deputy governor of the state, Chief (Mrs.) Salmot Badru, are planning to join Daniel in rebuilding the party.” The political friendship between Obasanjo and Kashamu soon turned sour. Kashamu was in control of the party’s machinery and was not ready to take instructions from the former president. Indeed, Kashamu’s political influence went beyond the state. He had stretched his tentacles to the entire Southwest through his Omo Ilu Foundation. The NWC of PDP recognised his unmatched influence in the region and made him the Chairman, Mobilsation Committee of the party in the Southwest. This angered Obasanjo, who had earlier warned the party to be careful of the business mogul, who he had described as a “fugitive and drug baron”.
In fact, Obasanjo wrote a letter to the party where he alleged that Kashamu was the Eso Jinadu, who escaped from a U.S. prison. But when Obasanjo could not convince PDP to suspend or sack Kashamu from the party, he tore his membership card and renounced his membership of the party. Obasanjo also dissociated himself from President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, who he alleged gave surreptitious support to Buruji to survive his onslaught. But Kashamu held on to the party; he had the best political outing in 2015, when he won election into the Senate and defeated Prince Dapo Abiodun (APC), who contested against him in Ogun East Senatorial District. Ladi Adebutu won the seat to the House of Representatives, but the party lost again to APC at the governorship election and most constituencies at the state and National Assembly.
The unification meeting succeeded in poaching the principal officers of Kashamu’s faction as its secretary. Semiu Sodipo crossed to Adebutu’s faction by attending the February peace meeting with NWC in Abuja. At that meeting, they agreed that the proposed congress of the party in the state be put on hold to allow for more reconciliation with the aggrieved members of the party. Therefore, this new deadlock will again return to the court for adjudication. But this time around, it will be about who has the right to execute FHC/LS/636/2016 and conduct a valid congress. This is the last battle Kashamu would have loved to fight to a logical conclusion, but for the cold hand of death. Will Daniel lead Kashamu’s faction back to mainstream PDP and reconcile the group to the NWC or go ahead with Kashamu’s line of opposition politics within the party? This is what has dominated discussions among party faithfuls in the state as party secretariat in Ogun State capital has been regained by Adebutu’s faction.